Anna hung up the phone, trying to keep a poker face as she turned to the expectant gazes waiting around her.

“I’m afraid,” she said slowly, watching as the excitement in their faces turned to cautiousness, “that Charlie’s going to have to start looking for a new staff writer because…you’re looking at the newest staff writer for the LA Times.”

Her friends’ shrieks and cheers were resounding, and she sat back in the crook of Nick’s arm and basked in this long-awaited moment. It felt good. No, incredible, made more so because she could celebrate it here with her best friends and the man she had fallen hopelessly in love with two months before.

Finally. The Times.

Two months ago, Anna had thought her career was as good as dead when she sat in Charlie’s office getting reamed for not exploiting her life for the sake of a story. Little did she know that her career and life weren’t over, but they were actually about to begin. She’d not only found a man who loved and adored her almost as much as she did him, and a sister who’d become a permanent and wanted fixture in her life, but after Charlie published her story on Nick the day after she’d run that horrible hit piece on the St. Claires, Anna’s career finally had taken off.

With her story becoming one of the most viewed on The Rundown for almost a full month—only eclipsed by the story she did on the unexpected elopement of Sara DeWinters to Patriot Linebacker Chris Walker—Anna had the credibility she’d always wanted as a journalist. A journalist who the Times was finally interested in hearing what she had to say. And even better, she could continue to work from where she was, submitting her stories to her editor online and making the occasional trips to LA only when necessary.

“This definitely warrants a celebration,” Tessa said, returning to their front room with a bottle of champagne tucked under her arm and her hands filled with flutes that James and Quinn took from her.

Anna glanced at Nick, not trying to hide her pride and love. “Not just for me. Early polling shows that Nick is currently more than thirty points ahead of his competitor.”

“Go, Nick,” Quinn said, a sentiment echoed around the room.

“Wish I could take the credit, but I think a large part of that goes to Janie and her massive base of Instagram followers, who she’s tapped into to help drum up support,” Nick said modestly.

Anna couldn’t argue that Janie had been an unexpected champion to her new brother-in-law’s campaign, but she knew that the brunt of his success lay solely on Nick’s shoulders for being a candidate people could look up to and believe in.

“Right, honey,” she said, patting his knee. “It’s entirely Janie.” She shared a smile with her two friends. “So you two,” she said, turning her attention to Quinn and James, “how is the wedding planning going?”

“Don’t ask,” Quinn said and groaned. “My parents are set on a wedding back home in Idaho, while James’s grandfather insists it has to be here in the city. I think I’m ready to flip a coin.”

“Or you could take me up on my suggestion and just do the whole thing in St. Croix,” James said.

“And be disowned by both sides of our family? I don’t think so,” Quinn said, laughing. “I think, other than you, Sabrina would be the only Taylor ecstatic at the chance to scope out St. Croix,” Quinn added, referencing her younger sister, Sabrina. “She’s always looking for a new location to set her next story.”

“Well, you had better decide soon since I’m dying to start planning everything,” Tessa said a tad too excitedly.

“You know, Tessa, if you would just take my or Nick’s or James’s or any of our offers to set you up,” Anna said, “you could be planning your very own wedding by the fall.”

Tessa groaned. “Right. Kind of like you and Quinn, who shot down every attempt anyone ever made to set you up, including me?”

“She has a point,” Quinn said.

“I’ll find my guy when the time is right,” Tessa said. “And who knows? Maybe I’m destined to be an old maid, the doddering spinster aunt to the dozens of kids my brothers are going to inevitably have.”

They laughed again, and Anna sank back into Nick’s crook, content at knowing that she had found her partner, her mate, and her friend. Nick seemed to be of the same opinion as he took her hand, tracing his fingertips across its surface until goose bumps ran up her arms.

Hours later, long after Tessa said good night and slipped away into her room and Quinn and James left to his place, where they usually went every Saturday night after the week wrapped up so they could spend time exclusively with each other, Anna and Nick sat on the couch, still in each other’s arms.

It was Anna’s favorite time of the day, when they could be alone without the interruption of phone calls or texts from Anna’s editor or Nick’s campaign or his office where he still did his work as the city supervisor.

“I still can’t believe that I’m officially a reporter for the LA Times.”

“I can. I always knew you were destined for greatness, Anna Blake. Now it’s only a matter of time before we’ll be celebrating your winning the Pulitzer. I give you another five years, mark my words.”

“Shh. You can’t say that out loud. You’ll jinx it. Besides, it will probably be ten years, at least.”

“Ten years does seem to be the magic number around here. God knows it took me ten years to finally get the one thing in my life that has given it any real meaning.”

“Oh? That parking space in your condominium?”

He tickled her, and she giggled, holding her hand over her mouth so as not to wake up Tessa.

“And how about you, Mr. City Supervisor? What lofty aspiration do you hope to have achieved in the next ten years? Maybe US senator? Or how about governor?”

He shook his head, his eyes warm and happy as they settled on her. “Everything I could ever want is here in my arms right now.”

She should groan about now at his cheesiness. Maybe laugh and offer some wittier response. But it was hard to argue with the truth. Because Pulitzer or no Pulitzer, career at the Times or anywhere else, none of that really mattered in the grand scheme of things.

Because the only thing she needed was to have Nick holding her and loving her and reminding her each and every day that he’d not only chosen her but they had chosen each other. And it was all they needed.

Meeting his gaze, she smiled.

“Ditto.”