Kismet (Happy Endings Book 4), page 20
“She does,” I say.
“Thank you,” Jo says, and I can tell she’s holding something in. If it’s a secret, it’s one I want to know.
Emily’s eyes stay on me. “But your knowledge is unparalleled. It’s hard to live without that. Your insight. Your contacts. And you two are an excellent team,” she says. She glances between us, taking a beat, punctuating it with a deep breath. “And so, I hope you’ll be willing to work together as co-VPs.”
I like surprises. They’re fun and keep me on my toes.
And this is a surprise I would have loved a month ago, even a few weeks ago.
But it’s not the job or the life I want.
I’m lucky to have this second chance at love and maybe a second chance at a career too. Most of all, I have a chance to carve out the life I truly crave, and my day in Paris showed me what that could look like. I’m just lucky that I get to take a chance at that life with Jo by my side.
I smile graciously, nod in acknowledgment, then give my answer. “Thank you. I truly appreciate that. But I’m going to decline and give my one month’s notice.”
Jo’s face is mostly impassive, but a smile is sneaking up on her lips. I don’t think it’s because she wants me to quit, but because she’s happy for me that Emily wanted us both to stay.
Emily’s smile, however, vanishes. “Is this because you only want the job if you can have it all to yourself?”
I chuckle, shaking my head. “No, not at all. I’m not that egocentric. I’d just rather . . . do other things.”
Jo dips her head, her hair hiding her face as if she can’t stay poker-faced any longer. Maybe the secret is that she’s keeping my secrets. That she knows my heart. Last night I told Jo that visiting the Musée d’Orsay affirmed what I said to her on Friday night.
I love art. But I don’t love my job. And now another career path is calling out to me.
“What sort of other things?” Emily asks.
“I’ll figure that out.” I know the answer, but it’s private and I don’t need to share. What I can share is this: “Some of it will include art market consulting, though, and if I do that, I’ll work remotely.”
Like I’ve been craving.
“Then you’ll consult for us,” she says, unrelenting.
I blink in surprise. For a woman who took more than a month to make a decision, she’s suddenly incredibly decisive.
I laugh. “I will?”
“Yes! You’re starting an art market consulting business. I should be your first client. This last month has shown me what I want for this auction house. I’m greedy and ambitious. I have no problem telling you that. I want HighSmith to be the best. That’s why I considered both of you for the post. You’re both among the best. You both bring something to the table. Heath, if I can’t have you as a co-VP, I’ll take your knowledge and insight as a consultant. I won’t let anyone else have access to your brain.”
Jo smiles broadly now. “It is a very big brain, Heath.”
I roll my eyes.
“So, you’ll do it?” Emily presses. “You’ll consult for us remotely?”
I could play coy. But what’s the point? Consulting is part of my new career path. When I told Jo all the things that I wanted to do next, she said sounds like you’ll have a bunch of side hustles.
That’s the goal, and all of those side hustles I can do solo.
Including this one that Emily’s offering up on a silver platter.
“Hmm. Working remotely in the art market? Yes, I think I can be convinced,” I tell Emily and she beams. “But I’m still giving notice.”
“I know. And I’m still keeping you. I always find a way, Heath.”
That she does.
A month later, I walk Jo to work, press a kiss to her lips, then hand her a coffee cup and a brown bag. “Now, play nice with the others, and be sure to share your cookie,” I tell her.
“Don’t you mean biscuit?”
“Look at you with your sexy British lingo,” I say, and she clutches the bag. “Be sure to share your biscuit.”
“As if I’d share my treats,” she says then stretches on tiptoe to kiss the tip of my nose. “And you play nice with . . . the books.”
“I will.”
She goes into the office, and I turn the other way, popping into Nigel’s shop to pick up a new paperback. He has the newest Rhys Locke, and he waggles it to tempt me.
“I got this for you. But the question is . . . do you even deserve it?”
I growl. “Piss off.”
He cracks up, slaps a palm on the counter. “There you go. A bastard, as always.”
“And free to be one now,” I say drily. I reach for a pair of socks—the ones with the unicorn saying This meeting is fucking bullshit. “I’ll take these too.”
“For Jo,” he says, in a hearts-a-fluttering warble. “Speaking of—when she comes by the shop, I never wonder if she deserves something, like I do with you. Hell, I don’t even charge her when she buys her books and candles and cards from me. She’s so bloody pleasant I just give her my wares. The question is—how did you convince her to be with such a grumpy bugger?”
“Books,” I say. “We fell in love over books.”
“Now that makes perfect sense.”
I say goodbye, and he returns to his Sudoku while I head over to the library. There, I drop off my latest bounty with Alice.
Her eyes light up as she investigates the books Jo and I have gobbled up in the last month. “Ooh, a Hazel Valentine and a TJ Hardman. I do love a good romance.”
“As do I,” I agree.
