By the Book (Meant to Be #2)(94)

It was Gavin.

“She’s going to regret this!” he shouted as he walked out of the building, with a security guard on either side of him.

What was going on?

Then he saw Izzy staring at him.

“You. It was you who told her it was me, wasn’t it? I bet you’re happy now, aren’t you? Well, you’re going to regret this, too.”

Izzy narrowed her eyes at him. “What the hell are you talking about, Gavin?”

He moved closer to her. “Oh, you’re going to do your little innocent smiley girl act here again, hmm? Just rainbows and sunshine over there, aren’t you? Someone apparently told Marta that they overheard me on the phone with that reporter. I can’t believe she fired me over that. But then, I can believe you did this to me.”

Gavin. Of course.

“But how could I have told her that? I wasn’t even—”

Gavin took another step toward Izzy. “I know it was you. I’ve never been fooled by you. You’ve been gunning for my job since the first moment, I knew.”

Beau turned to her with a grin.

“This guy has great timing.” He handed her the bouquet of roses. “This is going to be fun.”

Beau stepped in front of Gavin. “Hi, Gavin,” he said, in a very cheerful voice. It was very…gratifying to see how Beau loomed over Gavin. “I’m Beau. So nice to meet you. Just FYI, if you ever talk to Isabelle like that again…actually, no, let me restate that—if you ever talk to Isabelle ever again, at any time, in any context, I will make it my life’s work to destroy you. And I just turned in my book, so I have a lot of free time on my hands.”

Gavin stared up at Beau, open-mouthed. The security guards grinned.

“Now.” Beau pointed down the street. “Go.” Gavin hesitated. “Go. NOW.” Gavin turned and ran, his messenger bag bumping against his hip as he stumbled away.

“There.” Beau wiped his hands as he walked back to her side. “I found that very satisfying. Didn’t you?”

Izzy grinned up at him. “My hero.” She threw her arms around his neck.

He grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her in for a kiss. “You’d better believe it.”





Izzy opened her eyes, and smiled as she looked out the window.

It had been a busy, exhausting, wonderful year. Marta had offered her the assistant editor job at TAOAT, after Gavin’s departure had left an opening, but the offer from Maurice had been too good for her to turn down, especially after she’d flexed some negotiation skills of her own. Plus, even though it was incredible to discover Marta actually had faith in her, she was happy to get a fresh start, and to have a boss who was willing to give her positive feedback on a regular basis. Priya—who, as it turned out, had been the one who told her boss, and then Marta, that she’d overheard Gavin talking to that reporter—had been promoted, which thrilled both Priya and Izzy.

She and Beau had managed to see each other a lot—Maurice was very liberal with remote work, and Beau had been spending a lot of time with her in New York these days, too, at the apartment that she and Priya now shared. But it so good to be back in Santa Barbara now, actually on vacation and with a whole week to just be together.

She turned over to smile at him, but he wasn’t there. Why was she alone in his bed?

Then she heard his footsteps.

He pushed the bedroom door open with his bare shoulder and walked in the room, holding a very laden tray.

“What’s all this?” Izzy asked as she looked at all the food on the tray, along with a bottle of champagne and a badly wrapped present. “It’s your book release day. I was going to do this for you.”

He set the tray on the bed and picked up the bottle of champagne. “I know you were, that’s why I got up early, so I could do it for you instead.” He grinned at her. “Plus, I’m a better cook than you are.”

Izzy picked up a piece of bacon. “Okay, you have a point there, but I strategized with Michaela about this.”

He laughed as he twisted the cage from around the top of the champagne bottle. “I know,” he said. “Fun fact: Michaela works for me.”

Izzy laughed. “You and I both know that Michaela does whatever she wants around here.”

Beau grinned at her. “That’s definitely true.”

Izzy thought about what Michaela had told her when she’d arrived the day before.

“I think it’s safe to tell you this now,” Michaela had whispered in her ear. “That first day you were here: I didn’t really sprain my ankle.”

Izzy pulled away. “What?”

“You heard me.” Michaela grinned at her. “I had a feeling about you.”

Izzy still couldn’t believe it.

So fine, she’d forgive Michaela for this one.

“You can cook for me on the day your book comes out next year,” Beau said. “That’ll give you some time to learn how to cook.”

She laughed and looked down at the tray. “What’s that?” she said, pointing to the gift there.

Beau’s smile got wider. “Open it,” he said.

She picked it up. It was shaped like a book, but why would Beau get her a book? Not that she didn’t constantly come home with new books for herself, but he knew she did it so often that he’d have no idea which books she actually owned. Was it rare? Or maybe something from the library that he wanted her to keep?