Rewind It Back (Windy City, #5)

by Liz Tomforde

“The house has always been yours, Hallie. Ours. It was just waiting for you to come make it a home.” She laughs this small disbelieving sound, but still, she’s emotional. It’s sweet and beautiful and vulnerable. So much more vulnerable than she was when we first ran into each other again a handful of months ago. It’s my soft girl I grew up falling in love with.

Hallie leans in and kisses me, whispering against my lips, “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.” “Happy birthday, baby.” “Thank you for making it my favorite one yet.”

She catches me watching out of her periphery and those freckled cheeks turn a sweet shade of rose. Slipping away from the group, she finds her way to me. “I’m showing off your kitchen.” I wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her into me. “Our kitchen, you mean.” Hallie finally moved in with me after construction wrapped up, and it’s been like a dream waking up with her each day. It is a dream, I suppose. The one we dreamed of years ago that’s finally come to fruition. “Our kitchen.” She tilts her head back, chin on my chest. “Have you talked to your mom yet?”

“I’ll make sure she knows.” Leaning down, I kiss her, right there in our kitchen. In our home. “I love you, baby. Keep showing off the house.” “I love you too.” With one more quick kiss, Hallie slips out of my hold and rejoins the group.

She pats my back. “But if you really wanted to find a way to get me to move here, you and Hallie girl could get to work on those grandbabies.” Laughing, I pull her in closer. “We will. Not yet, but one day, we will.”

This house will host future birthday parties and celebrations, maybe even a few family dinners. We’ll have our friends over. One day, our kids will have their friends over, and I’m looking forward to giving our future family the same sense of home and community that Hallie and I were raised with back in our old neighborhood. Hallie slips an arm over my shoulders as she sits in my lap, and while she watches the party happen around us, I can practically see the same picture being painted in her head of our future here. “I love you, Hal.” She turns back, smiling at me. “I love you, Rio. Always have. Always will.”

“So.” Zee takes a swig of his drink. “You’ve got the house. You’ve got the girl. What’s next?” Looking over my shoulder to make sure no one is looking, especially Hallie, I pull the ring out of my pocket. “Need to ask her for forever.”

“Do you think she’ll say yes?” Isaiah asks. We all whip our heads in his direction. He holds his hands up. “What? It’s a valid question.” Kai smacks his brother on the shoulder. “I guess he could always take her to Vegas and get her drunk to make sure she agrees to marry him.” A sneaky smile lifts on his lips. “That did work well for me.” Chuckling, I shake my head. “She’s going to say yes. We’ve been talking about getting married since…fuck, I can’t even remember. Feels like we’ve always known we’d marry each other.”

I watch as each of my friends catch their partner’s attention from across the yard. I’ve witnessed this happening for years. This silent check-in in a crowded room. A soft smile before continuing their conversation. A discreet wink. A little smirk. I’ve constantly felt like the third wheel catching a private moment I wasn’t supposed to be a part of, but at the same time, it was something I longed for in my own life. I’ve always wanted what my friends had. I always wanted what I once had. With my attention locked on the group of women, Hallie is mid-conversation when those hazel eyes find mine from across the yard. She holds eye contact for a long while, still talking, still fully engaged, and when the smile lifts on my mouth, it reflects on hers. 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. The five of them migrate our way, and though they could not be more different from one another, they get along so well. Hallie slides onto my lap, while the others find their way to their person. Then it’s the ten of us. How it was always supposed to be.

“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.” 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 press a kiss to Hallie’s shoulder before wrapping my arms around her middle. “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.”

I just sit back and watch nine of the most important people in my life. I’m the luckiest man alive, I swear. 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 watched Zanders strip the façade he wore for so long to allow the flight attendant on his team’s plane to see the real him. I watched Stevie learn to love herself the way the arrogant hockey player who followed her everywhere loves her. The way we all do. I watched Indy come out of a relationship she wasn’t meant for and learn to be loved in a new, quieter way. I watched Ryan allow someone into his home and his heart after shutting everyone else out for so long, only for the brightest ray of sunshine to move in and light every dark space she could touch. I watched Kai learn to ask for help, only for that help to come in the form of a firecracker pastry chef who taught him how to have fun again. I watched Miller stop running and grow deeper roots than she ever thought she could by falling in love with a single dad and his little boy. I watched Kenne...