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Three, two—we dove for the water gun at the same time.
* * *
For thethirdtime in the span of two months, I managed to sneak up to Adrien Cloutier’s office without a single person trying to stop me. Even though I tore into the building like a tornado, looking ten million shades of unhinged.
He grinned when he saw me, rising to his feet as I ran into the room and hurled myself into his open arms.
“You crushed it,” he murmured into my hair. “Fucking crushed it.”
I was beyond words. I’d used all the ones I knew in the three-hour interview, and I didn’t have any left. So, I just clung to him, savoring this moment, this day, the million things I was feeling.
“I’m so fucking proud of you,” he said as I stuffed my tear-stained cheeks into the crook of his neck. “He called. They’re obsessed with you, Ria. You crushed it.”
I choked out a cry into his neck.
It was amazing. The interview, the opportunities,Sunny. It was everything eighteen-year-old me would have wanted, and so much more. I didn’t even realize how badly I’d still been clinging on to the dream until I was there, talking to Sunny about what the next decade of my life would look like.
For the first time in ten years, I was looking forward to tomorrow.
“Baby.” I was swept off my feet and carried to the couch. Adrien held me to his chest while I wept tears of sadness, joy, hope, relief, gratitude. So much fucking gratitude.
The firm was going to pay for everything—undergrad, law school, living expenses—so long as I agreed to a five-year employment term with them after graduation. Just five. It was beyond generous for what they were offering, and it was all because of Adrien.
Sunny told me all the things Adrien had said about me. All the overly generous, kind, lovely things Adrien had said to convince Sunny to take me under his wing. I’d never forget it for as long as I lived.
It had taken every ounce of willpower I had not to get emotional during the interview, which meant that it all began to spill out the second I left the building.
“Thank you,” I choked out.
He kissed my temple, running soothing fingers through my hair.
Then he told me he didn’t want to hear it. That I’d earned every bit of the opportunity and more. And he held me until I calmed down enough to peel my face away from the crook of his neck.
I cupped his jaw, tilting it so I could kiss him.
“Thank you,” I said again, putting a stop to his incoming protests with a brush of my thumb across his lips. “Really, Adrien. Thank you. This is everything.”
And one day I’d figure out a way to show him just how much I appreciated it.
He turned his face into my palm, placing a long kiss on it. “This is just the beginning, Ria. Just wait and see.”
EPILOGUE
6 yearslater
“Say cheese!”
“Cheeeeeeese!”
The twins screamed the loudest, Olena’s little hands bursting through the air like she was throwing invisible confetti, while Ozie had the hem of my graduation gown slung over her shoulders like a cape.
Olive—who’d turned thirteen just last week—squeezed my waist tight, her head resting lovingly against my shoulder when the flash went off.
“Oooh, that was a really good one,” Alba said. “Ozie had one eye shut, but we can just pretend like she’s winking. Huge improvement over the last ten. Great job, team.”
The kids celebrated the colossal achievement of taking a half-decent photo by jetting off to collect their promised ice cream reward with their dad, while Alba stayed back to snap the next round of pictures with my in-laws.
“So proud of you, sweets,” Julie said once my sister was satisfied with both the quantity and quality of the photos taken. “A whole lawyer. You’ve worked so hard.”
