Page 102 of Troublemaker: The Big Picture Edition

- Watching Ryder play with Atticus on the porch while you barbecue us some tasty man meat out there.

Am I doing this right?

I should get back to grading papers now.

xoxo I love you.

Miss Stiles

P.S. I can’t believe you never told me you love the end ofCinema Paradisotoo. We’re both such romantic nerds. I love us.

REASONS WHY YOU AND ATTICUS NEED TO JUST MOVE IN WITH US RIGHT NOW

1. So I don’t have to drive to your place to give you a spanking when I find out you’ve written in my inspiration journal.

2. You’re both coming over almost every night anyway.

3. I really like my son and all, but it no longer feels right when you’re not around.

4. Everyone knows you’re almost always with us when you’re not at school, so who cares?

5. Ryder and I won’t criticize your outfits nearly as much as Franklin does.

6. I even like your overstuffed reading chair and it will look good in one corner of my office. Where you can sit quietly and nakedly reading while I’m at my desk.

7. It’s not too soon. If anything, it’s not soon enough.

8. It would really piss Miss Farrell off. Do it!

9. You belong with us. We love you.

10. More sex. This was written in order of importance—least to most.

CHAPTER 40

ALEX

Iused to think that my big-picture story was a second-chance romance. Ever since the divorce. Will our hero fall in love again? Will his half-empty heart ever be full again? Will he find the right person to love this time?Fuck that.The heart has a mind that wants to expand, and every person you meet is a potential new teacher. Every love story has a happily ever after if you look for it.

Ryder was the happily ever after for Nova and me.

Every woman I’ve been with, every friend I’ve ever had, my parents—they all taught me something about myself and relationships so that I’d know how to love Emilia.

She’s the best teacher I’ve had, along with my son.

Every kiss is the first of a million.

Every single day is another chance for romance with Emilia Stiles.

I will probably want to ask her to marry me many times, for the rest of my life.

But today is the day I do it for the first time.

It’s time to raise the stakes in this marriage plot.

Don’t get me wrong—I love coming home to my live-in girlfriend and her dog. So does Ryder. But now that I’m about togo into preproduction on my indie film with Shane, it feels like I need to come home to my fiancée. We finally settled on a new title for this love story. It’s calledAll the Stars.

And that’s why I brought Emilia and Ryder here to the planetarium. Well, that and because it’s hot as Satan’s balls at the end of June, for some terrible reason, but it’s cool and dark in here. And meaningful. I knew as soon as I got that speck of dust out of Emilia’s eye that I’d want to come back here with her again. Someday when she wouldn’t run away from me. When I could hold hands with her as we wander through the observatory and learn about the wonders of the universe.