Chapter Thirty-Five
Thirty-Five
Some people have trouble with boundaries. They say “no” but find themselves allowing guns in a “no guns” heist. They set rules about sacrificing yourself to save others and allow people to break them when the only way out of a situation is to take puffer fish poison and pretend that you’re dead. They have a moral code but will throw it out the window when their serial killer high-society billionaire friend goes on the run in a super-yacht with her unhinged billionaire fly girl in international waters, where no one can touch them. They say they want a relationship but then they agree to let their boyfriend go away for several months to repatriate one of the world’s lost treasures.
“Mom, could you and Simi please slow down? I don’t want people to think we’re together. It’s not cool to go dress shopping with your fam.” Olivia took three big steps, trying to distance herself from us on the first floor of Bloomingdale’s.
“Do you remember just a few months ago when she was excited to go dress shopping with us?” Chloe’s eyes watered. “It feels like it was yesterday.”
“They grow up so fast,” I said. “I remember her in Demonia boots, ripped tights, and black dresses held together with pins. Now her tights have no rips in them.”
“I hardly recognize her after her glow-up.”
“I can hear you.” Olivia turned and glared over her shoulder. “Take several seats.”
“Do you have any heavy books with you in case I see Jack kissing another woman?” I peered into Chloe’s tote bag. “I’m still traumatized by our last visit to Bloomingdale’s, and I want to be prepared.”
“I thought he was still away.”
“He was supposed to be away last time,” I said, “and then he snuck back to cause trouble and pull us into another heist.”
“He won’t get into trouble working at his cousin’s greenhouse when he gets back. That’s a pretty low-key kind of job.”
I had doubts about how long Jack was going to last running the greenhouse. Yes, he loved his plants. And yes, he wanted to help Lou out after Lou had been arrested and thrown in jail when he confused two Mr. Browns and offered an undercover police officer a variety of stolen weapons instead of three cedar trees and some tulip bulbs. He also owed Lou a canoe.
Jack’s life had been all about action and adventure. How did someone like that settle down? How was it going to be enough to spend his days recommending coral bells, dead nettle, and foamflower for shady gardens? How was he going to be fulfilled sending me lilies instead of tropical flowers for the funerals that now made up most of my event-planning business thanks to word-of-mouth advertising from the high-society types who had loved loved LOVED my circus- and shark-themed celebrations? Who would have thought so many rich people died every day? Or that they were all so clumsy?
Where was Jack going to stay when he came back? We hadn’t even talked about living arrangements during our nightly calls over regular and not burner phones. How was our relationship going to work as he settled into civilian life now that there was no longer a price on his head? Like Garcia had said, there were so many questions.
Olivia stopped so suddenly in front of us, I almost ran into her. “Is that Jack?”
In an instant, I was pulled into a terrible flashback: Jack, Clare, the kiss, the book, and then the walk with Garcia, who had stopped coming by for pizza nights after I told him Jack and I were back together. My stomach sank and I braced myself for the worst.
“Oh no. It’s just someone who looks like him.” Olivia looked over her shoulder with a smirk. “My bad.”
“I think Olivia spends too much time on her phone,” I said loudly. “I read that parents in Silicon Valley who work in the tech industry don’t allow their children to have phones at all. It rots their brains.”
“I’m going to tell Gage what you said,” she snapped. “He lets me do whatever I want.”
“He lets you do only what your mother tells him he can let you do,” I reminded her. “She keeps him on a tight leash.”
“We’re going up to the personal shopper floor,” Chloe said, heading for the escalator. “We followed Anil’s investing advice about saving for the future, but Olivia has picked out a very special dress.”
We emerged a few minutes later on the floor where the dresses were all chained to racks, and no one was wearing jeans, and made our way to the front desk.
“Pickup for Simi Chopra,” Chloe said.
“I didn’t buy anything here.” I looked around at the five-thousand-dollar dresses. “What’s going on?”
“Here you go.” The personal shopper—not Clare, thank goodness—handed me a black dress bag.
“This isn’t mine,” I protested.
“Put it on.” Chloe pushed me toward the changing room. “We’re running late.”
Still confused, I did as she asked. The dress she’d given me was a stunning burgundy sleeveless A-line chiffon midi dress with a high neck and a flowing skirt. It was quite simply the most beautiful piece of clothing I’d ever seen.
“The shoes are already in there,” Chloe called out.
I slipped on the elegant black stilettos and stared at my stunned self in the mirror for a long moment before joining Olivia and Chloe outside.
“Now, will you tell me what’s going on?”
“You look gorgeous.” Chloe smoothed back my hair and slipped a beaded black clutch into my hand. “I wanted to take you for hair and makeup, but we’ve run out of time. The car is waiting for you downstairs.”