She arches a brow. “You? You love a good romance?”
“Is that so impossible?”
“Doesn’t seem like your cup of tea.”
“I don’t only love a good romance. I love a great one too.” I thump the stack and leave her to them. Heading into the library proper, I find a quiet table, turn on a green lamp, and flip open my laptop.
I work on a research project for Emily for a few hours, savoring every silent second that I’m there.
With the art consulting portion of my other things done for the day, I check my phone on the way out and head to the Seven Noses in Soho. Griffin’s adding the art installation—nose statues set into walls—to his tours, and he’s hired me to take photos for his website. That’s one of my side hustles too: taking photos for him and for other London tour companies, highlighting the usual suspects and the hidden gems of this great city. Maybe someday I’ll write a book about unusual sights in London.
Or maybe I’ll keep them all for myself and my Jo.
I spend an hour or so in the gallery, taking hundreds of pictures then editing them that afternoon.
In the evening, I meet Jo for dinner.
“Riya, Freddy, and I had this brilliant idea about creating a video series for a new artist,” she tells me over curry. We eat and talk, and then walk along the river, stopping to kiss by a bridge.
“Take a picture,” she tells me.
I do as she asks, and she sends it to her friends.
A month later, we go out early on a Saturday morning and check out flats that have both a bedroom and an office. We find one at the edge of Covent Garden, overlooking a small park.
“This one could be perfect,” she says as we head up the creaky steps behind the leasing agent.
When we reach the flat, Jo goes straight for the window, then points animatedly, her eyes twinkling. “Look!”
Wrapping an arm around her waist, I join her in peering out the window. I chuckle, then kiss her nose. “Ducks.”
“Like I said, it’s perfect for you. A room with a view of a duck pond.”
I turn to the agent. “We’ll take it.”
A couple weeks later, we move in together, and I set a framed photo on the mantel—one of many shots of her and me.
EPILOGUE
Jo
I’ve been counting down the days till this trip and now it’s here. Heath and I fly to New York for a long weekend to visit friends. I show him around Central Park, then we visit my former stomping grounds.
A pinball arcade I love in Murray Hill.
A bookstore in the Village.
The St. James Theater, where we see a production of Anything Goes with Emerson and Nolan.
I take him out to Gin Joint in Chelsea, and we order Moscow Mules and listen to the piano player croon old standards. And one by one, my found family joins us.
“I feel like I already know you thanks to Jo,” TJ jokes.
Heath laughs as they shake hands. “Same to you. And I love your books.”
“How’s your book coming along?”
“Brilliantly,” Heath says as he wraps an arm around me. “We’ve done a lot of research.”
We have, indeed. He’s compiling a book of photos—The Best Places in London to Kiss. Another one of his side hustles, and he’s so damn happy juggling all three—taking photos for tours, consulting on art, and crafting a new book of images.
I’m a very willing subject. I help him test all the places where he takes pictures. Research is so important.
And after London, we’ll tackle Paris, then Vienna, then Rome. We’ll kiss all over the world and share the best spots with others.
Easton and Bellamy are next to join us at the bar, then Emerson and Nolan, then at last, Jude comes in, and I tense, but hope it goes well with him here. I’m worried since I recently learned he has a history with TJ. Apparently, they met in London years ago when TJ worked there for a while. I watch TJ carefully in case he needs me, but he’s smooth even though the friction between TJ and Heath’s brother practically vibrates. Or, wait. Is that heat I see in their eyes instead? The way they look at each has me wondering what kind of secrets my friend has been keeping. Maybe something happened in London way back when? Or more recently? I’ll try to pry it out of him later, but for now, I turn to Emerson as she chats with Heath.
“Has Jo shown you my favorite food truck?” Emerson asks Heath.
“The one with the tacos and ramen noodles?” He asks.
“What more could anyone want than tacos and ramen?” Nolan quips.
“Can’t think of a thing,” Heath says, and when we sit back down on the sapphire-blue couch, he drapes an arm around me. “Except love.”
“Exactly,” I say.
And as I look around, I see so much of it right here. I see so many of my friends falling in love, staying in love…and, with TJ and Jude, perhaps longing for love.
I see others finding their homes with the people they love.
I found mine, and it’s across the sea, with this man right by my side.
EPILOGUE
A little later
Heath
The ivy is relentless, climbing higher and growing thicker along the walls of our church.
This place doesn’t have a name, so I’ve given it one.
Time to share it too. This is the last place to photograph for my book of kisses.
I snap several shots, taking them from many angles, and after a while, Jo joins me, walking up and brushing my cheek with a kiss. “Want one more?” she asks.
“For the book?”
“No, for our mantel. I got a new frame. It can go next to the shot of all of us at Gin Joint. We can have another one of you and me.”
We have many of those. But I’m always happy to add to the collection. Turning the camera around, I snap a shot of the two of us, then one of us kissing. When we break the kiss, I move quickly.
