Epilogue
Sadie - Three Months Later
“Look at you!” Des says, appearing suddenly by my desk, and my head snaps around to take in his grinning face. “Shorter hair and everything,” he adds.
“Des! You’re back!”
“Just landed. It’s going to be a ten-day whirlwind! Are you ready?”
I stand up and step forward and pull him into a hug.
I feel like I owe him so much: this job, the apartment, the way he persuaded me into looking after James when we were both struggling.
I owe him our whole relationship. I’ll always be quiet, but now I’m quietly confident.
James is so dedicated … and work … the whole thing is so goddamn good.
He tips back and his eyes roam over my face. “We’re into hugging now, I see.”
I feel my face heat. Blushing is one thing that hasn’t changed. “Only with special people,” I say, and he laughs.
“I deeply approve of the hugging,” he whispers, leaning forward. “And I love the hair.”
I run my hand over my sleek bob. “James didn’t speak to me for a whole day.”
Des’s eyes go theatrically wide. “Really? The rat.” He leans back. “You look beautiful.”
I grin. “Thank you.”
James looms behind Des, a smile twisting his lips. “Did I see you making a move on my woman, Des?”
Des spins on his heel and circles his finger around James’s face. “Is this the new, possessive James Royce I’ve heard so much about?” He winks at me. “I hear you don’t like Sadie’s hair.”
James’s eyes go wide. “That’s not true at all!” His eyes go soft as they meet mine. “She’d look beautiful if she had no hair at all.”
Des lets out a snort. “You have such a way with words, Jimmy-boy. Remind me not to put you in charge of our marketing communications.” He hums. “Oh shit, I think we already have.”
I tilt my head. “You weren’t exactly overenthusiastic,” I say.
He holds up his hands. “It took me a while to get used to it and I was a bit grumpy, because I loved your long hair.” His eyes roam over my head. “But I like this, too.”
Des claps his hands. “Enough bickering, you two.” He leans forward. “I think I’m in love!”
“What?” James says.
“When I dropped my bags off, I was greeted by a very cute black cat.” He winks at me.
Des and Alex are staying with us while he’s here and my mom’s gone to Aunt CeCe’s.
There was no stopping her once she knew Des was coming back for a few days, saying she was just going to disappear if we didn’t use her bedroom.
James has finally persuaded her to do some admin jobs for the company by bringing them home and asking her opinion, so now she’s now doing ten hours a week for Williams Security.
She keeps refusing to take a full-time role, but I know he’ll persuade her eventually.
“He had lots of cuddles and purred in my ear and then got in the shower with me!”
“No he didn’t,” I say at the same time as James’s says, “He did what?”
“Not right under the water but he was next to it getting sprayed. He got pretty wet. He kept shaking his head like it was getting in his ears. I had to dry him with a hairdryer. He really loved that.”
I roll my lips together as James’s eyes dance. Perhaps Mr. Karen is just a thrill seeker? I guess being stuck in an apartment must be pretty boring for a cat. He’s been quite disgusted with the battery toys we’ve bought him.
“Fuck, he’s a nut,” James says.
Des punches his arm. “All the best people are nuts, James, as you well know.”
My eyes meet James’s, and I know we’re both thinking the same thing. Jane.
“But we’ve got so much we need to talk about!” Des says as he swings to look at me again. “Miss Head of Recruitment! I need you out in Korea helping me recruit people out there.”
Roy, Cath, and James were so impressed with the four practical coders I’ve managed to recruit so far that they’ve now given me responsibility for the whole damn recruitment gig.
Turns out I’m quite good at interviewing and assessing people.
People talk a lot in my interviews. Turns out that, if you ask a few questions but you’re generally quiet, people fill the void with all sorts of interesting things about themselves.
“Sadie is not going to Korea,” James says shortly.
I put my hands on my hips. “I beg your pardon?”
Something is working behind James’s eyes as he looks at me.
“Just my little joke!” Des says. “Come on. We’ve got Sadie’s presentation briefing to go through before we meet the shortlist tomorrow.”
After a day of Des getting excited about my candidates and running through a load of software updates, I slide my hands around James’s waist from behind as he flips a piece of chicken over in the pan.
Des and Alex looked all misty-eyed and said they were going to some club they had their first kiss in.
James’s has been quiet ever since we got home.
“Are you okay?” I say.
His head snaps around. “Of course! Why wouldn’t I be?”
I scan over his face. “You’re quiet.”
He puts the spatula down and turns and slides his arms around me and rests his chin on my head.
“I want you to have all the opportunities you deserve, Sadie,” he says softly. “When Des mentioned Korea, I …” He tilts back. “Maybe that would be a great opportunity for you. I don’t want you to miss out because we’re together and I’m here. It just got me thinking, that’s all.”
He steps back, pinching his nose. “I just … I …” He sighs and looks up at the ceiling. “This probably sounds stupid but … I don’t want to lose you,” he whispers.
James is meticulous in his own cute way about saying how he feels, and what’s going on.
He’s adamant that he doesn’t want to repeat what happened with Jane.
And I guess we all get colored by our past in one way or another.
He’s said he never wants to be blindsided again, and I’m so down with how honest he is about everything.
I step back into him and wrap my arms around him again, letting my warmth seep into him. “We’ll just take the opportunities as they come, James. Sometimes they’ll be things for you; sometimes they’ll be things for me. We can work together on what’s best for the both of us.”
He leans back, grinning. “That simple, huh?” His face straightens. “I don’t want your career to take second place to mine.”
I tilt my head at him. “I get that. I don’t want you sacrificing for me, either.”
“Okay,” he nods, eyes roaming my face. “Are you happy?”
I grin up at him. “As happy as I can be when I’ve not got a Brandon Sanderson book in my hand. How about you?”
He rests his chin on my head. “I’ve never felt so happy, Sadie. I just kept thinking today about what would happen if you went to Korea.”
“I think me teaching Korean to two small boys with dark curly hair just like yours is what would happen.”
He tips back to look at me, eyebrows raised as his eyes go heated. “You want that? Kids? I’d go out there with you and be your husband in this imaginary scenario?”
My face flushes, and he buries his face in my neck.
When he lifts it again, he’s grinning like a maniac.
“That’s the best news I’ve had all day. I mean, not yet; I want to spend some time enjoying ourselves together, but sometime, yeah?
And we’ll make the career decisions together and make sure we both get what we want out of that and … ” He’s almost babbling.
I laugh at his obvious mania. “You do realize this is all Des’s doing, don’t you?”
He groans. “Don’t tell him that! He’ll be insufferable.” He picks me up and spins me around, squeezing me so tight I almost can’t speak. “I can’t believe I found this. Found you.”
It all sounds like the most amazing future in the world to me. “Me, neither.”
“My hero,” he whispers into my ear, and I pull back to look at him, my lips parting as my eyes flick between his. “You’re my knight in shining armor,” he adds.
What? I’m the knight? Surely, I’m the queen?
And something I’ve never even considered grips me.
Perhaps he isn’t the hero of my story. Maybe I learned how to do it all by myself.
He helped me spread my wings. He stood next to me and listened to crazy theories about books and death and was there every time Jake turned up.
It’s in his soul, too, this quiet hero stuff.
I already knew what a nice guy he was, but he’s more than that: He’s the best kind of person, the best kind of man, one who pushes you out into the spotlight and stands there in the shadows applauding everything you do.
THE END.