“I think I knew that too. And now, all of my wishes have come true. You love me. Enough to be my partner. Enough to give me your name. Enough to bring me into your family.”
“And your dad too.” He thumbed my bottom lip when my mouth opened in surprise. “My mother has been looking for someone to take the Bennet mantle, to run Longbourne like the women of my family have for generations.”
“What about Laney?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “She never wanted it, maybe just because Mom wanted it so much for her. Laney never did do what was expected of her.”
I frowned. “You don’t think Laney will be … I don’t know. Upset?”
At that, Marcus laughed. “Please, trust me when I say you’re doing her a favor.”
“I do. Trust you. Tell me the sky is purple. Convince me two and two is five.”
He made a face that told me exactly how disturbed he was at the math.
“Tell me you love me,” I said.
With a slow smile, he leaned in and whispered, “Now that I can do.”
Epilogue
Maisie
Three months later
Marcus stood in front of my desk in our office, making hang up the phone gestures, one dark brow arched and his lips tilted in a smile.
One sec, I mouthed, holding up a finger.
“Uh-huh,” I said into the phone, closing my laptop and packing it up. “We’ll see you tomorrow then. Thanks, John.”
I ended the call and stuffed my phone in my bag.
“We were supposed to leave a half hour ago,” he scolded as I stood.
“I know—I had to confirm that meeting with the distributors. I’m sorry.”
His hand slipped into the curve of my waist, and he pressed a kiss to my temple. “You never have to apologize to me. My mother, on the other hand …”
On a laugh, I said, “Think I can woo her into forgiveness by telling her how happy said distributors are?”
“Probably not, but you can try.”
Smiling, we headed out of our office.
Shelby stood and smoothed her skirt. “Do you need anything else before I go?”
“No, thank you, Shelby,” Marcus answered. “Do us a favor and try not to work this weekend, would you?”
“There’s just so much to do,” she argued.
“You might be the best assistant in all of Manhattan, but even you can’t work for two months straight without burning out,” he insisted. “I mean it. If I see that you worked over the weekend, you’re in trouble.”
She pouted. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Go to a bar. Read a book. Sleep for forty-eight hours. Doesn’t matter, just don’t work, all right?” he asked with such authority that all she could do was sigh.
“All right. Have a good one, and let me know if you need anything.”
“We won’t,” he snarked over his shoulder as we walked away.
I nudged him in the ribs. “You told her to go to a bar.”
“Desperate times. If she burns out, we’re all in trouble.”
“We could always get your mom to take her place.”
That earned me a solid, boisterous Ha. “I thought we were trying to save the company, not push it off a cliff.”
“Oh, somehow I think we’d be able to keep it all together, don’t you?”
He smiled down at me. “Without a doubt.”
We walked through the new office space, wishing those who were still left a good weekend. Marcus had found the space—two cozy floors in the Village with plenty of room for our pared-down staff and close enough to home to walk.
The last three months had been a whirl of paperwork and proceedings. I’d been subpoenaed for my mother’s mounting trial, issuing depositions and statements on behalf of the company. At her request, I’d agreed to visit her monthly to answer questions about Bower, but at that very first meeting, when I’d outlined our plan to merge with Longbourne, she had flown into the most vicious rage, one that didn’t end until my father—who had insisted on accompanying me—pulled her off of me.
I hadn’t been back since. And I hated that I wished things were different. I hated that I still mourned her. But I did.
I always would.
The high-profile rebrand was in motion, covered in various magazines and newspapers as well as garnering a few televisions spots that had gone by in a blur and a blackout, though watching them back, I’d been charming and eloquent in my fugue state. The process of our merger would be lengthy and expensive. But we had already closed every superfluous division of Bower, sending three-quarters of our staff home with a healthy severance, and half of what was left had received an invitation to work from home. Distribution was still in motion, as it had been, the process largely uninterrupted by the drama and changeover. We’d lost some accounts after my mother’s arrest, but what was left had been very pleased with Marcus’s presentation, which we’d spent a few weeks flying around the country to give.
We’d liquidated everything we could, using the money we made to pay back our board members, who were also pleased. The turnover had been encouraged from the start, two of the four ready to sell their shares and get out until I presented my plan and bought us all time to renew their faith and trust. We’d kept one and lost one, the hit to buy the shares an expense we couldn’t really shoulder, even under the market rate. But Marcus and I had taken it on together, splitting the shares down the middle.
Equal in all ways.
I sighed happily, leaning into him as we stepped outside and turned for home.
“That good?” he asked.
“That good.”
“Lila told you she’d be at dinner tonight, right? Something about invitation paper … I can’t remember.”
“She told me.” I paused. “Are you really sure you want to tackle a wedding on top of our merger?”
“Hundred percent. The only merger I’m eager for is ours.”
“I told you we should just go to the courthouse, but you wouldn’t listen.”
“Do you really think my mother would let us get away with a courthouse wedding?”
“Well, she doesn’t have to know,” I noted as we turned onto Bleecker.
We were silent for a long second before busting out laughing.
“At least we have Lila to plan it all,” I said. “And while she’s busy with her own wedding. She’s superhuman. I can’t imagine Kash helps all that much.”
“I honestly think he would, if she’d let him.”
Longbourne was all closed up when we passed, the window display cheerful and welcoming. On either side of the door hung gorgeous monochromatic walls of flowers, all shapes and sizes, in shades of yellow. Hanging in the center of each were vertical planters bursting with succulents to form the words Sun and Shine.
“Tess is a genius,” I said.
“If it wasn’t for her and Luke, who knows where we’d be?”
“If we ever start up a magazine again, I’m making her the editor in chief.”
With a chuckle, we walked up the steps to the Bennet house.
As always, we heard their voices through the door, the din rising as it opened. When we made it into the kitchen, we found everyone.