“Hey, what’s up, man? Everything going alright?” Despite the major hiccup the weekend the tour began, Evan had done surprisingly well so far. After pictures of the two authors kissing surfaced on Instagram after their first signing, I’d thought things would get dicey, but people loved it.
“I need your help,” he whispered.
“What the hell is going on? Are you in trouble or something? Do I need to send bail money?”
“No,” he whispered again, his voice getting louder when he continued. “Everything is fine with the tour, but I need you to arrange something in New York.”
“Okay? Hit me with it. What do you need?”
“Can you arrange a dinner for the last night, after the signings downtown?”
“Yeah, we sometimes have a celebration dinner at the end of the tour, but are you sure you don’t want to wait until Boston?”
“It has to be New York. I’ll send you an email with what I need.”
“Why all the cloak and dagger?”
“I want to propose to Chase.” Stunned, I sat back in my chair, rubbing my hand over the scruff on my chin. Holy shit.
I’d questioned her motives before the tour, and he’d been quick to put me in my place, but I hadn’t realized he was serious when he’d told me he wanted to marry her.
“You still there?” he asked, suddenly sounding nervous.
“Uh, yeah. Congratulations, I guess. If you send me the details this afternoon, I can get the ball rolling.”
“Thank you,” he sighed. “If you can arrange things on your end, I’ll try to get Sam on board. As long as I can keep Kristine from killing him before then.”
“Things going that well?” I laughed, knowing that my intern was more than capable of putting Isobel’s in her place. Not that she’d make it easy for him.
“Everything’s great so far, but after the mix-up in Denver, she’s been a bit feral.”
“Not surprising.” She’d ripped me a new one when the rooms were mixed up at the hotel and she had to share with Sam. It broke all kinds of protocol with the company travel guidelines, but we hadn’t had any other choice.
Isobel appeared in my doorway, tilting her head as she pointed at my phone. I mouthed Evan, and she frowned, so I knew I needed to get him off the phone to fill her in.
“I’ll get everything set and email you details once everything is ready. Safe travels to your next stop.”
“What’s going on?” Is asked as she sat in the chair across from my desk. “Do we need to cancel lunch to fix an issue?”
“Nah, it’s not anything urgent. Evan wants to propose while we’re in New York. He asked me to set up a dinner. He’s sending me details in an email this afternoon.”
“Propose?” she whispered, eyes wide. “This soon? They barely know each other.”
“Like we can talk,” I chuckled, standing from my desk and sitting on the arm of the chair she occupied.
“But we’ve known each other for five years.”
“Is, you hated me for most of that time. We’ve only really been together about the same amount of time as they have and we’re planning to have a kid together. I don’t know why you’re so shocked.”
As I stroked her cheek, she nodded, her eyes distant. “I guess,” she finally sighed. “But it all just seems so sudden. What if things don’t work out?”
I wasn’t sure if she was talking about them or us, but either way, I knew things were serious for both parties. “Things will work out how they’re supposed to. Have a little faith.”
“I don’t know if I can,” she whispered, leaning her face into my palm.
“Then I’ll have enough for the both of us.”
ISOBEL