by A. J. Pine
“In a few,” he said, and Will gave him a sharp nod before heading back around the corner to the snooker table.
“Hey, beautiful,” Jeremy said amid the white noise of Holly, Brynn, and Annie going apeshit over the photos. But Grace heard him, and she looked up and smiled.
He raised his glass.
She raised hers.
“To being a we,” he said, and he caught the slight hitch in her breath.
“To we,” she said, then mouthed the words, Love you.
He would never get tired of her saying it.
“We should head out soon, yeah? We’ve got a lot of work to do today.”
She nodded. “You go play with the boys for a bit,” she insisted. “Then we’ll go.”
He stood, then leaned over the table and kissed her right there in front of the Kingston’s brunch crowd.
“Love you,” he whispered in her ear, and he felt her shudder under his breath. He’d never get tired of that, either.
…
Grace set the final bottle of her homemade shampoo on the shelf behind the counter. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked at her finished product.
Her shelves.
Her business.
And straightening the sign in the window was her man. The love of her life. And he was about to fall off the short ledge.
She sprinted from behind the desk but knew she wouldn’t make it in time. Jeremy stumbled back but caught his footing just before putting on a repeat performance of the first time he’d been in this space.
“Whoa there,” she said, wrapping her arms around him from behind. “I think we’re going to have to put a moratorium on any further window dressing on your part.”
He turned to face her, and she pulled him closer, his solid form doing what it always did—anchoring her in the moment, reminding her that she had done what she’d set out to do.
He hummed softly. “What about window undressing?” he asked. “I think I could avoid injury if we undertook such an endeavor.”
She laughed and planted a kiss on his neck, which made him hum again. She’d never get tired of listening to him react to her or of how she reacted to him. Grace knew they were still in the honeymoon phase, but she was pretty sure the way her stomach fluttered when he entered a room would never cease.
She buried her face in his neck, breathing in the scent of him, and her breath hitched again.
“Hey,” he said, kissing the top of her head. “Everything okay?”
She pulled away to look at him, not caring that she was crying for, like, the millionth time since December. They were happy tears, though. Every one of them. She’d given up a lot over those six months, and while she hadn’t come out of the experience completely unscathed, she was better for it.
She and Jeremy were heading to her parents’ for dinner right now, something of a regular occurrence these days.
“You’re sure you’re off tonight?” she asked. “I still can’t keep the Sundays straight between you and Jamie.”
He nodded. “Yep. The second and last weekends of the month are Jamie’s. The other two he gets to hide in the back and do whatever a brewer does with those big cylinders of beer.”
He laughed, and his happiness filled her heart. He loved Kingston’s but had hated the thought of doing anything that didn’t involve interacting with the patrons. Once he actually told Jamie that, the two had a good laugh before Jamie drew up a new contract that said by no means was Jeremy Denning ever allowed to brew beer. Jamie loved to be the guy who created the product, and Jeremy loved being the one to sell it. It was the perfect partnership.
“You sure you’re not weirded out about Whitney coming?” he asked.
Grace shook her head. “I invited her,” she said. “I have her to thank for finding the loophole in the contract after Mark ruined my chance to break my cleanse with that on-air kiss.”
She rubbed a thumb over the scar on his cheek. It was finally starting to fade, as was the bruising that seemed to hang on for months.
“Plus,” she added, “she’s bringing Bobby. I want to hear how things are going with my favorite cameraman in the world.”
It was Grace’s dad’s impromptu press conference and Bobby’s motto of always keeping the camera rolling that helped them finally back Mark into a corner. Her parents actually went easy on him—suspending him and mandating he attend counseling for gambling addiction. They knew disbarment would destroy him, so they exercised compassion and gave him a chance at redemption. Grace wasn’t sure she would have been so generous, and she hated that she even felt that way. Mark left a gaping wound in her trust, not only in others but in her own judgment. But he didn’t have that power over her anymore.
Jeremy pulled her to him and kissed her, soft and sweet.
