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“Yeah, well, you may be right. A little.” He smiles at me again. “I just never had a good enough reason, I guess.”
And now I’m smiling, too. Because I’ve never been anyone’s reason before.
I drop my gaze to the piping hot cup of coffee in my hands, hoping I’ve moved fast enough and Peter didn’t see the flush rising in my cheeks.
I’m done for, I know it. This isn’t just a casual hook-up with a long-ago object of affection, or some insignificant fulfillment of a young girl’s fantasy. I am officially in very deep trouble.
“Besides,” Peter says, as he pushes up from the bed, “we have a lot to do today.”
“We do?” And when I look up, he’s already on his way out of the bedroom. “Uh…Peter? What do you mean we have a lot to do?” I call after him.
A moment later he’s back, and he’s replaced his coffee with a laptop. Now I’m really confused. He flops onto the bed with it, pushing his pillows up for a makeshift backrest before sitting upright with the computer on his lap.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“Well,” he says, starting up the laptop, “after what happened yesterday, there’s no way you’re going back to school until we get this guy.” He looks at me, his eyes showing that same concern that comforted me so much after I fell into his car in a panic. They also tell me that this isn’t open for negotiation.
But I try anyway.
“Not an option,” I say. “No school means no graduation, and definitely no second chances.”
“Emily—”
“I’m already this close to losing my scholarships, Peter. You don’t understand.”
“And you don’t understand.” He raises his voice at me. Not a lot, but just enough to let me kno
w how serious he is. “We don’t know what this guy is capable of. What his plans are. It’s too dangerous.”
“But—”
“If anything happens to you, there won’t be a graduation either. So it’s not worth the risk, is it?”
I have nothing to say. There’s no valid argument I can think of because Peter has a point. So, instead, I nod my silent agreement.
Boy, did this wonderful morning take a different turn. It went from pure bliss to kissing my best, and possibly only, chance at a medical career goodbye. I do understand where Peter’s coming from, but it certainly doesn’t make it any easier.
“Good. So that’s the first thing,” he says.
“The first? How many things are there?” He’s very likely sent my life onto a whole other course, and now he says there’s more?
“Well, we have to go by your place to pick up your things. It’s probably best to do that first. Get it out of the way.”
I take a breath. So many changes, all so suddenly. It’s hard to wrap my head around it. I’ve barely made peace with being awake.
“Then the car,” he says, bringing up his search screen on the laptop.
His brows are furrowed in concentration, and looking at him like this, so determined to help me and keep me safe, my heart absolutely swells in my chest. And with him so close beside me, my mind drifts to what happened after waking up with him yesterday. I can’t ignore the familiar heat rising up between my legs.
“Hatch or sedan?”
“Hmm?” I blink a few times fast, caught with my mind on a whole different track.
“Come on, Emily, this is serious.” There’s a slight hint of impatience in his voice. “The Mazda you saw yesterday, was it a hatch or sedan?”
“Hatch,” I reply almost instantly, feeling a little like a rookie at bootcamp wanting to impress her commanding officer.
“Okay,” he says, typing away furiously.
