by Linde, K. A.
I grinned. “I don’t think even I could dream up something as amazing as you.”
He laughed. “Probably not.”
I scoffed at his cockiness. “It’s lucky that I love you.”
“It is,” he agreed. “Come. Let’s clean you up.”
“Why? Aren’t you going to just get me dirty again?”
He shot me a devilish smirk. “Absolutely.”
I pressed my hand to his chest to keep him still for a moment before he dragged me off for what was clearly a barely veiled eagerness for shower sex. “What are we going to do when we leave here?”
“Do we have to decide today?”
“No,” I said softly. “But…”
“Shh,” he said, running his fingers through my hair. “Our future is simple. We trust in each other, and the rest will sort itself out.”
“I wish we could stay here forever. Can we stay here forever?”
“Alas, no. I have work in the city,” he reminded me. “But you know as well as I do that we can’t escape who we are just by leaving the city.”
I sighed. “You’re right. Hiding out here won’t solve everything.”
“No. Trying to escape the Upper East Side is pointless. We have to trust each other and find a middle ground.”
“Is there a middle ground?”
He nodded. “We don’t have to be celebrities, Natalie. We can just be us. No expectations. If anyone has a problem with that, then they don’t matter. Okay?”
“It’s never worked in the past,” I reminded him.
He smirked and grasped my chin, pulling me in for a hot kiss. “This time, we’re not running, and we’re not playing the game. I don’t want to rule Manhattan. And you don’t need to be a star socialite. You can be Natalie, and I will be Penn. The rest we can figure out as we go.”
“What about the crew?”
“I think you knocked them all down a peg or two, Nat. I have a feeling things will be different when we get back.” His hand slid back into my hair. “Lewis and Katherine are tired of fighting. Rowe and Lark just want their friends back. We don’t have to be the way we were before. We can be something new. No more secrets. No more lies. No more till-death loyalty.”
“You mean…a truce,” I muttered. But it made sense. That was exactly what I wanted. What I’d done and who I’d been was exhausting. It wasn’t even me. And maybe I wasn’t exactly the person I’d been before it all, but I wasn’t going to go back to trying to be the new queen bee either. “A truce sounds nice.”
“We’ll work it out together.”
“Together,” I agreed and then kissed him one more time, giving in to that heated gaze.
I knew it wouldn’t all be settled tomorrow or even the next day. The Upper East Side still waited. But I didn’t fear it anymore. Nor did I have the raging desire to burn it down. In some way, it had become a part of me. A part of who I was as a person.
Just as much as Penn was. And together, I knew that we could not only survive it, but also come to find our own place in it. The in-between place that we’d both spent our entire lives looking for.
For him to be his own person. For me to finally belong.
And for us to have it all.
Epilogue
Natalie—Four Years Later
“Okay, okay,” I grumbled, holding the bottle of Jefferson’s Ocean above my head as I stepped into the living room of the Kensingtons’ Hamptons mansion. “I have the requisite liquor. You can all chill the eff out now.”
Penn snorted. He leaned against the door to the kitchen with his hands in his pockets, looking every bit the undeniable charmer I’d fallen for in that same position so many years earlier. “Like we still need to drink straight out of the bottle. I think we have enough glasses to pour it.”
“But that’s not tradition,” Katherine drawled from her seat on the couch.
“Right. That’s not tradition,” I agreed.
It was bizarre as fuck to agree with Katherine. Even still, four years after our big blowup at the charity event.
When Penn and I had returned from our honeymoon in Paris, we’d been cajoled into a reception hosted by his mother. I was wary about the rest of the crew’s attendance, but to be honest, it was the excuse I needed to talk to Katherine. It wasn’t pleasant. In fact, it was downright nasty. But we’d called a shaky truce. One that held much better four years later than it’d ever had when we agreed to it.
“Gang up on me, why don’t you?” Penn muttered.
Addie giggled and slipped into Lewis’s lap. “That’s kind of what we’re here for.”
Lewis wrapped his arms around Addie. “You should know that by now, man.”
With Lewis, it had equally been worse and better than dealing with Katherine. He apologized for the stalking and what had happened leading to the denied restraining order. For there ever having been a reason for me to try to get one in the first place. But he blew a gasket when he found out that I’d been the one to turn him in for the investigation.
Still, I’d gotten it all out in the open. And thankfully, the worst had blown over with the company by the time we got back to the States. His mother had gone back to work as the UN ambassador, and Lewis had been allowed to stay at the company. But he decided it wasn’t his passion, and with Addie’s help, he found out what exactly that was. None of us had expected him to purchase a minor league baseball team and build the program up to unprecedented success.
I took the first drink of the bourbon and passed it to Katherine, who drank deeply.
“Phew,” she said with a shake of her head. “That is the stuff.”
She passed it to Rowe, who practically rolled his eyes from behind his computer and passed it on to Penn. “Do you even know me at all?”
