He was such a keeper.
“I think you should pick out anything that strikes your fancy,” he said.
That phrase stopped me from my inspection of imported European chocolate. “Strikes my fancy? Who are you, William Randolph Hearst? You gonna build me a castle as a flight of fancy?”
“If you put it down on the list—”
I held up my hand. “No. No castles. I will visit ones with you, but I don’t want to live in one.”
“You sure?”
The thing with Tate was I couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not. Knowing him, he’d do his best to make anything happen. So I had to make this clear. “Yes. Because the more time and money we spend on castles, the less time we have to spend on trains.”
He pulled out his phone and the Google doc. “I’m gonna add ‘castle’ to the ABL, just in case.”
“ABL?”
“Anti-Bucket List.”
“You’re impossible,” I said, rolling my eyes, which made him smile.
“I believe you mean, ‘handsome.’” Tate’s grin went wicked.
“Is he ever, sister,” called a little old lady behind me. “You should tap that.”
“Oh, trust me,” I said, squeezing Tate’s hand. “I do.”
“Should we FaceTime your mom?” Tate asked, as we entered the hotel lobby, carrying a few bags of candy.
I looked at the time. “Yes, it’s perfect. She’ll be back from therapy and wanting to chat.” I called her.
“Mom!”
“Audrey! Tate! How are you two?”
“Mom, this place is amazing. I think absolutely everything happens in New York City. The energy here is alive. It’s far from sleepy Merlot. And yet, being from there interests everyone, since they think I know something about wine.”
“Do you burst their bubble and tell them you hate wine?”
“What makes you think I still hate wine?”
“Do you?” She asked accusingly.
“I do. No wine for me.”
She laughed. And while she sounded tired, she was also there. Familiar.
After talking to my mom, we rummaged through the bag of candy. I found a pack of gum and unwrapped a piece, popping it in my mouth.
“I feel like I should thank Jade,” I said. “She forced me to talk to you sooner. But every time I go to text her, it sounds like I’m being sarcastic or rubbing it in.”
“That’s nice of you. Nicer than me.”
“By being a bitch, she got us together for real. She changed our lives.”
“True,” he said. “Well, maybe we send her a gift at Penn?”
“Nah. We’ll just thank her the next time we see her.”
“Sounds good. Here’s where we’re going next,” he said. And he showed me our tickets to Heathrow.
“London?”
“I think we have a pair of sparkly Doc Martens to buy.”
“We’re going shoe shopping in London?”
“Yep. And for the rest of our lives.”
I kissed him, even though I still chewed gum.
And when we were done, somehow the gum wasn’t in my mouth anymore.
Grinning, he popped the bubble.
Also by Leslie McAdam
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Giving You… Standalone Series
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About the Author
Leslie McAdam is a California girl who loves romance and well-defined abs. She lives in a drafty old farmhouse on a small orange tree farm in Southern California with her husband and two small children. Leslie's first published book, The Sun and the Moon, won a 2015 Watty, which is the world's largest online writing competition. She's gone on to receive additional literary awards and has been featured in multiple publications, including Cosmopolitan.com. Her books have been Top 100 Bestsellers on both Amazon and Apple Books. Leslie is employed by day but spends her nights writing about the men of your fantasies.
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Acknowledgments
Thanks to:
Sierra
Mary
Kristy
Heather
Katy
Lex
Jerica
Deb
Phala
Julia
My family
Oh, and Lori and Brian, who inspired the story. It’s fiction though.