Rewind It Back (Windy City, #5)

by Liz Tomforde

“You want me to come too quickly, don’t you? You want to see how fucking weak I am when it comes to you?”

I’d just like to remind him, is all. That regardless of what he’s done with anyone else over the last six years, I was his first and I fully plan on being his last. That even though I had no idea what I was doing the first time, I learned how to give a proper blow job by giving them to him. I, better than anyone, know what he likes. I learned his tells. I learned his sounds. And I haven’t forgotten any of it.

“Six years.” My eyes shoot to his. “I’ve only ever been with you.”

“Do you realize how unfair it’d be if I actually got in a relationship with someone else? When all I think about is you? When I compared every person to you? There was no comparison to you.”

“Don’t tease me, DeLuca. It’s my turn. Get on your knees and get to work.” “Yes, ma’am.” Chuckling,

“You’re everything to me, Hallie. I’ve been addicted to you since I was a kid, and clearly nothing has changed. I don’t want to be without you again.”

I wake with a head of dark messy hair on my chest, arms wrapped around my waist, and a giant man between my legs, sleeping peacefully. Sleeping like I’ve never seen him sleep before.

“Hallie,” Rio whispers, still dancing slowly with me in his kitchen. “Are we doing this? You and me. Because I’m all in.” I laugh lightly. “I thought last night kind of answered that.” “I’d really like to hear you say it, to make sure I’m not assuming anything here.” He has this sweet, pleading look in his eyes as he waits for my confirmation. “You’re not assuming anything.” I pull him down to kiss me. “I’m all in too. It’s you and me.”

“White walls. Boring. Like a big plain box, so when we get there, I can start renovating it to be ours. I’ll paint every wall exactly how we want them, and I can add all the finishes we decide on together. It’ll be my very first design project, and I’ll make it into our dream home.”

“But what do you want?” she asks. “You,” I answer quickly. “I just want you.” “But you already have me.” “Then I’m happy.” “I’m happy too.”

He rubs his palm over the back of his neck—his adorable but nervous tell.

“But in case it needs to be said out loud… Yes, Hallie Hart, you are my girlfriend. Though, you should know, there’s a good chance I’ll be changing both that title and that last name one day.”

“Because I should’ve been there, Hallie. I should’ve been there to take care of it then, so I’m taking care of it now. And I need you to let me.”

She’s almost compliant when she brings the drink back to her lips, but then I see the mischievous tilt in her smile behind the glass. Before the rim makes it to her mouth, she pours a bit down the center of her body instead. “Oops.” It’s the least innocent sound I’ve ever heard and I’m fucking feral for it. My eyes are glued to the liquid trail as it takes a direct path down her chest, between her tits, and over her stomach. Before it can reach her belly button, I lick her clean, dragging my tongue all the way up her body, until I take her mouth with mine to let her taste how deliciously it burns.

“You like that you’re permanently under my skin.” “I love it. It feels like you’re branded and mine.” “That’s because I am.”

I need somewhere to stay when I come to visit her and my friends, but my stomach sinks when I picture Hallie living here without me. Living here alone. That was never the plan for this house. We were supposed to live here together. Rooms were supposed to be filled.

“Thank you for giving me the chance to do this,” she says quietly. “You basically let me design my dream home.”

This is her dream home, and that’s the whole fucking point. I don’t know how she hasn’t put the pieces together yet, but that’s the final and most important reason why I won’t sell. Six years ago, even after t...

“We’ll definitely do that.” “Yeah,” Ryan agrees. “Maybe we should make that a group trip.” Miller cackles. “Fanboy Ryan Shay might be my new favorite.”

“He’s wearing his dad’s number.” Zee grins. “Did he choose that himself?” “I seriously cannot talk about this.” Kai takes off his glasses, pressing his thumb and forefinger against his closed eyes.

“When I got to training camp in Chicago, they asked me if I wanted to keep eighty-three, but I decided it was time to change it to my actual favorite day.”

My birthday. March eighth. Thirty-eight. He’s been wearing my birthdate on his jersey for six years and I had no idea. He slowly turns over his shoulder to look at me. I lean my chin on my arm that’s resting on him, a painfully big smile on my mouth. “So, you like really like me, huh?” I tease quietly for only him to hear.

