She felt her cheeks flush. “You shouldn’t have researched me quite so thoroughly.”
“I prefer to know as much as I can about my clients, colleagues, and competitors.”
“Which one of those am I?”
The teasing expression dropped from his face. “None of them.” He reached out and took her hand, threading his fingers with hers. “You’re the woman I want to bring home and introduce to my parents.”
A warm feeling surged through her, a bright happiness. He did want a future with her. “Then I guess it’s convenient that I’ve already met them.”
“And they love you, so it works out nicely.” He pulled her closer, his blue eyes on hers. “And I love you, too. Which also works out nicely.”
She smiled, feeling all of the heartache from the weekend fading, dissolving beneath his touch.
Flynn bent down and kissed her. Not a light kiss. One that wanted a response, wanted reassurance. She wrapped her arms around his neck and did her best to assure him of her feelings. She might have even murmured once or twice, when his lips were on her neck, that she loved him too.
Several minutes later, he lifted his head. “I almost forgot. I have something else for you.” He reached into his suit, pulled out a silver box, and handed it to her. “Happy anniversary, two days late. Or five months and three weeks early, depending on how you count it.”
She’d forgotten that he’d bought her a gift when he went shopping with his mom and sisters. She opened the box and saw a shimmering blue pendant nestled in black velvet. The color reminded her of the Cancun ocean, a breathtaking blue. Two matching earrings lay nearby, the topaz encircled by diamond chips.
“They’re gorgeous,” she breathed out, and then looked at him questioningly. “You bought these for me after our first afternoon together?” The set must have been expensive, and he’d known her for less than a day.
“They reminded me of you. Beautiful.”
She slid her arms around his neck. “Now I wish I’d gotten you something for our anniversary.”
“There’s still time,” he said, and kissed her again.
Epilogue
Seven months later
Standing beside Flynn, in a wedding dress she’d designed, Belle welcomed guests to their reception. The courtship had been fast by anyone’s standards, but Flynn hadn’t wanted to wait, and Belle was blissfully happy with the idea of never having to say goodbye to him at the train station again, like she’d been doing every weekend for months. Besides, the timing had been good for Mrs. Dawson. She was recovering from her latest treatment and felt up to a celebration.
She sat a table with Belle’s mother, who was surprisingly sober and had been moderately pleasant all day. Perhaps because Belle’s brother was keeping an eye on her.
Her family was admittedly small compared to Flynn’s. He seemed to have an endless supply of cousins, second cousins, and cousins removed to various degrees, who had all shown up to wish them well. Most of Belle’s coworkers and a fair amount of business associates had come too, so the reception hall looked like a haute couture convention. Sebastien was noticeably absent. He’d taken a job with another house as soon as Bainbridge officially took over. They’d hired a CEO to run the financial side of the company, and Belle was promoted again, this time to creative director.
Flynn had convinced his partners that Bainbridge needed to open an office in New York, and he would start work in the city right after their honeymoon. It felt like the perfect solution, at least for right now.
While the two talked with friends, Daisy and Marco were out on the dance floor trying and mostly failing at salsa dancing. Still, they were laughing and having a good time. According to Flynn, they planned on quietly retying their loosened knot soon. Quietly because his parents still didn’t know about the split.
Daisy had become downright nice to Belle once Flynn told her that he and Belle were actually dating. She’d even apologized for her behavior at the reunion. Belle had apologized as well and found it was easy to be nice back. Their relationship wasn’t what it had been as roommates, but perhaps they could be friends again someday. Her crush on Marco seemed like such a distant thing—a misunderstanding of sorts, something she never should have held against Daisy.
Toward the end of the night, when the guests were beginning to go home and Flynn had gone off to talk to his father for a few minutes, Pearl strolled up to Belle. She wore a blue silk dress this time, with the same pearl comb tucked in her black hair.
Belle hugged her in surprise. She hadn’t thought of the woman in months, hadn’t invited her to the reception, but was glad she’d come. Someone in the fashion industry must have mentioned the event to her. “Pearl, it’s good to see you.”
“You look radiant. So pretty. I never tire of seeing brides.”
“Thank you.”
Pearl looked her over in approval, then leaned closer and lowered her voice. “I’m glad you took my advice and went to Cancun. You finally got the right man.”
Pearl must have seen Flynn and mistaken him for Marco. “Actually, I married Flynn, Marco Dawson’s twin brother.”
“Exactly,” Pearl said. “He’s the right man.”
Belle didn’t respond to that because Flynn had come back. He took her hand and whisked her off to the dance floor.
The end
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When your chance for getting into college and your date for the prom are all on the line…
Samantha Taylor is used to having things go her way. She’s head cheerleader, has all the right friends and a steady stream of boyfriends. But when she tanks the SATs, her automatic assumptions about going to college don’t appear to be so automatic anymore. She determines that her only hope for college admission is to win the election for student body president. Unfortunately, with her razor wit, she’s better suited to dishing out insults than winning votes.
When she brashly bets her classmate Logan that she can go two weeks without uttering a single insult, Samantha immediately realizes that she may have bitten off more than she can chew. And when her current boyfriend dumps her, less than three weeks before the prom, it couldn’t be a worse time to be forced to keep her opinions to herself. Finding a new boyfriend will be a challenge now that Logan shadows her every move, hoping to catch her slipping back into her old ways. Samantha is determined to win the election and find a date for the prom, no matter what it takes. After all . . . all’s fair in love and war (and high school!).
Other titles by CJ Hill (aka Janette Rallison)
Slayers (under pen name CJ Hill)
Slayers: Friends and Traitors (under pen name CJ Hill)
Son of War, Daughter of Chaos
Blue Eyes and Other Teenage Hazards
Just One Wish
Masquerade
My Double Life
A Longtime (and at One Point Illegal) Crush
Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws
The Girl Who Heard Demons
How I Met Your Brother
Playing The Field
The Wrong Side of Magic
My Fair Godmother
My Unfair Godmother
My Fairly Dangerous Godmother audio book
All’s Fair in Love, War, and High School
Fame, Glory, and Other Things on my To Do List
It’s a Mall World After All
Revenge of the Cheerleaders
How to Take The Ex Out of Ex-boyfriend
Erasing Time (under pen name CJ Hill)
Echo in Time (under pen name CJ Hill)
What the Doctor Ordered (under pen name Sierra St. James)
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Just One Wish audio book
My Fairly Dangerous Godmother audio book
How I Met Your Brother (Power of the Matchmaker) Page 21
