Page 128 of Authentically, Izzy
What?Izzy blinked and looked from the woman to Brodie, who stood much closer to her than he’d been a few minutes ago, his mastiff brow still intact.
He studied her with those brilliant-blue eyes of his as if weighing every intention running through her brain, before he turned his attention back to the woman. “Thank you, Aunt Karina. You’ve made a sufficient scene to share later with all of your lady friends down at the tea room.”
Every ounce of heat left Izzy’s face. Her voice refused to work.Aunt Karina?
“Isabelle, this is my aunt Karina.” Brodie gestured toward the woman, his eyes searching Isabelle’s as he continued, a forced smile on his lips. “Aunt Karina, this is Isabelle Edgewood.”
“You look exactly like your photos, my dear. All that glorious hair.” She raised the book in her hand. “And thank you for this as well as the other suggestion. As I said, I have a certain fondness for stories that turn out well.”
With another pixie grin and a pat to Brodie’s cheek, the fair-haired woman walked away, leaving a series of chuckles in her wake.
Izzy’s brain began to piece the little scenario together. She lowered her gaze to the floor, shaking her head. “Your aunt.”
“Brynna’s mum.” Brodie’s response held no emotion, his voice so near and yet... far. “But everyone in my entire family—in fact, the entire town—knows who you are, Isabelle, the Book Matchmaker from America.”
“Oh.” And the woman who broke their boy’s heart. She kept her gaze fastened on the Austen shelf nearby, a taunting punishment ofhappily ever afters that nearly ushered up a groan and then a retreat toward the door.“Loving someone deeply gives you courage.”She raised her eyes to his. She loved him. So much. And she belonged wherever he was.
He continued to study her, arms folded across his chest. “You flew all the way back to Skern?”
“I hurt you face-to-face, so I... I wanted to make amends face-to-face.” She released a slow breath to keep her tears in check. “If I can.”
His jaw twitched and his gaze roamed over her, taking in her hair, her eyes, his expression unreadable. “Fiona went to bed in tears and Brynna hasn’t slept well since you left because she’s blamed herself for the whole fiasco.”
“I’m so sorry, Brodie. I never meant to hurt them. I was wrong. So wrong. I should have known that you were different than anyone else I’d ever met.” Her gaze came back to his. “So much better, but I’d been hurt so many times, the whole stipend thing seemed to follow the MO of my romantic history. But then I reread our correspondences and thought about all the things I love most about you.”
“You love me, do you?” His voice had lost its edge.
“Aye.” The word he used so often quivered out of her with a sniffle. “Even though I’ve done a poor job of showing it lately.” Her vision blurred but she refused to lower her gaze. “I want you, to be with you, if... if you can forgive me. And if you think you can want the same thing.”
His gaze bore into hers, searching, extracting whatever information he could, and then he gently tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. “Aye, I can.”
Her breath hitched. “What?”
His lips caught her word and she melted into him, her hands trembling up to wrap into his hair. Part-sob, part-laugh slipped between their kisses until she pulled back to cradle his face with her palms. “Are you serious?”
“Was the kiss not answer enough?” He winked and squeezed her closer, giving her another lengthy kiss that stole her breath. “And you want me, do you?”
“Mm-hmm,” she murmured, pressing her forehead against his, holding him close.
“You can have me, Karre.” His lips quirked into an unruly grin. “And I’ll throw the job in too.”
She laughed out a sob. “A bonus already?”
“What can I say? I’m a fool for a beautiful, bookish woman and an excellent apology.” And with that, he brought his lips back to hers with such thoroughness, her doubts about finding a shelf-space in his heart dissolved to dust. In fact, she was pretty sure she’d made it to his Favorites shelf. He’d certainly made it onto hers. Featured book, even.
“Actually, I think I’m the benefactor of this particular bonus, Isabelle Edgewood. And I’m a fan of happily-ever-after stories, too, particularly the real kind,” he murmured against her lips before sneaking another kiss and reminding her what a difference being loved made to dreams and futures and learning to be authentically you.
So their story may have started out between a human and a hobbit, but it ended rather deliciously like a Tolkien-ish happily ever after.“And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.”
And Brodie didn’t seem to care either (not that they were on top of a wall or anything), but standing in the middle of a crowded bookshop fit their story a little better. He proved he was quite adept at not only caring and forgiving, but kissing a woman exactly like he knew how. And Izzy wasn’t complaining one bit. In fact, she encouraged his practice with great zeal. How perfect to confirm a bookishly wonderful, long-distance true love in front of the epistolary Romance section of a bookshop! If that isn’t the setup for a happily ever after, Izzy didn’t know what was.
***
From: Izzy Sutherland
To: Luke Edgewood, Josephine Martin, Penelope Edgewood
Date: August3
