Lola gasped. “The house!”
When everyone laughed, she blushed and cast a look around. She couldn’t see much from where she was standing, and most of her view was blocked by Hudson and Zac who, standing side-by-side with their huge shoulders touching, may as well have been a brick wall.
She could see a square staircase, with dark wooden stairs leading to the second story. Turning to Jacob, she intertwined her fingers with his. “Show me.”
He led her up the stairs, took her from room to room, showing her their new home as the family thumped about downstairs. When he came to the last upstairs room, he paused by the door and glanced at her uncertainly. “What?” she asked.
“If you don’t like it, we can still keep your apartment and use it as a studio.”
“I’ll love it,” she replied, instantly. When he didn’t move to open the door, she nudged him aside and pushed it open herself.
She didn’t move inside at first, just stood in the doorway and gaped, her eyes wet as she bit her lip to stop herself from crying. Standing in the doorway of her new studio, Lola was certain that she had never felt as happy and as in love with Jacob as she did then. It was perfect. It was…her.
Ten-foot ceilings made the room feel airy and light, even though it was already evening, and the sky was growing darker with each passing second. The back of the room was a large square, and Lola could already imagine fitting her art shelves against the wall in the far corner. The front of the room curved in a crescent, forming a large alcove that she just knew would be the perfect spot for her easel—once she got around to fixing the leg. The walls were freshly painted white drywall. Except for the eastern wall, which had been layered with a clean, red-brick façade.
Lola felt the first tear fall when she studied the brickwork. “You did this?” she asked, looking at Jacob.
He smiled but shook his head. “Zac’s brother is a contractor. They did it.”
“I love it. Everything about it.” Walking over to him, she wrapped her arms around his waist. “Thank you. For…everything.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too. So much,” she said.
“There, ah…there is one other thing.”
Oh no. That doesn’t sound good. “Yeah?”
Jacob rubbed the back of his neck, a sign that she knew meant he was nervous. “I’m flying your parents out,” he said in a rush, his voice coming out breathy. “They arrive tomorrow.”
For a moment, Lola felt a single jolt of shock hit her, a swift kick to the stomach that left her feeling quite out-of-breath. Hazarding a glance at Jacob, she saw him watching her intently, saw the look of panic in his eyes. The worry that she saw reflected there had the exact opposite effect than she would have guessed; it calmed her.
She was silent for a moment longer, and then she nodded. “I can do it…now that I have you. I can do it.”
He smiled, his green eyes betraying the enormous relief that he felt. “You can do anything.”
“We can do anything,” she said, linking her hands behind his head and pulling him down so that she could kiss him. “As long as we have each other.”
To My Readers
To all of my amazing readers,
Thank you so much for picking up a copy of Public Trust, and if you made it all the way to this note, then thank you for powering through to the end. For those of you who enjoyed reading this book, please share your thoughts with the world by writing a review on Amazon, or drop me a line at [email protected]. If you did not enjoy this book, try to stay with me over the next few years. I’m fledgling. But I’m getting better and one day soon I’ll surprise those of you who are my biggest critics.
If you’d like to catch up with Jake and Lola, don’t miss Too Close to Home, the second novel in The City of Dreams series. Too Close to Home should hit the shelves in winter, 2021, and, I gotta tell ya, Maggie Simmone and Logan Cane have so much love to give!
Until then, special thanks to Carla L., Eleanor S., Hayley W., Helene K., Karen M., Kate S., Kylie B., Marilu P., and Roxanne S. for all of the amazing feedback.
Lots of love,
Tess