Page 96 of Tempted By Her

The water had started to cool, so I pulled the plug to let a little bit out so we could prolong our bath.

“So it will be a library slash closet,” I said. “That’s such a good idea.”

Lark beamed. “I think so. And someday we can have a whole room as a library in our house.”

“Oh, we have a house now, do we?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said as I turned on the hot water again. “I’d love to have a house with you.”

That was another thing I’d pictured. A house with a yard. Not too big, not too small. We could get another cat or two, or maybe a dog and have our friends over for dinner parties like adults.

“I’d love that too,” I said. “I can’t wait to face the future with you.”

“Are you scared?” she asked.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t. I’m scared about a lot of things, but now they’re different fears. Before meeting you, I thought the scariest thing would be love, and now the scariest thing to me would be losing it. Losing you,” I said.

“You’re not going to lose me,” Lark said. “I’m yours.”

She sat up in the tub, sloshing water onto the floor.

“And I’m all yours,” I said. “You’re stuck with me.”

“I couldn’t be happier,” she said.

“Me neither,” I said, kissing her again.

Epilogue

“Joy really went all out,”Lark said as we pulled up to Layne and Honor’s engagement party two months later.

“Hey, I helped,” I said.

“Yes, you did,” Lark said, kissing my cheek before we got out of the car and walked toward Mark’s house. Joy had thought about renting a space, but it was easier to do it at Mark and Sadie’s, not to mention their house was incredible.

“I’m sure my mother is still pissed that my sister didn’t manage to make Mark his wife. I never thought she’d do something like fall in love with Mark’s nanny, but I’m so glad she did,” Lark said.

We went right inside with our gift and the house was filled with people.

Lark and I set our present on the table Joy had marked for the purpose and went to find the happy couple. They were both in the kitchen, of course, along with Mark, Sadie, and a tall woman I didn’t recognize.

“Hey, everything looks amazing,” I said, hugging both Layne and Honor. “Where’s Joy?”

Layne pointed to Joy, who was working the room, with Ezra following behind her with a tray of drinks.

“Congratulations again,” Lark said, hugging Honor.

“Thank you, little sister,” Honor said.

“This is Mark’s niece, Ryan. She came up for the party and she’s going to be visiting this summer,” Layne said, directing our attention to the new woman. In addition to being tall, she reminded me a little bit of Honor, except Ryan seemed even chillier. From her bleached blonde hair cut short and her ice-blue eyes, she was intimidating to say the least.

“Nice to meet you,” she said, shaking my hand with businesslike efficiency.

“Nice to meet you,” I repeated, giving Lark a look.

Riley and Zoey, the twins that Layne looked after, ran into the kitchen.

“Can we give you our present now?” they asked in unison. “Please?”

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