“Troy is putting in close to three hundred to expand Thayer’s manufacturing capabilities.”
Her mouth fell open. “Alex.”
“Yep?”
She laughed. Her eyes were suddenly bright with excitement. “I can’t believe this is real.”
“You’re a very hot commodity.”
She reached over and squeezed my hand. “Andyou’reenjoying this.”
“I am,” I admitted. “Watching you run the world? I’m a big fan.”
She glanced around the office, the view and the city unfolding beneath her, and she let out a soft sigh before her gaze skipped back to mine. “I used to dream about this office. I just never thought I’d actually be here.”
I leaned in to press a kiss to her temple. “You belong here, Jane. The reason for all the renewed interest in Thayer is you.”
Outside, the snow kept falling while my wife glowed in the light of everything she’d fought for in here, her brand new office. Meanwhile, for the first time since she and I had started, nothing was actively on fire.
There were endless contracts, sure. Lawyers were crawling out of whatever caves they lived in, arguments were had over commas and contingencies, and I’d learned more about regulatory timelines than any human being should ever have to know.
But in every way that mattered, it was quiet. There had been no emergencies in the last few weeks, no surprise emails that made my pulse spike, and no Jane showing up on my doorstep in tears.
We had a few more weeks left before the sale would be finalized. At least the feds hadn’t gotten involved with the buyout, or it would’ve been years of Jane puttering around our house with nothing to do—and she was a woman who needed something to do.
So far though, we’d eaten dinner at a reasonable hour every night and she woke up in the morning without panic already written all over her face. After everything she’d been through, she still deserved a break, though.
She was humming quietly as she ate, some absentminded tune, when the thought of her needing a break reminded me that we’d never actually gone on a honeymoon. All we’d had was that weekend in Lake Forrest, and she deserved more than that.
“Hey,” I said, glancing up after I’d swallowed a bite of the sandwich we were sharing. “Would you go on a real honeymoon with me?”
Her fingers paused with a spoonful of soup halfway to her mouth. “A real honeymoon?”
“Yeah,” I said. “An actual vacation that people take after they get married. We’re overdue.”
She slowly lowered the spoon back to her bowl and cocked her head at me. “When?”
“Soon,” I said. “Somewhere warm with no snow, no boardrooms, and no lawyers.”
“We can’t, Alex.” She chuckled. “I mean, sure. Eventually, I would love to, but soon? That doesn’t seem like a good idea.”
“Why not?” I said. “We’ve done this whole thing backwards. We got married, survived an implosion, bought a company, and now we’re just onto the domestic bliss stage without having had the perk of a newlywed vacation.”
She smiled. “Weareat the domestic bliss stage. What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing,” I agreed. “Except that I hate the cold, and domesticity will be waiting for us when we get back.”
She studied me for a moment. “You hate cold?”
“I loathe it.”
“But you’re allergic to downtime.”
“I’m learning to love it,” I said. “With you. Come on? Please. Let’s go away together.”
“Where would we even go?” she asked, still not sounding like she thought this was a serious possibility.
I thought about it for exactly half a second before my brain supplied an image of her stretched out in the sun with her hair loose, her skin warm, and a glass of champagne sweating in her hand. The idea alone had me reaching for my phone.
