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Her excited voice fills my ears.

Then I do the next hard thing.

“I need to talk to you.”

EPILOGUE

Violet, Six Months Later

“Maison Êtoile,” Ace says, eyes smoldering into the camera.

And good God, I love it when my man speaks French.

I don’t even care that the extent of his knowledge of the language is the brand’s name and a couple of naughty phrases his French Canadian teammates taught him.

It’s still hot as hell.

The entire campaign has been.

Billboards—including one in Times Square. Ads all over socials. Viral videos. TV spots. And right now…photo shoots.

Yeah, Ace has it going on.

And obviously, the Laurents didn’t cancel their offer when we reached out to them six months ago.

So, I made that call to Evelyn. No warning—just me saying we were in SoCal and asking to get together.

She didn’t bat an eye.

In fact, she invited us over for a meal.

An invitation which we, obviously, accepted.

And even though Ace knew exactly what I was about from the moment I said Evelyn’s name, even though he agreed with me that he didn’t want to keep up the charade and get the job by lying (and even accepted his ring back without getting mad or upset—in fact, he smiled and said, “Good. That way I ask you properly when the time is right.”), the drive to their place was intense.

And long, thanks to L.A. traffic.

I was doubting myself by the time I got there.

Ace wasn’t, though.

We walked in. He didn’t waste any time laying our cards on the table.

My profession, though—and how Ace found me—we kept a secret.

Or so we thought.

Because it turns out that the Laurents weren’t being entirely truthful either.

They knew all about Blue Line Matchmaking. They knew Ace and I hadn’t met before that day he walked into my office—or dated, or been engaged.

But they figured with how much Ace clearly cared about securing the sponsorship deal, he was worth meeting in person.

And then they saw us together.

“Within thirty seconds,” Evelyn said. “I knew you’d found your Hugo and the rest of it didn’t matter.”

Which is still pretty much the most beautiful thing anyone has ever said to me.