That was when Judge grinned at him and replied, “You got it.”
And that was it.
He turned to Tom and asked, “Walk me out?”
Judge appreciated the personal touch. It was obvious he had zero time, but still, they didn’t take a Zoom call. He sat there with them just in order to pitch this.
A dream job.
Just a fucking dream come true.
Judge dealt with saying goodbye and see-you-soon-with-Chloe as Wheeler took off.
Then he dealt with Alex’s lowkey but still flowing excitement, Rix’s shock, and also excitement, Harvey’s joking, as well as excitement, and then he was alone in the conference room with Duncan.
“Was that Chloe or you?” he asked his boss, his friend, and his eventual stepfather-in-law.
“Neither, Judge,” Duncan replied. “It was all you.”
Duncan was also a no-bullshit type of guy.
And Christ, that felt good.
Duncan clapped him on the shoulder as he walked out.
Judge tipped his head immediately to the phone.
His first text was to Chloe, Just met Hale.
His second was to his dad, Met Hale Wheeler. He’s endowing what will be a massive, global, kids, nature, activity program, and I’m heading it.
Chloe’s return text proved Duncan’s assertion true. You did? In Prescott?!?! Without me there?!?!!!!!!! (this was followed by a wide-eyed face, three red angry faces with about seven red angry faces with characters over their mouths and that was followed by a gif of Marie from Aristocats blowing a raspberry).
Which made him smile.
His dad’s response was, Where do I send a check?
Which made him feel something else entirely.
* * *
Six weeks later…
“You don’t have to stop, you can walk right in,” Genny was saying over his speakerphone.
Not Chloe’s phone.
His.
Judge was trailing Chloe into Corey Szabo’s epic beachfront property in LA to which Judge had just driven them from the airport.
The last ten minutes of that drive he did it talking to Genny over the phone as she went over—again—what he’d be facing tomorrow as he walked Chloe up the red carpet to the premiere of Genny’s new TV show, The Next Life.
He’d been warned there were sex scenes.
He’d been warned that interest had remained at a fever pitch because of all things Pierce-Swan-Holloway-Oakley.
And the fact that his dad and Dru were right then flying to LA to be with “the family” during this celebratory event wasn’t going to help matters.
He’d also been warned how disorienting the shouting and flashbulbs could be.
He’d even been warned not to wear green (whatever that meant, but whatever it meant, it wasn’t like Chloe, who had dressed him (fortunately in one of the getups she’d already given him), would allow that to happen, especially if it was a bad thing).
But he’d learned over the last months, as he’d learned well before with her daughter, just to let Genny do her thing.
For Chloe, it was a love thing.
For Genny, it was also a love thing.
That love being mom love.
She was one hundred percent running to catch up in giving him the care and attention he should have had growing up, with the handicaps of him being a grown man and both of them having demanding careers.
But it was happening anyway.
He just let it roll.
He couldn’t stop her anyway.
And it felt great.
“Got it, Gen,” he muttered as Chloe shot a sunny smile over her shoulder at him (suffice it to say, his woman, too, loved the love he was getting from her mom), and they entered the house.
Duncan and Genny were staying in their new small, but reportedly amazing Craftsman bungalow in the Hollywood Hills.
They’d made that decision because she had to be in Cali on more than the rare occasion, and they’d happened onto a place they both really loved.
Not to mention, Genny had a predilection for interior design (something else she shared with her daughter, as Chloe’s touch was now all over their home in Prescott—she hadn’t overwhelmed his vibe, she’d just added hers—and Judge loved it, it was perfect), and for Gen, this was a fun project.
Lastly, they’d decided on owning because the show had already been picked up for two more seasons. And this renewed interest in Genny included her signing on to do a weepy romantic dramedy where her character dies too soon, but she comes back a matchmaking ghost and sees to it that her four children find love even as she, herself, finds ghostly love as she reunites and rekindles the love she shared with their father, who died even sooner.
Genny had asked Judge if he wanted to read the script, and since he’d never done that, he’d taken her up on it.
It was really good, equal parts funny, sad, with love stories that weren’t sappy, they were just heartwarming and cool.
And her role was perfect for her.
Since she and Duncan had their own space, and this massive house was sitting here, Hale had invited all of “the kids” to stay.