She shakes her head. “I don’t think I can handle?—”
I reach into the back pocket of my jeans and hand her a key chain shaped like a typewriter with two keys dangling from it. Emma’s lips tilt up, tears welling in her eyes.
My sweet, stubborn, hopeless romantic always cries when she’s overwhelmingly happy.
“It’s about time I gave you a set of keys to my house, don’t you think?”
Her lips touch mine softly, and she says against them, “I love you, Grayson.”
My chest rumbles with a groan, just like it always does when she says those three damn words. I’ve had them said to me multiple times over the years, and sure, I felt something, but never this.
Over six months ago, when I accepted an invitation to an event I had no intention of going to, it led me to this amazing, unique, gorgeous, talented woman.
Emma was the greatest surprise of my life. I was put on this earth to love her, and I’m just lucky she accepts that love. She’ll always be my princess—the person I vowed my love and life to. I would get on my knees for her if I need to, and I’ll worship her every second of every day.
“I love you too, Princess.”
Epilogue
EMMA
February
“Ineed that final piece on affordable housing in the next ten minutes!” I walk around my desk and grab my things, already running late to catch a ride with Levi and Stevie.
“Need any help?” Ben comes over next to me, and I bypass him before sitting down to ensure I’ve given everything to Oliver, except for the affordable housing piece, which is going through copy edits.
“Yeah, if you can get the new copy editor to hurry the hell up, that’d be swell.”
Ben whistles. “What’s got you all riled up?” I roll my eyes and bite my lip to hide my smile, knowing Ben loves hearing about Grayson. “Hot date with your older man?”
Shaking my head, I type the final sentence of my last email and hit send. “Kind of. My friends and I are headed to the city for the weekend, and we’re all grabbing dinner, but Grayson left last night and had a drink with my other friend, Jake,alone for the first time. They both said it went well, yet they left out any and all details.”Because they like to torture me, apparently.
“Nervous?”
Nodding, I don’t bother to hide my fidgeting. “Oh yeah.”
“Brighton, here’s the affordable housing piece. I just emailed it to you, too.”
The new copy editor hands me the feature article one of our writers wrote, and I ignore the use of my dad’s last name, which people are comfortable calling me here. When I first stepped into the newsroom this semester, I decided to let everything go, to start over and make sure I’d never do anything to risk my job again, no matter how much it was worth it in the end the last time. It’s been hectic and extremely exhausting to be an editor, but I absolutely love it. It’s most definitely what I’m good at, and I still get to write sometimes.
“Finally.” Standing, I jog over to Oliver and hand him the article. “I’m cutting out a little early today, like I mentioned yesterday. Are we good to go?”
Oliver spares me a glance. “Go home, Haywood. Have a nice weekend.”
My lips tilt upward. He’s the only one who still calls me Haywood, and I’m not sure why, but it feels good to have some familiarity with the guy. “You too, boss.”
Speed walking to my desk, I whip my coat off my chair and grab the small suitcase under my desk, along with my purse, saying my goodbyes to Ben.
“Good luck.” He waggles his brows while sitting on Eric’s desk. The two made it official over winter break and seem happy. I’m not bad at this matchmaking thing.
I sigh as I head to the parking lot where Levi and Stevie are waiting for the two-hour drive into Manhattan.
“Love on Top” by Beyoncé plays when I open the back-seat door, and I throw my suitcase on the floor, quickly hopping in.
“You’re late,” Levi huffs out.
Stevie slaps his arm. “What he means is, how are you? How was your day? How was work?”
