Rewind It Back (Windy City, #5)

by Liz Tomforde

“Do you have anywhere you need to be tonight?” “No. I only came here for you. My flight doesn’t leave until the morning.” “Would you stay for dinner? If you’re up for it, I mean. I’d really love to hear about your life.” “Yeah.” I can’t hold back my smile. “I’d love that.”

“Every birthday, I used to love listening to you tell me about all your important moments from the year, so I was hoping on this birthday, I could tell you about mine.”

“Do you remember why you said you kept track of those songs?” “Something about when I want to relive a moment, I can rewind it back and start from the beginning.” “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.”

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

“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?”

This second chance doesn’t feel like luck. It feels like a reward.

All four of them look at me like I’ve lost my goddamn mind, but I swear, if I would’ve told their wives my plan instead of them, I’d be rewarded with resounding approval from all four of those women. And they wonder why I like attending girls’ night.

“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.” My eyes go comically wide while everyone else stays perfectly silent. I’ve been waiting to hear him say that for years. “I don’t know, Ryan.” I toss my head from side to side, studying him from across the firepit. “It just didn’t hit the way I always imagined it would.” “Oh, get fucked!”

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?

And I…well, I found love because it was always out there, waiting for me, even when I questioned its existence. In fact, I found it right next door—where it had always been.

I’ll speak for all ten of us when I say, there’s nowhere else we’d rather be.