Page 157 of Stay With Me

He figured using the nickname was probably okay again at this point—and now that she said what she’d said, he had every intention to use it for the rest of their lives.

“If I am—too late, I mean,” she cut him off in a more assertive tone. “I probably shouldn’t work here anyway. I’d never get anything done because I’d constantly be all distract—”

“Sammie.”

“What?”

He shook his head. “It’s not too late.”

Her eyebrows lifted as her face softened. “It’s not?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“Sammie.” He shrugged. “I love you. A few weeks wasn’t going to change that.”

Her chin began to tremble again.“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

A tiny giggle spliced sob escaped her throat as she grinned from ear to ear, brown eyes glistening at him, and her hands clasped together against her chest.

“So does that mean you still want to, like, start over and try again and all of that?”

He knitted his eyebrows. “More than anything.”

“Really?” she asked for the third time, causing him to chuckle quietly.

“Of course.”

She swayed slightly as she continued to grin at him. “Sooo?”

He had to laugh again. “Sooo what?”

“So are you going to kiss me again or what?”

He started to lean forward, but stopped abruptly as he stood straight again. “Uh no.”

“No?” she asked sounding a bit appalled.

“Not yet.”

Nick strode to his desk, picked up a pen, and with a few quick strokes, he terminated her employment.

With that, the final order of business was complete so he crossed the room, spun the lock, and pushed her back against the wall. She smiled at him softly, combing her fingers through the sides of his hair.

“So … are you going to kiss menow?”

“I amdefinitelygoing to kiss you now.”

Epilogue

Samantha tapped a pen against her desk, stomach in knots for the umpteenth time that day—the bazillionth time that week. She’d resorted to stress eating for the first time in her life. Little peanut butter cracker sandwiches. She couldn’t get enough of them.

“Oh, Samantha,” Jenna said in a worried tone. “I don’t want to, like, freak you out or anything, but that actually sounds really bad.”

“Badhow?”Samantha demanded. She shook her head in an attempt to rattle her worst imaginable fear out of her mind. “You don’t think he’s, like—”