I glare at her, but she doesn’t budge. She waits.
I roll my eyes. “I want to start my own firm. Make it a safe space for women to work. Know that I’m providing a healthy workplace for my staff.”
Arden’s eyes spark to life, a smile hitting her mouth. “Yes.That’s what I’m talking about.”
“I’d have to go back to school. Do something with business,” I add, and she starts jotting things down quickly. I guarantee her writing can’t look pretty when she does it that fast. “I want to…make my brother proud of me.”
She pauses, dark eyes flashing to mine. “What?”
“I want him to be proud of me. Like he used to be.”
“Ari,” she says softly, lowering the notebook. “Heisproud of you. Getting fired is a part of life. It happens for a multitude of different reasons. That isn’t enough to make him feel any differently toward you. You’re his best friend.”
My heart tightens at the term. “Not only with my job but…with the rest of it. I know he hates that piece of me. That he always has to worry about me.”
“Who you date isn’t his business,” she reminds me, but then lets out a breath and lowers herself to the edge of the coffee table. “But youcando a lot better than you choose to do. You can let yourself fall in love, Ari. With a good man.”
I smile tightly, shaking my head. “I don’t ever want to fall in love. That’s the problem.”
She taps her fingers on the notepad. “Fine, but I’m not writing that one down, because I hear how he talks about you behind your back and your brother thinks you’re the most outstanding person in the world. He’s already proud of you.Everypart of you. So, that’s not going on the list.”
A broken, bruised part of me warms. “Fine.”
She dips her chin, tossing the book back into my lap, and I balk when I see her perfect cursive, shaded and styled—there is the doodle of a little book next to the schooling part, and pretty little pictures in the margins.
“How do you do that?” I gasp, studying it.
She gets to her feet with a shrug, heading to her room to shower. “It’s a gift!”
Carter gets home around two in the afternoon.
Arden is in their room, asleep, to prepare for her shift tonight. He strolls in with a box of donuts identical to the one I dropped a couple of weeks ago, and pulls out a double chocolate—because he knows me too well. He delivers it with an iced coffee.
I’m on my laptop, looking at the job postings that Arden sent me, and he notices.
“Where?” he asks, dropping onto the couch next to me.
I bite into my donut, glancing at him. “Here.”
He stares at me for a moment, and then a big, dopey grin stretches across his face. Excitement blooms in his eyes. Maybe heisstill proud of me.
“Really?” he asks.
“I’d like to stay closer to you and Arden.”
He smiles wider, and my eyes sting, realizing it’s relief on his face. He wanted that to be my choice. He wanted me to stay, despite all the headaches and late nights spent driving him crazy.
“Best news all week,” he says, holding out his hand. We smack our hands together twice and do our full handshake, andwhen we’re done, he crosses his arms in front of his chest. “Since we’re announcing things, I have something to tell you.”
I pause, my face falling into lethal seriousness. “You’re proposing.”
He freezes, eyes widening. “What?No.Not yet. Don’t say that so loudly. What if it was true and she heard that?”
“Relax, she sleeps like the dead.”
“Ari, I’m not kidding. Don’t say shit like that. I’ll tell you when it’s going to happen, okay?”
I raise my brows. “So, you’re thinking about it?”
