Page 124 of A Ticking Time Boss

She’s still my idol.

“We were never weird,” Carter says. “We were… unorthodox.”

“Isn’t that just a fancier word for weird?”

He kisses my cheek again, avoiding the lipstick. “Smart-ass.”

I laugh. “You have a point, though. We didn’t exactly start out very conventionally.”

“Not at all.”

“Did you usually chat with women at bars? Like you did with me?”

He smiles, golden eyes warm. “This feels like a trick question, honey.”

“It’s not. I swear.”

“Sometimes,” he says. “But I’d stopped that kind of thing years before I met you.”

“So why did you speak to me?”

He raises an eyebrow. “You looked like you needed help. An escape from your thoughts, you know? Plus, you were stunning. I thought that from the beginning.”

“I thought you were attractive from the first time we met.”

He grins. “I suspected, kid, even when you pretended not to notice. Come on. We’ll be late.”

We’re late.

But no one cares.

The Winter Hotel is an imposing feature in New York, old and storied, with marble floors in the giant atrium. Security is tight tonight, a testament to the kind of people Isaac and Anthony Winter had invited. The night is beautiful. Our friends are there, and try as we all should to mingle with the other guests, it’s always more fun when we talk to one another.

Freddie steals me away as soon as she can. She’s no longer breastfeeding and drinks a glass of champagne with obvious relish. “Julie was asleep when we left,” she tells me. “She’s an angel most of the time, except when she’s not, of course.”

Tristan and Freddie had bought a townhouse not far from Anthony and Summer. It’s a beautiful place, family-oriented, and I’m there at least twice a month to visit Freddie. She’s become the sister I never had.

An ambitious, intelligent, endlessly supportive sister.

“The sweetheart,” I say. Julie is the cutest little baby.

“I saw your article. Brilliant, Audrey,” she says. “Absolutely brilliant. I had tears in my eyes halfway through.”

I’d cried several times while writing it, putting my family’s pain to paper, and I squeeze her arm. “Thank you.”

Carter is talking to the other men in the distance. All three of them are married now, Anthony and Summer tying the knot just last summer. We’re the last couple left.

I smile at his tall form. I’m not in a rush, and I don’t think he is either. What we have is the best thing in my life.

“I wonder why he’s still single,” Freddie murmurs at my side. Summer and Cecilia are close by, but neither overhear.

“Who?” I ask.

“Isaac? Isn’t that who you’re looking at?”

My gaze travels up to the twin grand staircases in the lobby. Isaac Winter is there, standing at the top with his hand on the railing. His suit looks sharp. Edges crisp, eyes expressionless as he looks out over the crowd. He’s Anthony’s older brother and heir to the Winter hotel fortune. He must be in his late thirties or early forties now.

“Oh. You’re right. I’ve never seen him with anyone. He didn’t even bring a date tonight?”

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