With the Last Goodbye

by Len Webster

  Josie shook her head. “I was happy when I got to hear your voice, and see your face, and read your words. And most importantly, I was happy when I felt your love. So from now on, don’t make choices without me. I want to be yours, Maxwell. I want my future aligned with yours.”

  Hope exploded in his chest.

  She wanted a future with him.

  She still loved him.

  “Really?”

  Her smile returned as she nodded her head. “Really.”

  “Are you moving back?” he asked anxiously.

  “I already have. A couple of days ago. I had an interview with a law firm.”

  He grinned, proud of her. “With who?”

  Josie reached up and wrapped her fingers around his wrists. “With the man who tutored me when I needed it during the past year.”

  “Who?”

  “Your father. I wanted to surprise you and had asked him for help before you ended us. When he found out you broke up with me, he wanted to continue to tutor and mentor me. He kept me updated on how you were during the past few months.”

  “My dad? You had another interview at Gordon Sheridan?”

  “I did.”

  Suddenly, it all made sense.

  All his father’s questions about him dating and Josephine.

  His father had been looking out for him.

  “So you’re back home?”

  She nodded. “I am. Because Melbourne had my La Vie En Rose all this time, and I wanted to feel loved and at home again.”

  Max brought her lips closer to his as he whispered, “I love you, Josephine.” He pressed his lips to hers in a chaste kiss. “I love you.” He kissed her deeper this time.

  And when he pulled away to whisper his love one more time, she had breathed, “I love you.” Then she pulled his hands from her face and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him so deeply that her graduation cap fell from her head to the ground—but she didn’t seem to mind. He grasped her hips and brought her to him as she whispered, “I love you. I love you. I love you, Maxwell Sheridan.”

  Max pulled back a fraction and glanced over to find her family and best friends with large grins on their faces. Then he noticed the two blondes by her father’s side. “Is that Heidi and Angelika?”

  She nodded. “Would you like to meet my sisters, Max?”

  “I’d love to.”

  Josie untangled her arms from around his neck and then spun around. She picked up her cap then reached out for his hand, and he let her take it. Their fingers threaded with each other, and the rightness exploded in his chest.

  His life was meant to be with this woman.

  This strong, beautiful woman.

  “Josephine,” he said as they walked towards her family.

  “Yes, Maxwell?”

  Maxwell.

  How she made him love her so much more with the whisper of his name.

  “I watched all of Gilmore Girls,” he announced.

  “And?”

  He lovingly gazed down at her, and his heart sang her name like it was home. “I don’t want Lorelai Gilmore.”

  “You don’t?”

  He shook his head. “No, I want you. I want to be Josephine Faulkner’s. I want to be her La Vie En Rose as she is mine. I want to be the love of her life as she will always be mine.”

  She smiled as a tear rolled down her cheek. “A year. I waited a year to hear those words. You were. You are. And you will always be my La Vie En Rose, Maxwell Sheridan. And you know that is more than just the love of my life.”

  He did.

  He was her everything.

  Just like she was his.

  Their lives had finally found La Vie En Rose in each other.

  March

  “I swear to God, Stella, if I accidentally get pee on me, I will kill you!” Josie threatened as she opened the pregnancy test. Then she sighed. Out of all the things Josie Faulkner thought she could be opening for herself, a pregnancy test wasn’t one of them.

  One she was about to take.

  One that would give her a positive or negative result in about fifteen minutes.

  That is, if she didn’t get pee fright and not do the deed on the damn plastic stick.

  “Hurry up, Josie!” her best friend screamed from outside Josie’s bathroom.

  “Stella, stop rushing me!”

  Stella groaned. “West will be home soon. Please, oh, please, hurry! You know he can’t keep his mouth shut around Max now that they’re best friends.”

  Max.

  Josie couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face.

  Maxwell Sheridan.

  The man she had left in Melbourne for sixteen months.

  The same man who had broken up with her over a year ago.

  A man who was present at her university graduation.

  It was a surprise.

  Josie had messaged his father after she got her final marks and asked him to make Max’s presence at her ceremony happen. It was a promise he made to her when their friendship began to blossom. She knew it was risky to come back and make one last proclamation of her love, but she had to have him at her graduation ceremony. It was one of those moments he had promised to see, and it was one of those moments she would never have been able to experience without him.

  The moment she looked out in the audience and spotted him, she knew.

  It was so plain to see he still loved her.

  And that had her so sure of her next move.

  She had confessed that she still loved him.

  That had been two weeks ago.

  And for the past two weeks, it was life of La Vie En Rose with Maxwell Sheridan.

  His father had given him time off so they could make up for the past year they had spent apart. The first few days were spent locked in his apartment getting reacquainted with each other’s bodies as they made love again and again until they were spent. Max had been there when she had visited her mother’s grave for the first time since the funeral. He held her hand as she apologised for missing the anniversary of her death. She had pulled out a French postcard and set it against her mother’s grave. Then she had told her mother that she had gone to Calais, France, on the anniversary—to see one of the places her mother never got the chance to.

