Page 70 of The Dating Contract

“It’s not you,” he said. “And I am. It’s funny, you know? I’ve been here before and yet I didn’t notice the stairs before.”

“Really?”

They were…rather large and would be out of place in any other type of residence here. But they fit.”

Still noticeable.

“I notice them,” she said, trying to pull her thoughts together, “because here I am, standing next to you, about to go up similar stairs into another party. So much has changed since then.”

“You barely walked into my apartment the last time,” he said. “We met in my brother’s office space.”

Which was true, but Samuel’s delivery, in those gorgeous jeans and a shirt that showed off his forearms, made her want to laugh her butt off. “Yeah,” she said. “Times change, people change.”

She laughed, but a quiet laugh, one that made him smile.

She could get lost in that smile for hours, if not days.

Years if she was lucky…

But she didn’t want to get ahead of herself.

She needed to get through tonight without any emergencies first.

“They do.” he said. And then he looked at her, not just a normal Samuel smiling look, but something else.

Something deeper.

She couldn’t look away if she wanted to.

“You ready?” he asked.

His voice popped her bubble, reminding her that this was an official appearance, a birthday party. He needed to impress people. Which meant she had to pull herself back from the pink fluffy clouds of emotion that were threatening to drown her.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m ready. You?”

He nodded. “I am.”

And knowing she couldn’t do anything else, or say anything else, she trusted him to lead her upstairs and into a townhouse full of people he knew, her fingers brushing his with every step.

*

Samuel could notbelieve himself or his circumstances.

There he was, standing at the top of Liam’s stairs, on a beautiful summer night in Queens, with Leah.

And they were about to go into the townhouse to celebrate Oliver’s birthday.

Which if he’d been asked three years ago what the most significant part of the night, having decided that Leah was no longer someone who could be in his life, he’d answer the fact he’d be going to Oliver Goldsmith’s birthday party.

But now, not only was he going to celebrate his friend andcollaboratorOliver’s birthday, he was taking Leah.

Life took him in interesting directions, in mysterious ways and paths he’d never understand. But here he was.

Here they were. “Here we go,” he said when he dropped her fingers to knock on the door.

“Here we go,” she said, as she took his hand back, the warmth of her hand welcoming on a night like this, as the scraping metal and the rattling chain followed by the creaking noise heralded the open door.

This was it.

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