Page 103 of Back To You

“What did I say about calling me ‘honey’?” Annie asks, but the emotion in her voice is impossible for her to hide.

“What can I say? You’re just too sweet,” I reply, echoing my words from months ago, the words even truer now than they were then.

I knew naming this place after Annie was what I wanted to do because I wouldn’t be the person I am today without her.

Without her and my brothers, I don’t know where I would be.

I put my hands on her shoulders, turning her around to face me, and I will never get over how absolutely breathtaking she is. Her long brown waves, her big brown eyes, her cherry red lips—all mine.

“Thank you for loving me, Annie girl. I don’t know how I got so lucky to be loved by someone like you. Growing up with you, watching you blossom into the beautiful person you are today, getting to live life with you, I truly am the luckiest man alive.”

I place my hands on either side of her face, drowning in those eyes, watching them glisten as she listens to my words.

“You have been here for me through the hardest time in my life, and I plan on spending the rest of my life showing you how thankful I am for you. Life doesn’t always give us second chances, so there’s no way I’m letting you go this time. You’re it for me, Annie girl. You’re the fire that burns inside me, my better half, the reason I wanted to become a man like my brother, one that would make you proud.”

I reach out to Emmett, his hand coming out from behind his back, revealing a bouquet of roses, one for all twenty years I have loved Annie. I hold them to her, a small gasp escaping her lips. “I have loved you since the moment I saw you, the love only growing as you let mebe a part of your life. I couldn’t have done this without you, honey.”

A tear slips down her cheek, and I wipe it away with my thumb. She’s wearing a small smile on her face, one that makes the smile on mine grow even wider. “I love you more,” she says. The emotion in her voice makes my heart feel heavy—I don’t think I’ll ever get used to hearing her say she loves me, not after waiting for so many years to hear it. “More than you’ll ever know,” she adds.

“Is that so?” I hum, never backing away from one of Annie’s challenges. “I guess you’ll just have to show me then.”

She rolls her eyes, but her arms wrap around my neck. “You wish,” she teases before her lips crash into mine, and it feels like coming home.

Epilogue

Nine Months Later

Annie

I can’t believe I’m in my last month of vet school rotations.

Today marked my very lastfirstweek of a new rotation, and the beginning of my externship at the Milwaukee Zoo as part of their Animal Health Center program. After this month, I’ll start my three-year Zoological Medicine Residency, working with the zoo and all the exotic animals.

It’s been a busy year—and it’s not slowing down anytime soon—but I love it and never felt so confident in where I am, what I’m doing, and where I’m going. I’m grateful to have the world’s best partner supporting me through it, even more grateful to have finally learned tolethim.

I’m on my way to meet Luke at Hey Honey’s now to help him close for the night before we head over to Lenny’s to meet our friends for a few drinks.

I’ve barely heard from Drew or Mia all week, so I’m excited to have some time to catch up with them. It’s weird to hear so little from them, but I chalked it up to them both having their hands full lately.

My two best friends arebothmoms now, and it freaks me out if I think about it too much. Lennon is just over a year old—the girl already being such a sassy extrovert, so different from both her parents and keeping them both on their toes—and Mia gave birth to freakingtwinsa few weeks ago.

It fills my heart in ways I can’t explain to see our little Lenny’s family growing more and more with Lennon, Nadia, and Naomi, and I can’t wait for Luke and me to add to the mix one day.

But for right now, we have Hey Honey’s as our addition to the family.

Business has been great for the coffee shop, and I love that it’s right next door to Lenny’s—the two of us and our friends now having another place to spend time together.

Another place that’s ours.

And even after nine months, l can’t believe he named the place after his stupid nickname for me.

Luke is the only person in the world who uses the word “sweet” to describe me, even if I’m still convinced he just says it to get a rise out of me, and I think it actually just proves that he’s insane.

And even though I tell Luke everything now, after keeping him in the dark for seven years, I’m going to keep to myself that I never really hated the nickname to begin with.

It was all hands on deck for the Lenny’s crew the first month the shop was open. We figured it would be easy because we all worked so many bartending shifts at Lenny’s, but we realizedveryquickly that Emmett, Eddie, and I werenotmeant to be baristas.

There was a learning curve for Luke too, but he was able to staff the place by January, hiring Ava as hismanager—the coffee shop hours working better for her than the bar’s—so he could take on more managerial duties.

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