“Remember that night when you said you weren’t sure how you managed without knowing me until now?” she asked.
His brow furrowed. “I don’t remember much about that night at all, actually. I was pretty hopped up on painkillers. Did anything happen?”
She backhanded him on the shoulder, and he laughed.
“Of course I remember, beautiful. I remember everything when it comes to you. Sometimes it takes getting punched in the face, but eventually it all comes back to me.”
She rested her palms on his chest. “I get it,” she said. “I think the cleanse made me realize I deserved the real deal. I just had to be patient and wait for him to show up on my massage table.” She laughed. “And now I don’t know how there was a time before us. You know?”
He kissed her again, this time more hungrily than the last.
“And what’s the consensus?” he asked against her lips. “Was I worth the wait?”
She slid her arms around his torso and squeezed him close, so close that she could feel just how happy he was to be kissing her.
“So worth it,” she said, her voice breathy and soft. She pressed her palm between his legs, and he let out a soft moan. “I don’t think my parents would mind waiting if we were a few minutes late. Do you?”
They’d been patient with each other during the cleanse, but they’d remained insatiable since that first time. And memories of Jamie and Brynn’s wedding brought back memories of how they’d managed to deplete Jeremy’s condom supply at the hotel that evening—and the following morning. A switch had been flipped, and there was no turning it off.
He was already pulling her toward the back office, the one place where clients would never go. The one place where the door locked and there was a small couch on the other side of it. Not that it mattered today. She wasn’t officially open for business for another fourteen hours.
“No,” he said, picking up the pace even though the door was less than fifty feet away. “I don’t think they’ll mind at all.”
Once inside the office, he kicked the door shut, and she collapsed onto the couch. He stalked toward her, and then quickly covered her body with his.
“I love you,” he said, then laughed. “I spent so long avoiding those words, and now I can’t say them enough.”
She leaned up to kiss him. “I love you, too.”
“Now,” he said, nipping at her bottom lip with his teeth. “Let me remind you once again exactly what it was you were waiting for.”
Chicago Tribune: Arts and Entertainment
Saturday, December 17, 8:00 a.m.
Kingston Ale House Owners Named Chicago Entrepreneurs of the Year
By Jennifer Bloom
Exactly one year after Kingston Ale House was the site of a reality stunt gone wrong, Jamie Kingston and Jeremy Denning have been named Entrepreneurs of the Year by Chicago Magazine. I had a chance to sit down with the dynamic duo for a Kingston Ale House brew and to talk about their partnership and how things have changed in the past year.
Jennifer: Jamie, you started this business when you were twenty-three? Where did you get the capital?
Jamie: I was fortunate to apprentice under a brewmaster who saw something in me and wa
nted to invest. I also lived with a couple of buddies in a one-bedroom _ _ _ _hole for a few years and ate nothing but mac and cheese while I tended bar to put some of my own money away. It wasn’t pretty, but we made it work. Wait, can I say _ _ _ _ hole in the newspaper?
Jennifer: No. You can’t.
Jeremy: Nice one, Kingston.
Jeremy raised his pint glass, and Jamie did the same.
Jennifer: The brewery did pretty well in its first few years. Jeremy, how has the addition of your partnership helped bring you two to this prestigious award? Is it true you’re a social media marketing wiz?
Jeremy: (laughing) Is that what they’re calling me? I don’t think I ever really knew the impact of social media before—you know—all the events of last year. But I saw how it affected Grace’s opening of her massage therapy studio, and I started playing around with it. The next thing you know, I’m using terms like SEO and practically speaking in hashtags. I guess I found my calling.
Jamie: It’s the best partnership I could imagine, actually. I get to focus on the product while he reaches out to broaden our customer base. Things were good before, but since Jeremy came on board as an official partner, we’ve had to hire on double the staff to keep up with business. I’m certainly not complaining.
Jennifer: Jeremy, you mentioned Grace—as in Grace Bailey from the whole man-cleanse contest last year. Does this mean you two sealed the deal that night, even if it was off camera?
