Page 84 of Wedding Bet

When we were back in the kitchen, Jamie yawned.

“Ready for a night of Blanket Stealers: Extreme Edition?” I asked him.

He wrapped his arms around my shoulders, looking up into my eyes. “Absolutely. But tonight, I’m fighting back.”

“You’re on.”

We hopped into bed, and the simplicity of the evening was stunning. My big, modern home had felt like nothing but a lonely prison for the past year, and now it suddenly feltalive. Jamie’s light radiated into every corner of my life, really, and I was starting to forget what it had even felt like without him in it.

I didn’twantto imagine life without him in it.

I couldn’t keep my hands off of him once we were in bed. And by the time we were drifting off to sleep, Jamie’s words from earlier rang out again in my mind.

We can make new memories, he’d told me.

I realized thatthatwas what I’d been missing, more than anything. Someone to make memories with. Someone who wanted to think about a future with me, whatever that future might bring.

Someone who’d been patient when I’d been fearful, so that I could return the favor when he had been fearful.

A true partnership, I thought.

Whatever form it would end up taking, I knew that’s what I had with Jamie. And I desperately wanted to see how many memories we’d make.

EPILOGUE

JAMIE, 18 MONTHS LATER

My fingers flew over the screen of my cheap old cell phone, tapping on the wrong things about four times before I finally managed to properly call Landry’s cell. A beachy breeze blew over my face as I headed out from work after a long morning.

I’d just taken a quick detour toward the ocean for a relaxing five-minute walk, and had received a phone call that would change my life.

“Hello, my love,” Landry finally answered, just like he always did.

“I got it,” I blurted out before he even had the chance to say more. “I got the job, Landry. They actually wanted me.”

I’d applied to a job at a brunch restaurant that was about a billion times fancier than the kitchen I’d been working for—and the place was in Denver, Colorado.

Denver.

Somewhere I never thought I’d end up, and somewhere I’d never evenwantedto be in the past.

But over the past year, not only had my love for the mountains grown, but Mom had also admitted that she’d gotten the bug to try moving closer to Chase. We’d discussed it onenight earlier this year, and had been shocked when both of us had the same idea.

The thought of all of us being in the same place again—close to Chase and to each other—felt like a gift. Landry would always have business meetings in both places, but more of his work was starting to be in Denver again, and I knew I’d get to see him even more, too.

The restaurant where I’d interviewed was about twenty minutes east down the mountains from my brother. It would be a midpoint from where Landry lived and where Chase was in Jade River, and I couldn’t wait.

A beautiful, velvety laugh came from Landry’s end. “Of course they did. You’re phenomenal. Congratulations, I knew you’d snag it.”

“I couldn’t have done this without you,” I said. “Literally.”

It was true.

Last week, Landry had offered to pay for my flight out to do a last-minute interview there. It was the kind of thing I usually would have refused, but the longer I’d been with Landry, the more I’d realized that any offer of money wasneverdone out of pity.

It really was something that could change our lives.

The restaurant was the kind of place I’d have felt out of place even stepping into, as well, even a year ago. But—with a lot of encouragement from Landry—I’d slowly built up confidence in myself and my skills.

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