He saw her as good and strong and worthy. Basking in his admiration, she felt beautiful both inside and out.
“I want that, too,” she whispered, her confidence skyrocketing.
This man had seen her at her worst and found a way to love her despite all her flaws. He’d accepted that she wasn’t perfect and had never required her to be anything other than who she was. They’d weathered her mistakes and she trusted that their love would carry them through any crisis.
That was more than enough to build a future on and Zoe couldn’t wait to begin.
Epilogue
At a little after three thirty in the afternoon, Everly entered Connor Properties and stepped up to the receptionist desk. “Everly Briggs to see Devon Connor.”
The pretty brunette smiled and said, “Have a seat. I’ll let Gregg know you’ve arrived.”
Ten minutes later, a slender man in his midtwenties entered the lobby and headed in her direction.
Gregg’s smile was cool as he approached. “Hello, Everly. How nice to see you’re early.” No doubt Devon’s assistant was referring to a meeting a couple of weeks earlier when she’d stood Devon up. “I’ll take you to the conference room so you can get set up.”
“Thank you,” she said, scowling at Gregg’s back as she followed him down the hall.
She’d been to Connor Properties several times since she’d pitched her branding approach to Devon three years earlier. Since then he’d doubled the number of resorts he owned and his account had grown to the point where it was over two-thirds of her business.
“Right in here.” Gregg ushered her into a conference room. “Can I get you anything? A cup of coffee? Some bottled water?”
“I’m fine.”
After showing her how to connect her laptop to the projector, Gregg left Everly to set up her presentation. In addition to the new design for the website, she had mocked up some brochures and promotional materials. Everly hoped Devon liked this version. He’d been very disappointed with the last two concepts she’d presented and if this round went badly, she might lose all his business.
The conference room door opened and Everly looked up. Delight coursed along her nerve endings as Devon Connor entered the room. Not only was he a brilliant businessman, but also one of Charleston’s most eligible bachelors and Everly had long wished they had more than a professional relationship. However, her heart stopped a second later as she spied the pair who came into the room behind him.
“Good afternoon, Everly,” Devon said.
Usually his deep voice gave her butterflies. Today all she felt was nauseated.
“Hello, Devon.” Although she greeted him, her eyes were drawn to his companions. “What’s going on?”
“These two were interested in speaking with you before our meeting.” He arched one dark eyebrow at her. “That’s not a problem, is it?”
“No, of course not.” She swallowed hard and forced a smile.
“Wonderful. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.” With that, he exited the room, abandoning Everly to her fate.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
London raised her eyebrows at Everly’s tone. “Being blindsided isn’t a lot of fun, is it?”
“We regret our part in plotting against Linc, Tristan and Ryan,” Zoe piped up. “It was wrong.”
“People were hurt.” The event planner looked cool and composed in an exquisite sky-blue suit and triple string of pearls. “Ourselves included, and we want you to stop.”
“Stop? Why would I do that? You both betrayed me.” Everly glared from London to Zoe. “You two deserve everything that happened to you and so much more.”
“You have to stop,” Zoe exclaimed, glancing to London for support.
From the start Everly had pegged her as the weak link and sent her next words into the heart of Zoe’s fears. “I don’t have to do anything of the sort. And you forget I have an ally in this little game we’ve all been playing. Have you forgotten what you tried to do to Tristan?”
“What she tried to do?” London countered. “You disclosed that Zoe had targeted him. He went after her store.”
Everly hadn’t heard that. She smiled in satisfaction. “Good.”