by Jordan Bates
I barely waited for Max to park the car when I jumped out and ran towards them. Chase and Greg were laughing behind them.
“The table’s ready.” Jack poked his head outside the door, almost shocked to see that Max and I were already here. We made our way inside, with Max quick on my heels, trying to catch up. These people seemed to be becoming more my friends than his.
I was excited to be able to see everyone, but even though these were our friends, I wanted Max alone. I knew this was crazy because we had just spent multiple days together being hermits, but I loved him being mine. I was also grateful that no one had mentioned the ring on my finger. I kept catching myself staring at it, and every time I did, I could see Max smiling at me, because he knew, because we both knew.
“It’s good to have you back.” The comment came from Chase and broke me from my spell. I knew why he was happy, since I hadn’t been to work since I up and left. I felt horrible, but Max had told me not to worry about it. “We have a new account who has asked to work with you personally.”
My eyebrows shot up. Someone wanted me?
“You are quite known across the editing world now,” Chase praised me. I looked back down at my chili dog, trying to blend back in with the table.
“I’m thinking about bringing romance into our genre brackets.” Max’s words stunned everyone at the table. All eyes were on him now, and I was grateful. “Alexa showed me a few books and even her own writing.”
Well that was short-lived. All eyes turned back to me.
“I think this is a hidden genre that we can tap into, with the right help.” Max looked towards me. “I want to move Alexa to her own division to work on romance novels. She can employ who she pleases to help her, but each department will have a special hire to help with anything she needs.”
I sat there staring at Max, trying to figure out the words that were coming from his mouth.
“Hot damn.”
Erica giggled at Lilly’s words, but they were so true. Hot damn indeed. What the hell was happening? “That’s one hell of a gift.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet.” Max winked at me but left the rest of us in silence. I tried to figure out what he meant. He couldn’t have something else up his sleeve, could he? He had just given me my own portion of his company, what else could he do?
Chapter 22
It wasn’t until almost a month later that I understood what Max had meant that day. Why he had been so secretive about everything. It was a Saturday morning when he blindfolded me and brought me out to our car. He refused to tell me where we were going, and took wrong turns, just to throw me off. When we finally parked, my nerves were shot. I hated surprises.
Max helped me out of the car, guiding us in the direction of where we needed to head. I heard him whisper to someone as I stood in the middle of a room. I strained to hear what was being said, but then his hand grabbed mine again, continuing our journey. He helped me into what seemed like a smaller room and pulled out a chair for me to sit in. Once I was seated, Max took the blindfold off. I tried to readjust my sight but was only greeted with posters with babies on them and a woman sitting across from us.
“I know I said that we didn’t need to have children in order to be happy, but I also wanted you to have the option for yourself.” I looked around the room a little closer. There were books on adoption everywhere.
“You must be Alexa.” The woman held her hand out to me. I was still speechless right now. “Max here has been telling us a lot about you and how he wanted to surprise you, but at this point in the program, we needed to meet you in person.”
“What?” I looked back towards Max, seeking the answers I needed.
“When we were in Vegas, I took it upon myself to look up adoption agencies here. I’ve been working with Amy here.” Max gestured towards the woman sitting behind the desk. “Filling out all your information and learning about what we need to do.”
He took my hands in his, bringing us closer together.
“I wanted to give you every option I could, just in case a child was something you truly wanted.” Max moved my hair behind my ear. I looked over to Amy and then back to Max. This was real. This was something that Max had done for me, and god damn it, it topped me having my own division in his company. I had been working towards making it my baby and creating something magical, but this was so much more than that. This was Max trying to promise me a real baby. One that could be ours.
“What do we need to do?” I looked back at Amy, but I could see from my side that Max was still staring at me. Amy went on about each process from here that needed to be done, from final applications to home visits and the different categories of adoption. I sat there stunned that this was becoming my reality. That I was finally going to get the family I always wanted, well, one day, and it was going to be with the love of my life. At that moment, I wouldn’t have traded anything that had happened over the last few months for this. I looked into Max’s eyes and saw the uninhibited adoration on his face.
“Forever,” I whispered.
“Always,” he answered back.
Epilogue
Lilly
“I can’t believe this happened.” I slammed my hand down on the steering wheel. We were only supposed to be in Vegas for one weekend, just for Alexa and Max’s wedding. That was it. Nothing could have gone wrong, or well, shouldn’t have gone wrong. So how in the hell was I stuck in a situation that was less than desirable?
I looked over at Greg sitting in the passenger seat next to me. He didn’t seem fidgety like I was. His hands were planted on his thighs, perfectly still. My left foot was tapping against the floorboard at what seemed like a mile a minute. All I could see out the window were brake lights for miles. Stupid Vegas Strip traffic. You know, when they say this place never sleeps, they weren’t lying. Even at eight o’clock on a Monday morning.
I should have been back in New York, but nope. I was stuck in this godforsaken desert weather for the next two days, and with Greg nonetheless. He was the last person I wanted to be with right now.
“It probably wouldn’t take so long if you weren’t so far behind this motorcycle.” I followed Greg’s hand as he pointed to the bike in front of us.
I scoffed at his comment. Of course he wouldn’t know the decent space to stay behind a motorcycle.
“You should stay at least a car and a half behind one.” My tone was becoming more agitated. I wasn’t pounding the steering wheel anymore, nope, I had a death grip on it. “My brother grew up riding one, still does. All it takes is just one tap of a car to send them off. They have no protection. We are their protection.”
