Page 47 of Earned Husband

On the other hand, I’m starting to think that maybe it’s just you. Maybe your personal touch is what makes them extraordinary.

See you soon,

Colin.

As I let out a content sigh and let the letter rest over my face so I could breathe him in, Jasmine suddenly squealed. “It’s Cartier!”

I sat up to see her holding a velvet box with a set of tasteful gold bangles inside. My mother blinked a couple times, then smiled. “He also has taste.”

Falling back against the bed, I set the papers down on my face again, itching to take the camera for a spin even as I inhaled the Armani cologne I remembered catching whiffs of on him every so often. Jasmine was still gushing about the bangles, andI loved them, but I appreciated the camera, and his letter meant the world to me.

Unfortunately, a ruckus suddenly sounded downstairs, voices, footsteps, and laughter echoing through the house. Jasmine sighed. “Oh no.”

Mom shushed her. “They’re your brothers. Be nice.”

I sighed under the letter but finally folded it again, tucking it carefully into the drawer of my nightstand before I followed Jasmine and our mom out of my room, already dreading the roasting I was about to receive from the rest of the Saad clan.

CHAPTER 21

COLIN

On my way out of my condo this morning, I was in such a rush that I nearly tripped over a package sitting outside my front door. As soon as I glanced down, I instantly recognized the handwriting on the large, taped-up box.

I stopped and picked it up, carrying it with me to my car, and by the time I reached Thayer headquarters, I couldn’t deny that I was fucking brimming with excitement. It was ridiculous, but Deja had possibly changed my life the day she’d suggested we do this.

It was old-fashioned and probably a little weird, but the anticipation made it so damn worth it. When I got up to my office, I shut the door behind me and set the box down on my desk, just smiling at it for a long beat before I tore it open.

The wrapping was immaculate, every layer folded and secured with such care that I could only assume Deja had packed it herself. Or that whoever she’d tasked to do it took gift-giving as seriously as diplomacy. Either way, I felt like a kid on Christmas morning.

The first thing I found was a letter, but there wasn’t only one. There were several sealed envelopes, stacked together in a tidybundle that made my heart race.Good Lord, when did I become this guy?

I had absolutely no idea, but I did know that ever since I’d started waiting for the first letter from her, I’d felt more alive than I had in… possibly ever.

Setting the envelopes aside for now, I kept digging through the box, finding several bottles of cologne first. They seemed more elegant than anything I ever would’ve considered buying for myself, the bottles themselves made of heavy glass and the labels understated, but printed in a fancy, masculine, blocky kind of script.

Underneath the cologne, I found a variety of silk shirts, smooth and mostly in dark blue, green, and gray tones. At the bottom of the box was a stack of dozens of photographs, but just as I reached the first one, Isaac spoke up from behind me.

“Who’s that from?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin, spinning to see him sitting on one of the chairs at the conference table in the corner of my office. “Holy shit, you scared me.”

“Good morning to you too,” he said, standing up and coming to stand next to me at the desk to peer down at the gifts. “Are you going to tell me who it’s from, or should I just go ahead and guess?”

I glared at him. “When did you get in here?”

“About fifteen minutes ago.”

“You didn’t think to announce yourself when I walked in?”

He smirked. “You told me to stop by. I figured you’d notice me, but you were so out of it that I decided to see how long it’d take you instead.”

Unfortunately, he was right. “I forgot.”

“Clearly.”

I glanced back down at the open box. “I, uh, I was distracted.”

A slow grin spread over his face as he looked at the gifts spread out across the desk. “It’s from Deja, isn’t it?”