He’d gotten a haircut, he had a bouquet of roses in one hand, he looked like he hadn’t slept in days, but Izzy didn’t notice any of that at first. All she could see was that it was Beau, it was really him, he was here, in New York. And he was here for her.
They walked toward each other. Beau’s eyes were locked on hers. He had that nervous, uncertain look on his face that she remembered from that first time he’d asked her to read his work.
“Hi,” he said. “I…” He stopped. “Did you—”
Someone jostled his arm, and he looked around. At the same moment, Izzy realized they were in the lobby of her office building, with lots of people—lots of people she knew—walking in and out.
“Let’s go outside,” she said.
Once they got outside and around the corner, she turned to face him.
“Beau,” she said. “You’re here.”
He smiled at her. God, she’d thought she’d never see that smile again. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m here. I sent you—”
Before he could finish the sentence, she pulled the notebook out of her bag. “I read it,” she said. “I read it all.”
He swallowed. “There’s something I realized I didn’t say in there.” He took a step closer to her. “I love you.”
She let herself smile just as big as she wanted to. “I love you, too,” she said.
She’d barely gotten the words out when she was in his arms. He crushed her against him, and she held on to him, just as hard. She felt his warm chest, his breath on her ear, his lips in her hair. The fragrance of the roses, still clutched in one of his hands, surrounded them.
“I wanted to tell you, before you left,” he said. “But I kept putting it off. I was scared, I think. But my God, Izzy. I love you so much.”
Then it wasn’t enough to just hold him, be held by him, and she pulled his face down to hers and kissed him. She felt him smile against his lips as he kissed her back. They stood there kissing for a long time, with the sounds of New York around them, her hands in his hair, his arms holding her tight against him.
When they finally stopped kissing, Izzy laughed against his chest.
“I really hate to say this, but I have got to go back to work,” she said.
He looked down at her and smiled. “I’ll be here waiting, when you get off. I’m staying at some hotel nearby.” He started to let go of her, then stopped. “Oh! I turned in my book today, did you know?”
She pulled him down to her and kissed him again. “I know. I’m so happy. I’m so proud of you.” She made herself pull away, and they turned back toward the building. “Marta told me she started reading it on the subway on the way to work and that it’s great.”
He beamed at her. “Really? Oh wow. Oh! How was the interview? I should have texted, I’m sorry, I was just—”
She grinned. “That’s okay. I have so much to tell you. The interview was good, really good. Wait, but did you—”
Izzy heard a commotion behind her and turned.
It was Gavin.
“She’s going to regret this!” he shouted as he walked out of the building, with a security guard on either side of him.
What was going on?
Then he saw Izzy staring at him.
“You. It was you who told her it was me, wasn’t it? I bet you’re happy now, aren’t you? Well, you’re going to regret this, too.”
Izzy narrowed her eyes at him. “What the hell are you talking about, Gavin?”
He moved closer to her. “Oh, you’re going to do your little innocent smiley girl act here again, hmm? Just rainbows and sunshine over there, aren’t you? Someone apparently told Marta that they overheard me on the phone with that reporter. I can’t believe she fired me over that. But then, I can believe you did this to me.”
Gavin. Of course.
“But how could I have told her that? I wasn’t even—”
Gavin took another step toward Izzy. “I know it was you. I’ve never been fooled by you. You’ve been gunning for my job since the first moment, I knew.”
Beau turned to her with a grin.
“This guy has great timing.” He handed her the bouquet of roses. “This is going to be fun.”
Beau stepped in front of Gavin. “Hi, Gavin,” he said, in a very cheerful voice. It was very…gratifying to see how Beau loomed over Gavin. “I’m Beau. So nice to meet you. Just FYI, if you ever talk to Isabelle like that again…actually, no, let me restate that—if you ever talk to Isabelle ever again, at any time, in any context, I will make it my life’s work to destroy you. And I just turned in my book, so I have a lot of free time on my hands.”