“So I guess that wasn’t for me? It was for you?” he asked quietly. “Why?”

“Because my dream was to have a love like this,” she said, her heart bursting with joy. Though she’d told him countless times how she felt, she still believed that moments like this, that words and gestures and actions, were the foundation of any great love. And that’s what he was to her. He’d shown her that she didn’t have to change for any man, that the right man would love her for who she was.

“Did it come true?” he asked softly as she ran her fingertip across his chest, as if she were imprinting him with those words. Tattooing him as she nodded, and wrote on his skin. Your fondest dream will come true. She had marked him in her own way.

A quiet tear slid down her cheek. He pressed his lips gently to her skin, kissing it away.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to fall in love with your best friend?” she asked.

“As a matter of fact I do. I know exactly what that’s like.”

“What’s it like?”

“It’s like the big love.”

Epilogue

One year later . . .

A new Miller Valentina was for sale, and Casey intended to win it this time. Not that she’d lost out technically on the last one. She’d won, and she’d won big. Even so, she had her sights set on her favorite artist’s latest work. She practically bounced in her chair with excitement because it was next on the evening’s agenda at the sale of modern art at Sotheby’s in New York. They sat in the front row. Nate had arranged with the auction house in advance for her to have these premiere seats. He’d told her it was a special gift to her to celebrate one year of being in business together.

It had been a busy year, and the partnership their companies struck had been a smashing success. The new product had delivered a fantastic return on investment for Joy Delivered, and for all its launch partners, from Sofia’s to The Luxe and even to the loose-lipped Grant Abbot at Entice, who’d remained a solid business associate, especially because they’d connected recently about renewing their deal, and then got to chatting about Ethan. Grant had mentioned he’d talked to him once and had perhaps said more than he should about their partnership before it launched. Grant had a habit, it seemed, of opening his mouth too far, but Casey wasn’t going to kick him to the curbside for that. She simply reminded him of the importance of privacy.

As for Ethan Holmes, he’d tucked his tail between his legs and had gone home to live with his parents after Victoria Hotels let him go due to a nervous breakdown. She was glad he was getting help for his issues, and that was all she thought about the man who’d tried to drive a rift between Nate and her.