Page 85 of Wedding Bet

Ididhave a lot of experience, now. I knew how to handle the stress of peak restaurant service. And when I’d walked in to interview with the new place, I did my best to hide what a shuddering, nervous wreck I was on the inside.

I channeled my confidence.

I looked the part.

And after performing a test run yesterday in their kitchen, they’d just called me and said they’d be happy to hire me.

“I don’t even know how to process it,” I told Landry over the phone. “The base pay is so much better. The tips are shared equally, and they’re naturally going to be much higher. It’ll still be stressful, but it’s going to be amazing, Landry.”

The ocean glittered in the afternoon sunlight beside me. It was the same beach I’d seen countless times, but now it somehow seemed even more infinite.

My heart ached.

I would always love California. This would forever be my home.

But for the first time, I was letting myself enjoy change. I’d realized that life was going to be a wild, chaotic ride anyway, and that sometimes, change was inevitable.

And sometimes, change could beincredible.

“Listen,” Landry said, “I’m on the handsfree in my car right now, but I’m twenty minutes away from you. Let’s go out somewhere nice tonight and celebrate?”

Landry had already been in LA this week, planning on driving down to visit me in Stellara Beach tonight. But there was no shot that I would have been able to hold my excitement in long enough to wait twenty minutes to tell him the good news.

I let out a slow breath, unable to keep a smile from my face. “Okay. Yes. Tonight, you may take me out to any place you’d like. I promise I won’t even complain about you grabbing the check.”

Landry laughed. “Perfect. I’ll see you in twenty.”

The rest of my walk home was unlike any other I’d had before. When I turned onto the little street where I lived with my roommates, I wasn’t full of dread and panic as usual. And as I walked up to the house, I had none of the resentment I typically felt.

Soon, I’d be moving out and starting anew. With some of Landry’s help with the costs of moving, it didn’t even feel impossible, anymore. I’d made him promise that he’d let me pay it back, in full, once I was employed for a while in Colorado.

And I would make good on that promise. Even if he didn’t need the money, I had a while to go before I was comfortable sharing finances.

And even if I couldn’t afford somethingalone…

The hum of Landry’s car appeared behind me right as I was about to walk inside. I was still in my grungy work clothes, but he didn’t seem to care, running up to me right away and catching me in a tight hug.

“You did it. You fucking did it, like I knew you would,” he said, kissing my hair. “I love you, Jamie.”

“I love you too,” I said. When I kissed him, it felt like the first time again.

“Okay, someone needs to go back in time and punch me in the face,” I said five weeks later.

I’d just sat down after a solid eight hours of unpacking my stuff from boxes, after helping Mom unpack yesterday at her place for another eight hours.

And I washere.

In Colorado.

With Landry by my side.

He’d helped with every little part of the move, including helping me score a six-month lease on a temporary apartment. It was a nice, new-build place, and it would give me a springboard to look for a more permanent place to live now that I was here.

Landry came up and offered me a high-five. “You did it,” he said.

“I really did it. I can’t believe it.”

It had been five weeks. A normal person would plan a big move for a whole hell of a lot longer thanfive weeks. But because I was crazy, and because Landry was a superhero who had hired movers to help out me and Mom, we’d been able to do it in five weeks.

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