“Next year, I want to be able to spend the holidays with you.”
She held her breath while she waited for his reply.
“I want that, too,” he said. “Maybe we’ll just stay in New York next year. Have a holiday by ourselves.”
Her chest tightened uncomfortably. “What if I’m not at Burnett next year?”
He hesitated. “You’ve decided to apply elsewhere?”
“I’m not sure,” she hedged. “There are some great literature programs in New England,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut in anticipation of his disappointment. They’d been avoiding this conversation and having it over the phone when she couldn’t see him, touch him, was less than ideal.
Liam exhaled, the long puff of air audible over the phone. “There are still a few weeks before applications are due. We should talk about this when we’re home.”
Home.She wasn’t sure where home was anymore, though she knew who she’d like to share it with.
She wanted to press the issue. What would happen when she graduated? What if she didn’t stay in New York – and what if she did? Did he see a map through the sea of complications ahead of them? If he did, she wished he would share. But there was something about the exhaustion in his tone that made her hold back. They could continue that conversation when they were together again.
“I’ll call you before I go to bed,” she promised.
“You better,” he said, the smile in his voice relaxing her a bit. “Go back to your family, contessa.”
She breathed a goodbye before hanging up. Min lay there for a minute, missing Liam so badly she could feel it throughout her entire body. Stupid, that. She’d spent the morning with him having earth-shattering sex on his kitchen counter after a night of earth-shattering sex all over his house. She could still feel him inside her when she squeezed her thighs together. But something about the distance… like it was breaking them out of their bubble. Like maybe the world they lived in in New York wasn’t real life. Maybethis– her home with her family and him miles away with his – maybe this was real life. The thought knocked the air from her lungs.
She knew without a shadow of a doubt that she didn’t want to do this long term – she didn’t want to be separated from Liam any more than absolutely necessary. And he wanted to be together, too. She didn’t have the bandwidth to process what that meant for her – for them – just then, but she knew they’d have to deal with it soon. She only had a few weeks left to submit grad school applications, and while she’d been trying so hard to make that decision without Liam, maybe it was time she factored him in.
With a sigh, she climbed off her bed and opened her bedroom door. Rob stood in the hallway, his hands dug into his pockets and a sheepish look on his face. Min’s face heated with a sudden rush of guilt. She was just on the phone flirting with herprofessor. But Rob didn’t know that. Even if he’d heard her – which, judging by his face, he clearly did – he had no idea who she had been talking to.
“Mom wants to know what you want from Cotta’s,” he said.
“Do they still have those spinach pies?” she asked as she started to walk downstairs.
“Mel?” he said from behind her. She turned to face him, the question written in the purse of his lips and narrowing of his eyes. “Sounded serious,” he said, gesturing with a tip of his head to her bedroom. She nodded. “Mom doesn’t know.” It wasn’t a question. He knew that if their mother knew she was in a serious relationship, she would have already told him all the details he’d rather not know about his little sister. “What’s wrong with him?”
She bristled at the idea that there was anything wrong with Liam. “Nothing.”
“Something is. Otherwise, you would’ve told mom by now. Which means you think she won’t like him. So what’s wrong with him?”
Damn it. He was right. He knew her too well. But she couldn’t very well tell her overprotective big brother everything, so she settled on only telling him part of it.
“He’s older.” Rob raised an eyebrow. “A lot older.”
“How much is a lot?”
“He’s thirty-four.”
“Jesus,” he exhaled, gripping the back of his neck. Then, “You’re happy?”
“I really am.” She couldn’t hide the smile.
Rob blew out a long breath. He tousled her hair on his way past her, just like he always did when they were kids, and something loosened in her chest. “Come on. Don’t want to keep mom waiting.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
“That was the best pineapple upside down cake I’ve ever had,” Tom said, pushing away from the table covered in the remnants of their Thanksgiving dinner.
“Thanks,” Heather replied as she rocked her drowsy child in her lap.
“Here, let me take her,” Rob said. He scooped Ivy up in his arms and the little girl immediately snuggled down onto his shoulder, clasping her father with her arms and legs. “Time for a nap, princess.”