“I think we both know it’s a little deeper than that, even if we’re still pretending it’s one of those unspoken things.” He turns to press a quick kiss to my lips. “And I have for fifteen years, Hal. You’ve had...

“I’d do anything for you, Rio.” Her eyes bounce between mine. “Anything.” “I think you meant to say, ‘I’d do anything for you, baby.’”

“But it shouldn’t be. It should be said as much as possible. Because I love you, Rio. I have loved you since we were children, and I will love you until we’re old and gray. But if you didn’t already know that, then I’ve been doing something wrong.”

“I know you love me, baby, and you know I love you. I haven’t stopped loving you.” “Not once,” she agrees.

“I love you, Hallie Hart. Spoken or unspoken, I’ve always loved you.”

“Exactly. I want to rewind all of it, Hallie. I want to remember everything. You made sure we could remember our first years together, so I made sure we would remember this one.”

“Are they all moments we shared?” “Actually.” I hover my thumb over the last song on the list. “You weren’t there for this one.”

“I asked team management to not make the announcement until next week. I’ve been planning to tell you like this. Listening to our important moments together. On your birthday. On the roof. Only, I didn’t know it’d work out so perfectly that we’d end up back on this roof.”

“Rio, playing for Boston is your childhood dream.” I shake my head. “You’re my childhood dream.”

“Some dreams have changed, but others have remained the same.” I brush her hair behind her ear. “I love the city we live in. I love my team. I love my friends. And I love you. We lost six years, Hallie, and I’m not missing another day of you again.”

“Playing for Chicago feels like I’m playing for my hometown because it is my home now. You’re my home. Being loved by you for the rest of my life is the only dream of mine that’s never wavered. There’s no doubt in my mind that I’m already exactly where I want to be.”

“Our home.” Sliding my palms up her thighs, I pull her tighter against me. “I thought you would’ve realized it the first time you came over. Hallie, the irony of hiring you to design the house is that you’re the person I bought it for.”

“I thought there was no way, at first. I noticed the white walls and the four bedrooms. The proximity to the city while still being in a neighborhood, but I thought there was no way you would have remembered that.” “I remember everything about us.”

“The house has always been yours, Hallie. Ours. It was just waiting for you to come make it a home.”

“How lucky am I to have been loved by you for fifteen years now?” “What do you say we get to work on making that number so high we start losing track?” She smiles against my mouth. “I think we can do that.”

Ryan jogs off to join the rest of the group, and I turn to find Indy, who can’t stop laughing. “He sounds exactly like you when you’re busy fanboying over him.”

“I love you, Hal.” She turns back, smiling at me. “I love you, Rio. Always have. Always will.”

She’s everything I’ve ever wanted, everything I’ve been looking for. Everything I was so desperate to find because I had already found her once and knew she was missing from my life.

“Rio,” Indy calls from across the firepit, sitting on her husband’s lap. “Ryan has something he wants to tell you.” We all shift our attention his way. “Uh…” he stumbles, and Indy gives him an encouraging nod. “I just wanted you to know that…” He clears his throat. “I love you, man.”

“Ryan, I love you too, man. Less than her, but I still love you. I love all of you.” I look around at the entire group. “Friends are the family you choose, and I’ve got to say, I’ve got the best family a guy could ask for.” “Absolutely.” “Hell yeah.” “That’s right,”

When I was younger, I remember how much I wished I had a sibling. Someone to play hockey with. Someone to talk to. Someone who understood me. Little did I know, as a grown man, I’d end up with eight of them. These girls are practically my sisters, and there’s no question that these guys have become my brothers.

I spent years complaining about being the single one of the group, the odd man out. But even though I was the last one, how lucky am I that I got a front-row seat to watch each of my best friends fall in love?

I feel so incredibly blessed that I get to go through life with these nine people. Besides Indy, we’re all a bunch of transplants from other places who found a home in the windy city…and with each other. I’ll speak for all ten of us when I say, there’s nowhere else we’d rather be.