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“Really?” she asks. “I can’t believe it.”
“I didn’t want to be away from you for another minute.” I lean in and whisper the rest in her ear, “Let’s get out of here. We have a lot to talk about.”
She nods, her eyes shining. We kiss Grinny’s cheeks just as Helen is declared the winner. The restaurant is still flying high when we make our escape.
“I can’t believe you’re moving here,” she says on the way to the car. “I’d tried to not even hope…” She looks embarrassed to admit that much and I put my hands on her waist before she gets in the car.
“Hope for everything you want, Scarlett Landmark. The sky is the limit for you. And I’m not going anywhere.”
CHAPTERFORTY-ONE
MEANT TO BE
SCARLETT
By the time we get to my condo, talking nonstop the whole way, any earlier inhibition I felt at seeing Jamison again is gone and I’m amazed at how easy all of this feels, how much we’ve progressed since he was here.
All those hours we’ve spent getting to know each other online have made this transition more seamless than I could’ve imagined.
Delgado and Lucia flip when they see him. Delgado’s entire back half swishes back and forth like he’s wagging his entire rear end, not just his tail. Lucia goes between Jamison’s legs and stays there, standing tall like she’s his pony, and the joy the two of them bring him is infectious.
“I feel terrible for hogging them all this time,” I say, as they vie for his attention. “You’re clearly meant to be with them.”
“I’m meant to be with all three of you,” he says, his smile making my heart skip over itself.
I move toward him and ignore the wet puppy noses and wrap my arms around his neck, looking up at him. “I’m really glad you’re back and that you’re staying...”
His hands on my waist feel so good, having him in my space feels so good.
“Do you think you might decide to stick around in Landmark too?” His voice is light, but I can tell that he’s nervous about my answer.
I bite the inside of my mouth, my heartbeat picking up. “I’ve realized some things since you’ve been gone.”
“Tell me everything.”
I smile and I feel his body relax into me. “I like working with you. A lot. It got challenging with Granddad because I was doing most of the work for such a long time, but that’s what I was used to. I didn’t think I’d like having someone else in here, mixing it up, challenging me. At all.”
He grins and stays quiet, waiting for what I have to say.
“But when you were gone, I missed you, not just because of my feelings for you, but because I think we’re a good team. And I know I said it at dinner that night, but I believe it more than ever now: I trust that you’re taking this place beyond what I could’ve ever done on my own.” I take a deep breath.
“We are anexcellentteam,” he says, grinning. “That’s my favorite part of what you said.”
I laugh and he leans his forehead against mine for a second before leaning back to look at me again.
“I’m excited to have more time to work on fun projects. When I tell you how shocked I was to hear from Annette today—well, there’s no putting it into words. That you would do that for me—it means so much.”
I put my hands on his cheeks and lean up to kiss him.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “Your belief in me has been—well, I haven’t even known how to wrap my head around it. I think that’s why I was so resistant to working with you in the first place. I’m not used to being so validated. And with the lingerie, I don’t know what will come of all of it, but I’d like to try to dosomethingwith it.”
“A shop in the lodge?” he asks hopefully.
“I was loving that idea and it’s amazing of you to offer the space…but I thought maybe…I’ll just start with a website at first, see how that goes…see if I can keep up with the workload…” I pause, unsure if I have to spell it out for him.
He tilts his head.
“You want to keep working at Landmark Mountain?” he asks, eyes lighting up.
