Page 120 of Happily Never After

Alice tucked a curl behind Claire’s ear. “He just wants you to take this seriously. To be safe. To value your own life. To think about him, and all the other people who love you. You mean so much to so many. Especially your mama.”

She booped Claire on the nose. “Relationships take work, sweetie. You have to be willing to make concessions for each other. And I know part of you is afraid to give up yourindependence. To feel like you’re accountable to someone. To fully open your heart again after what Jason did to you. But Luke isnotJason. I don’t want to see you throw away the great love of your life because you’re too proud to look at things from his perspective. You need to know when it’s time to apologize if you want to make this work. So why don’t you do what you can to make it right?”

Claire sniffed and rubbed at her fake mustache. Her mother had an annoying ability to put a complicated situation simply. “Do you guys have a group chat going or something? You’re not supposed to take his side.”

“I’m not, darling. You’re right—he shouldn’t have left. But I understand why he did, and I think you do too.”

“Well,” Claire said, sitting up and wiping a finger underneath her eyes. “There’s nothing I can do about it now. He’s gone.”

Alice nudged her. “You know that’s not true. You, my sweet girl, have an unparalleled talent for creating beautiful moments. Why don’t you do what you were born to do and create one for him?”

Claire dragged the sleeve of Luke’s sweatshirt over her face. The fake mustache caught the fabric and ripped itself off. The tears were out in full force now. She pressed a hand to the raw spot and looked at her mother.

“But what if he doesn’t come back?”

Alice squared her shoulders and took Claire by both arms. “Then he’s an idiot, and you’re finally going to move to Florida with me.”

Claire laughed in spite of herself. “That isnothappening.”

“Oh, come on, just think of the proposals. Beautiful sunshine, sandy beaches.”

“I’m sorry, didn’t I read that a Miami wedding was interrupted last week when a gator attended the ceremony and death rolled with the aisle runner?”

“Stop deflecting, sweetie. Go get one of your binders.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Claire said as she left the kitchen.

Anxiety rippled through her. Luke had been almost unrecognizable when he left. Stoic, cold, the spitting image of his notoriously icicle-like mother, Rachel. He had left, mere hours after she had been abducted. Did she really owe him a big romantic gesture?

A picture in the hallway caught her eye. She stopped and ran a finger over a pooka shell glued to the frame. She and Luke were pressed together, his fingers caught in her windswept hair. A cotton candy sunset colored the sky behind them. A pang of regret gripped her stomach. Could she spend the next sixty years of her life without him? Watch as he fell in love again, married someone who wasn’t constantly being abducted? Had beautiful, grumpy, suspiciously in-shape children with an Olivia clone?

Ideas were creeping in, but her stomach was still in a vise. Alice was right. She had been foolish, dangerous. If Luke was in her position and he had run off alone, she would be furious. And even before that, she had allowed herself to be so engulfed in Brad’s circus that she had forgotten to prioritize her relationship. All Luke had asked was to spend some time together in his second home. He wanted to show her what he loved about Los Angeles, and she barely made a spare minute to give him that. It had all been for nothing.

Even if he didn’t want to get back together, she owed him an apology. Her hands shook as she pulled a fresh binder out of the closet in the hallway. Would he understand, or was she about to put herself out there just to have her heart stomped on?

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

To Do:

- Win him back

- Soundproof Mindy’s room?

“Thanks for not taking it personally.”Claire lifted one end of a projector screen and handed it to Jeff, her private security officer of the day.

Long shadows intruded into Luke’s backyard. There was a slight chill in the air, and a breeze tugged at the hem of her bright red cocktail dress. She stoked the small flames in the stone fire pit.

Jeff shrugged. “I can understand why you’d want someone you already know to look after you.” A handgun holstered on Jeff’s hip clashed with the tuxedo and bright red cummerbund he wore. “Besides, this is better than sitting in a car holding my piss for eight hours.”

Claire glanced at her watch. Finally, after an exhausting twenty-four hours during which she had saged the entire house twice, Alice had flown home to make the next taping of her show.

Sawyer and Mindy were due to land any minute. Their arrival accomplished two things: first, Sawyer would serve as a 24/7, live-in bodyguard. And second, Mindy and Claire were going to give California one last shot by taking on Darius and Nick as clients. Their final West Coast representative interview was taking place tomorrow, and if Heather Clearwater wasn’t their girl, it was back to the drawing board. And if Luke didn’t want to reconcile, she would be apartment hunting as well. The future of her entire personal and professional life hinged on these next few days.

Would moving Sawyer in be enough to show Luke she was taking the threats against her seriously? And would firing the security team be enough to drag him back to the house? She had been too nervous to outright ask him to talk. Her heart couldn’t take another rejection. If firing SoCal Security didn’t summon Luke, she was going to be forced to set a bush on fire.

“Does that look straight?” Jeff asked from the ladder.

“It’s perfect. Thank you.”

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