I HOPE YOU HAVE NOT BEEN LEADING A DOUBLE LIFE
Jude
Slade’s booked on a flight an hour before me, and I couldn’t be happier that I won’t have to make conversation with him. When I settle into my seat on the plane, I crack open the novel to the first page, diving into the prologue when the heroes meet.
Huh.
That feels . . . familiar.
Then, when Liam calls himself Definitely Liam, this feels like déjà vu, and my breath catches.
Like Just Jude.
Could this be . . .? No, I can’t think that. But maybe, just maybe, I can.
My eager fingers flip to the next page and the next. To Liam showing Jackson the best art supply shops in the city since Jackson’s new in town. To notes they leave each other as they bond over their shared love of art. To the clock ticking until one of them has to leave town.
With each chapter, my heart expands. I can’t believe this story was right before my eyes all along. For eight hours, I devour this romance and the Easter Eggs in it just for me.
He hid our love story inside Top-Notch Boyfriend.
No one else would think a best friend’s brother romance between an illustrator and a violinist was inspired by—I stop my thoughts because even privately, I have to whisper the answer reverently—inspired by us.
But I know the secret of this story.
I lived these scenes with TJ once upon a time in London. From the first meeting to the oh no we can’t be together moment, and to the hungry, pent-up kiss in the rain.
The little details, too, are the secret of us, like when Jackson finishes a design for a client and adds a rubber duck in the corner of the drawing.
Like the scene at a garage sale, when they find The Importance of Being Earnest.
Like the moment later that night, when they read lines to each other in bed.
When Liam says in Jackson’s ear, I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.
Then Jackson whispers to Liam: Always be wicked.
My heart climbs into my throat.
TJ’s been leading a double life. A beautiful, wonderful, double life that he finally let me into completely. His most popular book is a treasure map of how we fell in love the first time around.
A map I alone can decipher.
I’m overjoyed. I’m humbled. I’m so ridiculously happy. And I can’t wait to smother him in kisses when I return.
But when I walk past security, my agent’s waiting for me, and she looks more alarmed than when the salacious photos of me landed in The Hollywood Scoop.