Page 44

“Oh, I don’t know. Say…a candlemaker who needs more space.”

My eyes go wide with surprise, but my heart spreads even wider. I put my hand over my chest. “This is for me?”

“Yes. It’s for you if you want it.”

I smile at him, wagging a finger. “Were you being sneaky?”

His pleased smile is back, and he gives a small shrug. “I wanted to surprise you.”

I turn a circle around the room while he’s talking, nodding in agreement until he gets to the end. I stop and turn to face him. “This is amazing. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I wanted you to have more space so you don’t have to wait to ship one batch before you have room to make another. And you’ll have a quiet place to work, too.”

I don’t know what to say. I’m overwhelmed by so many emotions at once. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve so much good, but I’ve been soaking up every drop of it.

“Only if you want it, no pressure,” he adds.

I run to him and leap up into his arms with enough force to send him stumbling. He wraps his arms around me in a bear hug, and we stand there, suspended in a moment I know I’ll never forget. I press my face into his neck and take a long, deep inhale of my favorite scent in the whole world.

“I love it,” I whisper before he sets me down. And I lovehim.So much. But I’m afraid saying it aloud will remind the universe that it is so good at shitting on me in moments when I’m defying the odds.

“Good. And it has a separate street entrance. I’m going to have a gate put up so it will feel like two separate properties. So no matter who’s living in the main house, you’ll have free rein here for as long as you want it.”

The reminder that one day, someone other than him will be living here dampens the happiness I felt a minute ago. The renovations are almost complete. After the kitchen, he decided to knock out a back wall and put in a second set of French doors that open out into the huge garden from a room he uses as his office. The work on that has just started, but it won’t take more than a month. “Do you have an idea of when you’re going to put it on the market?”

He shakes his head and lets out a harsh sigh. “No. But some of it depends on you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. You have what? Three months left on this internship?—”

“It’s a pupilage,” I correct. “Even though I’m sure there are internships that pay more than it does.”

“Okay, when your pupilage is done, what’s next?”

“Well, if I’m successful, I’ll be offered a tenancy and go from glorified intern to a member of chambers.”

“And how long do you have to do that?”

“The tenancy is at its core a partnership agreement. I’ll share the carrying costs of the offices and staff, but in return I’ll be able to leverage the prestige of the chambers to find high-quality, well-paying work. That said and to answer your question, I don’thaveto do it for any period of time.”

“But…” he prods.

“But…this is what I’ve scraped and fought for. Fifteen Queen’s Bench Walk is one of the best family law practices in the country. And I want to make the most of it. A successful start there will mean I can write my own ticket in the future.”

He nods, but his gaze is unfocused.

“What’s this got to do with you listing the house for sale?”

“Well, I have six months left before my dad steps down officially, and once that happens, I’ll need to be in Houston to develop my relationship with whoever replaces him.”

The disappointment I feel listening to him is crushing, even though I knew this was coming. “Okay. So six months?”

“Yeah, but I want to find a way to make the distance work until one of us can make a permanent move.”

“You do?”

“Jules, I’m fucking head over heels in love with you, and I don’t want this to end. Not when I leave, and not at any point in the future that I can anticipate. I’m not a religious man, but you have made a believer out of me. I worship the ground you walk on. You’ve become my best friend, and I don’t want to be apart from you.”