Page 66 of With Stars in Her Eyes

EPILOGUE

Thea

Inexplicably, I stood behind the counter of Menagerie Books wondering how I’d ended up here now . I checked my watch again. If I didn’t escape soon, I would be late.

I had been browsing the dollar bins after giving Samantha a list of potential books for future book club meetings when some kind of foghorn alarm had gone off on Samantha’s phone.

Samantha had said she needed to run out because of an emergency, and pushed me toward the counter, assuring me that the new part-time bookseller would be there soon to take over.

I knew the store well enough by now that I peeked around the register and scanned all the surrounding areas before stepping behind it. There were only two animals in cages at the moment and both cage doors seemed securely closed, but I couldn’t be too careful.

A few minutes passed and still the store was empty.

My phone was off because it had been blowing up since the label had released the first of the promo shots for the next Violet Trikes album.

A couple of big magazines were bidding for an exclusive of the rest of the images that wouldn’t be used for the album.

Demetrius’s publicist had been sending me updates on that process, and the entire thing had been a little overwhelming.

In a few more minutes, I would need to turn it on to text Samantha though, because the book club was using the still-closed pub as a meeting space tonight.

I didn’t want to be late the first time I was leading it.

Marshall had been using the pub as a meeting space and a pop-up for local food trucks, and he had arranged one of my favorites to be there tonight for the book club.

Neither Courtney nor I knew what was happening between Marshall and Demetrius, but Marshall at least seemed stupidly happy all the time now.

He might not have a plan for the restaurant, but seeing him with so much hope had given me some more of my own despite missing Courtney so much I could barely breathe sometimes.

She had been home for a week at a time here and there, and I visited her on tour sometimes, but it was never enough time.

Hopefully book club would be enough of a distraction to get me through the last days of long-distance.

I checked my watch and tapped out the seconds on the counter.

At least planning the book club had been a distraction from counting the days until Courtney would come home.

The watch hands had only moved millimeters since my last check.

Courtney would be home in four days, sixteen hours, and eight minutes if her flight was on time.

The book club, however, was in one hour and thirteen minutes.

And I would be late to meet the food truck person if I didn’t leave soon.

“Well, what am I going to do now?” I asked aloud, vaguely directing the question at a chinchilla named Winston in the nearest cage.

The back door down the hallway from the office chimed as it opened.

I stacked books neatly behind the counter. “Hey, I’m so glad you’re here. Samantha ran out because she had an emergency. I was going to get the books I’m stacking here with the preorders, but I’m going to have to come back later because—”

A book smacked on the counter behind me.

I froze.

“Hey.”

I whirled around. My hands gripped the counter as I blinked over and over again, struggling to clear my vision, so I could be sure I wasn’t imagining things.

Courtney’s pixie had grown out, and she swept it to the side in the front. She didn’t look like the wan bookseller I met over a year ago. Her cheeks were pink and her grin was all impish mischief. “I brought you something.” Courtney tapped the book with a small nod that I should take a look.

My hand shook with an inexplicable tremor as I lifted the book.

The cover featured two women posed in an elegantly dreamy clinch, both in elaborate Regency dresses with one woman’s sleeve falling down over her upper arm as she looked back toward her lover.

I flipped through the pages with my thumb and forefinger like I always did with books, but there was something stuck in the center causing my thumb to slip inside.

I opened it, feeling the heat of Courtney’s attention every movement.

Nestled between the pages was a silver ring with a blue stone.

There was also a piece of paper.

I love you, Dorothea Estelle Quinn.

Will you marry me?

PS. Is this a strategic enough use of the written word?

“It’s a star sapphire, which might be too much on the theme, but the diamonds on the side are lab-grown, so they’re ethical because you said once that you didn’t like—”

I grabbed Courtney from across the bookshop counter and crushed her in a kiss.

Courtney was breathless when we parted. “So that’s a…”

“ Yes . Of course it’s a yes. I love you, Courtney. And I want to marry you more than anything.” I came around the counter.

