Page 59 of Fated Love with You

She slowly gives in, her chest stops heaving hectically, her irises shift from worried to trusting.

“Why can’t you see that I like you, Autumn?” I whisper against her mouth. “I can’t explain everything, but I’m desperately trying to keep you. How can you not see that?”

I don’t give her a chance to respond to my temporary lapse in tone. My mouth is on hers again, and I’m tightening my arms around her waist.

“Tell me,” I speak against her lips before we take things too far. “Can we make up for the past few weeks in my bedroom?”

Adeline’striple-tiered birthday cake lays half-devoured on the kitchen table. The moment she saw the shape—two violins with purple roses at its base—she cried in excitement and etched another memory into my heart.

She and Autumn are sleeping side by side on the living room sofa, finally exhausted from playing Adeline’s favorite “You play a part, then I’ll play a part” game.

Autumn is the first person to ever beat her in a round…

Adjusting the blanket over them, I walk away before my mind can wander down a lane of possibilities I’m not quite ready to consider.

I cut a slice of cake and carry it into the anteroom that’s across from the couch.

Mid-bite, Chester joins me and sets a pink gift on the chair.

“You got her another gift?” I ask. “She loves the first one.”

“You can never give a child too many gifts.” He looks over at her and Autumn. “We have a problem.”

“Shocking…”

“I’m serious.” He slides me a photo. “Look at this.”

I lift it, seeing a woman standing at the counter of Crafts & Notes.

“That’s Grace Poole,” he says. “She’s been looking deeply into things lately.”

“What is she finding?”

“She found Autumn’s old Canadian issue, but that’s minor,” he says. “She’s asking questions to old friends and family. She’s even scheduled to see Miss Jane’s ex, Nate Taylor, sometime next week.”

“What exactly is she trying to get?”

“Besides you?” He rolls his eyes. “A warrant for Miss Jane’s arrest.”

“Hmmm.” I stare at the picture again. “How long do you think it’ll take them to come up with something that’ll give them a chance to do that?”

“Four to five weeks, give or take,” he says. “Maybe we should put a hold on her job at the masquerade ball and uh… let her go.”

“Okay, sure.”

“You mean that?”

“No.” I crumple the picture. “Miss Jane will be just fine…”

End of Episode 19.2

Just a Little Bit

EPISODE 20

Autumn

“Ineed you to slip into every single restroom at this gala at twenty-minute intervals,” Ryder cups my face in the backseat of the town car. “Go to the furthest stall and place one of these behind the handle. They’ll stick easily.”