I waited patiently for her to respond, wondering if she would and trying to figure out what I would do if she didn’t.
My phone chimed.
Sure. What time?
Does seven work for you?
Yes. I’ll see you at seven.
Okay. That was the first part of it.
Have you finished reading my book?
I stared at my phone and waited for her to respond.
I did. But now I’m wondering how it ends.
I smiled. That gave me some hope.
You’ll find out tomorrow morning. I’ll bring the rest with me. See you then.
I was about to set my phone on the table when it chimed again. I glanced down.
Quick question.
Sure.
Presley’s question came a second later.
Will you reread through this story again?
Yes, why?
I couldn’t help but wonder where she was going with this.
I made some notes. Just wanted to make sure you saw them. See you at seven.
Chapter Seventy
Presley
I’d been pleasantly surprised by Jake’s text.
Actually, my heart had done some sort of break-dance as soon as my phone chimed and I saw it was coming from Chapter One.
For the past two days, I’d been trying to figure out what I needed to do to salvage this thing between us. Gavin was right. Jake wasn’t the one who should be fighting for this. I was. If I wanted to be happy, then I needed to go after what I wanted, to give it all that I had, because it was worth it. And Jake was definitely worth it.
I’d come up with a plan, but I’d been putting it off, trying to scrounge up my nerve.
Now that he’d invited me for coffee, I knew exactly how this needed to play out, and I suddenly couldn’t wait until tomorrow.
Chapter Seventy-One
Jake
I arrived at the coffee shop at six thirty, wanting to get situated before Presley arrived. I greeted Kim and placed my usual order, including Presley’s coffee, as well, though I asked Kim not to make it until Presley arrived.
After paying for the order, I sat at the table at the front where I’d been sitting that first day I’d met Presley. I looked over at the table next to me, the one Presley had been hunched over, playing tic-tac-toe with herself. I set the legal pad where I’d written the last two chapters of the book on that table so that I could make sure no one took it before she arrived.
Then I sat there and stared at my hands, feeling my heart pound painfully in my chest.
I’d written numerous romance novels, lived in the fictional character’s worlds plenty of times, and nothing even remotely compared to this. This was real, not fiction. What I felt for her wasn’t a figment of my imagination, something I put on paper for the world to read. This was just between her and me, and I felt my anxiety grow with every passing second.
Right on time, Presley arrived and my heart stuttered in my chest. She was wearing the same white hoodie she’d been wearing the first day that I’d met her, and she was also carrying the pink sketchbook. Seeing her brought back a flurry of memories, everything that had happened between us over the course of the last month. It was hard to believe that much time had passed, though some would say it wasn’t nearly enough time, but I begged to differ. Thirty-four days since I’d laid eyes on this woman and I knew, regardless of the outcome, my world had been forever changed.
She approached slowly, removing her coat as she glanced down at the yellow legal pad sitting on the table where she had sat before. She offered me a small smile, then placed her sketchbook down and handed over my notebook.
Kim brought Presley’s coffee, giving us both a beaming grin before sauntering off.
“Thank you,” Presley said to me, easing into her chair.
I couldn’t stop staring at her. She looked like the woman I’d seen that day. So damn beautiful, looking at her made my heart hurt. I might not be sure of many things in my life, but I knew without a doubt that I loved this woman.
“I made some notes in the margins,” Presley said, tilting her head toward the notebook I was holding.
I nodded. “You said you wanted to see how it ended.” I glanced down at the legal pad in front of her.
“I do. Is this it?”
I offered another nod, my stomach tightening in knots.
“Well.” Presley set her cup on the table. “How about I read this and