She stepped forward and held out an envelope. “I just came to give you this.”
He took it from her hand but didn’t so much as glance down at it—he didn’t want to take his eyes off hers. “What is it?”
“My resignation letter.”
Oh, no. Had he messed up so badly that he made her want to quit? “You know I can’t accept this.”
“I need you to.”
He swallowed, afraid to ask the question but needing to anyway. “Why?”
“Because I think I might be in love with you.”
He was too stunned to move.
“And I think that you might have been feeling the same things over the past few weeks, too.”
“I’ve been feeling them over the past year and a half.” The words were quiet. He couldn’t believe they actually came out of his mouth.
Her eyebrows shot up. “A year and a half?Why didn’t you ever tell me?” She paused. “Oh. Right. Because you are my boss.” She gave a single nod like maybe pieces in her head were clicking into place. “Which is exactly why I need you to accept my resignation. Because now that I know what it’s like to have you in my life, I don’t want you to ever not be in my life.”
Emotions pricked at his eyes. “I can’t ask you to do that.” He set the letter on his desk.
“Ahh, but you’re not asking me, so it’s okay.”
“It’s not, Noelle. You can’t just quit your job for me. I’ll—”
“Jack,” she said, stepping forward and putting a hand on his forearm. “I appreciate you being all chivalrous and wanting to fixthis, but you can’t. It’simpossiblefor you to fix this. Sure, you could be the one to quit, but then I would still be out of a job, and so would the seven other people who work here. Or you could change who you are as a person and ignore your rules about dating an employee, but I don’t want you to change. I love you exactly how you are.”
She took another small step forward. “But it’s not impossible for me to fix it.”
He looked down at the envelope on his desk, running a finger over the corner of it. He hadn’t expected this at all and was so not mentally prepared for it. “You’re the best ad copywriter that we’ve ever had.”
“But I’m not the best one there is, so you’re going to find someone else, and they’re going to be awesome. Now here are the terms of my resignation. I’m not giving a two-week notice because I don’t want to wait that long to see you again. But feel free to hire me as an independent contractor for two weeks to cover my job while you find someone new if you’d like. I’ll be my own boss then, so there won’t be any boss/employee anything going on.”
He chuckled and shook his head, looking down at the ground. Could this really work? And if it did, would he always feel guilty that she had to leave because of him? “So you haven’t started looking for another job yet?”
“Um, it’s Christmas Eve.”
“What if you don’t find something?”
“Jack, I’ve been copywriting since I was old enough to talk. I’m going to find something quickly. Trust that I’m strong enough and capable enough to make this choice.”
“I’ve seen you work, and I’ve seen you play. I know that you’re more than strong enough and capable enough.”
She smiled, and there was something else behind it. A playfulness. A confidence. Maybe even adoration. “You’ve gotmy resignation letter. It’s up to you to choose whether to accept it or not. I’ll know your answer by whether or not you show up for Christmas Eve dinner tonight.”
Then she turned and walked to the doorway. She stopped right before going through it and turned her head just enough for him to see her cheekbone. “But tell Rachel and Aiden that they’re welcome to come whether or not you do.”
And then she left, and he stood there in the middle of his office, grinning so big it made his entire body happy.
seventeen
NOELLE
Noelle finished spooningthe seasoned panko breadcrumbs on the brie-stuffed mushrooms, then glanced in the direction of the front door for the fiftieth time. She wasn’t only glancing when she heard people come in or out anymore—she was glancing every time she thought of Jack, which was about every four seconds, apparently.
“Ugh,” Makelle, Hope’s six-year-old daughter, said as she tried to turn the strips of pie crust dough into a lattice but kept getting mixed up on which one should be pulled back for another one to be laid down beneath it. “This is so hard!”
