Page 109 of Dirty Boss

My throat was tight as I said, “Ralphie helped set it up. After you left, I had to take a long, hard look at myself. At my priorities. I knew I’d lost you, but I decided I needed to make changes to make sure I wouldn’t lose my daughter too. And I guess building this garden, it was kind of a…a message to the universe. That sounds lame, I know, but I thought, maybe…”

“Maybe I’d hear the message, and I’d come back.” She turned in my arms, her eyes bright with unshed tears.

“Maybe you’d hear the message, and you’d come back,” I repeated softly, leaning down to kiss her.

She tolerated my kiss for about three seconds, then pulled back and asked, “Can I pick one of those green beans? I always wondered how they’d taste fresh off the vine.”

I wanted to keep kissing her, but I couldn’t refuse when she smiled at me like that. We crossed over to the raised planter containing my green beans, and I watched Alba lean in to inspectthe plant, choosing her green bean carefully. She picked two good ones and handed one of them to me. Then she crunched down and chewed, and I had the privilege of watching those beautiful blue eyes light up like she’d just won the lottery.

“I love you,” I couldn’t help saying as I watched her hunt through the growing beans for another good one.

She abandoned the task, turned into me, and pulled me down for a long, hard kiss. “I love you too,” she finally replied. “And most importantly, I love your rooftop veggie garden.”

Laughing, I leaned down to kiss her—but she stopped me with the tips of her fingers.

“Oh,” she said. “That reminds me. My rent. Did you pay my rent until the end of the year when you were ‘handling’ my mold problem?” At my expression, Alba reared back, frowning suspiciously. “What? What’s that look on your face?”

“I didn’texactlypay your rent,” I admitted.

“But…?”

“But I might have bought the building.”

She gasped, then smacked my chest with her palm. “Vaughn!”

“What! You were living in a shithole, Alba. I knew you wouldn’t stay in the penthouse, so I had to come up with another solution.”

“Another solution? That’s what you call buying up an entire building just to save me from a little mold under the sink? You can’t—that’s not—no! That’s crazy! You can’t do that!”

I caught her around the waist and pulled her close. “Try and stop me, princess.”

“I’ll move out,” she warned.

I gave her a sharp, victorious smile. “I know you will.”

Her brows tugged, confusion flitting across her expression. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Because you’re moving in with me, here, today.”

“I—”

“I told you that when you came back to me, I wasn’t going to let you go so easily. And I meant it.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but nothing came out.

“Besides,” I continued more softly, my nose nudging hers, “I need someone to help me up here with all these vegetables.”

“You’re blackmailing me with green beans.”

“Is it working?”

Alba’s eyes sparkled under the fairy lights. “Yes,” she admitted, and began to laugh.

I caught her laugh between my lips and kissed her as deeply as I’d been craving since we walked up here. Then the kiss became a touch, and the touch became a moan, and then I got on my knees and begged for forgiveness the way I should’ve done all those months ago.

EPILOGUE

ALBA