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“No. Not yet. But I think somehow it’s going to be okay. It’ll be painful, don’t get me wrong, but I’m getting a lot more comfortable with discomfort. You were right. I’ve used my family as an excuse to avoid things that scared me, even good things, for too long. I’m done asking for permission. I’m choosing my own life. They’ll forgive me eventually. I won’t take no for an answer.”
“Damn. This has been a big day,” Josh said with a panty-dropping grin. “How you feeling?”
“Grateful.” Clara perched on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Thank you. You know, I don’t think I would have been content as a silent partner of Shameless in the end. I think I would have read the press coverage and watched the subscribers roll in and seethed with jealousy. I care about it too much. I do want to help Toni win reelection and take down Pruitt, but I think when the campaign’s over I might focus full-time on the site for a while, burn through a little more of my trust fund.”
His hands traveled from her hair down past her waist to flirt with the hem of her dress. The brush of his knuckles against the outside of her thighs was enough to send a bolt of desire down her spine.
When she spoke, her words came out a little breathless. “It’s not every day you get to topple a porn empire.”
chapter thirty-eight
TWO YEARS LATER . . .
YOU’RE BURNING THE turkey,” Clara whispered in his ear. She lowered the oven temperature significantly but pushed up on her tiptoes to place a kiss on his cheek to soften the blow.
“Your dad said he likes a ‘golden brown bird with crispy skin.’” Josh knuckled sheepishly at his cheekbone.
“Looks plenty crispy to me.” She pressed her hands over his shoulders, urging his rumpled button-down to lie flat. “I’ve never seen you this nervous.”
“This is the first time the Wheaton and Conners families are having Thanksgiving under one roof. Not to mention a few stray interlopers.” He turned back to the oven. “I’m striving for excellence.”
Clara tugged on the bow of the gingham apron tied around his hips. “Yes, well, your mother said if you don’t go out there and introduce her to Toni, she will have no choice but to show the DA your embarrassing baby pictures. I wouldn’t chance it. She brought an entire album. I know because she took me through it within five minutes of her arrival.”
“I told her that Toni hates small talk.” Josh grumbled. “She only stopped by to drop off a dish of her famous yams.”
“It almost upsetting that she manages to be good at so many different things,” Clara said. After the Granger campaign had won reelection, Clara had stepped down from the PR firm to work full-time on Shameless, but Toni had remained a constant in their lives.
During the battle against Black Hat, the DA had declared Josh one of the best witnesses she’d ever worked with, calling him her secret weapon to unlocking what many had called a next-to-impossible victory. On the day the guilty verdict came in against Pruitt and his empire, cementing Toni’s place in public service history, the attorney had invited Josh to train as an expert witness so he could continue to represent the interests of the adult entertainment community on behalf of her office.
He’d taken her up on the offer and continued to advocate for reform within the industry, in addition to his responsibilities for Shameless.
Naomi strolled in from the den. The smoke detector chose that moment to start wailing.
“There’s a joke on the tip of my tongue about how you two sure know how to heat up a room.” The redhead grabbed a chair and stood on it to wave a dish towel at the incessant siren. “I’m used to putting out your fires at work every day, Connecticut, but when I accepted your offer to come over for a holiday meal, I didn’t know I’d have to battle a literal blaze.”
“What can I say, when you fall in love with the hottest man in the world, you learn to accept the threat of occasional combustion.” Clara gazed adoringly at Josh until her business partner made an exaggerated retching sound.
“If you don’t can it with that mushy crap I’ll have no choice but to sleep with your brother,” Naomi said, her tone serious.
Clara gasped. “You wouldn’t try to sleep with Oliver.”
Despite the astonishing success of their website, which now had almost thirty full-time employees, the two women still loved to test each other’s boundaries.
“Oh, honey.” Naomi batted her eyelashes and dismounted the chair, having vanquished the alarm. “I wouldn’t have to try.” She sauntered back to rejoin the party.
“I’ve gotta get out there.” Clara moved to follow as her mother rushed into the kitchen.
“Your brother spilled Cabernet all over the society pages.” She held up a sheet of soggy newspaper. Red wine bled into the headline Roommates Turned Business Partners Say “I Do”: Wheaton to Wed Conners.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Josh said, winking at Clara as he moved to fetch a replacement. “We’ve got that one laminated.”
Crisis averted, Clara guided her mother back to the living room. She returned to find her fiancé fiddling with an electric lighter. “I thought I could brûlée the yams,” he said in explanation. “Give ’em a little extra pizzazz.”
“Let’s not tempt fate,” she said, removing the apparatus from his hands. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you.”
“Haven’t you ever done something stupid to impress someone you liked?” Josh wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in for a lingering kiss.