So quickly, she blinks in surprise to see me on one knee, camera on the ground.
“Jo Brennan, when I first came here all by myself, I imagined sharing this place with someone someday. Then, you walked into my life and instantly became that person,” I say as her eyes shine and her smile takes off for the heavens. “And that—your smile—is one of the things I love madly about you. You’re so bright, you’re like the sun. And I need you like I need sunlight. I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my days and nights with you. Only you.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” she says, falling to her knees.
She grabs my face and kisses me hard and beautifully before I can even get the ring out.
I let myself bask in the moment.
Not long ago, I figured you got what you got. I believed love didn’t come calling twice. I thought I’d have to be content alone for the rest of my days.
But then Jo walked into my city and straight into my heart, teaching me that great love is possible a second time around if you let it happen. If you embrace it. If you cherish the one you love.
She is the great love of my life.
Maybe it’s kismet. Or maybe it’s seizing the chance when kismet brings a woman like Jo into your world.
When she breaks the kiss, I finish what I started. “Will you marry me?”
“I will. And I’m going to love you for the rest of my life.”
Several months later, we marry in our hidden gem of a church, and that’s just the start of our very happy ending.
THE END
TJ’s story epic romance is next! With Jude! Find out what happened in London once upon a time between these two men! Their sexy, wildly emotional love story begins in the roomies-to-lovers romance Hopelessly Bromantic. You can order Hopelessly Bromantic everywhere but grab it now before the price goes up on release day! Or sign up for my mailing list to be the first to know when this and other swoony, sexy new romances are available!
TJ spins around, then strides over. “Did you get a callback?”
“Are you a mind reader?” I ask, giddy with the news.
“The smile and the fuck yes gave it away,” he says, then offers a hand to high-five.
“Monday at twelve.” I smack his palm.
Before I can let go of his hand, TJ yanks me in close for a hug. “Congrats. I knew you’d crush it.”
I say nothing because my throat hitches when I breathe in that aftershave. I shift my nose slightly, a thief nicking one more hit of that delicious scent.
With his arms around me, my mind races with after-dark possibilities. Bet he does too, because he murmurs something—something unintelligible. His incoherence makes the moment even sexier.
When TJ lets go, he’s slow and purposeful, his hands sliding down my arms.
Or is that wishful thinking? My eyes drift to his hands to verify. But everything feels warm and hazy, and I don’t know if he’s touching me deliberately or just letting go slowly.
All I know is my insides are melting.
When he breaks the hold, he says in a rough voice, “Do you want to rehearse again? This weekend?”
“Yes. I do. How’s Sunday?”
“Perfect.”
Then, he smooths a hand over my shoulder. I blink, trying to figure out what he’s doing.
“You just had a piece of something on your shirt,” he says, with a lazy shrug.
“I did?”
His eyes darken as he stares at my lips, then glances back up. “I just wanted to get it off.”
“Did you? Get it off?”
TJ shakes his head. “I don’t think so actually.”
“Better try again,” I say, inviting him to touch me once more.
You can order Hopelessly Bromantic everywhere before the price goes up on release day!
Emerson and Nolan’s story was told in Shut Up and Kiss Me, a friends-to-lovers romance! Easton and Bellamy’s story was told in the enemies-to-lovers romance COME AGAIN . . .
ALSO BY LAUREN BLAKELY
FULL PACKAGE, the #1 New York Times Bestselling romantic comedy!
BIG ROCK, the hit New York Times Bestselling standalone romantic comedy!
THE SEXY ONE, a New York Times Bestselling standalone romance!
THE KNOCKED UP PLAN, a multi-week USA Today and Amazon Charts Bestselling standalone romance!
MOST VALUABLE PLAYBOY, a sexy multi-week USA Today Bestselling sports romance! And its companion sports romance, MOST LIKELY TO SCORE!
WANDERLUST, a USA Today Bestselling contemporary romance!
COME AS YOU ARE, a Wall Street Journal and multi-week USA Today Bestselling contemporary romance!
PART-TIME LOVER, a multi-week USA Today Bestselling contemporary romance!
UNBREAK MY HEART, an emotional second chance USA Today Bestselling contemporary romance!
BEST LAID PLANS, a sexy friends-to-lovers USA Today Bestselling romance!
The Heartbreakers! The USA Today and WSJ Bestselling rock star series of standalone!
P.S. IT’S ALWAYS BEEN YOU, a sweeping, second chance romance!
MY ONE WEEK HUSBAND, a sexy standalone romance!
CONTACT
You can find Lauren on Twitter at LaurenBlakely3, Instagram at LaurenBlakelyBooks, Facebook at LaurenBlakelyBooks, or online at LaurenBlakely.com. You can also email her at laurenblakelybooks@gmail.com
Lauren Blakely, Kismet (Happy Endings Book 4)
