Arrange me a married at.., p.19
Arrange Me: a married-at-first-sight romance (The Arranged Duo Book 1),
p.19
She takes a deep breath and nods. “Me neither.”
I give the cashier my last British pounds for the cookies, and we step out of the store and into the terminal area.
“Okay,” she says, exhaling a breath she must have been holding. “We have thirty minutes. Phones on?”
I grin at her. “That’s my girl.”
We find two seats by the windows, remove our backpacks, and sit down, taking out our phones and powering them on.
“It’s all going to be okay,” I tell her. “We’re going to have a great life together, baby.”
“You’re right.” She smiles at me bravely and nods. “It’s all going to be okay.”
Our phones ding, beep, and buzz, and we giggle at each other before looking down to see who’s been looking for us while we were blissfully off the grid.
I have over a dozen text messages and a few voice mails too.
The first text is from Lulu, sent today, asking if I have any idea when and if I’ll be back at Tidewaters because she’s starting to make the July schedule.
Hmm. That’s a conversation Courtney and I going to need to have sooner rather than later. I get the feeling she doesn’t want me to go back to work at Tidewaters, but I feel really strongly about making my own money and contributing to our finances.
The next text is from my brother. He tells me that my parents are worried about me and asks that I please get in touch with them.
That’s when I realize that I missed our usual Sunday afternoon phone call. Fuck.
The next text thread is from Sammy. I tap on the thread and see that she’s sent me more than half of the dozen messages. I scroll back to read the first one, and my mouth drops open when I read: Max and I broke up. I need you. I really need you, Josh. Please call me.
“Everything okay?” asks Courtney.
I gulp, jerking the phone out of her view. Just this morning she referred to Sammy as my “ex.” The last thing she needs to know is that Sammy’s been texting me all week.
“Lulu wants to know when I’m coming back to work.”
“Oh!” she says. “Are you—are you going back to Tidewaters? I thought…”
“What?”
“I mean, I can support us,” she says. “You don’t have to bartend, or—or work nights anymore. You can concentrate on your—”
“I need to make money too, Court.”
“Why?”
“Because I do. Because I’m not a freeloader.”
“Josh! I never said you were a—”
“Let’s shelve it for now and talk about it when we get home, okay?”
“Sure.” She leans away from me a little. “Anything else?”
“I missed my Sunday phone call with my parents. They’re worried. My brother reamed me out.”
“Oh, no,” she says, her face falling. “Text them back! Let them know you’re okay.”
“Yeah,” I say, nodding at her with a weak smile. “I’m about to. How about you? Everything okay?”
“I had a bunch of X-rated texts from Dina,” she says, grinning at me. “Lots and lots of suggestions for us. Mostly…positions.”
“Any good ones?”
“Believe it or not, we covered most of them.”
“I believe it,” I say, a montage of sex with Courtney flashing through my mind. “Read the others to me.”
“No way!” she says, hitting my arm lightly. Then she takes a deep breath and lets it go. “Oh. Also, my boss wants me to go to Tokyo next week.”
“Japan?” I exclaim.
She nods. “Yeah. Just for two days. Well, four with the travel. Leave on Monday, back on Thursday.”
“Wow. So, um, you’re going to Japan next week?”
Honestly? I hate the idea. I hate the thought of being apart for four days, and I really hate the thought of her being so far away.
“I don’t have to,” she says quickly, reading my face. “He just suggested…”
Don’t be a controlling asshole, Josh.
“If you need to go to Japan, you should go.”
“They liked the job I did in London. They want me to replicate some of the practices I put in place in other international branches.” She puts her hand on my knee. “Hey! Why don’t you come with me?”
“To Japan?”
“Sure! I’ll trade in my business-class ticket for two coach. We’ll extend our honeymoon!”
“Courtney, I can’t just go to Tokyo.”
“Why not?”
“I need to get back to the New Dramatists before they give my seat away. I have work to do.”
“Can’t you—”
“No, baby, I can’t. I’ve already been away for three weeks.”
“Okay,” she says, sighing softly as her smile dims. “Sorry. You know I’m proud of you, right? I can’t wait to read your plays. I want to be supportive.”
“I know. It’s fine. Sorry I snapped at you.” I tilt my head to the side. “I’m going to write back to my folks, okay?”