  After that day, Max had spent time getting to know her half-sisters, Heidi and Angelika. About an hour after meeting, Heidi had pulled Josie aside and stated that she now understood why Josie had held her love for Max and had never dated her ballet teacher, Vicktor.

  “Josie, just pee on the damn stick!” Stella yelled.

  Shaking her head, Josie got her bearings and pulled out the pregnancy test from the box.

  It was so stupid that she was taking the test.

  But a pact was a pact.

  And a missed period meant she would be peeing on a stick.

  “Josephine,” a voice she loved whispered. “Love, wake up.”

  She let out a soft groan. “Ten more minutes.”

  “Josephine, normally, I’d let you, but we have to have a talk.”

  That had her opening her eyes.

  Her room was still bright as she rolled over to find her boyfriend sitting on the bed, staring down at her with adoration and love in his eyes. She smiled at the sight. God, she couldn’t believe she survived a whole year without him. She hadn’t been living. She knew that the moment she saw him clutch his chest as she walked across that stage two weeks ago.

  “I go to a meeting with my father for an hour, and you fall asleep,” he teased as he reached up and brushed her hair behind her ear.

  “You’ve finally tired me out,” she explained in a low voice.

  He grinned. Large and true. He definitely liked that, and Josie made a mental note. “I have two questions for you.”

  Josie pressed her palms on the mattress and sat up, resting her back on the upholstered headboard. “Two questions?”

  Max nodded as he reached up and loosened his grey tie. This morning, he had let her
knot it around his neck before he had to leave for his meeting with his father. On his way, he dropped her off at her apartment that she shared with Stella. Max scooted closer and then cupped her right cheek with his palm, his thumb gently stroking her skin.

  “First question,” he said as she turned her head slightly and pressed a kiss to the side of his thumb, causing his smile to soften. “Will you please come to Scarsdale in a few weeks with me to visit Alex, Keira, and Will? Ally and Rob are going straight from France since they’re back there for Rob’s training. And Stevie and Julian are flying up.”

  Josie grinned. “You want me to go to New York with you?”

  “I really want you to come to New York with me.”

  The sparkle in his eyes had her heart skipping beats.

  “You don’t start your placement for another month, and your family is leaving for Berlin next week,” he added. “Please?”

  Reaching up, she wrapped her fingers around his wrist and pulled his hand from her cheek. Then Josie got on her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I would love nothing more than to follow you to New York, Maxwell.”

  He hummed as if her answer made him content. “God, I love you,” he breathed.

  “I love you, too. Now, question number two,” she reminded.

  Max’s lips now pressed into a tight line as he took a deep breath. Fear and wonder consumed his eyes.

  “Max, are you okay?”

  He let out a shaky exhale. “Josephine, I’m the only guy you’ve been with for a long time, right?”

  She tilted her head at him, confused. “Max, you’re the only guy I have been with in over three years.”

  Relief consumed his face. “I knew it’s mine,” he whispered as his eyes glazed over.

  “What?”

  “Josephine …”

  “Max, you’re scaring me,” she admitted.

  His hands found her hips. Then one had moved to her stomach and remained there. “Are you pregnant right now?”

  She winced. “What?” she breathed.

  “I went to use the bathroom and saw the box on the counter. I didn’t see a test anywhere.”

  Josie groaned as she pressed her forehead to his.

  They stayed like that.

  For a moment.

  And then she pulled back and looked him in those light brown eyes she had dreamed of over and over again when she was in Berlin.

  “I’m not pregnant,” she corrected.

  His face dipped as he let out an, “Oh.”

  “It came back negative. I knew it would. I mean, I’ve missed a period, but I’m still on the shot.”

  He glanced back up at her. “Then why did you take a pregnancy test?”

  Her arms tightened around him. “Stella and I made a pact years ago that if we ever missed a period, we’d both take a pregnancy test. I missed one. Turns out she’s missed a few.”

  “Stella’s pregnant?”

  “She is.”

  “And is she okay?”

  Josie nodded. “As okay as she can be. She’s a little shocked since she thought it was the new contraception she was taking. But she’s definitely pregnant. She went and bought three more tests and … well … they were all positive.”

  “And where is she now?”

  “Went to the doctor’s. I was waiting for her, but I guess I fell asleep.”

  “Stella’s the pregnant one,” he said as if to reaffirm the statement to himself.

  “Hey,” she said as she unlinked her arms from around him and cupped his jaw. “Are you … Are you disappointed that I’m not pregnant?”

  Max sighed, and his shoulders dropped. “You must think I’m so selfish.”

