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“I’ll see you back here next week,” I say to Jasmine, one of my favorite homeschooled kids who frequents our shop.

It took a solid two months to get the right tutoring program underway, and I hired Mandy to come in part time to help me out until the baby gets here.

I never dreamed we’d be working together again, but she comes in at two o’clock every day, we sit in the café and gossip over a croissant and tea for her, coffee for me, and then we get to tutoring.

The store has really taken off, and we’ve been featured in several local magazines as well as news programs more than once. Because of the famous owner who makes frequent visits to the shop, we have customers who stop by just in case he’s in, and they almost always pick up a book while they’re in.

Imagine my shock when one of the customers who walks by the café on a Tuesday about a half hour before Mandy is set to meet me is none other than my sister with my two nephews locked into a double stroller.

“Ness,” I murmur when I see her, my feet pushing me to a stand. “What are you doing here?”

She clears her throat. “I miss you, Tor,” she says quietly, and I rush over to her and grab her into a hug.

“I miss you, too,” I say. “How have you been?”

She looks around the store without answering. “All this is yours?”

I beam with pride as I nod. “Travis bought this old shop, renovated it into what you see now, and gave it to me.”

She shakes her head a little. “So it’s real,” she murmurs. “What the two of you have, I mean.”

I press my lips together and nod. “It’s real. It hasn’t always been easy, but everything that got us here has just made us stronger.”

“I’m happy for you,” she says. Her eyes are down on the ground when I hear the words I never thought I’d hear. “I’m sorry. I’ve been horrible to you.”

I grab her hands in mine. “No, you haven’t. I understand why you were upset with me, and you had every right to be. But I couldn’t take you pushing me toward Owen anymore when it was over.”

“And that’s why you got married on my wedding weekend?” she presses.

I shake my head. “It’s more complicated than that.” I glance at the stroller. Colton is munching on some goldfish crackers while he watches his mom’s phone, and Mav is asleep. “Do you want to sit for a minute and talk?”

She lifts a shoulder. “Sure.”

I order us each a coffee, and we sit on two comfy chairs in a quiet corner with the stroller pulled right up to Vanessa.

“So it was more complicated?” she asks, picking up our conversation where we left it.

I clear my throat. “Yeah. The night Travis went to Owen’s place, he called his dad, who’s a lawyer, when he got home.”

“Wait,” she says, interrupting me. “Can you tell me what happened that night?”

“Owen was holding onto that baseball Dad gave me when we went to the Astros game. He wouldn’t give it back. Travis went to his place to get it for me when he found me crying in a bar because of things Owen said to me.”

Her jaw slackens a little. “Are you serious?”

I nod. “He didn’t go about it the best way, but Owen wouldn’t tell him where it was so he went on a scavenger hunt until he found the ball. Owen took photos while he was going through the house, so he had evidence against Travis. We got him to agree not to press charges until we got back from the Bahamas, and that same night Travis called his dad and found out there was a family in California who was petitioning to have Harper taken away. His dad told him the best thing he could do is show the courts the stable home life he’s providing for his daughter, and we both knew he’d be arrested the minute we stepped back onto US soil, so I agreed to marry him to protect his daughter.”

Her slacked jaw drops a little more. “So it started out as…fake?”

I lift a shoulder. “We both felt like it was heading that way anyway, so it wasn’t fake, exactly. More…convenient.” I reach over and grab her hand. “I’m so sorry it went down the way it did. I never wanted to take away from your wedding.”

“I know that now. I should never have let it go this long without talking to you about it. And I’m sorry I kept pushing you toward Owen. I was just so sure you two belonged together…but now I know you’re with the man you’re supposed to be with. It was never Owen, and it was never for me to push you or try to decide that for you.”

I reach over and squeeze her hand again. “I appreciate you saying that, Ness. In the end, he wasn’t very nice to me.”

“Because of what he did to Travis?”

I shake my head. “Because of how he treated me. He changed into a different person when I moved in with him.”

“How?”

I take a sip of my coffee before I answer as I relive the last few months of our relationship. I’m not sure how I’ve gone this long without telling my sister the whole situation given how close we were before all this, but maybe that’s what happens when you push something on someone that they just don’t want. They retreat away, and it causes damage that takes a while to repair. “He basically stopped trying to date me. Does that make sense? He stopped trying to impress me, and when I called him on it, he said he didn’t need to do those things anymore because he won me.”

She makes a face of disgust. “He said that? And then I come along pushing you back at him?” She shakes her head. “I’m so sorry. I never should have gotten involved.”

“Yeah.” I clear my throat, and then I realize I have nothing to lose, so I press. “So why did you?”

“You remember back before I had Colt and we’d go on double dates? We’d drink and we’d laugh and it was always such a blast. And then I got pregnant and we stopped doing that, and I guess I just thought if you two stayed together, somehow we’d find our way back to that.” She shrugs. “It’s silly, and I should’ve been there for you instead of pushing you away when you needed me most.”

“We can still do those things,” I point out. “It just won’t be with Owen. Travis is a hell of a fun time. Promise.” I offer a smile.

“You wouldn’t have married him if he wasn’t,” she agrees.

I nod and pause for a second, and then I ask, “So what changed? What brought you in today?”

She clears her throat and looks uncomfortable for a few beats. “I, uh, might’ve seen Owen’s true colors recently.”

My brows knit together. “In what way?”

She looks away and studies the store before her eyes return to mine. “He was fired. Apparently he’d been stealing client information for years and using it for a side hustle where he’s cutting out the middle man of the company and making all the cash himself under the company’s name.”

My eyes widen.

“And when he first got caught, he tried to pawn it off on Jake.”

My wide eyes are accompanied by a gasp at that. “Whoa.”

“Yeah. In the end, like you said…he wasn’t such a good guy, I guess.”

I abruptly change the subject, not wanting to get into that mess but glad he got what was coming to him. “Let’s plan a trip for the off-season. And if you and Jake want to go, I’m sure Travis would be happy to score you some tickets to a game.”

“We have kids now. It’s not that easy.”

“And Auntie Victoria is happy to watch those little cuties once in a while if you two want to go out. Harper is great with little ones,” I say, thinking back to my stint at Ellie’s over the summer.

She narrows her eyes at me. “How would you know this?”

I chuckle and let her in on the real story, and she sighs in disappointment.

“What?” I ask.

She twists her lips and lifts a shoulder. “I was just hoping it was maybe because she’s been practicing to watch her own half-sibling.”

I laugh. “You’re ready for me to have a baby?”

“Oh I’m ready. Go get it on with your football player so I can have a little niece or nephew to love and snuggle and babysit all the time .”

Mandy picks that moment to walk up to us and interrupt our conversation. She sets a hand on her huge belly. “Maybe not so little,” she says. “These football players make beefy kids.”

We all have a good laugh at that, and it feels good to have my sister back in my life…especially since it sounds like I already have a babysitter lined up if I ever need one.

I guess she’s right. My football player and I need to get it on. I think we’re both ready to start the next chapter of our lives together, and this will be the most exciting one yet.