27. Naomi

Wednesday,aka party day, was warm and clear. It was after seven and the sun was lower in the sky and a lovely breeze kept the bugs to a minimum.

We were keeping it pretty low-key with just a few friends. I'd gotten close to Dahlia and Amberly thanks to our trivia Sundays. Callahan, Duncan, and Jimmy were also invited as well as Colder's sister-in-law Shannon, who made an appearance, as well. They were excited to enjoy a kid-free night with adults.

Iona and I had added some extra fairy lights to the patio to go with the classy Edison bulb-style string lights that crisscrossed overhead. We had two coolers full of ice on either side of the projector screen. There was both beer and easy-to-drink summer beverages, both alcoholic and non.

We kept it easy with the food thanks to a few pasta dishes from Jimmy's and a few charcuterie boards that Colder and I had put together this afternoon. Dahlia had brought flowers from nearby Daisy Rae's. I recognized the big mason jars with the polka dot ribbons from the window when Colder had introduced me to the Bookstore Cafe.

The Gerbera daisies were a fun pop of color against the neutral gray outdoor couches and chairs that were scattered around the rooftop space. There was also a mix of fake greenery and actual potted plants that made it feel very homey.

As usual, Iona took care of the wine choices and had a whole table full of white and red for people to choose from.

"Relax and come talk to people." Colder's hand slid around my waist. He brushed a kiss against my temple. "This is supposed to be fun."

"I just want to make sure everyone has what they need."

"Look around. They're all doing great."

Dahlia and Shannon were chatting about pets, I was pretty sure. I didn't catch everything, but I'd distinctly heard something about cat treats. Duncan and Jimmy were talking about the hockey playoffs that were going hot and heavy.

Iona and Amberly were chatting near the railing that looked out over Kensington Boulevard. The sky was awash with pinks and oranges and just a hint of purple creeping in over the city, adding a lovely ambiance.

Cal hadn't shown up yet, but he was only a maybe.

"Everyone seems to gel."

Colder pulled me into his arms. "They do. So now's your time to relax and enjoy yourself." He slipped away and laced our fingers to pull me over to sit with Shannon.

"Oh, hey. There's the girl of the hour." Dahlia lifted a glass to me. "Congrats on the book. I can't wait to preorder it."

"Me too. I'm a huge Throne of Glass fan. Colder told me you write similar stuff."

I blushed. "Pretty close. More dragons."

"Naked dragons," Iona called from the edge of the patio.

I laughed. "There's a fair bit of naked."

"Count me in." Shannon's dark eyes sparkled. She had thick, dark hair to go with an olive complexion. She complemented Jimmy's dark blond curls and all-American face.

Duncan glanced over at us from the iPad he had set up on one of the tables with a hockey game on the screen. "Did someone say naked?"

Iona walked across the patio on her cherry-red stilettos which matched the belt on her teal wrap dress. She had hammered gold hoops at her ears and was rocking her Medusa necklace tonight. "Of course you heard the naked part."

She sat beside me and crossed her legs. "You all will want to read this one. It has something for everyone. And I do mean everyone. Even you, Pucky."

"Pucky? Who the hell are you calling Pucky, Ivanna?"

Iona rolled her eyes. Duncan loved to say any female I name other than hers. "The book is going to be a bestseller. Now we just need to get her an agent who will go for the jugular."

Nerves bubbled in my belly at that part. I'd been researching agents and so many of them weren't taking on new clients or didn't seem to have credentials I could track easily. As far as I was concerned, that was a ridiculous red flag.

"I appreciate all of you coming to cheer me on. I still have a long way to go on the road to publishing."

"But you're getting published." Iona's voice was firm.

I looped my arm around hers and gave her a squeeze. "Too bad you're not an agent."

"She's a damn pit bull. She could be," Duncan muttered and sat back down near his iPad.

Iona gave me a shark smile. "I could be. Frankie has taught me to be a ball buster."

"You didn't need lessons," I said with a laugh.

Colder stood. "Anyone hungry?"

Everyone nodded and started the lineup for food. Iona put on music in the background and the conversations were easy between the groups of people as we ate.

I was wearing a cute navy polka dot dress, thanks to Iona's stash and because it was designed by Frankie, it had pockets. I'd slipped my phone into my pocket to show off my character and setting inspirations to people who actually cared about my work.

At this party, that was most everyone, which left my heart feeling fuller by the minute. It was weird to actually talk about my characters out loud. They'd lived solely in my head for so many years. I didn't even talk about my novel in writing groups. Yet here I was, sharing it out loud and possibly with the world soon.

Jeez, I needed to put that thought away or I was going to lose my very tasty pesto chicken.

My pocket buzzed a few times, but I kept getting pulled away before I could check it. Everyone I would normally talk to was here, except my parents, and I only checked in with them occasionally. We weren't overly close.

