Description
Love will find you when you least expect it.
I can’t count how many times people have said those words to me, but I’ve never believed them.
Maybe that’s because I found love once and it broke me when I lost it. I watched my best friend fall in love with a cowboy last year.
She took charge of her life, found what she wanted, and went for it. But me? I got left behind in New York. And damn if I can’t shake Piper’s ex, Max Fisher, from my mind.
Distance ruined us but love kept us tethered together somehow. When I call him from my bathtub drowning in my sorrows and self-pity, he throws me a curveball. Knowing I need a change, I accept a job offer from him and pack up my life to move to Silicon Valley. A second chance maybe?
I want him more than I’ve wanted anything before. The catch is, there’s a crazy woman in his life who wants him just as much as I do. Well, she’s going to have a fight on her hands because this billionaire is mine.
Dedication
To my Casanova Ladies! You guys asked for Happy Ever Afters, and I heard you! Forgive me for taking so long, but I hope it was well worth the wait. Max needs a HEA and here it is. I hope you love it. Thanks for your notes, your encouragement and for just being you. Love you ladies!
<3 Ali
Introduction
Well hey there! Thank you so much for grabbing one of my books. I sure hope you love it.
I’d hate to part ways once you’re done though. How about we stay in touch? We have a great family of readers on my Insiders Newsletter Group that you just can’t miss out on.
We do exclusive giveaways, facebook parties, Christmas cards, event invites and sneak previews for this amazing group.
And as a HUGE thank you for joining,
you’ll receive a free book on me!
Join Here
Chapter 1
Janie
My back burned.
The late afternoon summer sun shone through the windows behind me as I clicked through photo after photo on my work computer. The heat prickled across my shoulders and upper back, both exposed in the dress I was wearing with thick straps but a scoop cut on the back and front.
The suntan lines would most definitely be problematic.
I pushed up out of my office chair. It squeaked softly, as if reminding me the workday wasn’t over and I still had three hours to go where my butt belonged upon its soft white leather. Turning my back on my desk, I paced to the window, where I struggled unnecessarily with the newly installed blinds in my office until I managed to lower them halfway and block the sun blasting in.
Before returning to my desk, I peered down to the street below.
Up here on the top floor of the Casanova Club office tower, I had a view of half of Manhattan spread out below. From my bird’s eye view, it looked like a Lego city with tiny Lego people milling around in sun dresses, shorts, sandals, and baseball caps. It had been a sweltering hot July, and even though I was grateful for the air conditioning in my new office, I wished I was out in the glorious summer weather sipping margaritas on a patio or lounging on one of the chairs on my apartment balcony with a good book.
Then again, it had been a while since I had my nose buried between the pages of a book. Probably since Piper moved to the ranch to live with her husband, Wyatt. She had herself a new man, a new life, a new home, and a shiny new future.
And here I was in the office I always thought I wanted, realizing all too late that maybe it wasn’t what I wanted after all.
What else could explain this feeling of loneliness that seemed to get deeper and darker with every passing week of work?
Down below, perched on the corner of an intersection, stood a man and woman. It was hard to tell from all the way up here but it looked to me like they had their arms linked and she had her head resting on his shoulder. She wore a blue dress and a matching ribbon in her hair, and even here, thirty stories over their heads and trapped behind glass, I could tell they were happy.
With a sigh, I pushed away from the window and took five paces back to my desk, where I slumped heavily back into my chair. It groaned in greeting, welcoming me back, and I swiveled it around to tuck my legs under the glass-top desk. I rested my elbows on the desk, tucked in close to my keyboard, and pressed my chin into my palms as I stared at the last image I’d clicked through before I got up to close the blinds.
The image was an edited black and white shot of Piper and Wyatt from their wedding. I was in the picture too. To the right of the frame, I could see myself laughing, my head thrown back, my eyes closed, Piper’s bouquet in one hand and the little clutch I’d worn with my lipstick, makeup wipes, emergency stain remover, safety pins, and other “in case the bride needs it” items. Even though the source of my laughter hadn’t been caught on camera, I knew exactly who was responsible for making me laugh like that—unabashed, worry free, uncaring of the camera snapping shots every two minutes.
Max Fisher.
As soon as his name rolled through my head, I clicked away from the picture to a new one of Piper’s parents on the dance floor. This picture was safer. It didn’t make me feel anything except a swell of happiness for them.
After all their struggles with the restaurant, things had finally settled for them. They were no longer drowning in debt, thanks to Wyatt and his steadfast commitment to getting them back on their feet and reminding them at every turn that they were family now and that was what family did for each other. It took a little while for Piper’s father to come around to the idea of letting a much younger man step in and save their family business but now he and Wyatt were thick as thieves. Six weeks after the wedding her parents had sold the old restaurant in New York. Two weeks after that they sold their house. And two weeks after that they hopped on a plane and moved to Texas. Piper told me all about how overwhelming the ranch house was while her family crashed with them until they could move into their new place in the city, eight blocks away from the new restaurant Wyatt had purchased for them. I still hadn’t been there yet and seen it with my own two eyes, but Piper had sent me pictures, and the place looked truly beautiful. I could only imagine how much lighter and joyful her parents were, especially now that they would be close by when their first grandbaby was born.
Everything was as it should be for my dear best friend.
But not for me.
I sighed heavily. I resented the self-pity and the gloomy clouds that had set up residence in my heart and mind this last year. After Piper and Wyatt got married, I knew things would change. There was no possible way my life could stay the same as it had been, and back then, as I watched Piper get married, I didn’t want it to be the same because that would mean Piper didn’t get her happily ever after.
But what about my happily ever after?
I scoffed and rolled my eyes at myself. There was more to worry about than just a happy ending. The promotion I’d always dreamed of had fallen into my lap at the Casanova Club when Jackson Lee put me up in my own private office and made me the Coordinator of Events and Bachelors. It turned out that was a loose title because I also operated as the office manager. It was a lot more responsibility than my previous post as Jackson’s assistant had been and the money reflected that. I was making more than I ever dreamed was possible.