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“Aren’t we beyond the whole you-put-ideas-in-my- pretty-little-head stage? I guarantee you, whatever your ideas are, I’ve had those ideas and I’ve probably taken them further. I’d be embarrassed to say how far I’ve let my imagination run away with me.”
“Christmas dinners with my family? That would be interesting,” he said wryly.
“Actually, Maria blew my mind. Well, not the way that you blow my mind obviously, we’re not that close,” I giggled. “But she said you and I should go out, because we both had to deal with dramatic lovers when we both deserve better. She was okay with the idea,” I said.
“As nice as that is of my sister, we have complications at Berkley and REM; the kind of trouble that could dent my career and end yours before it begins. You’d face the worst of the consequences and the speculation that calls your competence into question—I won’t have that. You’re brilliant, Hailey, and you’re worth a lot more than just the boss’s girlfriend. There’s more to you and I want people to respect that. If I take what I want from you, I’d be costing you the career and reputation you deserve in marketing and cast a shadow on your accomplishments.” He stroked my hair, held me, and I struggled not to protest.
He was being protective of me, which I loved, but I didn’t want him to protect me from getting what I wanted.
“What about when the semester’s over?” I asked. “I’m only in your class a few more weeks. The internship will end. Then the problem’s solved. This is a temporary separation. Until it’s more acceptable for us to see each other.”
“God, I wish it were that simple,” he said, “people will still talk.”
“So let them talk! I’m not going to let people and their opinions cost me the chance to be with you, Rick,” I insisted.
I hugged him tightly, defiantly. I could feel the tension in his body, the tremor in his strong arms. He wanted to tell me that nothing had changed, that the business world and university power structure would punish anyone who stepped outside the conventional path. And I wanted just as badly to tell him it didn’t matter as much as being with him mattered to me.
“Can’t we see what happens after the end of the semester? Try again then?” I asked, almost pleading. “I know what I want, and I want you, Rick, way more than I ever wanted to graduate magna cum laude or make the Dean’s List. More than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
“We can’t see each other again before then, not unless it’s in a roomful of people like my class. There’s no way. I’d just—open my arms so you could run to me and throw your arms around my neck, and I’d pick you up. I want to do that every time I see you, Hailey, like I know that you’re mine and I want everyone else to know, too.”
“I could be ok with that,” I told him, feeling my excitement grow.
“We can wait until then, right?” he said, wanting my agreement. I knew this was worth waiting for. It meant everything that he knew it too.
“It’ll be torture, but if I know what’s for me at the end of the semester, I think I could leap tall buildings to get to you,” I said with a light laugh. He tipped my face up and kissed me one more time.
CHAPTER28
RICK
Dinner at Mindy and Kyle’s was sort of like visiting another planet. A warm, usually messy planet where everyone was happy and noisy. Inevitably, I stepped on some random plastic toy left out on the floor which then played a very annoying song about a shark. The twins were excited about everything, all the time. I rang the doorbell and heard the uneven, hasty stomp of small feet stampeding for the door in a race to reach it first, despite the fact that they’re too little to actually open it.
Kyle let me in while babies squealed, one running from me and then looking over her shoulder as if to try to get me to chase her (while the other one latched on to my leg with surprising strength.
“Hey, buddy,” I said, patting his head. That wasn’t apparently the reaction he wanted because he held on tighter and then wound his chubby legs around my ankle. I looked at Kyle dubiously.
“You have to neigh and gallop. Be a horse.”
“I’m a marketing executive. An adjunct professor at Berkeley. I am not now, nor have I ever been, a horse.”
“Well, smarty pants, let's hope you’re a fast learner then. Because you have about forty seconds before he starts to cry. Now swallow your pride and act like a damn horse,” Kyle said, and there was laughter in his eyes.
Heaving a sigh as if I were overburdened when really it just seemed silly, I cleared my throat and managed a passable horse sound. The little boy looked up at me and gave me a grin, showing all of his tiny, even teeth and displaying the red mustache around his mouth.
“Popsicle?”
“Homemade pomegranate lemon ice pop. They’re amazing. Mindy makes them,” he said.
“Drop one of those in a vodka tonic and it might be good,” I said and attempted a careful gallop around the living room with the child attached to my leg. He laughed; a huge chuckle that made me smile. I couldn’t help it. He was really happy that I played along with my cheesy horse noises and stomped around the room a couple of times. When I stopped, he hopped off and grinned at me again and scampered off after his sister.
I sat down heavily. “How does that make me tired?” I asked. “I work out. I have a trainer. I’m going to have to tell Aaron that his gym is crap. I can’t haul a toddler around for ten minutes without collapsing.”
“It doesn’t matter what good shape you think you’re in. Toddlers will take it out of you faster than anything. They have so much curiosity and just zero sense of self preservation. They’re constantly finding new, dangerous ways to exist in this house despite the fact it’s pretty well baby-proofed,” he said.
We sat down for dinner, and the talk centered around a case that Mindy was investigating. I sat there and listened to the way that she and Kyle went back and forth with their take on the situation, all while managing the needs of two kids in booster seats. Josie was all about shoveling in the salad, while James only ate the tomatoes that Kyle cut up for him while refusing the lettuce and carrots and peppers that were offered. I found myself watching the crankier, more demanding twin, James who required a nonstop supply of tomatoes and shunned any other vegetables that might distract from his goal. He was stubborn and cute and hilarious to watch. At one point, Kyle cleared his throat and I looked up.
“What?”
