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Yuck! Anyway, I hate you for not inviting me to the beach house. Just be sure to invite me to the wedding. But only if it’s at a beach house. Toodles!

Vanessa’s mouth dropped open. Wedding?

She knew William was just joking, being a smartass, but she also knew his little crack was striking a nerve inside her, a not unpleasant nerve, at that. Of course, Vanessa hadn’t been thinking about marriage but she knew that she had to admit to herself that she had developed strong feelings for Megan. And so far, Vanessa had tried to keep those feelings in check because, really, what was the point?

Vanessa had fallen in love fast before…when she was younger, because that’s what young women did, fall in love too quickly. Vanessa thought she had outgrown that, but if she was completely honest with herself, she was undoubtedly in love with Megan. And if Megan was staying in Carlsbad, Vanessa felt now that she would do whatever it took to combine her commitment to La Vida Mocha with the commitment needed to be the kind of partner and lover Megan deserved. She realized now that she should never have closed her mind to the possibility of romance because it never was a case of her needing to be so focused on La Vida Mocha as to exclude any chance of finding love. Instead, it turns out it was a case of simply finding the right woman to love; one that Vanessa wanted to devote herself to as much as she devoted herself to La Vida Mocha.

Fuck!

She shook her head and then finished the rest of her wine. Picking up her phone again, she typed out a text that would she knew would bounce around cell towers and maybe even an orbiting satellite or two only to end up reaching the phone of an auburn-haired beauty who was just downstairs:

I believe you said something about a foot rub?

Chapter 40

On Monday morning at the beach house, Megan and Vanessa woke up a little earlier than normal in order to have sex one last time in the mansion. Afterwards, Megan had to kiss Vanessa goodbye so Vanessa could leave to go open La Vida Mocha. Megan knew her lips were still flavored with Vanessa’s come and that Vanessa couldn’t help but taste it, especially when Megan deepened the kiss, eliciting a low groan from the brunette, who suddenly seemed like she couldn’t care if La Vida Mocha opened today or not.

Once Vanessa was gone, Megan packed her stuff and then took her suitcase and her scream pillow—which had gotten a lot of use the past few days—downstairs where she found the rest of her temporary housemates assembled, getting ready to leave also. Megan gave Sienna a hug and they both promised to continue sharing their art with each other. Megan then said goodbye to Angela and Desiree, thanking them for arranging such an amazing weekend.

Abby and Kat then gave Megan a ride home to her condo.

Stepping into her home, she dropped the bags, went into the living room and flopped down on the couch. It had been a great weekend with lots of laughs, great food (mainly thanks to Kat’s cooking) and mind-blowing sex. As relaxing as it had been, though, she was glad to be home among her things. Unpacking could wait…Right now she just wanted to sit here and chill.

But her phone pinged. It was a text from Sophia.

Hey! I know you’re off today but Lucy wants to know if you have five minutes to chat?

Megan sat up, suddenly very alert. She texted back that of course she had five minutes for Lucy; just give her a few moments to go upstairs and login for the Zoom call.

“Hey, Megan!” Lucy Whitaker greeted her with a little wave in front of the camera when the Zoom connected. Lucy was in her forties and always looked stunning with her long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes that shone like sapphires. Even though she was dressed super casually in a Harvard t-shirt, she still exuded confidence, intelligence and determination.

“Hey, Megan,” Sophia added from her Zoom window.

“Hey, Lucy, it’s so nice to see you again,” Megan began. “Hey, Soph.”

“Megan, I am so sorry for intruding on your day off,” Lucy said, “but I’m going to be incredibly busy the rest of the week and I didn’t want to put this off any longer.”

Megan felt her heart start thumping. She was certain the other women could hear it.

“You’re going to New York, my friend!” Lucy exclaimed with a huge smile.

Megan’s eyes went wide and she couldn’t help her own Cheshire Cat-like grin from taking over her face.

“Really? When?”

“Okay, if possible, I’d like you there in two weeks,” Lucy said. “I know that’s short notice, especially since you have a place to sell here in California not to mention finding a new place to live in New York, but here’s what I’m offering. BeachSoft already has a luxury apartment in Brooklyn that we use whenever executives travel to New York. You can stay there for as long as it takes to find a place of your own. Plus, if you still have to make some trips back here to California to deal with selling your house or other personal business, just expense the trips on your company credit card, no problem.”

“Okay, fair enough,” Megan said. It was a generous offer, after all, allowing her to handle all the logistics of relocatin

g at a considerate pace.

“I am so excited BeachSoft is finally doing this,” Lucy went on. “Having a presence in New York is going to be huge for us! Especially with all the future diversification plans we have. And you are definitely the person to head it up!”

“Oh my God, thank you!” Megan told her, feeling herself blush.

“I mean it, Megan. You may be super young still but what you’ve done for this company is A. May. Zing. And I knew—I just knew!—when I recruited you and convinced you to come work for me that we’d be having a conversation like this one day.”

Megan didn’t know what to say. She was feeling overwhelmed. This was Lucy-frigging-Whitaker singing her praises!