“What car? Where are we going? What about Olivia’s dress?”
“Did you seriously think I’d cater to internalized patriarchal beauty standards and wear something designed for the male gaze that would restrict my ability to run from predators?” Olivia huffed. “You don’t know me at all.”
“Do you trust me?” Chloe’s smile was so wide it made her eyes crinkle at the corners.
“Always.”
“Then for the next hour or so, just go with the flow. It’s all going to be okay.”
I followed her downstairs and she helped me into a big black Bentley that was waiting outside.
“Love you, babe.” She and Olivia waved from the street as the driver raised the window.
“Love you, too.”
Half an hour later, the Bentley pulled up in front of a large Tudor house set back in a sea of trees in the heart of Evanston. I was still trying to remember where I’d seen it when architect Trey Williams opened the car door.
“Simi!” He smiled and helped me out. “It’s so nice to see you again. The renovations are all done on your new home, and I’m excited to show you around.”
“I think there’s been a mistake,” I said as he ushered me up the walkway. “This isn’t my house. I mean, I planned the renos, but—”
“I couldn’t have started the renovations if the title wasn’t in order.” Trey laughed and opened the front door. “I know it will look very different now that the work is done, but it is indeed yours.” He waved me inside. “Come. Let me show you around. Most of it was cosmetic, but with the amount of money you had allocated for the renos, the contractor was able to hire three separate building teams to get even the most substantial work completed in time.”
I took a deep breath and put my misgivings aside. I trusted Chloe. She’d told me everything was going to be okay.
Trey had worked wonders with the renovations. Everything we had talked about had been done—the sparkling white kitchen, the open-plan living room, the greenhouse and the potting shed out back. Even the rooms we hadn’t discussed—bathrooms, basement, and bedrooms—had been updated in a style I loved.
“It’s amazing,” I said to Trey after we’d finished touring the second floor. “You did a fantastic job, but I think there was a misunderstanding.”
Trey handed me a set of keys and pointed to the door leading to the master suite. “I think if you go in there, it might all get sorted out. Congratulations. On everything.”
After Trey had gone, I opened the door.
At first my attention was drawn to the incredible transformation. Two bedrooms had become one to create a master suite the size of my parents’ living room, with big, airy windows; bright, bold colors; a marble en suite; and a giant walk-in closet. A king-size bed overflowing with pillows dominated the space in the center of the room. Above it, a sea of mirrors glistened. And on it, lounging back on the pillows with a self-satisfied smile, was Jack.
“What’s going on?” I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, my brain still trying to process everything I was seeing. “Trey thinks this is my house.”
“It is yours,” he said. “I bought it. For you.”
I staggered back and collapsed in the nearest chair. “You can’t buy me a house.”
“I did.”
“But…the cost, Jack. It was six million dollars.”
“I’ve pulled off a lot of heists over the years,” he said. “I had no one to share the money with. Nothing to buy except my trucks. I lived a low-key lifestyle so no one would know how much I really had. And then I met a girl who made me want to be a better man. I fell in love, and when I saw this house…” He climbed off the bed and knelt in front of me. “Simi Chopra, will you marry me?” He opened the blue velvet box in his hand and showed me a beautiful sapphire ring surrounded by diamonds.
My mouth opened, but all that spilled out was, “My brain…”
A frown creased Jack’s brow. “Not really the answer I was expecting.”
“I can’t…” I shook my head. “You organized all this? Chloe? The dress? The car? Trey and all the renovations were real? When did you buy this house? It had to be after I told you I wanted to take a break.”
“Yes, it was.”
“But how did you know we’d get back together?”
“Because if we weren’t meant to be together, I would never have been in the bushes the night you tried to save Chloe in the museum. I wouldn’t have held you in my arms and known deep in my bones that I’d met the woman I’d been waiting for all my life—a woman who is intelligent and beautiful and brave and loyal, who has a secret love of adventure and a wicked sense of humor, a woman who lights up every room she walks into and can take a group of misfits and turn them into a family. A woman I want to call my wife.” He took the ring out of the box and slid it on my finger. “This was my mother’s ring. It is the only thing I have left to remember her by, and there is no one else I have ever wanted to give it to but you.”
I looked at the ring and then at the man who had stolen my heart. “Yes, Jack, I’ll marry you.”
An hour later, after we’d christened the bed, we lay side by side staring up at our naked selves. “Jack?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“The mirror has to go.”
“I like it.”
“Do you like what we just did?”
Jack gave a satisfied rumble. “Very much.”
“Would you like to do it again? Ever?”
Jack froze as understanding dawned. “I’ve changed my mind about the mirror.”
“I thought you might.”
“Is there anything else you don’t like?”
I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him down for a kiss. “Everything is perfect.”