Epilogue

One Month Later

Madison looked around the kitchen of La Marée with mixed feelings. This had been her dream kitchen, her dream job, but the dream had changed when she'd finally figured out who she was and what she really wanted.

Tomorrow, the restaurant would close for a month. During that time, a new chef would come in and make changes to the décor, the menu, and hire his own staff. The name of the restaurant would change. None of the cooks who had worked for her would be staying. They were all moving on to other jobs. In fact, two of them had left in the last week, and she'd spent the final three days with a skeleton crew.

Drea came into the kitchen with a somber expression on her face. "It's kind of sad to say goodbye to this place. I really thought it was going to work, Madison."

"Me, too. I'm sorry I made you quit your other job to come work for me."

"Are you kidding? I don't regret a second of it, and Larry was a fool to replace you with some guy from New York City."

"He's won several cooking competitions and is supposed to be very good," she said. "He's also opened three other restaurants, so Larry is getting someone experienced to take over this place. Which is what he probably wanted in the first place until he decided to do my father a favor."

"I still say it's his loss. You're an amazing chef. Even though you lost to Gabe, the business went off the charts the week after the final round. I was really hoping both you and Larry would reconsider, but you seemed determined to move forward, and he seemed to think the frenzy would die out quickly, which it didn't."

She had been happy that the restaurant had been fully booked the last several weeks. And many of her customers had become regulars. Some of them had expressed disappointment that she was leaving but had promised to follow her wherever she went.

"Do you have any regrets?" Drea asked curiously.

"Only that you'll be unemployed for a few months."

"I could use a vacation before you rehire me," she said with a smile. "Marcus is taking me to Europe for three weeks. I can't wait."

"I'm so glad it's working out for you two."

"And I'm happy you and Gabe figured out you were better lovers than enemies."

"We are definitely better at love than hate," she agreed. "I just hope we're not making a mistake, mixing business with pleasure. We make a good team in the kitchen, but now we'll be running a restaurant together."

"It's going to be amazing. Do you have a name yet?"

"Still working on that." She and Gabe had just signed a deal with a local restaurant group to open their own restaurant in a beautiful space in San Diego, about twenty minutes from Ocean Shores. It was currently under construction, so they wouldn't be opening for another three months, but it was going to be an exciting time of planning their joint venture. "We have to figure out how to mesh our food and our styles."

"I have no doubt that what you come up with will be fantastic." Drea paused, giving her a questioning look. "I thought Gabe might be here tonight for your swan song."

"He got delayed in LA. But it's fine. I'll see him later." She'd missed Gabe the last week as he'd been filming a guest spot on Georgia's show. While their restaurant was being built, Gabe had accepted several of his other offers and was quickly building a name for himself.

"Well, I guess it's time to turn off the lights," Drea said. "Can I buy you a drink?"

"I'm not in the mood. Rain check?"

"Of course."

"Thanks. But if you don't mind, I will take a ride home. My car is in the shop, and when I came to work, I thought Gabe would be driving me back to the apartment."

"No problem. I moved my car out front earlier."

"Okay." She grabbed her bag, having removed all of her personal items from the restaurant earlier in the week. At the door, she took one last look at her kitchen, waiting for the rush of sadness, but instead she felt excitement about the future. She'd made the right decision. And knowing that her future wouldn't be tied to her father or to Larry made it even easier to turn off the lights.

She followed Drea through the dining room to the front door where they turned the sign one last time to Closed and walked out of the building. She locked the door and stepped onto the sidewalk. Since Larry would be changing the locks tomorrow and start remodeling soon after that, she didn't need to worry about returning the key. Maybe she'd keep it as a reminder of where she'd been. Or maybe she'd throw it away because it didn't matter where she'd been, only where she was going.

She was about to follow Drea to her car when she saw the bright lights of a truck coming down the street, and then a loud horn went off. She smiled as Gabe stopped his food truck in front of the restaurant.

As he got out, she said, "Hey, you're blocking my door."

He laughed as he came over to join her and Drea. "It doesn't matter anymore, does it?"

"It actually never mattered," she said as she gave him a hug. "But what are you doing in the truck? And I thought you were stuck in LA."

"A white lie," he said. "I've actually been busy cooking. My truck has one last party to cater before I put it into retirement. And our friends thought that Ocean Shores would be the perfect place to sign off."

"We're having a party?" she asked in surprise and delight.

"Yes." He turned to Drea. "We'd love for you to come. I sent you a text earlier."

