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“Surfing. Body-focused things. Okay.” She rummages through the pile and opens up one of the other notebooks to a fresh page. “So that could be physical therapy, working in surfboard design, or an instructor teaching techniques or classes.”
I watch as she writessurfingat the top of the page, then doodles some designs to make the heading stand out. I think the blobs with spikes are supposed to be surfboards. My chest hurts. Zero judgment, and she immediately picked up on what I didn’t say. My throat is thick when I swallow.
“There are plenty of options.” Tate meets my gaze and reaches over to squeeze my knee comfortingly. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Thank you.” I give in to the urge and wrap my arms around her in a tight hug.
She leans into me, brushing her lips over my throat in a quick kiss. “Of course.”
Slipping out of my grasp, she turns her focus to her phone, researching. Each time she finds a new career path option, she makes an inquisitive sound and jots it down. Within ten minutes, she has a list of potential choices.
She’s incredible.
I rub at my chest to ease the insistent drum of my heartbeat. “You’re really good at that. Better than my advisor.”
I’m glad I have her in my corner. My advisor has only focused on my academics. Every time we’ve met, he’s never done something like this.
The corner of her mouth lifts while she writes down another related field. “When I first started setting goals, I failed them. I got choked up by the crushing weight of overwhelm. I learned to break it down. Career is too broad of an idea to tackle, so we need to break it off in manageable chunks. I can help you research these. You don’t have to decide now, you have time.”
I sling my arm over the back of her chair. It knocks me on my ass how easily she reads me, how fast she figured out my hang ups and worries.
“Okay,” she says when she puts her phone aside. “New thing to add to your tracker. Start with this list and each day you should do some googling to look for anything else to add.”
“Sounds good.”
“Then once we have an exhaustive list, we can start researching how to get into these careers, what you’d need to focus on and the kind of classes to take, and start eliminating anything that you’re not interested in.”
I’m quiet long enough for her to lift her head from explaining where to add it to the bullet journal. Her lips part at the molten heat in my eyes.
Holding her gaze, I take her chin between my thumb and finger, then dip my head to kiss her. I put everything I don’t have the words for into it.
Thank you. You’re amazing. I want you.
All of it’s true.
SEVENTEEN
TATUM
A week ago, this seemed like the best idea ever in my head. After Cooper shattered my world with his amazing mouth, I want to do the same to him.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, T,” Cooper soothes. “I’d never make you if you’re uncomfortable.”
“What? No, I’m fine. We’re doing this. Lesson plan: blowjob.”
He lifts his brows and cocks his head. I raise mine, mirroring him. His lips twitch with the urge to grin.
“Pants off, junk out, Coop.”
“Well, when you sweet talk me like that, babe…” He loses the battle and gives me a crooked smile, backing toward his bed.
Okay, so I’m being way less sexy than he was when he went down on me, but nervous energy has plagued me all day. I threw down the gauntlet, challenging him to use the bullet journal set up I made for him. Now it’s time to put my…well, my mouth where it’s going.
On Cooper Vale’s dick.
A flutter moves through my stomach. I had a dream about this exact scenario once. Except instead of his bedroom, we were by the pool. The same one he has a photo of stuck to his wall, with me, him, and my brother in it. The dream started out sexy, but then I realized Jackson and everyone from the pool party were watching us. Total mood killer.
Drawing in a breath, I pluck a hair tie from my wrist and scrape my hair into a high ponytail to keep it out of the way.
