The Design(81)

“Oui. Le chien a mangé le beignet.”

His eyebrows rose. “See, you’re already fluent.”

I smiled, completely unsure of what I’d just told him. Something like “The dog ate the donut.”

“Do you have plans tomorrow morning or are you too busy planning your return trip?” he asked, shooting me a playful glance.

“Tomorrow morning?” I confirmed.

He wanted to see me again?

He nodded.

“Yeah. I think I have time. What do you have in mind?”

He pushed himself up off the palette and reached for my hand.

“It’s a surprise.”





Chapter Thirty-Seven


The following morning, Grayson sped down the streets of LA while I tried my best not to spill my coffee all over his leather interior. I’d picked out a cream blouse that I hoped fell between “I STILL REALLY LOVE YOU, PLEASE NOTICE ME” and “Oh? This old thing?”, but neither message would matter if it was completely covered in coffee.

Grayson hadn’t told me where we were going when he’d picked me up a few minutes earlier, so my curiosity was getting the better of me. Every time we turned a corner, I tried to decipher what landmarks we were near. Was he taking me to his place? Was he taking me to breakfast at a special restaurant?

By the time he slowed his car to park, I was completely turned around. I knew we were somewhere north of downtown, but the buildings didn’t look familiar. They were old worn down industrial warehouses with caving roofs and garbage cluttering the ground around them.

Wow. Very romantic, Grayson.

“Do you recognize this address?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No?”

He killed the engine and pocketed his keys.

“Hop out really quick. I want you to see something.”

I dropped my coffee into his car’s cup holder and trailed out after him. His gait was easily twice the length of mine, so I had to hurry to catch him. Just when I got close, he reached back for my hand, and like an old habit, I let him take hold. The desire to never let go was too much to handle.

He pulled me after him as he circled the side of the building. We walked along the fence to the very front, where large gates blocked the entrance to the old abandoned warehouses. In front of the gates there was a large, wooden sign. I recognized the type of sign from various construction sites around LA. Usually the signs boasted future hotels or trendy eateries, but this sign was different. As I rounded to the front and Grayson let go of my hand, I realized why.

It was a sign announcing the future site of a municipal park, and the design pictured below in full color?

It was mine.

“Your park design won the competition,” Grayson announced.

My hands flew to my mouth. “You resubmitted it?”

“I did,” he replied, moving to stand in front of me so that I’d be forced to look him in the eye. “But I promise you it will be the last time I ever interfere in your life without your permission.”

“Are you kidding me?!”

He half-smiled. “Are you mad? I can’t tell.”

“Grayson! I WON THE COMPETITION. This is my design! They picked my design!”

“Of course they did,” he nodded. “It was by far the best one and you had some stiff competition. You should have seen Alan's face.”

I shook my head, trying to connect the puzzle pieces in my head.

“But I thought we were disqualified? I thought both of our submissions were thrown out?”

He nodded, stepping to the side so that I could see a glimpse of my design once again.

“They were, but I had a meeting with the design committee and I requested that they trash the original Cole Designs submission and instead take your design into consideration. They weren’t happy about it, but when they saw your plan, they decided to bend the rules a little.”

I shook my head in disbelief and then stepped up to the sign to get a closer look. The Cole Designs logo was printed at the very bottom, but above that, there was a small gold plaque.



“The winning design for this municipal park project was contributed by:

Cameron Heart, Associate Architect, Cole Designs.”



“Holy shit,” I whispered as tears began to slide down my cheeks. The competition was open to every architecture firm in California. The committee must have received hundreds of submissions, yet my name was printed on the plaque. I’d won.

“And before you ask,” Grayson said, stepping up to meet me in front of the sign. “I had no hand in who won the competition. The panel of judges had no clue who you were. They chose your design because it was the best. You won this on your own, Cammie. You’re a damn good architect and you deserve recognition for your work. Please know that anything I did to help you along the way was nothing compared to the things you managed to do all on your own.”

I nodded and kept my hand pressed to my mouth in an attempt to conceal the fact that I was all but hysterical.

“I can’t believe you did this,” I said, turning to wrap my arms around him.

My face smashed against his chest, his cologne enveloped me, and he held me there as I cried tears of joy. Every single failure I’d endured in the last few months was nothing compared to that moment. Paris, Alan, Hannah—nothing mattered in that moment because I’d made it on my own. I was going to be the designer of a major multimillion-dollar park.