Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 110360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
“That’s fair,” I said finally. My thumb brushed slow circles against her hip. “You shouldn’t have to sprint through life, babe.”
Her shoulders eased a fraction.
“But don’t confuse standing still with giving up,” I added. “You built something most people only dream about. But dreams change. Hell, a few months ago, mine was just making it through this job without screwing up.” I brushed my lips against hers, speaking against them as I said, “Now, it’s you.”
Her breath caught, tears filling her eyes. “I love you so much.”
I grinned. “I love you too. But just to be clear, I’m included in this standing still thing, right?”
She barked a laugh. “Obviously. I’m not doing any version of forever without you.”
“Okay, just checking because last time we had a conversation about the future, I distinctly remember getting in big trouble for not sending you a check-yes-or-no letter.” I made a show of patting down my pockets, even going so far as to move her legs to dig inside them. “And I’d like to let the record show that you just proposed to me and I didn’t receive one either.”
She slapped my shoulder. “Devon Grant. That was not a proposal.”
“What? You said forever. That sounds like—”
“It sounds like I want to figure out our lives, not plan a wedding.” She pointed at me, fighting a smile. “Do not make that into a thing.”
“You proposed. It’s already a thing.”
She laughed, head tipping back, the sound washing over me in waves of hope. Whether it took months, years, decades, or forever, this woman was going to destroy me. And I was going to love every single second of it, grinning like a fool and holding on for dear life.
She beamed at me. “Look at us, laughing after our first fight and two nervous breakdowns.”
I exaggerated a nod. “I know. And now you’re proposing. Big night.”
“Devon!”
I folded my arms around her middle, hugging her tight. “You don’t have to get upset. I’m not saying no. We’ll just keep it on the table for a while.”
She shoved my shoulders without actually trying to get away. “It is not on the table.”
I nipped at her bottom lip. “Top of the table. Smack dab in the center so everyone can see it.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m having second thoughts about us.”
“No, you aren’t.” Turning, I put both feet on the floor and stood up with her in my arms.
“I am,” she argued. Though it was difficult to sound convincing while dangling in someone’s arms, even for a woman as talented as Lofton Beck.
I started toward the bathroom. “Does that mean we don’t get to celebrate our big night with sex in the shower?”
Her legs came up immediately, circling my hips. “I didn’t say all that.”
29
DEVON
My smile was back as a permanent fixture on my face. I could only assume Apollo had made at least a dozen memes of me following Lofton around the soundstage, trying to look intimidating, while cheesing it up like a goddamn clown.
Whatever.
I got the girl.
More than that, I’d finally allowed myself to accept that I actually, genuinely, irreversibly got the girl. Not as the steady. Not as a solid in the storm she was still surviving. But as the man she’d chosen with full knowledge of every ugly and embarrassing thing I’d ever done and a clear-eyed understanding of every ugly and embarrassing thing I was still capable of.
That kind of freedom was nothing short of magic.
“Can I have my charger?” Zoey said from the floor at my feet.
I swung her tiny rainbow backpack—er, I mean, purse—off my shoulder and lowered it toward her. Because, yeah, apparently that was part of my job now. Though technically, if Leo made good on his word, I didn’t have a job anymore. In which case, I was just holding the kid’s purse so it didn’t get dirty on the floor for shits and giggles.
I was smiling about that too.
What I wasn’t smiling about?
“You can charge it in the car. We’re about to leave, baby,” Brooke said from beside me. “Assuming Lofton ever comes out.”
When Lofton had informed me that morning that we’d be picking up Zoey and Brooke to bring them to the soundstage with us, I’d thought it was a cruel and unusual punishment for not telling her about my past.
Turned out, she just wanted Zoey to see the space safari set—full-scale alien creatures built with animatronics, moving and breathing like something out of a nightmare zoo, handlers in black weaving between them while massive rigged lights mimicked a twin-sun sky. No green screen. No shortcuts. Just pure, high-budget insanity brought to life.
It wasn’t that I hated Brooke. Brooke just hated me. And Jesus, that woman was a ballbuster. I had no idea when Lofton could possibly have had the time to fill her best friend in on everything that had happened the night before. But Brooke had managed to bring up Levee Williams at least twelve times throughout the day. Always when Lofton was out of earshot and with a smile on her face, like she was just making conversation instead of slowly peeling my skin off in public.