A very sizable erection.
“We should get back,” he says, gruffly, heading for the front of the boat. “It’s about to storm.”
By the time we reach the dock, it’s all behind us. Sophie is telling Caleb about the intelligence of cephalopods—“And that’s why I won’t eat calamari,” she concludes, and he grins at me over her head.
But then he reaches out a hand to help me out of the boat and our gazes lock and…no, it’s not entirely behind us. There’s something here now, and maybe it was always here, but whatever it is, I think I’m ready to give into it, if he is.
He ties off the boat while the kids run ahead to the shore. “If this house is for your mom,” I ask, “then where will you live once she’s here?”
His tongue prods the inside of his cheek, as if he’s considering his answer carefully when the question didn’t seem all that complicated. “I think I’ll be moving to New York,” he says quietly.
I stare at him. “New York? Why?”
He swallows. “The board knows this but it’s not public knowledge yet—there’s a much larger company interested in merging with us and putting me in charge of both, as long as I can clean up TSG’s shit between now and then. You might have heard of the CEO—Brad Caldwell?” I nod and he continues. “He’s planning to retire. If it all works out, he’ll hand the reins to me at his place in Maui this summer, and we’d start the transition afterward. I’d be in New York by late fall.”
No. It’s bizarre how fast my brain puts up a fight for this man who was never really a possibility, but no, I don’t want him to leave. I don’t want to walk into TSG and report to anyone but him. I don’t want to see some other man out on this dock.
No.
I shove my hands into my pockets, staring at the wooden boards beneath my feet, not quite able to meet his eye. “And you…want that?”
“TSG can’t grow the way I’d like without an influx of capital, which this other company would provide. And I’m only thirty-one. It would be pretty huge to be a CEO of a company that size at my age.”
“Wouldn’t it just mean…more work?” More work when he has so little time to himself as it is.
He grins, giving me a flash of that dimple that has never not made my heart race, even if it shouldn’t. “You’ve got your fairy tale—I’ve got mine.”
I force a smile in response. I can’t escape the thought that what he believes is his fairy tale is actually the opposite. That nothing is less likely to bring him happiness than moving away from the town he loves and all his friends to go somewhere with greater demands.
And I also can’t stop thinking that somehow, his fairy tale and mine were meant to be one and the same.
But…he’s leaving, and he doesn’t want kids.
They definitely are not one and the same.
“I’M SETTING YOU UP,” Molly concludes when I tell her about the incident over our lunch break two days later. “The man spent a year waiting on a woman who clearly doesn’t want him, and now he’s moving to New York? Come on, Lucie. This guy is the ultimate dead end.”
I frown. “Okay, but it’s actually pretty admirable that he—”
She stabs her salad with unnecessary aggression. “Lucie, did he or did he not tell you point blank that he hates kids?”
“That’s not exactly what he said,” I mutter. She may have a point, though: there’s absolutely no benefit to persisting with a crush I wouldn’t act on even if I could. “But I don’t know if I want to be set up.”
There’s guilt in Molly’s laugh. “I misspoke earlier when I made it sound like something I was going to do. The guy’s name is Stuart and he’s at a lab in Germany this month, but he’s going to call you when he gets back to town.”
“Molly,” I groan. “No. I’m not ready. And also…his name is Stuart. Name one cool guy named Stuart.”
“Look, he’s a physicist. None of them have hot names. That’s why my son will be named Damien. No one named Damien grows up to be a geek.”
“I’m pretty sure if your name is Damien, you grow up focused on ruling hell,” I reply. “But anyway, I’m not sure about being set up and—”
“Luce, he’s cute. If I didn’t already have wedding preparations with Michael O’Connor underway, I’d be all over it.”