Jeremy: For the sake of our private lives remaining quiet, I’m going to keep my fiancée out of this interview.
Jamie: Looks like your fifteen minutes of fame are still following you, man. I’ll take it if it gives us more business. The wife and I will have to put our soon-to-be new arrival through college someday. Hoping we can ride on the coattails of those fifteen minutes as long as we can.
This is where our interview ended. Kingston and Denning treated me to the brewery’s signature ale-battered fish and chips (absolutely delicious) and promised me a free pint anytime I stopped in. I’ll be taking them up on their offer.
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Acknowledgments
Thank you, first and foremost, to Jeremy Denning, a fictional character who was never going to be more than Annie’s brother—a side character meant for comic relief but who just kept charming the pants off me in each of his scenes until he convinced me he deserved his own story. Well, Jer, here it is. I hope you like it.
Thank you to my always-amazing editor, Karen Grove, for falling for Jeremy and Grace just as I hoped readers would and for telling me they were definitely Worth the Wait.
Thanks to my agent, Courtney Miller-Callihan, helping guide the way through a four-book series that was at times challenging but always fun…because how could the Kingston gang not be?
To my wonderful critique partners and friends—Lia, Megan, Natalie, Jen—I love being on this journey with you. Your friendship and support are everything. And Jen, I’m sorry, but Jeremy is out in the world now. You’ll have to share him.
I have the best readers, and if you’re reading this page, then that means you. Thank you for not only letting me keep doing what I love, but for sharing in that joy with me. I am forever grateful.
To the whole Kingston Ale House gang—Jamie, Brynn, Holly, Will, Sophie, Annie, Wes, Jeremy, and Grace—thank you for filling my head, my heart, and so many pages for four books. This is not good-bye. It’s just time for you all to find out what comes after ever after. I’m pretty sure this is just the beginning for all of you.
S and C, I love you infinity. Thank you for being my biggest cheerleaders even though you’re not allowed to read my words…yet.
About the Author
A.J. Pine writes stories to break readers’ hearts, but don’t worry—she’ll mend them with a happily ever after. As an English teacher and a librarian, A.J. has always surrounded herself with books. All her favorites have one big commonality: romance. Naturally, the books she writes have the same.
When she’s not writing, she’s of course reading. Then there’s online shopping (everything from groceries to shoes). And a tiny bit of TV, where she nourishes her undying love of vampires, superheroes, and a certain high-functioning sociopath detective. You’ll also find her hanging with her family in the Chicago burbs.
Sign up for her newsletter at http://ajpine.com/subscribe/.
Discover more Entangled Select Contemporary titles…
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an Invested in Love novel by Jenna Bayley-Burke
When David Strong agrees to help teach a yoga class based on poses in The Kama Sutra, he’s put in one compromising position after another. Especially since the instructor is his best friend’s little sister-in-law, doesn’t have a lot of experience with men, and is totally off-limits. Sophie DelFino has fantasized about David for over a decade, but he has a type, and she’s far from it. He’s also got all sorts of rules and reasons why they shouldn’t be together. Good thing Sophie is all about bending the rules.
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A Friendly Flirtation
a Friends First novel by Christine Warner
Allison Hall is fed up with being the invisible nerdy girl. She needs confidence—and that requires a makeover and dating tips. Jared Esterly says no when his business partner and best friend Nick’s little sister comes to him for advice. But when Al’s attempt to make changes on her own fails spectacularly, he’s there to pick up the pieces. As lessons move from the salon to the bedroom, Allison discovers change can come at a very high price.
Stolen Away
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Cash Walker is a tough-as-nails cowboy, except when it comes to the shy woman who shows up at his farm with a goat riding shotgun in her passenger seat. Recently divorced from an abusive husband, Emma Frank has come home to Broken Falls, Montana where she strikes up a friendship with a handsome cowboy who helps her find her own courage. There’s a darkness in Cash’s past that’s kept him from ever letting anyone get too close, but he can’t seem to stay away from Emma.
Discover the Kingston Ale House series…
The One That Got Away
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