P.S. You're Intolerable (The Harder They Fall, #3)(99)

“Well, you see, I was in a shitty mood and walked up to the café at the same time as a girl with long auburn hair. I opened the door for her. She sped past me, then spun around, curtsied, and said, ‘Thank you so much. You just made me feel good about how this day is going to go.’”

I searched my mind for Elliot, finding nothing but a faceless man in a suit. I must have been too flustered to really look at him.

“I didn’t realize that was you,” I whispered.

“I know you didn’t. You smiled at me, and my heart fucking stopped, but you weren’t really looking at me.”

“You followed me inside?”

“Not in a stalker way. Remember, I’d already been going in.”

“Of course you were,” I quipped. “Tell me more, please.”

“You were standing in line, nodding your head to the music—I think it was Smashing Pumpkins. Then it switched to the next song. I had no idea what it was until later when I looked it up.”

I laughed, knowing exactly the song he meant. “Oh my god. It was Miley Cyrus, ‘Party in the USA.’”

“Yeah.” His mouth hitched. “The baristas started singing along to the chorus, and when you got to the counter to order, you sang too. Not loud. You didn’t make a scene, but you and the cashier had a moment where you were smiling and singing to each other, and it was so intensely human, the short connection of singing a cheesy—”

“Miley Cyrus isn’t cheesy.”

He held up a hand. “Not cheesy, sorry. My point is, watching you ripped my guts apart, the way you connected with her so easily, and I was hooked. I needed to have more of that.”

“So you followed me again?”

He nodded. “Imagine my surprise when you walked right into my building. Then you disappeared into the restroom, and I had no clue what to do. I just…waited.”

“And I ran into you. But I wasn’t supposed to have an interview with you.”

“No, you weren’t. But once I’d spoken to you, I couldn’t bring myself to send you away, so I gave you what I thought was an impossible task.”

“Hoping I’d fail so you didn’t have to do the sending away.”

“Yes. Because I didn’t want things or people, especially not beautiful women who made me feel more for them before we ever spoke than I had for anyone else.” He cradled my jaw in his palm, his eyes darting between mine. “But then you showed up in my office, wearing clothes from the lost and found, and I was forced to interview you. It was torture. I wanted to have you close. I knew that but wouldn’t allow myself to have it.”

“You gave me the job, though.”

His brow winged. That dubious fucking brow. “The background check said you lived with your partner. You were safe for me to have around, so long as I didn’t look at you too closely.”

It broke my heart to think about him not letting himself reach for happiness. He’d gone thirty-one years so closed off it had taken an—admittedly classic—Miley Cyrus song to finally get through to him.

“I’m sorry you found the nasty things I said about you before I shredded them. I hope you know I don’t feel that way anymore.”

His mouth turned into a full, soft smile. “Oh, I do know. I read that I have a cute butt.”

I snorted a laugh. “Well, you do. That’s indisputable.”

“I also read that you think I’ll be a great father.”

I shook my head. “No, that one isn’t right. I take it back.”

He went still. “You do?”

“Yeah, Elliot. You won’t be a great father because you already are one, present tense.”

The breath he expelled could have moved mountains with its force. His arms curled around me, pulling me inside his cave. “Work on the delivery of your devastatingly beautiful proclamations, sweetheart,” he murmured.

“Sorry, love.” I kissed his chin then grazed my lips over his.

“Forgiven, always. I love you.”

“Love you too. So much.”

He tipped me forward and gave my ass a light slap. “Now, get to work. You’ve already thrown me off the schedule you so efficiently wrote for me.”

I jumped up with a yelp and scurried for the door. At the last second, I turned back, my pulse spiking when I found Elliot still watching me.

“Go,” he ordered, an amused slant to his lips.

“I’m going!”

I left his office at the same time Davida and Ray were heading to the break room. The two of them took one look at me and shook their heads in unison.

“It looks like it all worked out, darling,” Davida said.

“Yes, it did,” I agreed.

Better than I ever could have hoped for.



The day came when Liam was supposed to be getting on his plane in Australia to fly to Denver. We’d spoken through text a few times over the last week, and every day that passed had made me more and more nervous.

He’d once been enthusiastic about being a father. What if that had come back and we had to figure out how to split custody while living across the world from each other? I didn’t think I could bear Joey being gone from me for weeks at a time.

I also couldn’t keep her away from Liam if he wanted a relationship with her, even if she already had a father.