Page 112 of Bound To Be Mine

I stared at him. “You want me to move to LA?”

“I’m saying it’s an option. If it’s something you want.” Adrian leaned back in his chair. “Look, you’re a fantastic attorney. But we have other lawyers who can handle most of what you do. We can still bring you in for the big cases, fly you back for the stuff that really needs your expertise. But the day-to-day work? We can staff that. What we can’t easily replace is someone from the family who can be our eyes and ears in LA as we expand.”

“You’re serious.”

“Completely serious. The partnership with the cousins is only going to get more complex as we move into retail. Having you out there would make sense from a business perspective.”

I sat back, trying to process this. “I never thought about leaving New York.”

“You don’t have to decide right now,” Elizabeth said. “But if it’s something you want, it’s possible. That’s all Adrian’s saying.”

“Is it what you want?” Adrian asked. “Be honest.”

I thought about Mandy’s house in the Hollywood Hills. The grill I’d fallen in love with. Waking up next to her every day instead of just for a couple nights a month.

“Yeah,” I said quietly. “I think it might be.”

“Then there you go.” Adrian smiled. “Problem solved.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Why not?”

“Because Mandy and I haven’t even talked about whether this is a real relationship or just—I don’t know—an extended fling. What if I uproot my entire life to move out there and she doesn’t feel the same way I do?”

“You’re in love with her,” Elizabeth said. It wasn’t a question.

I started to deny it, then stopped. What was the point? “Yeah. I am.”

“Then tell her that. Talk to her. Figure out what you both want before you start making big decisions.” Elizabeth stood up to check on the kid, who was starting to stir. “Don’t be stubborn and throw away your chance at happiness. That’s just stupid.”

I laughed despite myself. “Tell me how you really feel.”

“I’m serious. You’re one of the smartest people I know, Briggs. You can figure out how to make this work if you want to. The question is whether you want to badly enough.”

I’d never seriously considered living anywhere else. This was my city, my territory. Everything I knew was here.

But Mandy wasn’t here. That felt like the only thing that mattered.

I stayed for another hour, talking through the logistics of what a move might look like. Adrian was more serious about this than I’d realized. He’d already been looking at office space in LA. He had projections for the retail expansion. This wasn’t just a casual suggestion. He’d been planning this.

“Why didn’t you mention this before?” I asked.

“Because I wanted you to want it for your own reasons, not because I was pressuring you.” Adrian picked up Bucky, who had woken up hungry. “If you’d been happy in New York, I wouldn’t have brought it up. But you’re clearly not. You haven’t been for a while now.”

“I’ve been happy,” I protested.

“You’ve been functional. That’s not the same thing.” He looked at me seriously. “Mandy makes you happy. Everyone can see it. I want you to have what I found with Elizabeth. What Sebastian has with Bernadette. But you have to decide what you want first.”

I left their place around nine, my head spinning with possibilities. When I got home, I immediately pulled out my phone. I had big news and it wasn’t something I wanted to text.

I called her. I felt like I just won the lottery. Well, I already won the lottery from a financial standpoint, but this was better than all the money in my bank account.

It rang once. Twice. Three times.

Voicemail.

I tried not to feel disappointed. She was probably in a meeting.