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“Jonah…” Her voice is strangled, and I take it as an invitation to unzip her pants.
She scrambles away on all fours before turning to face me. She holds one hand up in an unmistakable sign to stop. She’s gasping for breath and her eyes are wild with hunger. Over her head, I see the film projected onto the barn. All hell’s broken loose and the T-Rex is pulling down the fence. Things have gotten past the point of return—for the characters in the movie and for me.
“Cressida—”
“Just friends,” she says, her voice quivering. “That’s what you said.”
“Is that really what you want?”
“What I want?” Her voice is shrill. “I live in the real world, Jonah. What I want and what I can have aren’t always the same thing. I have a mountain of student loan debt to pay back. I can’t risk my job by starting something with you.”
“What if—”
“No,” she says firmly. “I ran through all the scenarios after you left my apartment this morning. What if I got a different job? I can be a lawyer anywhere, right? But I want to be a public defender. There’s no other job where I can be in court from day one. I learn more in a day than many new lawyers learn in a year.”
“I understand—”
“No, you don’t! I want to rise through the ranks until I’m in a position to make a difference in the world. I’ve always dreamed of working for the Innocence Project, helping to free people who have been wrongfully convicted. This job is the first step to getting me there. I can’t have a note in my file that I’ve been fired.”
Tears well in her eyes and the sight guts me. Didn’t I just vow a couple of days ago that I’d do whatever I could to make her happy? And now she’s crying because of me.
I reach for her, but she pulls away.
“Cressida,” I say slowly, “let me talk, okay?”
Her eyes meet mine. “Okay, but…”
I chuckle. “Shh. Listen to me.”
I rise up on my knees and move toward her. I reach out to gently brush the tears from her face with my hands. “No more tears, okay?”
She sniffles but nods. “Okay.”
“I don’t want you to quit your job,” I tell her.
She blinks. “You do just want to be friends?”
I shake my head. “No, silly. I don’t just want to be friends. I want to be your closest friend in the world. Your protector. Your lover. Your everything.”
“But… how?”
“I quit my job this afternoon.”
“You… what?” She shakes her head as she comprehends the words. “But what will you do? Where will you work?”
“I’ve accepted a job with the Mercury Ridge Fire Department.”
She gasps. “But you said you didn’t want to be a firefighter.”
“I don’t, and I won’t be. I’ll be their full-time arson investigator. And I’ve arranged to continue volunteering on the drug court team, too. There’s nothing in the rules that prevents someone from the fire department from serving on the team.”
Her gaze drifts down to my mouth. “So, we can… fraternize?”
“Every day for the rest of our lives,” I say with a growl, pushing her down to the quilt.
I strip her jeans from her body and loop my fingers beneath the elastic of her panties.
“Wait,” she shrieks.
