Page 11 of Top Shelf

“Do you love me, Sadie?” I ask her.

She swallows. Then she nods.

“Sade, I’m in love with you. I have been for years and years. I’ve waited this long, and I’ll wait as long as you need. If there’s even the slightest, smallest chance that you might end up being mine, I’m going to be here.”

She looks up at me, eyes big and brown.

I bend down, cupping her face in my hands, and kiss her for what I pray to whatever being there is in the sky is not the last time. I rest my head on hers.

“Make me one promise, Blackwell,” I whisper. She nods.

“Okay,” she says.

“Promise me that no matter where life takes you, you will never settle for a love less than this. Everything starts and ends with you, Sadie. Don’t settle for less than that.”

She nods slowly, sniffling.

I kiss her head one more time, and she slips out of my grasp.

present day

CHAPTERSIX

tyson

As I parkmy truck outside of Andy's, the little bar in Dalesville that we used to meet up at on our breaks from college, I can’t help but laugh.

I don’t know how Levi gets me into this shit, but he’s been doing it for over twenty years. And now that he’s my brother-in-law, he’s totally taking advantage of it.

I walk in the same janky-ass door that should have been replaced thirty years ago and see him, sitting at the bar, as if it were fifteen years ago.

As if he’s not an American treasure, my best-friend-turned-brother-in-law, retired NHL heartthrob, sitting at the same bar we used to get kicked out of when we tried to sneak in underage.

I clap him on the back as I hop onto the stool next to him.

“To what do I owe the pleasure this evening,dear brother?”I ask as I hold my hand up

for the bartender. But before I can wave him down, Levi slides a beer to me.

“I took the liberty,” he says, motioning to the bottle. We clank them against each other, and then I take a long swig. Teaching high school isn’t for the weak.

Teaching in general isn’t for the weak.

“So, I heard from the state yesterday,” he says, turning to face me.

I raise an eyebrow.

“The state?” I ask. He nods.

“I got the approval for the youth league,” he says with a smile, and I clap his back.

“Oh, fuck, man!” I say. “That’s amazing. Fucking awesome.”

He smiles and nods.

“Thank you, man. Thank you. I’m really excited about it,” he says. “We’ll need to secure a little more funding, but I already talked to the representative from the NHL, and they said they’ll do a fundraiser and match what they bring in at the first few home games of the season.”

“Jesus,” I say, “That’s amazing. I’m so excited for you.”

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