Chapter Sixteen
Maybe she should move back to Ohio. She’d spent the last few days trying to piece her heart back together. She’d even gone back to Coney Island to ride The Wheel, knowing it was time to conquer her own fears. To be brave, not for a relationship, for herself.
She’d walked all over the city. Spent days crossing items off her New York bucket list. Practiced Tai Chi in Columbus Park. Went to the boathouse in Central Park. Indulged at Serendipity.
But nothing stopped the ache in her heart.
More than three days had passed, so Jake was obviously back on the island, enjoying his peace, and she was still here, sitting on the apartment-sized sofa in her walk-up. Why not move back to Ohio? She’d written up a spec piece, not the exclusive, but a piece called “Making Over Your Love Life.” She’d emailed it directly to the editor at Cosmo, but she’d heard nothing. Even after Jane’s recommendation. No exclusive. No Cosmo.
Maybe she really was just the blonde girl from Ohio, destined to marry the neighbor’s son and wear a hard hat for the rest of her life. Don’t hyperventilate. Do. Not. Hyperventilate. No—she just needed to think.
Obviously, she needed to stop dating. Completely. Even her walk on the wild side had turned out to be a disaster. Was this really what she inspired? Men taking off? Leaving donuts? No strings? No love? Because her relationship with Jake had felt different—real. She eyed her cell phone. Not wanting more news of her so-called bachelor, she’d turned the damn thing off hours ago, but now she wondered if she ought to call him. Give him a chance to explain. No—she didn’t need an explanation. She had needed her exclusive. Even if he hadn’t signed the contract, the man had owed her an exclusive. They’d had a verbal agreement. Although she missed all their non-verbal stuff, too. Hell, she missed him. But love had found her once, and even though he wasn’t The One, despite the pain, she was happy to have experienced the kind of love she’d always believed in.
Maybe that love would find her again.
Then, just as she was about to give in and indulge in a marathon session of Dr. Phil On Demand, she heard a car horn blare outside. She wrinkled her nose. Probably a taxi. Or moving van. Welcome to Brooklyn, she thought. I’ll be booking a U-Haul next week. She picked up the remote and settled in the corner of the loveseat. And that’s when she heard it—the grating sound of her fire escape being pulled down. Her mind raced ahead. Someone was climbing up the fire escape. Like any good New Yorker, she carried pepper spray, but like any good Ohio girl, she’d left it in her purse. In her purse—in the closet—with her cell phone. She reached under the loveseat and picked up the baseball bat her dad had given her when she’d left for New York. Heart in her throat, she walked over to the window.
Outside, a cab was parked haphazardly on the concrete sidewalk, and near the bottom of the twisty metal ladder stood Jake Wright, balancing a box of Krispy Kremes in his hand.
What in the world… She could have smashed him with a baseball bat. She set down the bat and opened the window, her heart racing. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Jake smiled and continued up the shaky metal to the small landing outside her window. He handed her the donuts and anchored his arm against the metal grate, looking adorably, painfully sweet in his worn denim and Yankees T-shirt. She shook her head as tears pricked at the backs of her eyes. He looked so perfect, so frustratingly, wonderfully perfect. Dammit. A little hope sparked in her heart all over again.
He reached for her hand. “Is that any way to talk to your soul mate?”
Her voice was quiet. “My soul mate?”
“God, I hope so.” He climbed in the window in such an endearing way that she almost forgave him everything, right then and there. He took the donuts from her trembling fingers and set them on the windowsill. “Kate, I know I probably don’t deserve you, but I love you. I do. I think I’ve loved you from the moment you tumbled down those stairs. I love that you can’t handle more than one martini or a ride on the Wonder Wheel, and I’m not sure how our relationship turned into love, but it did. At least for me, and I know that I don’t have to hide anymore, because this time around love is right. Maybe it’s hard to believe in The One until she’s standing right in front of you.” He brushed a sweet kiss across her lips. “You are The One. My One.”
There it was. Everything she wanted to hear. Everything she wanted to believe. She slipped her hands from his and bit down hard on her bottom lip. “How do you know—how do you know I’m The One?”
Jake took her hands back into in his. “Do you know what I’ve been doing the past two days?”
Heart racing, she looked up at him. Unable to breathe, she shook her head.
He smiled. “I sat down, and I started rewriting the book.”
The tears she’d been holding back fell down her cheeks. “Really?”
“Really.” Jake framed her face in his hands. “You are the woman who empowered me to write again, to trust my instincts. The book title is all wrong. Kate, I want the strings…all the attachments. Love, family, the city—everything.” His expression was so sweet, so earnest and true, she couldn’t help but keep falling for this man all over again.
Jake wiped the tears away from her cheeks. “And do you know what I did right before I called Manhattan Taxi to drive me over here to Brooklyn?” He pressed a hard kiss on her mouth.” I spent the entire morning tearing up the new floors in my apartment.”
“What?” She blinked. Not sure what she’d been expecting, but ripping up perfectly good hardwood had not been on any list of possibilities. “But, that’s…that’s crazy.”
A deep laugh exploded from his chest. He kissed her again. “I know. It is. Totally crazy, but I’m not going to sell the place. Not now, not ever, and I want to fix the floors. I want to fix everything…with you…only you.” He smiled. She smiled right back, finally able to breathe. “You are my happiness, my fantasy, my paradise. You are my One. Let me be yours and I’ll spend the rest of my life making you a believer.”
“Okay.”
He pressed another fast kiss on her mouth. “Okay?”
Wiping away the tears, she nodded. “Okay.”
Then, as laughter bubbled up from her chest, Jake hauled her out the open window and onto the fire escape, but she knew she’d never want to escape this man. Holding her hand in his, he leaned over the edge and called out to the waiting cabbie, “She said okay!”
Then he turned back to her and pressed her back against the narrow brick wall. “I am so going to kiss you right now.” And as he gathered her close and kissed her with all the passion a girl could ask for, the sound of the cabbie honking as he tore away from the curb, Kate knew she’d found her One. With the summer sun shining in the New York sky, Jake Wright gave her a sweet, mesmerizing, forever kind of kiss that seemed to shift the ground beneath her feet. Right there. On her fire escape. For all the world to see.
“I love you, Jake.”
“I love you, too.”
And then this man—this endearing, sexy, incredibly hot man—offered up exactly what she’d been waiting for—hoping for—a gaze full of promises and a kiss guaranteed to lead to some really hot chips.