The Player + The Pact = I Do (New York City Billionaires #2)

Epilogue

A week later

Jules

I stare at the tray of rings in front of me and then glance across at Leo, who’s also staring at them. Then I look down at the ring I’m already wearing.

“I do like this ring,” I say, holding out my hand.

“I know you do,” Leo says.

“Then why can’t I keep it?”

Leo really wants to buy me a new engagement ring. I keep telling him, there’s no need. The ring I already have is gorgeous. And huge.

“You absolutely can,” he replies. “But wouldn’t it be nice to have a new one as well? I didn’t spend long picking that out and it…” He winces and suddenly I get it. The ring I’m wearing is all about Caroline.

“You want this ring to be about you and me and not your past?”

He turns and smiles. I brush the corner of his mouth with my thumb. “You always know what I’m thinking.”

“I like this one,” I say, pointing to the smallest solitaire on the tray.

Leo rolls his eyes. “I like this one.” It’s the biggest.

“Leo,” I say. “I work in a hotel. I want to be able to wear my ring every day. I can’t wear that every day.”

Leo glances up at the assistant helping us, as if she’s going to tell us what to do.

“I want to go back to Jersey and not have to cover up my ring or take it off entirely. I’d feel like the queen of England wearing that thing on the subway. Next, you’ll have me wearing a tiara.”

Leo sits back on the sofa, considering. “I don’t want you mugged.”

“Right,” I say. “So what about this one?” I point back to my original choice.

He looks again at my selection and then scans the tray. “This,” he says.

I gasp because I know he’s found it. It’s bigger than the one I selected, but because of the emerald cut and the setting, it somehow looks very solid. “I love it,” I say.

“It’s perfect,” he says. “Try it on.”

“Let me help you with that,” the assistant says, taking Leo’s choice in her gloved hand and sliding it onto my left ring finger. “This is a very special piece. The central stone is a three-and-a-half-carat emerald cut. It’s a simple shape with tapered, baguette-cut single-carat diamonds either side. What makes this piece very special is that the stones are flawless. Given what you’re looking for, I think this is an excellent compromise. It’s not the largest stone on the tray by any means, but because of the quality of the stone, it is one of the most expensive. ”

“A flawless diamond. I like that,” Leo says, looking at my finger.

It’s a gorgeous ring, and now that it’s on, it feels good—like it belongs there.

“Despite its value, it’s very easy to wear,” the assistant says.

“And then you could have a second to wear when we go out in the evenings,” Leo says.

“Absolutely not,” I reply. “I like this one. We’re not leaving here with two rings, Leo.”

He sighs. “I guess I’ll have to wait for our anniversary.”

I roll my eyes. I can’t believe I wrote Leo off as an unrepentant player. He’s such a gooey romantic. He likes to take care of me and I like to take care of him. We know each other’s hearts are precious and we handle them carefully.

“Can we take it with us now?” Leo asks the assistant as he pulls out his wallet.

“I think they have to have it sized,” I say.

“It’s actually the perfect size. If you can give me a few minutes to arrange things, you can take it with you.”

I take Leo’s hand and look at his watch. “Will we be late for dinner?” Bennett and Efa are having a housewarming dinner at their place and I don’t want to be rude.

“No, the car’s waiting for us. Do you need to go home first?”

I shake my head, and Leo smooths his hand over my red jersey dress. He says red is his favorite color on me. I’ve invested in some red underwear to surprise him tonight.

“I have a surprise for you tonight,” I say.

“That makes two of us. I have a surprise for you too.”

“You do?” I grin. He just bought me a flawless diamond ring. I don’t need anything from him.

“Yeah. I’m thinking about buying another hotel in New York,” he says.

I pull my eyebrows together. “No, you are not.”

“I am,” he says. He pulls out his phone and brings up The Royal Park website. “This one’s for sale.”

“Leo!” I’m waiting for him to relent and tell me he’s only kidding, but he’s urging me to take his phone to look more closely. “You’re not buying another hotel. You’re not interested in the one you have.”

“Well,” he says, “speaking of The Mayfair…”

My stomach drops. He’s not thinking of selling it, is he? The plans for the rooftop are being drawn up by the architect. I’m really excited about how it’s all going to look, and more than that, how it’s going to drive business to the hotel.

“You want to manage two hotels?” he asks.

“What?”

“You’re doing such a good job with The Mayfair. Oh, that reminds me, I went ahead and transferred that into your name. That’s why I need another hotel. The guys will get pissed if I’m not playing their little game.”

“Wait a minute, what did you say?”