Courtney beamed at me and lifted my hand to her mouth to kiss it before sliding the ring on my finger.

“I really really love you, but shit . I actually have to get to the pub because book club’s happening, and I’m supposed to meet the…”

Courtney smirked. “Oh, is it though?”

“I’m supposed to meet the… the…”

Courtney’s green eyes were practically feral with hidden laughter now.

“Courtney Starling, are you going to tell me why you look so smug?” My efforts at sternness were ruined when my gaze snagged on my ring, and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling again. “Well, other than the whole you just bagged yourself a future sexy wife thing?”

“Are you implying I have secrets?” Courtney palmed her chest with a deeply pathetic attempt at false innocence.

My eyes narrowed.

“Too soon?”

“Tell me.”

“It’ll mess up the surprise.”

“What surprise?”

Courtney nodded toward the hallway door where there were several large hanging bags. “Look and see.”

Courtney

As the music rang out from the jukebox in the main room of the pub, my fiancée pulled me into the dark kitchen and put her hands on her hips. “You thought I was a sure thing.”

I kissed her until she stopped trying to complain, letting her tongue do something else entirely. “If it makes you feel better, I had given Marshall and Sam a signal for if you had said no, and if we needed to shift gears back into book club mode from engagement party mode.”

“What was the signal?”

“I was going to flick the lights a few times at the bookstore, at which point Marshall was going to pretend that the book club was canceled because Billy Gibbons escaped.” My Regency dress was green, but I still had my Doc Martens on underneath, which gave me the traction I needed to lift Thea onto the counter and try to figure out the best way to slip my hands under her skirts.

“That would’ve been super subtle.”

Thea kissed the spot right beneath my ear that always made me shiver. “I still can’t believe my family is here. How were you going to explain that if I said no?”

I shrugged, barely able to think with the neckline on Thea’s gown at my eye level.

“That was Marshall’s job. But he said you would want them here because you had spent so much time celebrating all their milestones and you deserved to be in the spotlight with them.

Your mom’s kind of a trip, but I think she was excited. ”

With an arched eyebrow, Thea watched my fingers explore the lace, ties, and buttons, but her voice remained defiantly casual. “Thank you. This was all so perfect. Everything about it was perfect.”

“Even your mom deciding it was her chance to live out her dreams of dressing up as Josephine to your father’s Napoleon? Even though her vibe is definitely more Mrs. Bennet. You nailed that.” I located a particularly useful hook and flicked it open.

Thea shook with laughter. “I can’t believe Dad went for it to be honest. I don’t know how he manages to still look like a dignified lawyer while wearing French provincial silk.

” Suddenly, Thea’s eyes were wet. “They all came. Even my brother and my nieces and nephews. And you’re here too.

And…” Her gaze drifted to her left hand. “And we’re going to get married.”

“We are.” I touched the flushed apple of Thea’s cheek before returning to what I was doing.

“So is this what you actually wanted when you made up the story that we needed to look for more seltzers in the kitchen because I’m pretty sure there were plenty out underneath the…

” My speech faltered as Thea pushed my fumbling hands away and unbuttoned some magical clasp I hadn’t been able to find. “Underneath the…”

“Underneath the what, baby?” Thea pulled the top of her dress down to reveal the best breasts I had ever seen.

“Underneath the… shit .” My eyes seemed to glaze over.

Thea scooted herself to the edge of the counter.

“Oops. I forgot something.” She lifted her skirts high enough to make it very obvious she had skipped wearing part of the costume.

Her smile held all the wicked challenge and preemptive victory of a dueler who knows they’re going to win before swords are even drawn.

I glanced at the door.

Thea had already locked it behind us.

I stood in front of her with her bare thighs on either side of my hips. “I guess a historical romance–themed engagement party wouldn’t be complete without someone being ravished.”

“God, you just get me.” Thea laughed and laughed until I made her make a sound that was definitely and absolutely not a scream.