Page 199 of The Exit Strategy

She’s the force of nature that these businesses have been waiting for. I always knew she’d do great things, I’m just happy that now she can see it too.

On my desk is a half-finished elevation drawing for a public library renovation. This one is special because the original design was one of the first my mother was ever commissioned for. Next to it is the AIA award letter I received in November but haven’t figured out what to do with and a small wooden model of a bench I built last weekend for the library to commemorate my mother’s original design.

Just as I sit at my drafting table that’s now in our shared office too, I hear her grumpily trudging down the stairs.

Junie’s not a morning person, but she joins me every day for this—the quiet moments before The Haven wakes and takes over.

“Morning,” she mutters, making a beeline for her desk. Or more accurately, the coffee sitting on top.

“Morning, sunshine.”

She closes her eyes briefly when the first taste of caffeine hits her lips. It’s the same thing every morning—and I nevermiss a single one. There’s something about the way her face relaxes with that small joy that makes whatever happens next worth it.

And what happens next, like clockwork, is business Juniper. “I’m having tea with Bea today at three.”

I hide my smile, knowing she won’t appreciate it. “I know.”

She clicks her mouse aggressively approximately four hundred times before her screen wakes up, and she hasn’t even sat down yet. “And Charleston tomorrow.” This is where she thrives. “The chocolatier wants her ledgers gone over twice, and she’s decided that the man who’s been embezzling from her since 2019 will confess if I push him hard enough.”

“Do you think he will?”

“Probably.” She shrugs. “I have a face. People crack.”

I cross the room, unable to stand the space between us for a moment longer, and wrap my arms around her waist, mindful of her coffee that she has no intention of putting down.

“You do have a face.” I grin down at her.

I smile harder when I feel her twist the diamond on her finger against my side. It’s been there for two hundred and thirty-four days now, and while they say a diamond is forever, it’s not enough for my Junie.

The ring I haven’t shown anyone is the one that will make Junie and me an Us forever.

Now I’m planning the perfect moment that will be in no way perfect, but it will be perfectly us.

“Are you going to just stare at me all day or kiss me? Because some of us have work to do, Whittaker.”

I kiss her.

I’ll always kiss her.

“Stop trying to butter me up,” she says, pulling back an inch, breathless. I love her like this. “I have a chocolatier’s books to crack, and you have a window to be smug about.”

The window in question is for our new home. And I was correct that it needed to be bigger. Junie’s just a sore loser.

“I’m not smug, sweetheart.”

“Cole.” Her eyes narrow. “You are. Go…work or something. I have spreadsheets that won’t code themselves, and the boys will all descend on our morning soon enough.”

“I love you.” Every time I utter those words, it feels like the first time.

Her face softens, the sentiment still catching her off guard sometimes. “I love you too.”

My smile dances across my face. I’ve never felt happiness this viscerally before, but today I have my entire family staying within a two-block radius, and this time, everyone is slotted into the positions they were meant for.

By two thirty,we’ve already been interrupted numerous times. The first was when Hudson barreled into the room requesting a phone charger like his life depended on it. Next Fen spammed our group chat with an update on Grace, whom he just learned was dumped by Junie’s ex because she had faked the entire pregnancy and now has the TikTok mafia after her for the baby registry she benefited from.

Karma is real. Not only did Junie’s farewell to social media gain her a ton of new business thanks to Fen’s maneuvering, but it did its job in silencing both Grace’s and Natalie’s narratives.

It was almost as good as the news that Nolan gave usafter he moved back to Boston a few months ago. He called to tell us that Natalie was applying for an executive assistant position at their company without realizing they owned it.