“Yeah. Definitely,” she says, nodding at me.
I skip the rest of Sam’s texts and open the text threads from my mother and father. On Sunday they’re surprised, by Monday they’re worried, and by today they’re frantic. Shit. Shit. Shit.
Mom and Dad, I write, I’m really sorry I worried you. I lost my charger here in London and couldn’t find one that worked with my phone. I’ll call you on Sunday when I’m back in New York. Sorry, again. Love, Josh xo
Just as I press “Send,” Courtney, who has her phone pressed to her ear, gasps, her body going rigid and her face turning white as she listens to a message.
“Oh, no,” she whimpers, letting the phone fall to her lap. “No. No, no, no. Oh, no.”
I’m instantly on high-alert. “Court? Baby, what happened? Courtney?”
I reach for her, but she springs up and sprints to the large plate-glass window in the waiting area and stands there, looking out at the tarmac. She shoves her phone in her back pocket and crosses her arms over her chest, rocking back and forth from foot to foot.
Everything in me tenses as I watch her. Whatever this is, it’s bad. I put my own phone away and follow her. I don’t touch her; I just stand beside her.
“What happened?” I finally ask.
“Aunt Lucy,” she whispers. “She…she called my father. She told him. About us. About everything.”
The blood drains from my face, and my heart starts racing.
“W-what? Why?”
“Does it matter?”
She inhales sharply, and I realize she’s desperately fighting back tears, her face utterly shattered.
“Court,” I say softly, wanting to pull her into my arms but also sensing that she needs her space, “it’s going to be okay.”
When she looks up at me, my heart squeezes from the pain in her eyes.
“He’s furious. He’s threatening to disinherit me.”
“We’ll talk to him. We’ll go out to Connecticut next weekend and talk to them together.”
“He doesn’t want to see me.”
Her hands are buried tightly in her elbows, but I tug one free and lace my fingers through hers, grateful when she doesn’t pull away from me.
“He’s just mad. But you’re his only child.” I squeeze her fingers gently. “He’ll forgive you.”
“Shhh,” she murmurs, hushing me like she can’t bear anymore platitudes, anymore hollow assurances that “everything will be okay,” however well meaning.
She stares forlornly out the window, and my gaze follows hers, landing on the dark clouds in the distance.
Around us, the airport buzzes with activity.
Gate announcements are made.
Flights take off and land.
People rush by us and babies cry and the world keeps on moving…
…while my bride and I stand side by side in front of the airport window, still as stone, hand in hand, our eyes on the storm approaching from the west, from New York City, where our abandoned lives are waiting to be jump-started once again.
THE END
For the continuation of Courtney and Josh’s story, look for the sequel to this book, titled ARRANGE US, available for preorder on Amazon now!
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Arrange Me
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STAND-ALONE BOOKS:
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katy Regnery started her writing career by enrolling in a short story class in January 2012. One year later, she signed her first contract, and Katy’s first novel was published in September 2013.
More than forty books later, Katy claims authorship of the multititled New York Times and USA Today bestselling Blueberry Lane Series, which follows the English, Winslow, Rousseau, Story, and Ambler families of Philadelphia; the six-book, bestselling ~a modern fairytale~ series; and several other stand-alone novels and novellas, including the critically acclaimed, 2018 RITA© nominated, USA Today bestselling contemporary romance Unloved, a love story.
Katy’s first modern fairytale romance, The Vixen and the Vet, was nominated for a RITA® in 2015 and won the 2015 Kindle Book Award for romance. Katy’s The English Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1–4, hit the USA Today bestseller list in 2015, and her Christmas story, Marrying Mr. English, appeared on the list a week later. In May 2016, Katy’s Blueberry Lane collection, The Winslow Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1–4, became a New York Times e-book bestseller.
Katy’s books are available in English, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Turkish. Her books soon will be available in German and Hebrew.
Katy lives in the relative wilds of northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, where her writing room looks out at the woods, and her husband, two children, two dogs, and one Blue Tonkinese cat create just enough cheerful chaos to remind her that the very best love stories begin at home.
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Katy Regnery, Arrange Me: a married-at-first-sight romance (The Arranged Duo Book 1)
