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I didn’t answer, a little dizzy from what had just happened. We’d just made an agreement. We were now a couple.
A few minutes of silence filled the room. I was too petrified to say anything, even to offer to take her home now.
Caroline drew in a breath and asked, “How’s your portfolio and resume writing coming along?”
Ready to discuss anything but our new relationship status, I sat up and started to climb off the bed. “I’ll show you if you want to see.”
“Of course.”
As I gathered the bag full of shit I’d collected with my portfolio and resume kit, she sat up naked and crossed her legs, eagerly waiting for me to show her what I had. I paused, freshly startled by just how good she looked sitting that way, prim yet naughty.
Having her here, naked in my bed, was a wet dream come true.
Shaking my head free of such thoughts, I dragged my crap to her and flopped onto the mattress next to her. “This one’s my portfolio.” I handed it over. “Here’s the list of places seeking new partners. Here’s the resume I keep scrapping and starting over again. And this—”
She looked up from the shit I was piling into her arms. “So you haven’t applied to any of these places yet?” She dug out the folders full of job listings.
I shook my head. Of course, I hadn’t applied. I was scared shitless of growing up and finding a real job. I liked my life as it was. I supported myself and was surrounded by my friends, and Caroline was in my bed now. If I found a good job, I’d most likely have to move, and I didn’t want to leave this yet, not when I was as satisfied right where I was and as happy as I’d ever been.
“My resume looks like shit,” I said instead, using that excuse. “I can’t send it out looking like this.”
Caroline chewed on her lip as she glanced over my resume. “You know,” she said. I thought she was going to offer to read it for me, but she surprised me when she said, “Aspen just went over her own resume when she applied for that position at the high school. I’m sure she’d be happy to help you make yours shine.”
I hadn’t even thought of going to her, of all people, for help. I usually avoided Gamble’s wife at all cost. Not because I didn’t like her. She seemed nice enough, and she made my best friend insanely happy. But it was hard not to think of her as my professor instead of my buddy’s wife, because that’s what she’d been when I’d first met her. Plus, I’d kind of cussed her out one night when she and Gam had been dating—or more actually, when they’d had a mini split. But she’d used me to keep him away from her so he couldn’t become embroiled in some dirty student-teacher affair scandal. She’d been trying to protect him, sure, but I hadn’t liked getting dragged into the middle of anything that involved upsetting him like that had.
And though we’d all moved past that and everything had miraculously turned out okay for them, I still hadn’t apologized to her for yelling at her that night...or other things I’d done that weren’t quite respectful to her.
I glanced at Caroline and wrinkled my face, letting her know how uncertain of her idea I was. “I don’t know. You think she’d be willing to help me?”
She just laughed. “Um...it’s Aspen. The engrained English teacher. She lives for this kind of stuff.”
“Well, okay. I guess...I’ll ask her, then.”
Caroline glowed with approval and kissed my nose. Then she returned her attention to the listing of job openings. “Wow, there sure are a lot of opportunities for you...” Her gaze froze on one detail. “And they sure are far away.”
When she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear—her nervous hair fiddling—I knew she didn’t like the distance aspect. I wanted to reassure her and tell her I’d never leave if she didn’t want me to go. But shit, we’d officially been an “us” for all of two minutes now. It was probably a little premature to go making any such promises.
“From the way you marked this one, I can tell it’s your favorite.” She turned to show me which job opening she was talking about. The one I’d circled five times and underlined. The one located in Lake Tahoe. When her fingers went to her hair again, I clenched my teeth.
“Yeah,” I said. It sounded like there was a ton of gravel in my throat. “It’s got the best pay and benefits and is exactly the kind of work I want to do.”
Caroline nodded. “You should definitely apply there, then.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do yet.” I stared at the sheet that was starting to tremble slightly in her hand.
She sniffed as if my indecision was ridiculous. “You should. I mean, it sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime.”
When her hand lifted for her hair a third time, I couldn’t handle it. I caught her wrist to keep her from touching a single lock. Then I brought her fingers to my mouth and kissed them. Her blue eyes looked watery when she looked up at me.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” I repeated.
But I did know what I wasn’t going to do. I wasn’t going to let her stress about this.
“It’s late. I should be getting you home.”
She groaned and dropped my mock-up resume into her lap. “I hate the going home part of our nights.”
“Me too.” I kissed her hair and slowly removed my portfolio from her lap. “I don’t have to work tomorrow night. How about you tell Gamble you’re doing something with Blondie and come see me instead.”
