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“Yes, he’s fine. Sorry if I alarmed you by calling. I wanted to offer you something.” Lainey gave a thumbs up to Jill, who returned to her painting. The word “offer” from his mouth, the way theodripped off his tongue, made her squirm and drip herself. Self-consciously, she crossed her legs even as she stood and shot a furtive look at Jill, who didn’t seem to have noticed, happily painting the whites of eyes on every inch of her canvas.
“Offer me something?” She picked at a loose string on Jill’s bedspread, fraying it.
“I wondered if you’d like to come intern for me.”
“Oh, I see.”
“It wouldn’t be a paid position, but I think I have a different way to make it worth your while.” A different way. The thrumming of her heart was arresting; it had rendered her immobile. “Would it possibly be an attractive position if I offered to put you through medical school? Or through getting your masters—whichever way you’d like to take your education.”
Well, that certainly was a different way, though not the way she thought he was going to say.
She shook her head, willing the blood in her face to disperse back to where it belonged. Why had she thought he was going to say something else? What was wrong with her? She had always planned on going back to school. As long as she could talk, the idea was that she’d be a doctor like her dear old dad. It was only recently that she had developed this identity crisis. It was Josh’s cutting words that had made her reconsider, the way he’d said “doctor” so venomously, the way she wasn’t sure she could do it alone. Josh, for all his faults, had helped her study and had always reassured her that she was going to pass her classes and probably with an A. Even when he’d seemed annoyed that she was spiraling again, he’d never denied her intelligence. But her mother’s words hovered—was she really going to let a man make up her mind for her? But then, wasn’t being a doctor because her father had always said she would be one doing the same thing? Her mind was only echoing what had been on repeat for a week now. Every day—every second she was awake, in fact—only seemed to serve the anxiety of forever. She would eat and think about what she wanted to do with her life. She would breathe and think about what she wanted to do with her life. She was tiring herself out. Graphs and charts and lists weren’t even helping, and that was not usually the case for Lainey.
“Lainey?”
She realized she hadn’t said anything in at least a minute. “Yes, I’m here, sorry. I’m just thinking,” she answered honestly.
“I’m sensing you have some reservations.”
“Sorry. It does sound like an attractive offer,” she replied quietly.
“How about this, then? Let’s meet for lunch. Are you doing anything in an hour?”
“No . . . I’m not. I can meet you.”
“Great. Let’s meet at Etch. I’ll pick you up, how about that?”
“I prefer to drive myself.”
He chuckled. “Of course. Smart. I could be dangerous. All right, let’s meet at Etch in an hour then. Do you know where it is?”
Now it was her turn to laugh. Etch was one of the hottest restaurants in the dining scene in Nashville. She routinely saw it listed on tourist and foodie articles. She’d passed the gorgeous building with its floor-to-ceiling windows spanning across the walls and accent markers in cherry wood many times on her way to school.
“Sure, I know where it is. Thank you.”
“I should be thanking you for not scrolling through other jobs while we talk. See you in an hour.”
A surprised laugh escaped her as she closed her laptop. It was as if he had seen what she was doing and knew just when to call. “See you then.”
As soon as she hung up, she bolted to her room to look for a change of clothes, something that said sophisticated but also maybe like she didn’t even know how sophisticated the restaurant was, that she actually was just wearing something sophisticated when he called and what a happy accident that was.
She settled on a little black wraparound dress with a discreet cut out right at the midriff and ruffles at the bottom. To really sell that this was just her errands look, she buckled on some strappy flats and braided her hair down her back, letting out two strands at the front to frame her face. As she applied cherry red lip stain, she caught Jill’s eye from the other room. Jill was watching her frantically dress with a smirk across her face.
“Whatcha doing?” she called from down the hall.
“I’ll explain later,” Lainey called back as she grabbed her purse and headed out the door. Mainly because she had no idea what she was doing.
Chapter five
Shearrivedattherestaurant to a hostess asking if she had a reservation. She paused to consider, unsure if she did, and looked around for Mr. Arnault. She eyed the tall ceilings and the light fixtures that dripped from them like stalactite, the men in suits and the women in dresses sipping from martinis in the afternoon with seemingly no cares despite it being a Wednesday. Mr. Arnault was seated at a cozy table at the far side of the restaurant, holding a scotch and raising a hand to signal his position. She smiled from behind a bitten lip and pointed at him. The hostess smiled broadly back and waved her hand in a flourish, permitting her to go sit. As she did, Mr. Arnault stood and kissed her cheek.
“Good to see you, Lainey. We got here just in time for lunch. Take a look at the menu before we jump in. On me, of course.”
She thought briefly that it was interesting how he’d phrased that, as though they happened to have arrived at the right time as opposed to acknowledging he’d reserved a table for them at one p.m. She wondered how he had managed to pull that off. Had this plan of his been in the works for longer than she knew? Or did he just get lucky? She supposed a billion dollars at one’s disposal could sway some situations in their favor.
“Oh, thank you. That’s kind of you.”
“I invited you. It’s only right,” he assured her, swirling the ice in his glass, tinkling it against the sides. She knew, of course, that he’d offered and therefore he was going to pay, but it was still comforting to hear. It conveyed a certain amount of thoughtfulness, saying it out loud. She could feel his eyes on her as she perused the options with delight. “Is anything jumping out at you?”
