The Decoy Girlfriend(98)
“I am starting to love LA, but I’ll let you sweep me wherever your next role takes you, Taft. I love you, too,” she murmurs. She stands up and takes a step closer to the drinks gazebo. “Now, I think you mentioned something about making your girl as much coffee as she wanted?”
Taft grins, desire and sunshine swirling in his gaze. “That’s true. But first, I said I’d kiss you. Or you could kiss me.”
Freya is no longer a girl who waits. She doesn’t delete, she doesn’t go backward. Facing the future together, and all the bad and good that comes with it, is how they have to move on from here.
She kisses him first, arms snaking around his neck to tug him even closer, savoring the heat of his skin and the familiar scent of Irish Spring she loves so much. His smell fills her senses, enveloping her as though she’s still in the bedsheets they shared. Her stomach flutters when his teeth catch against her lower lip, sharp and sexy. She makes a bitten-off protest in the back of her throat, unhappy when he doesn’t linger to soothe it. Instead, he peppers fervent kisses down her neck, lightly sucking and scraping.
Freya places her hands on his bristly cheeks, his stubble scratching against her palms, and drags him back up to where she wants him. Taft can’t get enough of her either, if his ardent response is anything to go by. His mouth is downright magical, firm and insistent and tender all at once, tongue sliding in with sinful wet heat. It feels good. Exceptionally good.
God, kissing Taft is like kissing fucking sunshine after living in a world of rainy gray cloud. His arms clasp her tight, but she squirms against him, burrowing even closer. She’s ready to crawl out of her skin just to get closer to him.
“I”—“love”—“you.” Taft punctuates every word with a kiss.
“Love you,” she mumbles against his lips. “I really needed that.”
Taft grins. “Me too, sweetheart. But want to know a secret?”
She pretends to think. “Um, always.”
He dips his head closer, nose nuzzling into her cheek. “I really, really, really wanted it, too. And someone once told me that what I wanted doesn’t matter less than what someone else wants.”
“Must have been someone pretty wise, huh?”
“Oh, the wisest.”
“Lucky for you,” whispers Freya, “that we both want the same thing.”
“The luckiest,” says Taft, wonder in both his eyes and voice. “Believe me, there’s no doubt in my mind right now that I am the luckiest guy in LA. In the world. In all the worlds.”
“Now shut up and kiss me again,” demands Freya, although it’s really more of a plea and they both know it.
She doesn’t have to tell him twice.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As I sit down to write the acknowledgments for my fourth published novel, I’m both incredibly humbled and exceedingly gleeful that I have the best job in the world. And here’s a secret: it wouldn’t have happened without the people who helped me take the risk.
When I came up with The Shaadi Set-Up, the book that would become my first foray into writing for adults, I remember having an anxious phone conversation with my agent, Jessica Watterson. What if this inspiration is just a one-off? Will adult readers love my stories? Am I even grown-up enough for this? And like the wonderful human and excellent agent she is, Jess squashed those Whac-A-Mole worries with endless positivity, support, and faith that now I had the first idea rolling, other ideas would come quick.
Fingers crossed, I thought, silently willing her to be right but also a little terrified she was overestimating me. Reader, I emailed her five hours later with the pitch for The Decoy Girlfriend.
The idea of being mistaken for an actress popped into my mind because I’d recently heard the story of my namesake, my great-grandmother, who was often mistaken in the 1930s for a famous leading lady with whom she shared the exact same name. Relatives from far and wide sent telegrams to my great-grandmother’s family asking if she was acting in the movies! Talk about mistaken identity!
Working on this book with the spectacular team at Penguin Random House and the Putnam imprint has been, in short, a dream. From day one, I’ve thanked my lucky stars to be working with such enthusiastic, communicative, and dedicated people. To the star-studded Putnam team, thank you for everything you do to make my books sparkle.
My editor, Gaby Mongelli, makes me feel like a creative superstar, but she’s the guiding star without whom this book would probably have gone supernova as I grappled with the first draft. She’s probably the most together person I know in the industry and I’m so grateful for her editorial insights, attention to detail, and love for these characters. Thank you for your patience and grace as I persevered through writing another pandemic book. You always divine what I’m going for and help me get there.
Kristen Bianco, whenever I see an email from you pop up in my inbox, I know there’s some stellar publicity news coming. I am endlessly thankful for all you do. To production editor Leah Marsh and copyeditor Erica Ferguson, thank you for taking this book across the finish line with me.
Maybe I’m giving away secrets too readily, but here’s another: The Decoy Girlfriend has my favorite cover. Thank you to designer Vi-An Nguyen and artist Maria Nguyen for bringing mes bébés Taft and Freya to life in such a stunning, glamorous way. Truly, when I sent over reference pics of Logan Lerman and Ananya Panday, I wasn’t prepared for the magic you’d make. I’m still starry eyed! And shoutout to Logan, too, because if it wasn’t for those articles about his pandemic hair going viral, I would never have been struck with inspiration and thought, I’m going to write a book about that man one day. Or a fictional man with his looks, anyway!