Page 141 of Love on the Byline

Deanna waved them into the auditorium where several othersmilled about. Ollie spotted Blake over by one of the student’s vision boards.

“Hey,” he said walking up next to her. He was momentarilystunned by the smile she turned on him.

“Hey yourself.” She nudged their shoulders together, hersmile slipping into a worried frown. “Sorry I haven’t been in touch. Everythingis just so—”

Ollie held up a hand. “Blake, c’mon. You have a lot going onright now. I knew that. It’s all good.”

She exhaled a sigh of something like relief. “Did you readit?”

“I did.”

“Did Bran?” She glanced over his shoulder.

“He did,” he replied. “It was brilliant, Blake. Truly.”

She turned back to the board, but he could see how much hisapproval meant to her in the way her cheeks reddened slightly. Fuckingadorable.

Still, he couldn’t help but worry.

“How did it go down at the paper?”

She took a quick breath. “Well, it seems the owner, Mr.Farrell, didn’t take too kindly to the accusations.”

“Shit.” His heart sank into his stomach.

“Yep. He fired Sonja.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. Fuck. This is what he’dbeen afraid of. He— “Wait, what?” He stared at her, wondering if he’d heard herwrong.

Fighting her grin, Blake turned to face him. “Sonja wasfired. Marched right out of the office just like she’d threatened to do to meonly minutes before,” she said, a wicked gleam in her eye. “And, get this,Gideon is the new EIC.”

“Your boss is now the boss?”

“Yep, but that’s not the best part.”

The best part was that Blake still had a job, he assumed.Which meant she’d be staying in Los Angeles.

“What’s that?” He tried to temper his excitement.

“You’re looking at the Gazette’s newest investigativejournalist.”

He grabbed her shoulders as her entire face lit up. “What?”

Her smile was positively blinding, and he wanted to kiss herso badly.

“I know! Gideon told Mr. Farrell about the article I’ve beenworking on,” she said. “Turns out, he has some emotional investment in thecenter, here. Anyway, he promoted Gideon and now I report to the head of IJ,Corinne Jensen.”

“Blake, that’s fantastic.” He pulled her into a hug, tryinghard not to crush her, overwhelmed on her behalf. “Trent will be so fuckingproud of you,” he whispered into her ear. “Are you going to call him? He maynot understand, but he’ll know.”

She pulled back to look up at him, her eyes full of emotion.“Yeah. I hope so.”

“God... I’m so...”

“What?” she asked, looping her arms around his waist.

“I’m glad you’ll be in Los Angeles for a while.”

She smiled. “Same.”

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