"I know. I meant to reply. I appreciate the invitation, but it's Marcus's brother's birthday, and I told him I'd meet him when I got off work. You two go and have fun. The work will start sooner than you think."

"I can't wait," Gabe told Drea. "And I'm glad you're going to join us in our venture."

"Me, too," she said. "I'll see you soon."

After Drea left, Madison got into the truck with Gabe. "It smells good in here," she said.

"I've been cooking for the past hour."

"I can't believe you did this. You've been so busy. When did you have time to plan a party?"

"I didn't plan it. Lexie, Kaia, and Emmalyn led the charge. I'm just bringing the food. They wanted to celebrate our last nights with your restaurant and my truck and toast to our new venture."

"We have great friends. We are so lucky to live at Ocean Shores." The more she'd gotten to know the other tenants in her apartment building, the more she loved them, and the happier she was they'd been able to find a restaurant space not too far from home.

While they'd spent a week exploring all kinds of opportunities, in the end what they both wanted to do was open a local restaurant so they could stay close to their friends and to Gabe's family. Plus, they both had reputations here, and their romantic relationship and new business venture was already building interest in a restaurant that didn't exist yet.

"We are lucky to live at Ocean Shores," he agreed. "But I might need to make a change."

She looked at him in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I told you Max went to LA with me."

"Yes. And…"

"The movie is a go."

"That's wonderful. I'm so happy for him."

"I am, too. Filming starts in six weeks. Max needs to be in LA for casting and then filming. He figures he'll be out of town at least three months, maybe longer. He wants to sublet our apartment, and it would be easier if he did the entire place, not just one bedroom." He gave her a quick look. "What do you think about us living together?"

"Well, we're basically doing that already," she said.

"Yeah, but it's different when you can't kick me out."

She grinned. "I haven't wanted to kick you out so far. And I haven't noticed you being too eager to leave."

"I never want to leave you, Madison. And I would like to live with you, if you're ready."

"I'm ready, Gabe. Living together and working together…it's a lot of together, but I'm here for all of it."

He nodded with happy approval. "Me, too."

"And I'm very happy for Max."

"You can tell him that tonight. We drove down from LA together. He needs to pack, and he wanted to see everyone before he leaves again."

"The party should be a celebration for him, too."

"We'll definitely raise a glass to Max," he said as he pulled into the parking lot at Ocean Shores. "Do you want to help me serve?"

"Of course."

Their friends must have been watching for them because the truck was almost instantly swarmed with people. Before she and Gabe could start serving food, Kaia pulled them both out of the truck for a toast.

Emmalyn handed her and Gabe two plastic flutes of champagne while everyone else gathered around. Besides Kaia and Emmalyn, she could see Ben, Lexie, Max, Ava and Liam, Brad and Serena, Josie, Maggie, Frank, and two women she'd recently met at Kaia's book and wine club, Skye and Paige.

"To our two favorite chefs," Kaia began. "This is the beginning of a beautiful future. Cheers."

They lifted their glasses and echoed "Cheers" as they took a sip of their champagne.

"We need to toast to Max, too," Gabe said, lifting his glass. "To his first but not last blockbuster movie."

"This is your night," Max protested.

"We're sharing it with you," Gabe said. "You're on your way, Max."

"This place has a lot of high achievers," Ben commented.

Madison laughed. No one in her life had ever thought she was a high achiever until now.

"I want to say one thing," she interjected, no longer hesitant to speak her mind in public or private. "When I moved in here, I had no idea I would find not just friends but family. Your support of me and my restaurant has been so touching, and I can't thank you enough. I want to toast to all of you."

They lifted their glasses once more, and then Gabe said, "We better start serving these hungry people some food."

They went back into the truck and started putting together the tacos that Gabe had already prepped. As they bumped into each other, she laughed. "This really is a small space."

"Tell me about it," he murmured. "But I like small spaces when you're in them." He gave her a kiss. "I missed you."

"Not as much as I missed you."

"Hey, hey," Kaia said, ringing the bell on the shelf by the window. "None of that. We're hungry."

They both laughed, and then Gabe said, "We better get to work. One last service for the truck and my old life."

She'd finished her last service a few hours ago, so she knew exactly how he felt. As he started to move away, she put her hand on his arm and drew his gaze to hers. "The best is yet to come, Gabe."

A happy grin spread across his face. "I know that, Madison. And I'm not just talking about our restaurant. I'm talking about us."

"Me, too." She gave him another quick kiss, and then they got to work treating their friends to one last taco truck dinner.