Finally, I escaped to the railing. The sun was going down, and I just needed a moment alone. I slipped my phone out of my pocket to see two missed calls and a text from Webster Publishing.

What were they calling me for?

Was there something wrong with my paperwork?

It was getting closer to the end of my severance package, but I thought the payments would just stop. I'd already done all the 401k things, such as they were.

They'd left a voicemail. It was too loud to hear it, but I could read the transcript.

Naomi, this is Charles. We'd like to discuss you coming back to Webster. We value your technical writing skills, and we may have been too hasty with our plans to innovate. We still need the personal touch to continue to bring the best products possible to our clients. We'd like to bring you back with a significant raise so you can oversee a new department here in Chicago. Please contact me at your earliest convenience.

A new department?

In Chicago?

I sat down hard on one of the chairs near the railing.

"Naomi?" Colder rushed over. "Is everything okay?"

"I don't know." I looked down at the phone then back up at him. "I really don't know."

He crouched in front of me. I handed him the phone so he could read it. He glanced back at me. "Wow."

"Yeah." I tucked my hair around my ear. I didn't know what to say.

"They expect you to just pick back up and go back to Chicago? You don't even have a place anymore."

"I actually do. I sublet my apartment since my lease wasn't up. Sandy—the girl who's subletting—has been paying month to month. A little more than I was paying. Rent control in Chicago is hard to come by."

"Oh." He dragged a chair over in front of me and sat down, our knees touching. "Do you want to go back to Chicago?"

"No. Maybe." I was so confused. "It would give me a job. I don't exactly have any prospects?—"

"You have your book." He took my hands. "You worked hard on it."

"I know, but it'll take months. God, maybe even more than that to get it published. Even if they want it."

"Of course they'll want it."

My eyes pricked at the fierceness in his eyes. "There are plenty of amazing books that never get published, Colder."

He gripped my hands. "I'm sure you're right, but you haven't even given yourself a shot yet."

"But this way I could. I'd have a job until I got published."

I wanted to be published. I wanted it almost as much as I wanted this amazing man sitting in front of me. But I wouldn't be here. I'd be almost six-hundred miles away.

"Right." He tucked my hair behind my ear. "I could go with you. I still have some friends in Chicago. I could probably find a job."

"What?" I sat up.

"I love you, Naomi."

My mouth dropped open. "I…" My eyes filled. "I love you too, Colder."

He closed his eyes and took a long, slow breath. "Thank God. I was afraid to say that. Afraid I'd scare you away." He cupped my face and kissed me soundly. "I think I've loved you right from the day you tried to hire me."

I laughed and dashed away a tear that rolled down my cheek. "That fast?"

He nodded. "Right from the jump. When you called me to stop the elevator even. That hood came down and all this red hair tumbled out and those huge blue eyes… I was gone."

I curled my fingers around his wrist and pulled his hand into my lap. "I couldn't ask you to uproot your life, Colder."

"You didn't ask. I offered." He looked down at the floor and seemed to think something over, then his eyes met mine. "You're it for me. Endgame, Naomi. If I have to go to Chicago to stay in your life, I'll do it."

"I don't even know if the offer is worth it yet."

"Then we'll make the decision when we know more. You have to promise me something though."

I clutched his hand and he covered both of mine with his other one. "What?"

"You won't put this book on the backburner. You're still going to go after publication."

"I promise."

"Good." He smiled at me, but there was a sliver of something in his eyes that I couldn't figure out. Was it because he'd have to leave his friends and family?

Maybe I wasn't worth moving across the country with. We'd only known each other for a short time.

"Hey, Cal!" Duncan and Jimmy were a few beers in and happy to see him.

Colder twisted around to see him, then he turned back to me. "I'm just going to go check in with him."

"Are you going to talk to him right away?"

He stroked a hand down my hair. "Everything is going to be okay. I promise."

Iona looked from Colder to me, before she crossed the patio to me. "What's going on?"

"So much."

I filled her in on the voicemail and the job offer.

"What the hell?"

"I know. I was just as surprised as you were." I sagged back in the chair.

"Let me see it."

I pulled out my phone again and handed it to her. She read the message, then she even lifted the phone to listen to it herself. She handed it back. "He sounds like a douche."

I laughed. "He is kind of."

"He just fucking fired you and now he wants you back? And the way he worded the offer. Please. He's getting butt-fucked by his clients because his idea is backfiring, I bet."

"Iona!"

"It's true. I know that corporate speak. I get those emails every damn day when people come to me with their tails between their legs because Frankie is blowing up and now they want her clothes in their stores."

"I haven't even talked to him. But it's a job. And I don't have one of those. My package is almost over, and then what am I going to do?"

