“I do have to warn you about one thing. I’m afraid you won’t think I’m much of a catch once you meet my family.”
I pretend to think about it. “Well, you’re super hot, so I think I can accept that trade-off.”
He laughs, his smile cranking up to an eleven. It’s blinding, stretching ear to ear, sunbeams shooting from his eyeballs. This smile is the eighth Wonder of the World.
“Here’s the thing,” I tell him once we’ve stopped snickering like schoolchildren. “I don’t want to start over. I’d rather pick up where we left off. Our story may be messy and unconventional, but it’s ours. And I wouldn’t trade it.”
His eyes crinkle at the corners. “I suppose if we can make it through all this, we can weather anything.”
Truer words have never been spoken. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all this, it’s that there’s merit to the old way of doing things. I’ve liked taking things slow, and I don’t want to skip past the good stuff. I want you to hold my hand and walk me home and kiss me good night. I want to keep learning new things about you. I want to look forward to things with you. I feel like that was working for us, don’t you?”
“Totally.” He clears his throat. “Speaking of taking things slow, I think you should move in with me.”
“Jaaack,” I groan at the sky.
He raises a palm. “Hear me out. This is absolutely not for my benefit, it’s a completely unselfish request.” I raise a skeptical brow. “Asher needs a mother.”
I exhale a laugh.
“I’m serious! The studies are clear: Children do better in two-parent households. What kind of father would I be if I let him start off life at a disadvantage?” Jack’s giving me some major puppy dog eyes of his own. “Also, okay fine, his dad would sure love to have you around.”
I take his chin between my fingers and kiss him, slow and tender. “You’re very sweet, and I appreciate your entirely selfless offer. Especially as I’m technically homeless.” I pull a face. “But this is where I’m supposed to be right now. Gran needs me, and besides, I have a book to finish.”
His eyes narrow like I’m very shifty indeed. “I think you just don’t want to live in my fancy apartment that you hate.”
“I do not hate your apartment!” I insist, then rethink that. “I do hate your oven, though.”
“Pretty sure the oven hates you.”
“Hardy-har.”
“What if I promise to do all the cooking?” He’s really weaponizing those puppy dog eyes now. I’m in big trouble.
“Still no.”
“In the nude.”
I laugh out loud. “Very tempting, but I’m still going to have to decline. For now,” I amend.
“Damn, I really thought that one would work.” He laces our fingers together, eyeing me speculatively. “I feel like I’d be getting a different answer if I lived in a brownstone.”
That one makes me hesitate, and he reads it all over my face.
He grins in triumph. “Brownstone. Got it.”
“Jack, do not go out and buy a brownstone.” As I say it, the ghost of Betty rolls over in her grave and I can practically hear her screech: Let him buy the brownstone!
“I won’t,” he says, nodding ever so slowly.
“Jack . . .” I say in a warning tone.
He grins, lowering his mouth to mine . . . and then I’m no longer saying much at all.
Epilogue
BESTSELLING AUTHOR CASSIDY SUTTON ON LIFE, LOVE, AND ROMANCE ACROSS GENERATIONS
BY NATALIA KIMURA FOR SIREN
It’s a Friday morning, the kind of crisp autumn day that makes Nora Ephron fans dream of bouquets of newly sharpened pencils and long, banter-filled walks through Central Park beneath a canopy of fall foliage—or at least, the fan sitting across from me sure does. We’ve been chatting all of five minutes before she blurts, “Don’t you just love New York in the fall?”
If romance is a state of mind, then today’s interview subject has a PhD in HEA （that’s “happily ever after,” for the uninitiated）。 I’m spending the morning at the cozy West Village brownstone of bestselling author-slash-screenwriter （and former Siren editor） Cassidy Sutton, discussing the extraordinary success of her debut novel The Throwback, life imitating art, and the unexpected joys of married life. （Full disclosure: Sutton is a friend, former colleague, roommate, and bridesmaid; I make no apologies for the blatant favoritism shown during this interview.） The past few years have been a whirlwind for Sutton. She quit her job, wrote a bestselling book, sold the film rights in a fierce Hollywood bidding war, and is now penning the script—and she somehow did it all while caring for her convalescing grandmother （better known to her three million TikTok followers as @GranKnowsBest） and planning a wedding to Brawler-founder-turned-venture-capitalist Jack Bradford. If it made you tired to read all that, you’re not alone.
“I crammed a couple of decades of life highlights into four years,” Sutton jokes, reclining on her couch with a mug of tea and her Chesapeake Bay retriever Asher by her side. “Sometimes I feel like I just flipped a page and all my dreams came true.”
Though it’s hard to imagine there’s anyone left who hasn’t read the mega-bestseller, here’s a brief synopsis: The Throwback follows Beth, an independent, career-driven, but unlucky-in-love Manhattanite working as an editor at a digital magazine （sound familiar?） who, on the eve of her thirtieth birthday, drunkenly laments her single status to her old-school traditional grandmother—only to wake up the next morning transported back to 1950s New York, where she’s considered an “old maid,” feminism isn’t even a speck in the distance, and the only journalism job she can get hired for is secretary to the newsroom’s chauvinistic star male reporter. Oh, and everyone’s calling her Betty.
You can guess what happens next: Hijinks and hilarity ensue as she alternately tries to fit into her strange new world and drag her colleagues into the future. And that brash hotshot she loves to hate? He just might be the man—and sparring partner—of her dreams. But when the cosmic glitch threatens to correct itself, she has to choose between love in the past and life in the present.
“It’s Back to the Future meets Pleasantville meets His Girl Friday,” Sutton says with a laugh. “I never was much good at picking a genre.”
The manuscript sparked a frenzy among publishers, eventually landing Sutton a six-figure book deal. Upon release, The Throwback quickly rocketed up bestseller lists, where it’s stayed for fifty-eight weeks and counting. “No one is more surprised than I am,” Sutton says, adding coyly, “but I’ll take it.”
Why does she think the book’s struck such a chord with readers?
“There’s something really magical about that particular time period for so many people,” she explains, pointing to the enduring popularity of such beloved stars as Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. “While there’s certainly a tendency to romanticize and glamorize the past, I’ve heard from so many readers who long for a time that felt simpler and slower, when dating with intention was the rule rather than the exception, and courtship was a stage to be savored rather than rushed through or skipped over. But beyond the nostalgia, I think my heroine’s journey resonates so deeply with readers because it reflects a struggle that’s as relevant today as it was in the 1950s: the desire to strike a successful balance between a fulfilling relationship and family life and a purposeful career. As a writer, there’s a really delicious tension between ‘feminine’ and ‘feminist’ that I had so much fun exploring.”