Page 43 of The Friends and Rivals Collection

THE HERO

Hazel

“There is no way we are ever going to share a thing in this flat. Not a meal, not a bed, not even a single moment together. Mark my words,” I say, reading from the opening chapter of The I Do Redo .

I don’t even have to look down at the page. I know these lines by heart.

But still, I shut the paperback dramatically and smile at the crowd from the front of the event room in the store. An Open Book is packed. It’s standing room only at the bookstore in the heart of Paris.

“I guess we’ll see if they share anything,” I say with a coy smile, then stage whisper, “Like a kiss.”

A few attendees laugh, then the bookstore manager opens the event to the audience. “Just go ahead and line up. My assistant manager will bring a mic and take your questions.”

Even though I wanted to stay in Copenhagen, I’m so glad I’m here.

I’m grateful for all these people who showed up for a last-minute event.

Sure, I might not have been able to spend another night with Axel, but life has a way of giving you second chances.

You just have to spot them and take them.

I plan to take mine. Maybe even tomorrow night when I land in New York.

I’ll stop by his place and read what I wrote for him this afternoon.

For now, I shake the thoughts of a possible us away, and I answer questions about the book I’ll be signing tonight, about what I’m working on, about my favorite moment from The I Do Redo , and then a question that doesn’t surprise me at all.

“Are you excited to start working on Lacey’s book with Axel Huxley?” a French reader asks.

No matter what he says when I show him my new idea, I’m outrageously excited to work with him.

And I know, too, that we’ll find a way to honor our contract, and, I hope, our hearts.

“I can’t wait,” I say. In fact, I wrote a scene today for his eyes only.

A brand-new one with a heroine who steals the covers, and likes to play word games, but then is terribly vulnerable when she asks the hero if he’ll give her another chance, and also to hold the tuna.

It needs polishing, but I can do that on the flight home tomorrow.

“We have lots of ideas for where to take the characters.”

“Next question.” The bookstore manager points to someone in the back of the event area.

I can’t see who it is, at first, but then a familiar blonde sidles into the aisle, wearing a Book Besties shirt.

“Hi there! Just wondering what you’d think of a romance where the hero has been in love with the heroine for a long time?” A smirk tilts Jackie’s lips.

That’s a random question, but I answer honestly. “Sure. It’s always nice when he falls first.”

Then Alecia appears, grabbing the mic from Jackie. “And maybe they’ve known each other for a while. And even worked together?”

We’re getting more specific, but I don’t know where we’re going. “I’m open to that,” I say cautiously, curiously.

Maria’s there too, and she grabs the mic. “And then he finally gets the cojones to tell her his feelings in front of everyone.”

This feels…scripted.

My heart speeds up to one hundred miles per hour. I’m not sure if I should connect all the dots, but I want to.

“And then he tells her.”

That’s… him. He’s somewhere in the crowd. That raspy, sexy voice is an arrow straight to my heart.

“What is he going to tell her?” I ask, barely able to breathe as I hunt for him.

Axel steps forward and Maria thrusts the mic to him.

Is he really here? In Paris? At a bookstore? Striding toward me in front of all these people?

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

“He’s going to tell you his wish,” Axel says, his deep blue eyes locked on mine.

My heart beats in my throat. Emotions spill over inside me. I’m one giant nerve of hope. “Tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine. Because it came true,” I say.

“Here goes,” he says as he reaches me at the table, never taking his gaze off me.

“I made a wish to make it through this trip without telling you how I felt about you, and I did make it. Well, mostly. But I’m going to break it right now.

I love you. I fell in love with you years ago, and then I fell in love with you all over again this week.

And maybe I’m breaking all the rules of wishes, and maybe this means mine won’t come true?—”

I pop up, stretch across the table, and grab his face. “I’m in love with you too.”

His smile spreads like wildfire. “You are?”

“I’m so in love with you I wrote you a story.”

“I’m so in love with you I told a whole bookstore,” he says, the fucking show-off.

“I’m so in love with you I planned to tell you in New York tomorrow.”

“I’m so in love with you I caught a last-minute plane to Paris to tell you today.”

And I don’t need to play competitive-monster games anymore. I’m too happy. “You win.”

But when I scurry around the table and kiss his fantastic lips, I’m pretty sure we both win. Everyone claps and cheers as we kiss in a bookstore in front of a crowd.

When he breaks the kiss, he brings his lips to my ear and whispers, “Can I stay in your room tonight?”

I’m so ludicrously happy that I kiss him again. “As if I’d let you stay anyplace else, you sexy jerk.”

He smiles stupidly and runs the back of his fingers across my cheek. “What was your wish, sweetheart?”

Axel says it in a whole new way this time, full of love and tenderness. I want to hear that affectionate nickname over and over. “To have a good trip with you. And I did.”

“I guess some wishes come true,” he says.

“They sure do.”

Then I finish the event, and I leave with the hero of my love story.