When we finally break apart, he's smiling.
“You're sure about this?” he asks. “Standing up there with me? Everyone knowing?”
“They already know. Penelope made sure of that.” I shrug. “Might as well make it official.”
He's looking at me like I've given him something precious. Like I'm something precious.
“I don't deserve you,” he says.
“Probably not. But you're stuck with me now. I'm very persistent.”
“I've noticed.”
“Also, your condo needs throw pillows. Desperately. Grayson mentioned it approximately seven times.”
“My condo is fine.”
“Your condo looks like a hospital had a midlife crisis. We're going shopping.”
“We are?”
“After the reveal event. First we tell the world you're V. Langley. Then we buy you some decorative accessories. I have priorities.”
He's laughing again, and the sound fills the sterile apartment with something it's been missing—life.
And maybe that's what I'm here to bring.
Starting with throw pillows.
TWENTY-FOUR
SCOTT
The day I reveal my biggest secret to the entire town, I can't figure out how to knot my tie.
This is not a metaphor. I literally cannot remember how. I've been tying ties for thirty years. I did it yesterday.
But today, standing in front of the mirror in Hensley House's guest room, my brain has apparently decided that this is the moment to forget everything it ever knew about formal neckwear.
“You look like you're trying to strangle yourself,” Grayson says from the doorway.
“I'm trying to fix this stupid thing.”
“Is that what that is? Because it looks like a cry for help.”
I give up and let the silk hang limply around my neck. “I've made a terrible mistake.”
“The tie? Yes. Clearly.”
“The reveal.” I turn to face him. “What was I thinking? I'm about to stand up in front of everyone I know and announce that I've been lying to them for years.”
“You weren't lying. You were maintaining a pen name, which is very different.”
“I let the librarian recommend my own books to me. Multiple times. I nodded and said 'I've heard good things' and then borrowed copies I already owned.”
“That's not lying. That's...method acting.”
“I once sat through a two-hour book club discussion ofThe Lighthouse Keeper's Daughterand pretended I'd never read it.”
