Chapter 44
HARPER
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Spending six weeks working on a single article was a luxury I’d never been afforded in my career. At least, not until this assignment. While I tended to skew investigational with my work, which generally meant it took a bit more time, I still had to turn things around fairly quickly. Because of that, I didn’t necessarily connect deeply with every subject I had written about. There were people who stood out, of course. Their stories branded on my heart in a way I knew would never go away.
Kind of like Starlight Cove.
I’d felt a kinship with the people I’d interviewed, every single one of them. But it had been more than that. I felt a kinship with Starlight Cove itself.
I knew at least part of that was nostalgia. This had been the home of so many childhood memories, so many happy times, when my life had held so few. And now, it held even more, the memories I’d collected over the past several weeks enough to fill me up for a lifetime.
But somehow, I was supposed to leave it all behind in forty-eight hours.
Today had started like every other day for the past several weeks. I woke to find Levi already in the kitchen, a cup of coffee waiting for me. After we had a quiet conversation, he snuck into the shower behind me, kissed me within an inch of my life before slipping inside me and kicking the day off with a bang. And then we went on our separate ways, each of us heading off to do our own things.
All while I tried to figure out how I was supposed to live without him.
We’d only grown closer since everything had come out that night on the beach and the morning after. I knew he’d been broken and raw, feeling exposed and more vulnerable than anyone would be comfortable with. And for him to confide in me after that was something I would never take for granted. Especially when I knew his opening up meant he was getting the help he needed. The help he deserved.
My phone rang, and I glanced away from a draft of my last editorial column for the Gazette to see who was calling. Naomi’s name lit up the screen, and my stomach swooped, a vortex of nervous butterflies spinning wildly out of control. I had no idea what I wanted the outcome of this call to be, and that was a predicament I hadn’t foreseen.
If she offered me the permanent position at Weekend Wanderlust, it would be everything I’d been working for these past six weeks. Everything I’d been working for the past eight years. Permanence. Roots.
But taking it would mean leaving all this behind. Leaving Levi behind.
I swallowed down my nerves and answered. “Hi, Naomi.”
“Harper, I’m glad I caught you. I got your article this morning. Apologies for not getting back to you sooner, but I had to put out a few fires over here.”
“It’s no problem at all.”
“I read it right away when I got it, and I have to say, I was quite surprised. Seemed like you went in a slightly different direction from what we talked about.” The tone of her voice gave away nothing, and that only made me more anxious.
“I did,” I said tentatively, my nerves getting the better of me. I’d known I was taking a chance by doing that, but it was what my gut had told me to do. And thus far in my life, my gut had never let me astray. “Since I had more than enough sources, I thought it would be better to focus on the current residents of Starlight Cove choosing to make it their home now, rather than anyone who’d done so over the past fifty years. That angle removed Duke Nova from the article completely.”
Naomi hummed thoughtfully, and I held my breath, waiting for her response. “Well, I think your gut led you in the right direction. It was a great choice.”
I held the phone away from my mouth and breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
“I’ve got a few suggestions for you that I’ll send over, but overall, I’m thrilled with the piece. It’s exactly what I hoped it would be. Exactly the kind of work I’ve come to count on from you.”
Pride bloomed in my chest, that feeling of a job well done settling over me. I worked hard, and I was damn good at my job. I knew that. But it was reaffirming when another industry professional not only noticed but acknowledged as much.
“That’s why I’d love to offer you the permanent position of senior travel writer.”
As she rattled off the details and what the job would entail, I could barely hear her through my heartbeat thrumming like a drum in my ears, the whoosh-whoosh-whoosh too damn loud. This was everything I’d ever wanted. Everything I’d worked for. It was exactly what I’d blown up my entire life for.
It was here, within my grasp.
All I had to do was say yes.