Page 124 of Not the Plan

“I swear, she and Laila have the same script,” he said.

“Still, I’m so sorry, Karim,” she said into his chest.

“Shhh…” He stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. “It’s long forgotten. I’m sorry too.”

She pulled back to look him in the eye.

“For what?”

“I should have come to you as soon as things felt weird, not tried to wait around and figure out what Julian was up to.”

She shook her head, putting a hand on his cheek.

“No more apologies,” she said. “I think you did everything right.” She savored the scratch of his stubble.

“Did you keep this for me?” she asked.

“Of course I did, beautiful.” His perfect lips beckoned.

“Yeah?” she asked, leaning in.

“Yeah,” he whispered.

She was almost ready to let herself fall, but there was a lingering fear. “Wait…Are you still planning a new, new start somewhere else?”

He tipped her chin back up to look her in the eye. “I think I might have a pretty good reason to stay here,” he whispered.

“You want to stay?” she asked.

“Do you want me to?”

The truth smacked her in the face. And before she could talk herself out of it, she told him exactly what she wanted. “I want us to be together every single day.”

“And now we can be,” he said.

“We can. Without Julian, we don’t have to hide anymore. We’ll turn some heads, but Daniel’s got more than enough political capital to protect you and get you a position anywhere you want.”

He wrapped his arms tighter around her.

“I want to be on Team Isadora,” he said as she snuggled in deeper.

“Oh, you’re already the captain of Team Isadora.” She took a deep breath to muster a little more courage. “But…I meant more than that. More than work.”

“Hmm?”

She squeezed her eyes tight, glad her head was tucked under his chin so she could hide the nervousness that was pushing against what she wanted.

“We’ve been cheated out of a lot of time together,” she said. “Only relying on video dates or our phones. We have a lot of catching up to do.”

“We do,” he said.

“So let’s make up for lost time.”

He leaned back to look at her, raising an eyebrow.

“How?” he asked.

“Pack a bag,” she said. “Come move in with me. For a week. Just to see.”

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