Page 151 of Happily Never After

They ate a celebratory meal of lasagna and gnocchi. It was a fabulous day to be a proposal planner.

“So,” Claire said as they walked into the parking lot. “I’m going to walk you through sending out the welcome packet and have you run the first brainstorming session.”

“This is all so exciting!” Heather’s eyes sparkled in the dim light. “Thank you so much for bringing me on board. I’m really excited to get to work.”

“Me too,” Claire said. “Let’s swing by the warehouse site to check on the construction, and then I’ll drop you off.”

Claire gave the parking lot a cursory glance before dropping to her knees beside the car and inspecting the tires. ESA wasnotgoing to abduct her again.

“Sounds good,” Heather said from the ground on the other side of the car. She had picked up on Claire’s safety habits immediately and integrated them into her own routine. “All clear on this side.”

No trackers, no rusty nails. It must be their lucky night.

They climbed into the car. As Claire backed out of the parking spot, Heather withdrew a binder from her purse. “The sound equipment was finally replaced. It’s in storage at Luke’s. We’re still waiting on all the other electronics, the décor, moving equipment, office furniture. Hmm.”

In addition to learning the ropes as a proposal planner, Heather had also taken over the inventory replacement project.

“It’s not much, but it’s a start,” Claire said as she turned out onto Main Street. Things were looking up. They had a new, competent employee. Their inbox was positively exploding with proposal requests from all over. The top Google search result for Claire Hartley was an article about Brad’s proposal instead of her abduction. Brianna’s premiere was in two days, and the strong message of female empowerment was sure to piss off ESA. Luke’s premiere party was ninety percent planned, and he had even begrudgingly listened to some of the details.

“Forgive me if I’m speaking out of turn,” Heather said softly, startling Claire out of her reflection. She hovered on the edge of her seat like a hummingbird thinking about landing. “But you’re still set on having this dinner tomorrow?”

Claire cracked a smile. Already getting involved in the personal lives of her coworkers. She really did belong here.

Luke and Claire were flying back to LA the next day. A sure-to-be-disastrous family dinner with Jack, Tanya, Brianna, and Charlie awaited them. Charlie and Jack hadn’t shared a dinner table in two decades. Even at Thanksgiving, Charlie had disappeared into the closet in the basement with a plate of turkey and a bottle of wine.

“For the record,” Claire began, “I fully recognize that this is a terrible idea. But my family’s been broken for so long. Especially now that I have Luke, if we have children someday, I want them to know their family—aunts, uncles, grandparents. I want us to be able to get together for the holidays without all the adults screaming at each other. You’ll understand when you meet them someday,” she added, glancing in her rearview mirror as she switched lanes.

Heather nodded and leaned forward, seeming to sense that Claire wasn’t done.

“Charlie’s never forgiven my dad for what he did. It’s going to be very uncomfortable, if she even shows up. But she accepted Bri. I really think we can work through this and at least tolerate each other. Hopefully. And if not, Bri’s premiere will be less fun than the average funeral.”

Heather nodded and settled back in her seat. “And Luke’s family?”

Claire wrinkled her nose. “That’s a project for another year. I tried meddling already. Rachel jumped out into traffic and I threw Luke’s brother out of my apartment after dropping him to the floor like a sack of flour. Separate incidents.”

Heather whistled.

Family stuff was hard. Even at his best, Jack was still the man who abandoned her and missed twenty years of her life. In fact, he had only shown up to question her about the worst thing that ever happened to her. And Tanya, his wife, would forever be the woman who destroyed Alice’s marriage. But Jack had taken a bullet for her, and Tanya had welcomed her, a product of her husband’s previous marriage, with open arms.

The Hartleys were a fractured family, glistening fragments of a stained-glass window that hadn’t been whole in decades. She couldn’t choose her family. She couldn’t fit the pieces back into the places they once held. But maybe she could make something beautiful with the mess.

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

To Do:

- Unpack new Tasers

- Refill prescriptions

- Google red carpet etiquette

“Let me guess.Mysterious hooded figure. No identifiable features. Emerged out of the shadows and promptly disappeared. He seemed to have an intricate knowledge of which businesses have security cameras, so it’s impossible to tell which direction he came from,” Claire said. It took every ounce of self-control in her body to not reach through the phone and strangle Detective Smith.

“Well, yes.”

She could practically see the tips of the detective’s ear reddening.

“Great. Thanks for the update. And the smudge of red fluid?”

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