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She looked over at me with a serious expression on her face. “Oh no, this doesn’t sound good.”
I sighed heavily. “I really like you, Jolie. A lot.”
“Oh god. Just get to it already,” she said.
“There’s not really abut. It’s just that I’m trying to get traded to Nashville, and I want to be up front with you about it.”
“Nashville?”
“It’s not about hockey. It’s because of my family. I need to be closer to them right now.”
She nodded, and I could tell she was thinking about what I’d said. I hoped like hell I hadn’t just blown my chance with her.
“My brother”
She cut me off. “You don’t have to tell me. As long as you’re completely single, let’s just have a good night together, okay? And if you’re still here and we want to keep seeing each other after that, we will. I don’t know where I’m going to end up, either, but probably not here. Let’s just enjoy right now, okay?”
I smiled, relieved and more impressed by her than ever. “Yeah, that sounds perfect.”
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Jolie
I’d never beena person who played games with others. I understood there were rituals and expectations that went along with dating. Playing hard to get, not sleeping with someone on the first date—unless it was a one-night stand—and not scarfing down a massive steak. Those were things we learned as women, even studious, academic sorts like me. Yet all of that flew right out the window with Boone. He didn’t make me feel like I had to pretend to be someone else, not like Jarvis always had. In fact, Boone made me feel like the real me was the absolute best version there could be. And no one else had ever made me feel that way.
When we sat down at a popular high-end steak house and he suggested the Tomahawk rib eye for two, which included lobster tails and sides that made my mouth water, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I didn’t say no to wine or the chocolate-caramel soufflé he’d ordered at the beginning of the meal either. It was like the wordnodidn’t exist for me tonight.
“Tell me about your research,” he said after we’d eaten our meal and were waiting for the soufflé to be served since they were each made individually.
“Really?” I shook my head. “You’ll be asleep before I finish explaining my dissertation.”
“Try me.”
“I've been studying how regulatory sequences control temporal and spatial patterns of gene expression by using a cDNA encoded reporter gene in transgenic mice. When I first started, the expression patterns we found were unexpected and that became the basis of my thesis…” I let my voice trail as I caught the glazed look he was trying valiantly to disguise. “Okay, too much. Basically, what I’m working on impacts the retina. Vision. Keeping people from going blind.”
“Oh.” He nodded. “That sounds amazing. How long until you get your PhD?”
“Good question. The research and data analysis are done, and I’ve finally gotten serious about writing the dissertation, so it’s just a matter now of going back and forth with my mentor doing revisions and making it as good as I possibly can. I’ve got a date set to defend it in May.”
“That’s soon,” he said, sounding surprised. “I don’t know why. I thought it would take longer.”
“I’ve been working toward this for a long time. The original goal was to be done by summer so I could move to Chicago and start my new life. Obviously, that’s changed, but I’d still like to make the same deadline.”
“What’s next since you’re not moving to Chicago?”
“Well, I still want to be done by summer,” I said, chuckling. “Except now I don’t have to search for a job in Chicago and can literally go anywhere.”
“There’s an interesting sense of freedom in that,” he said thoughtfully. “Don’t get me wrong. I love hockey, but it can be restrictive. I can only go where I’m offered a contract, you know?”
“Don’t you like playing for the Mavericks?” I asked in surprise.
“I love the Mavericks. Truly. The town, my teammates, where I live. All of it. But there are other things that matter. Like family. This situation with Joey and my sister. And lots of other stuff we probably don’t want to get into tonight. But I’ll admit I’m a little envious of the ability to go anywhere you want.”
“I still have to be offered a position,” I countered. “Whether it’s in a lab, or teaching, or something else. It’s no different than any other job search, except now I don’t have to restrict where I apply beyond whatever parameters I set for myself.”
“Here you are.” The waitress put a steaming soufflé down in front of us, and though I was still stuffed from dinner, my mouth watered.
“Jesus, that’s decadent,” I whispered.