“I’ve got to buy another one or I won’t qualify for the competition.”

“And The Mayfair doesn’t count because…?” I think I heard him the first time, but I want to make sure.

“The Mayfair is yours now.” He shrugs. “It seemed fitting. If it hadn’t been for that place, I would have never got my second chance with you. A second chance that will last a lifetime.”

“You gave me a hotel?” I ask. It’s like I’m in a real-life game of Monopoly. “You can’t just give me a hotel.”

“Actually, that’s true. I have some papers at home you need to sign to complete the transfer. My lawyers are sticklers. I suppose it’s not technically required, as you’ll own half of it anyway when we get married.”

I roll my eyes. We’ve been arguing about a prenup. I want to sign one. Leo doesn’t want us to. He thinks we should be equal partners. And it’s sweet and romantic, but I’m not used to taking things from people. I’m used to being independent, not relying on anyone.

“But,” he continues, “this is a transitional time. I get that it’s going to take you a while before you allow yourself to need me. I need to prove to you that I won’t let you down. During that time, you’ll have the hotel.”

“I wouldn’t have agreed to marry you if I didn’t trust you. I hate that you think I’m expecting you to disappoint me.”

He smiles at me and pulls me closer. “I know you know intellectually. But it will take a while to unpick what your father did. I know that and I’m okay with it. I’m sure enough for both of us.”

This is only one of the reasons why I love him—because he’ll shoulder any burden I give him and take care of me no matter what.

“You don’t need to be sure for me,” I say. “I’m sure of you for myself. You haven’t tilted my world off its axis, you’ve done the opposite. Now, I feel right. I feel whole in a way I never have before.”

Leo hasn’t rocked my world—he’s made my world safe. Better. More. His love has filled every space and doubt. I’m the woman I was always meant to be because of Leo.

Another Week Later

Leo

It feels like we’re merging families today. More than when I went to Jersey or when Jules and I went to Florida. That felt like Jules was inducted into my family. They loved her and I could feel her heart expand as they treated her like the daughter they never had. The stakes are higher today. If our friends don’t like each other, then it’s a problem.

“We should seat Sophia there, opposite the view,” I say to Jules.

“You going to put place cards out for people?” she asks, her eyes sparkling with teasing.

“Maybe,” I say. “This is important. Sophia should feel comfortable.”

“She’s fine. Having a view of Manhattan won’t make her feel more comfortable. Although…” Her gaze shoots to mine. “The idea of place cards might not be a bad thing.” She rolls back her lips like she’s trying to keep a secret.

“What?” I ask.

“Well, Sophia is very single now that Jamie made the break a breakup. I mean, she’s not even dating since that last guy turned out to be, you know…”

“The ex-felon who pretended to be an accountant.”

“I think he actually used to be an accountant, but was working in Davy’s Diner because he wasn’t allowed to… account anymore. Since the conviction.”

I sigh. What an idiot. First rule of accountancy—don’t steal your clients’ money and buy a yacht. “Right. So Sophia is single— Oh. I see where you’re going.” I shake my head. “You’re playing with fire.”

“But it would be so great if— I mean, she has four to choose from.”

“Byron just texted. He’s in Acapulco. He can’t make it.”

“Acapulco? Really? Does he make this shit up?”

I chuckle. “No. His business is just really… international.”

“Okay, so she has three to choose from. And they’re all good guys, right? You’d vouch for them.”

“I would. But not necessarily to a woman who was dating them. Especially to your best friend. What would happen if one of them was more into the other? Or one got pissed off at the other? This could rip our group in half. And it could put us in a very awkward position if we set them up in the first place.”

“But, Leo. It could be so nice! And I know Sophia loves a British accent. Fisher is?—”

“In the wholesome music industry. He’s still a virgin,” I say sarcastically.

“They’re adults. They know we have nothing to do with it. And if it doesn’t work out, they can be civil if nothing else.”

Someone bangs on the door, and when I hear voices, I realize I haven’t locked the front door again. “Hello!” I call out.

“Hey,” Bennett replies.

Efa appears and waves with both hands. “This feels like a big moment,” she says. “And… I have a plan.” She waves something in the air. “Place cards! I thought we could play matchmaker with Sophia!”

I groan. There’s no way I was ever going to win this argument with Jules, but I definitely won’t with Efa in on it.

“Fisher?” Jules asks. “I haven’t met Byron yet. ”

“Fisher!” Efa says. “Two British guys and two American girls. It’s perfect.”

