Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Getting work published as a grad student would help him enormously.
“It’s not the same and you know it.” Luis’s head shook and his hands were fists at his sides. “I thought you were different. I thought you were real.”
He strode out, slamming the door behind him.
“How am I not real?” He was surprised at his assistant’s outburst. The world seemed to have turned upside down today, and he wondered if he was missing some social cues. He could do that.
She stared at the door as though she was worried Luis might come back. “I think he viewed you as some sort of professor god. You know, the kind who would never let a woman fuck up his focus.”
“Those guys are sad, and they usually are like that because they’re dicks who can’t get a woman.” He had known the type. They weren’t pleasant to be around. He tended to avoid them at faculty mixers.
How would Tessa handle a faculty party? She would likely grab a beer and be herself and tell anyone who didn’t like it to fuck off.
He was okay with that, too. Some professors played the game, picked a spouse who fit into the academic world, but he was picking one he loved.
Because he was rapidly falling in love with this woman, and he didn’t even want to try to stop.
She stared down at where their hands met. “You aren’t any of those things, but apparently you haven’t had a girlfriend in a long time.”
He’d just realized why. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve been a coward. I watched my mom lose my dad. I lost him, too, and it felt like such a fragile thing.”
“But your mom found love again. She’s happy. At least she seems to be.”
“Yes, she is.” His mom had found a great life, and she’d tried to make him a part of it. It was his fault he’d been distant. “She’s happy, and part of me decided she’s happier with Sean than she ever would have been with my dad. And then I wondered if I wasn’t the guy a woman had to get through to find a man like Sean. A starter guy.”
She gasped, and suddenly she was up and setting herself on his lap. She put her hands on either side of his cheeks, a fierce look on her face. “You are not a starter guy. You are amazing and surprising, and you’re kind. Any woman would be lucky to end up with you.”
Any woman but you… He didn’t say the words, but they sat there between them because she hadn’t made that statement personal.
The moment held, and for the briefest time he thought she would admit what she felt because it was all there in her eyes. But then she seemed to make a decision, and she sighed, her hands coming down.
“I need to go upstairs and take a shower. I’m going to think about some things,” she said, sliding off his lap. “I don’t like how they talked to you.”
“They’re angry I’m not doing what they thought I would.” He wasn’t actually sure why Eddie was so upset. His friend had seemed more on edge than he normally was. “To them, I probably look like I’m slacking off or something, though Eddie’s always told me I should chill.”
“I don’t know. I think there’s something else.”
“Like what?”
“Like I think he lied to me about a picture I saw earlier today,” she admitted quietly. “I was looking at a picture of a woman holding a baby and I thought it was probably him with his mother, and he said it was. But there was a cell phone on the table that only recently came out. I know that model. It’s maybe three years old if that. There’s no way it was around thirty plus years ago.”
“This is about a picture of a baby?”
“It’s about a lie.” She stopped. “Though maybe it is, because why would he lie about a baby picture? I don’t know. I need to think about it. Or maybe I don’t. Maybe this is the part where I follow my instincts and get you out of here.”
“You want to go to the beach tomorrow?” It was late, and he wasn’t sure how he would get hold of the property manager after business hours. And without a phone. He’d been planning on going back to the village tomorrow to talk to the bartender who could hook them up with the beach house.
Her jaw tightened, chin tilting up. “No. I think we should leave for home. Tonight.”
“What?” It was his day to have things turn around on him. He stood. “Why would we go home?”
“Because I don’t like this whole situation.”
Because she didn’t like how he made her feel? Because she didn’t like how close they were becoming? They’d had a blissful afternoon, and now she was upending everything over a single photo she couldn’t have seen for more than a few minutes. “What do you think is going to happen?”