Lauren Layne

Ben has it in his head that he’s mediocre.

I, on the other hand, know otherwise. He’s amazing.

I’ve heard him on work calls. Seen him working late into the night. The dude knows his stuff. He’s really, really good at his job, and, strangely, he’s the only one who doesn’t seem to know it.

“I didn’t mean to fall in love with you,” Tom says, echoing his exact words from Gorby’s truck. “I sure as hell didn’t intend to stay in love with you. But I’ve learned . . . lately, that the best things in life aren’t the ones you plan. The best things in life aren’t easy. The best things are the ones you hold on to for all your worth, and if you’re stupid enough to let go, then you fight like hell to get back. There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that I’ll make mistakes. And that I don’t deserve you. But I also promise to never stop trying to make you smile, to make you happy. I promise that I’ll never give up. If you’ll only give me a chance.”

her presence seems to haunt this entire street.

her presence seems to haunt this entire street.

Picking up the engagement ring for my future wife.

“You’re starting your own business.”

Her head whipped around. “How’d you know that?”

Logan reached over and tapped her laptop. “I can spot an Excel spreadsheet from a mile away.”

“Is that why you came over here?”

“No, darling. That would be your smile.”

“Say yes to my proposal, Alexis. Say yes, and maybe someday I’ll tell you the other reason.”

But when Logan was twenty-four, just graduated and looking for his first real foot in the door of his career, his reason for staying in New York had become less vague, doubly passionate, and 100 percent secret:

A woman.

Eight years ago, Logan had walked into a bar and fallen hard for a prim woman in a cheap suit, and that’s simply all there was to it.

Would Logan still be living in New York at age thirty-three if not for Alexis Morgan?

Perhaps. Maybe.

Probably not.

“Why not me, Alexis? Why when you finally decide to stop living in a shell, why some random chap off the street, and why not me?”

Ah hell. No. There was no moving on, not yet.

There was only her.