Page 201 of The Sweetest Return

D.C.

Answer Price’s call when it comes.

The Forge Quarterback who passed me the ball my entire professional career rarely reached out unless something groundbreaking was about to happen.

I stared at the message longer than I meant to.

Imani glanced over but did not ask.

That was one of the things I loved about her. She saw everything, but she did not make every feeling report for duty.

I slipped the phone away.

Back at the hotel, she worked from the terrace while I took calls inside and tried not to think too hard about the call Darius told me was coming. By early evening, Laila Hart stepped into the press-preview dinner wearing Saint Aurelia like the brand had been waiting for her body to explain it.

The photos hit before dessert.

Not blurry paparazzi mess. Real images. Intentional. Laila in a black column gown, hair swept back, the pear drops catching light near her jaw, the bracelet at her wrist looking like it had always belonged there.

Then the posts started moving.

Fashion accounts first.

Then luxury pages.

Then women in the comments asking what bracelet that was, where the earrings came from, who styled her, and why nobody had told them about Saint Aurelia before tonight.

Imani stared at the phone without speaking.

First at the photos.

Then at the comments.

Then at the traffic screenshot Nina sent, like proof she needed before she let herself believe what she had done.

I gave her a second.

Then I moved behind her and kissed her bare shoulder.

“You did that.”

She shook her head. “We did.”

“No, Mani. I got you on a plane. You did that.”

Her hand covered her mouth, and I watched the moment land. The celebrity mattered, but it was bigger than that. She had stepped into a house still deciding how boldly it wanted to be seen and given people a reason to look closer.

“That launch is different now,” I said.

Her voice came quiet. “It is.”

“And tomorrow morning, everybody in that office is going to know why they trusted you with it.”

She turned then, eyes too bright, and kissed me with so much feeling I almost forgot the delivery waiting inside.

Almost.

When she pulled back, I brushed my thumb along her jaw. “Come here.”