Page 110 of No Place Like You

I turn to wrap my arms around his neck. “Totally worth it.”

“Ew!” We both turn toward the kitchen, where we catch Nat launching a disposable plastic cup in our direction, and it lands square on Dexter’s head. “No making out with my sister!”

“How about after this we go home and take a nice long nap?” Dexter asks, ignoring my sister.

“A nap? Or…”

He smirks. “I mean, we can do other?—”

I clamp a hand over his mouth. “She’s going to throw the whole champagne bottle at you next.”

“I really don’t care,” he claims, planting a kiss on my mouth, proving that my sister’s threats mean squat to him. “I only get to have you for a week before you go back to LA.”

This is what our lives have been like for the past six months. After Elevate finally reached out to me with a job offer, I countered with conditions. I told Ryan I wouldn’t be able to relocate to Los Angeles. I told him I’d be willing to work out what I can to work for the company while preparing myself for the possibility that they might turn me down. But, as it turns out, Elevate was set to open a corporate location in Manhattan…in thirteen months. So Ryan and his team agreed to have me start at the Manhattan branch when it opens. I’ll be handling so much more than I thought with so many future projects for me to head. Ryan and the HR team explained how I’d be managing some of those projects, and in the meantime, I could take on projects in LA so I’m prepared when the new branch opens.

So until that happens, I’ve been shuttling back and forth from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. Dexter and I spent Christmas in New York City and New Year’s in LA together. We flew back home with Hayden, Nat, Carmen, and David just after the holidays to celebrate my parents’ fortieth wedding anniversary, and now I’m back here to commemorate Janet’s new lease on life.

“So I have an idea,” I say in a low voice.

“Does it involve your vibrator? I charged it after you left?—”

“No,” I scold, though unable to hide my laugh. He laughs too. That boyish smile I missed before Janet got the news that she was finally in remission is back, front and center. “I was thinking, maybe you can come to LA with me?”

“Next week?”

“Just the weekend,” I clarify. “I can take you to that new croffle shop near The Grove.”

“How they mixed a croissant and a waffle together baffles me. Like that wiener-pitbull mix.”

“So yeah?”

“Yeah,” he answers, his brows bouncing up and down.

“Really?”

He smiles, pulling me closer to him. “Have you not learned yet that I can’t say no to you?”

“Dex,” Hayden calls from the kitchen. Dexter pulls away to face Hayden. “You just got a message. It’s Charles. They’re on their way.”

He turns to me, grinning widely. “Let’s get this celebration started.”

51

Lucy

two years later

“How much longer?”

I stop pacing my small bathroom and pause at the sink to peer down at the timer on my phone. “Forty-seven seconds.”

“Ugh! How long does itfreakingtake to absorb some pee?!” Nat complains, dramatically burying her face into her hands. She crouches forward with her butt perched on the edge of the bathtub, and her left foot taps up and down.

I chuckle. “Thirty-nine seconds.”

“I blame Hayden,” she deadpans.

“Riiight,” I respond sarcastically. “Because you had zero contribution in the conception of this possible baby.”

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