Page 41 of The Hot New Bartender in Town

Mom plants a kiss on Richard’s cheek. “I still have to get changed,” she says, turning to me. “Will you help?”

“Buttons,” I say with a nod. “I’ll be right there.”

She releases a happy squeal and rushes off, swiftly brushing past the guests lingering in the back.

“Come on in!” Richard says, waving them in. “Don’t be shy. It’s a wedding, after all!”

He heads down the aisle to greet his guests, leaving Riley and me standing at the altar alone. We look at each other, only a foot of space between us, the air heavy with unspoken words.

Riley clears his throat, speaking up first. “I know it’s a dumb Kiss County cliché to drop the L-word like that, but…”

“No, it...” I blush, my heart full. “I mean, it was a gamble.”

He nods. “Right.”

“You had no idea if it would work to convince them or... if I felt the same way.”

He nods again. “But you do.”

I press my lips together, but if I could scream if from the rooftops, I would. “I do,” I say.

Riley takes a step toward me. I place my hands in his, the warmth of his touch tickling up and along my elbows. As the room fills with people, their whispering voices a constant reminder of where we are, I can’t help but wonder if someday we’ll be right back here, standing together in this very spot.

I hope so.

Not caring one bit about the room of witnesses, Riley gives me a kiss and smiles. “See you soon,” he says.

“See you soon,” I repeat as I walk away, heading down the aisle to go help my mother on her wedding day.

“Tish!”

Lottie’s sharp tone finds me as I pass the third row. She’s sitting by the aisle with Mika and Brenda by her side, all three of them wide-eyed with shock.

“Um...hello?”Brenda asks, her little eyes bouncing from me to the hot new bartender and back again.

Without breaking my stride, I look back at them and say, “That’s how it’s done, girlies.”

EPILOGUE

RILEY

One Year Later

Iplay my guitar and Tish sings.

It’s what we’ve done nearly every day for the past year. Covers of our favorite songs at first, but it didn’t take long before we wrote our first original track together. Then another. And another.

Karaoke nights at Sparks Pub soon became gig nights. They were a chance for the two of us to perform and show our Small Town family what we’ve been working on. We didn’t expect much, of course. We simply enjoyed playing our music and showing off a little before inevitably sneaking off downstairs to my apartment and losing ourselves in each other all over again.

Then the crowd grew larger. And larger. Until the Small Town buzz bled up the highway, somehow reaching Big City ears. Before we knew it, people were traveling down to Sparks Pub on gig night just to hear what all the fuss was about.

Now, tonight, exactly a year to the day since we met, I look out at the packed-to-capacity crowd at Sparks Pub, and I wonder… how the hell we ended up here.

How the hell did spending a blissful night with a beautiful stranger lead to this?

I look at Tish now, my heart bleeding with love and devotion, as I strum my guitar. She coos into the microphone, her voice echoing throughout the bar as she holds a high note for an impressive amount of time. The crowd erupts with applause, none louder than Tanya in the front row, her happy screams loud and proud. Beside her, my father claps with a grin, never quite matching her enthusiasm, but I challenge anyone to match my stepmother’s hype.

“You two were so good!” Tanya says after our set. She throws her arms around Tish’s neck and squeezes. “As always, I mean!”

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