Page 91 of One-Star Romance

He’d rate it six stars if he could. Though he was far from impartial at this point.

Gabby and Rob finally had their own text thread now, devoted mostly to talking about the plot developments or lines in Natalie’s book that particularly delighted them. And slowly, over the past month or so, Gabby had started sending Rob and Natalie illustrations of her favorite scenes, watercolors of how she imagined the characters. Fan art, she called them, for your eyes only.

Natalie took a breath. “Iman thinks that, on the strength of the manuscript, plus the TV writing credit of Meant 2B and the promise of a blurb from Tyler, she can get me a book deal, and a good one at that.”

Rob stepped forward and picked her up. “Hey!”

She squealed and held on to him, then said, “I don’t want to get ahead of myself. She could be overconfident.”

“She’s not. It’s incredible.”

Natalie blushed as Rob set her back down on the ground. “It got me thinking…our writers’ room is going back in-person for the show. But I have some savings, and I might want to take a step back. Focus on the novel-writing for a little while. And”—she laced her fingers in his, looking down at their hands, the blush on her cheeks deepening—“I can really do that from anywhere.”

“Are you thinking of coming back to NYC?” Rob asked, his heart starting to pound.

“I wouldn’t be moving just for you!” she said, her eyes wide. “So I don’t want you to feel that pressure! There are lots of other reasons to come back. I still hate driving, plus I want to be closer to Gabby and Angus. I know moving just for you would be ridiculous at this stage—”

“I’m in final-round interviews for a job in LA,” Rob said.

Natalie blinked. “What?”

He nodded. “It would involve a pay cut, and the work would be less interesting than what I’m doing now. I don’t like LA, and I love my job here.” He steeled himself, then looked straight at her. “But I love you more.”

“You love me?” Natalie whispered, a radiant grin coming over her face. “Funny, I was just thinking that I love you too.”

Warmth flooded his cheeks. He drew her in and kissed her, then pulled back, eyes crinkling from the strength of his smile. “You don’t know how hard I had to work not to blurt it out back in Angus and Gabby’s driveway. But you were being so cautious—”

“I liked you too much! I had to protect my fragile heart. And, yes, in hindsight, it seems ridiculous—” He pulled her back into him, and they were kissing again, happy and hungry for each other, until she disentangled herself. “Also, obviously you should not take this LA job, and I should move here instead!”

“Yeah, if you’re amenable to that, I would probably prefer—”

But he didn’t get to finish his sentence before they were touching again. And as he lifted her onto the kitchen counter and she wrapped her legs around him, he decided they could figure out the details later.

EPILOGUE

MAY 2023

Two Years Later

“You’re so calm right now. How are you not a ball of stress?” Gabby asked, as she zipped up Natalie’s dress.

“Oh, I had my ‘screw it’ moment when I woke up this morning with a huge pimple on my face,” Natalie said. “Aren’t you supposed to be done with acne by your midthirties?”

“Life. You never know what it’ll throw at you.”

“Zits on your wedding day,” Natalie said, beaming.

“Well,” Gabby said, stepping back, “concealer is a magical thing. You look beautiful. So let’s get you out there.”

Natalie took a last peek out the bedroom window, out into the yard of the small upstate farmhouse she and Rob had rented for the weekend. On the lawn, fifty or so guests chatted in their seats, waiting for the main event. Some of them craned their heads to look at Tyler, there with his serious girlfriend (a physicist!), as he talked to Natalie’s mom, there alone. She and Greg were trying out a separation, a decision her mother had come to shortly after Natalie and Rob had told her about their engagement. Her mom had seemed lighter since then, hopeful. Natalie’s dad, there with his second wife, kept glancing over at Ellen, chatting so easily with a celebrity, but Ellen didn’t seem to notice or care.

Perhaps unexpectedly, Natalie’s mom and Rob’s mom had become extremely good friends, both women moving into new phases in their lives. After talking it all through with Rob, his mother had made the difficult decision to move Rob’s father into a care facility, where trained professionals could manage his care while she visited regularly. He’d been having more bad days than good ones recently. But today was one of the beautiful good ones, and he chatted up the nearby guests with gusto. It helped that Rob’s half siblings had come too, to watch out for their dad but also to celebrate their little brother.

Natalie smiled down at the assembly, then followed Gabby out into the hallway.

By the front door, Angus stood on tiptoe to straighten Rob’s tie, already blubbering happy tears.

“Sorry,” Natalie said as she and Gabby began to descend the stairs. “I know we took our time!”

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