  Josie let out a soft laugh. Then she tilted his chin a little higher. “Max, we’ve been back together for two weeks,” she reminded.

  The thumb on her stomach stroked her thin shirt. “We’ve been in love with each other far longer than that.”

  “We have.”

  “When I saw the box, I had a few tears in my eyes,” he admitted. “I would love nothing more in this world than to be the father of your child.”

  God, her poor heart.

  He had said the words to make it tighten and feel so full with love.

  Tears slid down her face. “How about you settle for being my boyfriend for a while? Can your biological clock wait a year?”

  He blinked at her. “A year?”

  “I’d like to be a legally practising lawyer, Maxwell. It means a year’s placement at your father’s firm. A baby is a lovely idea. Having your baby is a dream I want, but if it’s okay with you, I’d like to hold off that dream for a year. I’d like to be the kind of successful woman I promised my mother I’d be … The kind of woman who would make a good mother and lawyer.”

  That disappointment was long gone. A gleam of happiness now shimmered in his eyes. “Then would you do me the honour of something else?”

  “Something else?” she asked sceptically, eyebrow raised and all.

  His hand now moved from her stomach to clutch her hip. “Move in with me?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me. Move in with me, Josephine. We can carpool to work together.”

  She let out a laugh. “Don’t you think it’s too soon?”

  He shook his head. “I think I’m asking too late. Stella and West are gonna be parents.”

  “So you’re doing Stella and West a favour?”

  “By having their roommate move out to live with the man who loves her like no other?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m not doing them any favours. I’m just being selfish,” he admitted. “I just want to live with you in the apartment you once said you loved for the view. You can wake up to that view every morning.”

  “I’d rather wake up to the sight of you.”

  He leant forward and pressed a soft kiss on her lips. “I’d rather the sight of you every day of my life, too.”

  “I love you, Maxwell,” she whispered wholeheartedly. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

  Then he was the one to breathe, “I love you, too, my La Vie En Rose.”

  Josie pulled back and smiled as if she had won life’s lottery.

  Because she had.

  With Max, she had won at life.

  She had experienced the very worst to have and appreciate the very best.

  Because her mother was right.

  Someday, Josie would have it all.

  And today, she did.

  She had the world.

  And the stars.

  And all the moons …

  In the way Maxwell Sheridan loved her.

  April

  Discovering that Josephine wasn’t pregnant was a disappointment Maxwell Sheridan could never put into words. When he had come across the pregnancy test box, he felt so much happiness in his chest that he needed a second and sat on her bed, watching her sleep. His eyes had focused on her stomach at the thought of his son or daughter growing inside her. He didn’t care that they’d only been back together for two weeks. That didn’t matter to him since he’d been in love with her for almost two years.

  Max had stayed away for over a year.

  When he called her, he wanted to tell her that he couldn’t stop loving her and he’d find a way to Berlin to be with her. But that phone call had ended quickly when she said she had gotten over him. Deep down, he knew he heard her love, but he also heard her pain and knew he had to let her go.

  Then six weeks ago, she changed his life once again.

  Max watched her graduate from law school.

  He had never been more proud of her.

  She had no idea she helped him fulfil one of his promises he had made to her mother, Emily Faulkner, before she had passed away. Max was able to experience a moment in Josephine’s life that her mother couldn’t. And he felt blessed to have.

  He hadn’t ever expected to see her again after that phone call.

  He definitely didn’t expect her t
o confess she still loved him.

  He hoped, every night he had, that she would.

  And as Max helped his girlfriend out of the cab, he knew his life was finally right once again.

  With Josephine Faulkner, it was always right.

  “Thank you again,” she said to their cab driver as she grasped Max’s hand tightly. The moment her eyes found his, she smiled. “And thank you.”

  Six weeks.

  Six weeks and his life had a brighter sun revolving around it.

  It was her.

  It had always been her from the moment they stood on that bridge.

  “Are you still feeling tired?” Max asked as he closed the car door and threaded his fingers with hers.

  She shook her head. “Nope. It was a good idea to spend a week in LA to get our jet lag under control.” She paused as she gazed over at the house in front of them, and then the street. Josie’s blue eyes widened. “Wow,” she breathed.

  Max had to agree.

  It was the kind of home he wanted to have someday.

  With the very woman who held his heart.

  “Noel and Clara seriously live here?”

  He laughed. He wasn’t allowed to tell Josephine exactly why their trip to New York had changed to Boston, but he wasn’t going to ruin the surprise for her.

  “Noel and Clara live here,” he confirmed as he walked her up the path to the front door. “Moved to Brookline after they got married.”

  “I’ve seen some pictures, but God, Max. It’s incredible.”

  When they had climbed the short steps, he glanced down at her. “Just wait till you see inside. The kitchen is my favourite part of the house.”

  Josie’s smile faded in an instant once he knocked on the front door.

  “Josephine, are you all right?”