“Exactly,” Jules says, throwing me an I-told-you-so glance. Efa and Jules stand over the dining table, putting the place cards down and then swapping them about like this is a state dinner.

“Fisher doesn’t need someone to match his energy,” I mumble to myself, because no one is listening.

“We could not make it obvious and put her between Fisher and Worth,” Efa says. “Have you showed her Fisher’s Instagram?”

“No,” says Jules. “Sophia would be on to me right away. And she hates being set up. She says it always ends in disaster.”

I look pointedly at Jules and raise my eyebrows.

“Have some faith,” she says to me.

More voices at the door switch Jules and Efa into warp speed as they make the final changes to the place cards and then start talking like they weren’t doing something to feel guilty about.

“Sophia!” I say, trying to sound natural and not like she’s just walked into Love Island , Manhattan edition.

“Leo,” she says, suspicion in her voice.

I wrap her in a big hug, and then go and grab the tray of mimosas that I’ve completely forgotten about. Sophia’s been a fantastic friend to Jules and that puts her at the top of my Christmas card list. I’d like her to meet someone. I’d also like to find my friends their soul mates. They deserve them. Although, the jury’s out on whether Fisher really deserves a beautiful, kind, loyal girl in his life. He’s broken more than his fair share of hearts over the years.

As I’m handing out drinks, everyone else arrives and Jules makes the introductions. I watch her beaming at my friends with real affection and wonder how I got so lucky. God, I would love Worth, Fisher, Jack, and Byron to have what I have, but it’s so fucking rare. Like a one-in-a-billion chance that they could be as happy as Jules and me. I’m not sure it’s even worth them trying.

Jules guides everyone to their seats and then asks Fisher what he’s been working on. She and I sit next to each other, opposite Sophia and Fisher.

Sophia narrows her eyes at Jules, watching her intently, clearly suspicious. When Fisher finishes what he’s saying, she turns to me. “Are you really going to wait two years for that rooftop to be ready to marry this girl?” That’s a good way to change the subject and distract everyone.

“Good point,” Worth says. “I vote Leo will do anything Jules wants.”

“Sounds like a sensible man,” Bennett says.

“I definitely want to celebrate at the rooftop,” Jules says. We’ve had this conversation at least eighty times since we picked out her second ring—the real ring.

“Right, but we can do that for our anniversary, or we can pick another reason,” I say.

“Yeah,” she says. “I agree. We don’t have to get married up there. I don’t want a big fuss or anything. I don’t want it to be… like a business function. I think if we have a big wedding, you’re going to feel obligated to invite people for business reasons.”

“You need to have a destination wedding,” Worth says. “That solves that problem.”

“Not really,” Sophia replies. “People still invite people to destination weddings.”

“An impromptu destination wedding,” Fisher says.

“Vegas,” everyone around the table choruses .

Bennett looks at his watch. “I could have a plane ready for us in an hour.”

My heart begins to race, and I grab Jules’ hand. “We could do that. Then we’d be married.”

“My mom would kill me.”

“No she wouldn’t,” Sophia says. “So long as you didn’t tell her and had a small, town hall ceremony when you got back.”

A grin spreads across my face. I really like the idea of being married to Jules by the end of the day. I’m impatient. Being engaged is too easy to fake. I want to be her husband.

“I don’t have a dress,” she says. “I haven’t even started to look. Even though I don’t want a big wedding, I do want a pretty dress.”

I try not to show my disappointment. I want her to have the wedding she wants. So we should wait.

The table falls silent, until Jules says, “I really like brunch. We should make it a regular thing. I know you guys have your Monday nights, but brunch is a nice couple-of-times-a-month supplement.”

There’s a rumble of agreement around the table.

“In fact,” she continues, “we could host again this time next week. And you never know, someone might bring up an impromptu Vegas wedding. And by then, I might have found a dress.”

I turn my head to look at Jules, to make sure I’m picking up on her fairly obvious hints that she’s going to marry me next weekend. She beams at me, and I cup her head in my hand and press a kiss onto her lips.

“I’ll arrange the jet,” Bennett says.

“I’m clearing my week so I can help with everything,” Efa says. “I know some really cool places with beautiful dresses. ”

“Me too,” Sophia says. “Although I’m imagining Efa knows better places.”

Jules squeezes my hand under the table. And I kiss the side of her head.

We’re doing this. This time next week, we’re going to be married.

“You think a skull belt would look nice on a wedding dress?” she asks.

Proof, as if I needed any, that I’ve waited two years too many to marry the woman who I’ve known is my destiny from the first moment I set eyes on her.