Business Casual (Lovelight Book 4)

Stella holds her hands out above her desk, hovering but not touching anything. “I’m afraid to move.” “Why?” “I don’t think it’s ever been so organized.” “Not even when you bought the place?” She shakes her head. “Luka almost wept when he dropped me off this morning.”

NOVA: Healing update request. CHARLIE: [picture.txt] NOVA: Your wrist. Show me your wrist, Charlie. CHARLIE: You’re no fun.

Beckett stares at me with amused, irritated affection. A look only a sibling can perfect.

Charlie walked Stella down the aisle during the ceremony, then slapped a flower crown on his head and stood as her maid of honor. He kept wiping his thumb beneath his left eye, pretending he wasn’t crying during the vows. And now he’s doing the macarena in the middle of the dance floor, flower crown crooked on his dark head of hair, his jacket aban

My honest answer is never. I don’t think I’ll ever feel ready for Beckett to see the studio. His approval means more to me than anyone else’s, and while I know he’d give it without hesitation, I want to earn it. I want to deserve it.

“You wouldn’t dare,” I reply, eyes tripping right back to Nova and the schmuck in her chair like a goddam magnet. She laughs at something he says, and I want to flip a table.

She looks at Luka over her shoulder. He wipes a streak of eyeliner off her cheek. They have a silent conversation and then her body curves into his. She turns back to me with a wobbly smile. “Okay.”

Luka spins Stella out and her pale pink dress flares around her legs. He tugs her back, and she folds herself into him with a smile that rivals the twinkling lights around them. They slip between the trees, and I lose sight of them, nothing but the fabric of her skirt and the edge of his jacket as they spin around and around.

Luka has managed to fall asleep halfway beneath my coffee table.