Katherine rolled her eyes. Lark just laughed as she entered the room and grabbed another chair. I’d grown to love Lark. She was no-nonsense. She’d found her own middle ground. And a guy who was perfect for her.
Which was more than I could say for Katherine. Somehow, she and Camden were still married. Though no one was sure if it was happily married or not. And we’d all decided it was none of our business.
“What?” Katherine grumbled, still holding the bottle out.
“Obviously, Rowe doesn’t drink after people,” Lark said.
“He drinks after Nicholas,” Addie pointed out in a way only his twin could.
“That’s my husband,” Rowe said with a shrug.
“And where is your beau tonight?” Addie asked.
“Crew only,” Katherine said emphatically.
“Then what about Natalie?” Addie added like she did every year.
Katherine’s grin was wicked as she shrugged. “I guess Natalie is crew.”
It wasn’t the first time she’d said it or the first time that we’d had this conversation, but it still surprised me to hear it.
We weren’t all close. Crew didn’t hang out like they used to. But they didn’t have to because Penn had been right. There was this in-between ground. Where he could be friends with them and not have them be his only friends. Our world had expanded.
We had dinners with his colleagues from work and discussed philosophy theory I had no clue about. They’d thrown a party for him when his book finally released. And I’d put together another one after he got tenure.
I’d gone out on tour for my first literary novel publication and gotten a close-knit group of author friends who all lived in the city. We met up for girls’ nights that didn’t include backstabbing anyone. Sometimes, we didn’t even get out of our sweats or brush our hair or even shower. But we’d have writing marathons. And their husbands got it, which meant Penn fit right in with their sighs about late-night writing sessions and thinking the characters were real.
I didn’t think he could complain. The name on the book said Natalie Kensington. It was he who constantly brought me new inspiration. And he who always made this life worth living.
But even while we had this whole new, bea
utiful world, we still had the Upper East Side. And we still had the crew.
“Who wants to toast this year?” Lark asked as she sipped the bourbon and passed it to Addie.
“I do,” Penn said, stepping forward.
Lewis downed a large quantity of the bourbon before passing it to me.
“Four years ago, we put our differences aside,” Penn said. “We agreed to come to the Hamptons on Labor Day weekend to finally discuss what happened with Hanna and commemorate her life. Her death was horrible. Our part in it was worse. I’d give anything to go back and fix what we ruined. But we don’t get a do-over. We can only go forward. So I’m glad that we’re here again to pay our respects to Hanna Stratton. We can’t make amends. But we can honor her memory.”
Everyone reached for the drinks that they’d already gotten before I found our traditional bourbon. We raised our glasses to Hanna, as we had the last four years, a silent moment for the person that they’d hurt. To all the people we’d all hurt. And the life that we’d led to be those people.
We drank deep. Letting the past go. Moving on, but not forgetting.
It was a moment of bonding that was good for the entire party. We had our own lives now, but it was important to remember, so we didn’t end up back in that same place.
When I’d washed up on the Hamptons, I’d never guessed that I could fall into this amazing, terrifying group. I’d palpably felt the bond between them. And this distant yearning had grown inside me. They had something—money, status, power—but it was more than that. They had the unshakable knowledge that they would always be there for each other. Their own type of family unit.
I hadn’t understood it, even as I’d dived headfirst into it. I’d never had anything like it. Just me and Amy, which I’d always thought was enough. And somehow … in my deception, I’d finally been accepted. At the moment when I was certain that it wasn’t for me.
As we did every year, we found our way into the heated pool. They complained about Penn’s music. Joked about Katherine being a bitch. Tried to coax Rowe out of his shell. We stayed up late into the night, reminiscing about our past and making all new memories.
And when everyone finally gave up to go to bed, Penn took my hand and guided me down to the beach. The wind picked up as we approached the Atlantic. But we ignored it to stare up at the stars blanketing the night sky.
“There,” I said, finding the crown and pointing out our constellation.
“Here.” Penn fingered the crown around my neck, just like I had known he would.
Standing here with Penn each year felt like a new beginning.
A reaffirming that we’d done the right thing by eloping.
I was crew.
I was a Kensington.
I was just me.
The End
Love Natalie & Penn?
Get ready for a new second chance stand alone romance with Lark and Sam in…
THE
LYING SEASON
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Six years ago, Sam and I were on top of the world. We won the campaign. Our dreams were in sight. Most importantly, we had each other.
Then he lied.
And it all fell apart.
Now, he’s back in New York City.
Working on the mayor’s reelection with me.
And it all feels so familiar.
Except for his fiancé waiting in the wings.
And I should know better.
Coming February 4th!
Click to Preorder
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The Lying Season
Chapter 1
I all but ran down the busy Manhattan street toward my apartment. My heels clattered against the concrete, and I cursed myself for not stuffing flats into my oversized purse. Then again, I’d thought that I would have plenty of time to run home and change before the mayor’s fundraising banquet tonight. That was until I’d completely forgotten that I was supposed to meet my best friend for coffee.
