By the Book (Meant to Be #2)(85)

He tossed her bags in the trunk and opened the car door for her. “I wasn’t worried about that,” he said. “It’s good that you had a bit of a break. You were having a hard time before you left.”

She looked over at him. “How did you know?”

He laughed at her. “Isabelle. I’m your father. You think I don’t know when you’re having a hard time? You didn’t seem to want to talk about it, so I didn’t pry, but I could tell something was off. And I was pretty worried about you when you first started this project in California, but after a week or so, you seemed so much happier than you had been.” He smiled at her. “I’m glad. Now. Tell me about this interview.”

Izzy reminded him about Josephine, and told him all about the job at Maurice.

“Ah, so this would be a promotion, that’s fantastic. So…does this mean that if you got this job, you might be able to move out?”

There was a suspiciously hopeful tone in his voice. Wait.

“Oh, did you and Mom like being without me that much?”

He looked guilty. “We missed you! We did! But—”

She had to laugh. She’d felt guilty for how much she’d enjoyed being away from her parents, and it turned out that they’d enjoyed her absence just as much.

Her mom had a big dinner ready for her when they got home, and Izzy told her stories all over again, showed them pictures of California, talked about her interview. She’d been so tired of her parents before she’d left, stifled, like she needed to escape. But it was great to see them again. She already felt better about being back home.

But Beau still hadn’t texted.

He said he’d text, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t text him, right? She pulled up his name on her phone and saw their last texts there, the ones about the interview, then just above, the selfie of the two of them he’d snapped when they were together by the pool one day the week before. Before she knew she was leaving, when the sun had been shining down on them and he’d just made her laugh about something and they were so happy. Just looking at that picture filled her with that same longing she’d felt on the plane. It felt like she was homesick, she realized, even though she was back home now. She’d never realized she could feel homesick for a person before.

Did he feel this way, without her there?

She wasn’t his type, she’d known that from the beginning. She wasn’t like the other people he’d dated. The tall, thin, famous ones. She’d known she couldn’t get invested in him, let herself fall for him. Maybe he’d just liked her because she was there, because she was convenient. Not because of her.

Maybe that “I’ll text” was what he said because he couldn’t think of another way to say goodbye.

She scrolled to Priya’s name on her phone instead.

I’m back! Interview is tomorrow at 2, wish me luck!!!



Priya immediately texted back.

GOOD LUCK. You’re going to be fab! Can’t wait to hear all about it.



That was better. If she texted Beau, it would just make her cry again. She didn’t need to be sad like this, going into her interview. She needed an uncomplicated pep talk. Beau was a lot of things, but there was nothing uncomplicated about him.


The next morning she woke up at nine—six, California time—after tossing and turning most of the night. She reached for her phone. Nothing from Beau. That’s just what she’d expected, wasn’t it? That’s why she’d been so sad on the plane, because she’d known that she was going back to her real life, it was all over between them. She’d been right not to text him the night before.

Being right didn’t make her feel good.

She ate the breakfast her dad left for her, took a shower, did her makeup, told Priya she needed the biggest pep talk she could manage. That all helped a little, especially Priya’s multi-text pep talk calling her many things, including “not only devastatingly beautiful but a veritable princess of books.”

Izzy looked at herself in the mirror after she got dressed for her interview. Okay. It was time to give herself a pep talk.

“Isabelle Marlowe, you’re going to be GREAT at this. You can do this job—you know that now. You’re a good writer, you’re a good editor, and you’re going to fight for your books and your authors to succeed. And today, you’re going to walk into Josephine Henry’s office and wow her.”

The Izzy in the mirror smiled back at her. She was right. She was going to be great at this.





Josephine glanced at her watch.

“Oh my goodness, I didn’t realize we’d been talking so long.” She smiled at Izzy, and Izzy smiled back. This interview had felt good since the first moment, when Josephine had walked into the lobby to get her, a huge smile on her face. And it had only gotten better from there. “If you have a few more minutes, I’d love to introduce you to some of the other people you’d be working with here at Maurice.”

Izzy smiled and stood up. “I’d love that.”

This felt like another good sign.

Josephine walked her down the brightly lit halls. There were books everywhere here, too, just like at TAOAT, and Izzy didn’t know why it felt so different. Maybe because everyone looked friendly instead of stressed, maybe because she just needed a change that badly.