I was now pointing directly at the bike in front of us and looked toward Greg. His eyebrows had shot up, hands no longer sitting still but intertwined with his thumbs looping together.
“Look, sorry. I didn’t know.” Greg’s apology came fast. Of course he didn’t know. “I’ve never known anyone who rode one. Do you?”
The look on his face tripped me up though. He looked like he genuinely wanted to know. That was the thing with Greg, he had multiple personalities. One minute he was sweet and the next he was possessive, and, very rarely, the one I hated the most, he was angry. I had only seen the angered look once, and the situation ended with a kiss I hadn’t been able to get out of my head for the past two years.
Two years without another word, without kissing another man, without even thinking of another man. It would always be Greg, but he didn’t have to know that. I didn’t want him to know that. Even if you loved someone, it didn’t mean you needed to be in a relationship with them or even needed to marry them.
“It’s fine, just don’t make assumptions. And I have.” I paused, not sure if I wanted to tell him more about my past. If I left out the details, it would just seem like something that was normal and not because of a certain person or situation. I could get away with that. “Once, a few years ago. I haven’t since.”
I peeked over at him through my eyelashes
. My grip on the steering wheel had loosened, but we were still stuck in the same spot in traffic. The smile that was plastered on Greg’s face made it almost seem like he knew something I didn’t, like he knew me better than anyone else. But that couldn’t be true, because if he did, he definitely wouldn’t be sitting in this car with me right now.
BAM!
I jerked forward, gripping the steering wheel once more. Greg’s arm spread out in front of me, flush against my chest. I looked in the rear-view mirror to see a truck embedded in the backside of my rental car. I snapped my attention back to my front, seeing we had been hit hard enough to jerk the car forward. I turned the car off, unlatching my seatbelt immediately, and exited the car, ignoring Greg’s words that were being screamed at me.
My first thought had been the motorcycle in front of me. The guy was dismounting as I reached him, assessing that the front of my vehicle was still a good five feet away from him.
“Did I hit you?”
“Are you okay?”
Both of our questions collided with each other, causing me to smile. I was getting a better look at the man with the bike, and he wasn’t so bad to look at. In fact, he had the same look going on that Greg did. Clean shaven with a short, almost buzzed, haircut. The only difference was that this guy didn’t have Greg’s piercing green eyes.
“I’m serious though. Are you okay?” The man had moved closer to me. His hand on my hip. I almost swooned at his touch. Almost.
“My wife is fine.” The moment I felt the stranger’s hand leave my side, Greg’s was there to replace it immediately.
“Sorry, man. Didn’t know.” His hands were up as if he was pleading innocence. I kept going back to how Greg would expect this man to know this, especially when I looked down at my ring finger. It was bare. Unlike yesterday, though, when a gorgeous three set sapphire ring sat there. The ring was now in Greg’s pocket, where it would stay for the rest of our lives.
Acknowledgments
This is my first time doing this, so I’m not at all sure how this is going to come out, but I just hope I don’t forget anyone.
The most important person that I have to thank is my husband. Will, you may not have read this book, or even want to read it, but this book couldn’t be possible without you. You are every inspiration that I have when it comes to these characters. You’ve shown me so much love in life and I don’t know what I would ever do without you. Forever and always.
To my Alphas:
Dyllan Erickson. Woman. You have been here standing by my side like a fucking warrior. You’ve help make this novel into the masterpiece that it is. You aren’t ever allowed to leave me, and when we finally do meet, I won’t let you leave my side.
Becca Pearl Fischer. My chocolate pearl. You are a shining light when I want to stab someone, always leaving me with the best GIFs and awesome chocolate creations. Thank you for helping support me in my debut novel, and coming along for this crazy ass ride!
Portia Lynn. It’s so crazy to think that I just met you this year and in the most random way possible at a signing. You make reason out of my crazy jumbled words and I can’t wait till the next time I can squeeze you to death.
To my Betas: Sanzana, April, Dayna, Hannah, Nathalie, and Sahar. I just want to thank each and every one of you for dedicating time to read this book and help me with making sure that everyone loved Alexa and Max as much as I did.
Kristen Hope Mazzola, what in the world would I do without you. From creating this cover, calming my nerves when I had mini freak outs, to formatting this baby for me. You have been an amazing asset to this creation and I am so happy to have you as one of my best friends.
My ladies from Alexa Riley - Lea and Mel, you both slay my heart. You’ve made me cry the happiest of tears over this book. You have no idea how much I love you both and what you have done to make this book possible. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
To my readers: Thank you! Thank you so much for picking this book up, especially if you have no idea who I am. You took a chance on me and good god I have no idea why you did?! Thank you for supporting a dream that I have had for years and making them come true.
To the bloggers: I appreciate every single damn thing you all do. I had my own book blog for two years before having to make the decision to full move over to working on my book full time. You all put your heart into everything you post and you genuinely want to promote and help authors, so thank you. I know exactly everything it takes for you all to get this shit done, and I need you all to know that I appreciate it so hard.
If I missed anyone, I am so sorry! There were so many people who helped get this book together and were there for me along the process. Thank you all. We did it!
About the Author
Jordan Bates is an up and coming romance author from Florida, who is determined to write loves that last and are true to everyone who reads them.
Jordan graduated from UCF with a degree in English - Creative Writing. She has been writing since her freshman year in high school, where she finished her first and second book. Since then, she has pursued writing poetry, young adult novels, and romance novels.
When Jordan isn't working or writing, you can find her looking for inspiration among the forests, and finding all the new food to eat. Because what's better than writing? Eating an amazing burrito.
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