“Anna, I’m so sorry I’m late,” I gasped when I reached my building.
“You’re always late, Lark,” Anna said with a sly grin.
“I know. It was last minute.”
“I ordered your favorite, but it might be cold by now.” She passed me a cup of coffee in a brown cup, and I took it gratefully.
“Cold coffee is still coffee.”
I drained half of the cup as quickly as I could. I pretty much ran on coffee. It was a necessity when working for Leslie Kensington, the mayor of New York City, especially when she was only six months from being reelected.
Anna removed her enormous sunglasses and brushed her long blonde hair off of her shoulder. “You know, I told you I was coming into town a week ago.”
“I love you, but the campaign…”
Anna waved her manicured hand. I wished that I had time to get a manicure. “I know. I know. It’s always the campaign.”
“Come up with me?”
Anna nodded. “Always. You know I’m obsessed with your apartment.”
I laughed as I entered the building. “Tell that to my parents. They keep trying to force me to upgrade. It’s exhausting.”
“I get it. You want to live your own life. Plus, it’s not like you’re living in squalor.”
“Right?” I nodded my head at the doorman. “Afternoon, Harry.”
“Miss St. Vincent.” He tipped his head at Anna. “Miss English.”
Anna winked at him. “Good to see you again.”
“Always a pleasure. Is there anything I can help you ladies with?”
“We’re only going to be twenty minutes. I have a car service. Can you have them wait for me?”
“Of course, Miss St. Vincent.”
“Thanks, Harry.” I smiled at him and then dragged Anna toward the elevators.
“Only twenty minutes this time, huh?” Anna asked. “And here I thought I might get a full half hour.”
I opened my mouth to apologize. Something I always had to do while I was working. I never had time for anyone.
“I know. It’s the campaign,” Anna said with a laugh as I swiped my card to take us up to the top floor. “You work too much.”
“Look who’s talking.”
Anna looked like a movie star, but she chose to handle their publicity and generally clean up everyone’s messes instead of actually acting. Anna worked nearly as hard as I did, and that was saying something. We’d become friends in law school, and with Anna’s job, she always flitted in and out of my life whenever a client brought her into New York.
“I don’t work as much as you. I mean, when was the last time you even went on a date?” Anna arched an eyebrow and leaned forward. “I never thought that Larkin St. Vincent would end up alone at thirty.”
“Ugh! Let’s not,” I said.
The elevator dinged open to my floor, and Anna followed me down the hall. I turned the key in the lock and let us both inside, ditching my jacket and purse on the couch. I wished I could ditch this conversation as easily.
Truthfully, the last thing I wanted to talk about was the fact that I was single. My parents gave me enough grief as it was. It didn’t help that my parents ran St. Vincent’s resorts, a multi-billion-dollar company that had been in my family for generations. Or that my mother had created St. Vincent handbags and cosmetics. Not only did they want me to take over the family business, St. Vincent Enterprises, they had a long list of suitors they found were acceptable for me to marry. They didn’t even seem to care which one I picked as long as I kept the money among other old money families.
Anna followed me back to my room and plopped down on her bed. “You’re not getting out of this so easy.”
I hurried into my walk-in closet and searched for that black dress I swore I’d put out this morning for the mayor’s fundraising banquet. “Can’t hear you!”
“Seriously, what’s holding you back from dating?” Anna called.
Ah ha! Black dress.
I snagged it and walked bac
k into my bedroom. “Are you still going on about this?”
Anna rolled her big blue eyes. “Why aren’t you dating?”
“I’m too busy.”
“Oh please, that didn’t stop me from getting married.”
“Not everyone has a happily ever after with a movie star husband either.”
Anna laughed. “True. I got lucky.”
“Exactly. Instead, I got Thomas. You know why it didn’t work out with him,” I said, tugging off my work clothes and slipping into the black dress. “How is this?”
“Really? You’re going to ask me? The one who looks at movie stars all day?” Anna asked. She walked back into my closet and returned a minute later with a black dress I hadn’t worn since college. “This one.”
I chewed on her lip but changed. The dress was tight in all the right places and hugged my figure down to my knees. It didn’t exactly scream ‘I’m working the event.’ But I did feel pretty in it.
“Back to the topic on hand. Thomas was a douchebag. We can’t judge everyone based off of him. I mean things were looking up with the guy before him. Sam, right?”
I swallowed and hastily turned to my vanity. “Yeah.”
“You need to find another guy like him. I liked him.”
“I don’t really know if there are any other guys like Sam,” I said as I applied a coat of red lipstick.
“It’s not like you’d know, Lark.”
“Hey, I date sometimes.”
“Robert Dawson?” Anna asked disbelievingly. She snagged a necklace and offered it to me without comment “Aren’t you just friends with benefits anyway?”
“No,” I muttered. The necklace really did go well. Damn her. “We’re not really anything. I don’t know. Why the third degree about dating?”
Anna grinned. “I have a new client…”
“Oh no. No way.”
