Billionaire Undone(74)

Ally quirked a brow at him, wondering if he was referring to some of her lectures about buying her things she didn’t need. After her house had been destroyed, Travis bought, and bought, and bought for her, even when he knew she’d eventually get an insurance settlement to replace the things she really needed. And he hadn’t stopped yet, many of the things he was buying way more than she needed.

“I probably won’t get mad,” Ally told him patiently, although she always left herself some wiggle room in case he went over the top.

“You might,” Travis warned her, holding out an envelope to her. “This is for you.”

A little alarmed by the serious expression on his face, she hopped up and took the letter, looking immediately at the return address, recognizing the name immediately. “Why would I be getting something from them?” she asked quietly, perplexed as she opened the envelope, and then slipped her reading glasses from the top of her head and put them on.

As she started reading the enclosed letter, her knees gave way and she had to sit to complete the rest of the correspondence. “Oh my God. This isn’t real. It’s a hoax.” It was a notification that the first book in her young adult fantasy series had won one of the most prestigious awards possible for an unpublished manuscript. “I didn’t ever submit to them.”

“I did.” Travis’s voice was low and anxious. “But it was all you, Ally. None of the judges know who the manuscript belongs to and I swear I didn’t interfere. I just submitted it. What does the letter say?”

Ally’s eyes flew to his face, astonished. “It says I won first place, book of the year for an unpublished manuscript.” Her hands were trembling as she got up and handed him the letter, watching as he scanned the brief notification.

He grinned up at her. “I knew you’d win.”

If Travis was telling her he hadn’t made this happen, that she had won on her own merit, she knew it was true. If there was one thing Travis didn’t ever do, it was blatantly lie. He might have avoided the truth in the past, but he’d never lie to her about something like this. “You submitted for me?” Ally said huskily, her voice clogged with tears. Just the fact that Travis thought about doing something like that was amazing. She knew he had faith in her, but this was incredible.

“Are you angry?” He sounded nervous. “I know I should have asked you first, but I didn’t think you’d do it. And I knew you’d win.”

“I probably wouldn’t have,” Ally admitted, knowing she’d grown emotionally a great deal since she’d broken off her relationship with Rick. Still, submitting her manuscript for such a prestigious award would have been daunting, and it honestly probably wouldn’t have even occurred to her to do so.

“I wanted you to have official validation that your work is fantastic from people who wouldn’t be biased. People other than me.”

Ally got up and walked around the desk, and threw her arms around his neck. He seized her body immediately, pulling her into his lap.

“I’m not mad,” she told him tearfully, still so amazed at the strength and thoughtfulness of the man she had married.

“I just want you to be happy, Ally. I know you said you still wanted to stay here and work with me, but I want you to do whatever you want to do, reach for whatever dreams you have. You can finish your MBA, or write more award-winning novels now that everyone in publishing will be wanting to put out your books. I don’t care what it takes to make you happy. I’ll do it,” Travis said fiercely, his grip tightening around her waist. “As long as you’re always mine.”

“I’m already ecstatically happy, Travis, because you love me.” She brushed an errant lock of hair from his forehead. “And I don’t want to go back to college for my MBA anymore. I think I was studying business because it was safe, normal. I do want to write, and I want to be with you and make you happy. Those are my only two dreams now. And someday I’d like to have a child.”

“Sweetheart, I’m already happy. And I’m more than willing to do overtime to work on that baby dream,” he told her enthusiastically.

Ally smiled, knowing if he worked any harder at that, she’d be exhausted. Travis was already insatiable. And really, she loved her job at Harrison now that her husband wasn’t the billionaire boss from Hell anymore. “I’d like to stay, unless you want another assistant. I can write in the evenings and weekends when you’re busy. And you did promise me you’d take me everywhere with you. I can write anywhere.”