"You get a job. You sell that book for a shit-ton of money, of course. Until that happens, you get a regular job. Something that doesn't tax your brain and lets you write on the off time. You don't go back to Chicago where they will probably find a reason to screw you over."

"You're just saying that because you don't want me to go back."

"That too. But I can feel it. It's not the right play."

I sighed. "I have to talk to Charles at least. To see what they're talking about."

"You leave him on read and let them come at you with an even better offer then."

"I can't do that."

"You can. You have the power here." Iona yanked me out of my seat. "You don't grovel, regardless of what happens."

"Iona. Hang on." She was dragging me back to the party. I stumbled after her, only stopping when she halted in front of the wine table.

She opened one and poured a large glass for herself and one for me. "You are better than Webster Publishing, dammit."

I knew I was, but I didn't even have a finished, polished product.

"Who's Webster Publishing? Do they want your book?" Dahlia turned in her seat. "That's awesome."

"No, they are not." Iona took a big gulp from her freaking goblet. "They're her old boss."

Dahlia's brow furrowed. "You work for a publisher? Or past tense."

I sighed. "I used to be a tech writer. I got downsized."

"Oh." Dahlia tipped her head. "And now they want you back?"

"It's complicated."

"Sounds it." I glanced over at the other corner where Callahan and Colder were talking. My guy was gripping the back of his neck as he talked to him.

God, had he already talked to him about leaving Lonegan's?

"He loves me, Iona," I said softly. "He just told me he loves me."

"And you're still going?" She drained her glass and then took mine. "Are you freaking crazy?"

"He said he'd come with me."

Iona blinked at me, then she took another gulp of wine.

"Give me that before you're completely trashed. I need you clear-headed. I don't know what to do."

"I just got you back, Nay. I selfishly don't want you to go back to Chicago. I like having you around. I don't even care if you pay rent at this point. I want you here. Starving artists are a thing."

My eyes welled. "I wouldn't. I couldn't."

She took the glass from me, but instead of sipping from it, she set it down and gripped both my arms, shaking me lightly. "You could. Hell, you could work at Lonegan's a few nights a week for groceries if you felt guilty. Don't go."

"I'll think about it."

I had a lot to think about. But before I did, I needed to talk to Colder. I didn't want him to make any rash decisions.

Even if his immediate support made me love him all the more.

I rushed over to where he was talking to Cal and came in on the end of something.

"I know. I really appreciate the opportunity for Velvet Noir, but if Naomi needs to go back to Chicago, then that's where I'm going too."

"Are you sure, kid?"

"What's Velvet Noir?" I blurted out from behind him.

Colder spun around, his eyes widening. "Naomi."

I stalked closer to him and stabbed my finger into his chest. "What's Velvet Noir?"

Suddenly, things clicked together. Monday when he was sloshy and happy. The surprise he couldn't tell me.

Colder glanced from Callahan to me. "I can't say."

I spun and got into Callahan's space. "What's Velvet Noir?"

Cal lifted his chin and stared down at me. "I told him not to mention it. Christ on a cracker," he muttered. "Can't keep a secret in this damn city if my fucking life depends on it."

Maybe my life did.

My life here in Kensington Square and with Colder.

I simply stared at him, willing him to tell me.

Cal sighed. "It's a new speakeasy I'm opening up this summer. I asked Colder to run it for me."

I spun again and crowded into Colder. "And you were going to give that up?"

"I love you, Naomi. Of course I would."

My eyes filled. "No, you can't. You can't."

"I would. I will." He stroked his hand down my hair. "Where you go, I go."

"Do I get a vote?" Duncan asked from the sidelines.

"No," Colder and I said in unison.

"I should." Duncan slapped his iPad closed. "I'm the best friend too. Isadora said her peace. We all freaking heard it."

Colder glanced at Duncan then shifted back to me. "What does he mean?"

"Maybe I shouldn't go. What if they just downsize me again in six months? And you lost this opportunity. For me?"

"Worth it."

He did love me. More than I even imagined possible. So fast, but so completely. There was no denying it.

I went onto my toes and kissed him.

Cal groaned. "Okay, get a room." He stalked over to the food.

Colder slipped his arm around me and kissed me back.

"I'm not going."

"Naomi, it's fine. Really." Colder gripped me tighter.

"No, it's not. It doesn't feel right. This is where I'm supposed to be. I don't want to go. I'm probably going to be a neurotic mess figuring out this book. Are you ready for that?"

Was I even ready for that? There were so many unknowns with all of this, but not with him. This ridiculously perfect man had been ready to leave a brand-new opportunity just because I was scared. I had to be brave for me and for him.

He grinned at me. "Every step. You and me."

My throat tightened with emotion. "Every step. You and me. I love you."

"I love you too."

We had so many things to figure out, but we would figure them out together.