AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sabine shot a look to Shawn who blushed.
“He’s helping me navigate the industry,” Shawn explained shyly.
“So you’re doing the thing?” Sabine asked, her heart skipping a small beat for the young musician.
“I might be doing the thing,” he replied noncommittedly as he headed out the door.
“Did you set that up?” she asked Dave.
“Huh?” Dave turned around, the sound of the espresso machine having drowned out her question.
She folded her arms and leaned back in the chair. “Shawn and Max, did you set that up?”
Dave glanced toward the door and back to her. Something about his expression turned introspective and serious, and she should have braced.
“I am more aware of my privilege than most people think I am. Without the people in my life, I wouldn’t be anything.” He picked up his espresso and took a sip. “If I have the opportunity to share that with someone who deserves it, I will.”
Shivers raced over her arms and she tugged her sweater sleeves down to cover them. Meanwhile, warmth started to creep up her neck.
Why did every single conversation with Dave get her all discombobulated?
It was as if he refused to be defined by normal standards and kept reinventing exceptions.
She licked her lips. “You’re incredibly talented…and brilliant—if I’m being honest. What makes you think any of that is other people’s doing?”
One side of his mouth tugged upwards, and he leveled her with that dark blue, direct gaze. “I’m a high school dropout, Sabine. I need someone to tell me when to take out the trash. I have never been on time for one thing in my life. I am a difficult person to be around on a good day. I know exactly how lucky I am to have Max. To have Leslie. To have Hannah and Johnny. Nothing I have would exist without the patience and work of others. So if my success can make the people I care about rich, then I’ll choose that every time.”
Sabine stared at him, her heart hammering in her chest. Absently, she realized she was rubbing her earlobes in an effort to calm down.
Someone along the way had taken this brilliant, creative person and made him feelbadfor his gifts. Made him feelapologeticfor them.
Her anger churned deep in her chest and she breathed slow. In and out. In and out.
“I should have offered,” Dave cut into her thoughts. “Do you want an espresso?”
“No, thank you,” she replied. “Dave, you’re…”
He waited—his expression open, unguarded. But all the words that she wanted to say to him somehow seemed inadequate to what she wanted to convey.
She exhaled, defeated. “You’re awesome.”
He grinned, his energy back up to what it had been moments ago.
He crossed the lounge and sat down across from her again. “So I was thinking,” he began, like it wasn’t the beginning but the middle of a thought she hadn’t heard the rest of. “What if I hired you?”
“What’s that now?” she asked, trying to let go of what had been bothering her and grab hold of what he was presenting now.
He held the espresso cup on the table in between the fingertips of both hands and turned it in his grasp. “You said you’ve taught adults before.”
“Yes.”
“What if I hired you?” He looked up from the cup and smiled tentatively. “To help me get my GED?” He cleared his throat. “Or whatever the Illinois equivalent is.”
Oh.Ohh.
“You don’t have to hire me for that. I’d gladly help you figure out how to get all that done.” She straightened in her chair and rested both her elbows on the table.
His expression closed down just enough for her to notice. “No, I’d rather hire you if that’s all right.”
