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Chapter 10
“You know what? Nevermind. I know what I’m going to do.”
Alex said that before Clara was able to answer his question about which house he should buy.
The nicer home they looked at first was the obvious choice. The schoolhouse was going to take a lot of renovation. He could use the offices almost right away, but the building was old, it needed a new roof, they didn’t know what shape the septic was in, and if he was going to live in it, there were a lot of things that were going to need to be added and fixed.
The other house was move-in ready.
Clara had been raised to be practical, even if she was more of a dreamer than a practical woman. Still, she could be practical when she needed to.
She nodded, looking once more out the front windows at the view of the lake. She could imagine sitting there, with her easel and paints, looking up at the lake for inspiration as she put the picture in her mind on the canvas.
“I have to go to the Cities tomorrow.” Apparently, Alex was ready for a subject change. “I’ll discuss details with the real estate agent, and I’ll have him put an offer in first thing tomorrow morning. We’ll get things rolling here, and you can go to Chicago and start packing. I want my office packed up, yours, and anything you know we need in the meeting and storage rooms.”
“Yes, sir,” Clara said. A bit of relief washed over her as he settled back into the role of boss and she assumed her normal role of business subordinate. A subordinate who might be a little bit in love with her boss, but that felt familiar too. It was a little, secret thing that she kept tucked away. It wasn’t something that was out in the open or that she was afraid was going to come out in the open the way she’d been the last couple of days.
Hopefully they would move here, and everything would continue just the way it had been. There was a reason why things were called a “comfort zone.” Moving out of it was most definitely uncomfortable, and she honestly wasn’t sure she wanted to. It was one thing to admire him from afar, it was another thing to have all of the feelings and emotions and uncertainties of not knowing where she stood with him and wondering if their relationship was going to move forward, only to explode.
“Clara?”
“Yes?” She turned and saw him staring at her. She got the feeling that he had been staring for some time.
“I want you to stay with me.”
Oh. She totally forgot about that. She was considering starting her own business. Everything felt so comfortable and safe when she was with him, taking orders from him, doing what he wanted, and just thinking about her dreams, but not acting on them.
“Promise me?” His words did not have his normal confidence, almost as though he knew he was asking for more than what he should. Wanting her to give him more than an employee typically needed to. She’d given him seven years of loyalty. She didn’t owe him anything more.
“You’re moving here because of me. Spending a lot of money, and uprooting everything you have, changing your plans, and doing something that you totally weren’t expecting.” She stopped. Why was he doing all of this for her? Just because he didn’t want to train another secretary? “How much time, beyond the seven years I’ve already given you, is right for me to give, in order to justify the way you’re changing everything for me?”
“That’s a good question. I guess you really don’t owe me anything. Seven years was more than enough.”
She wasn’t sure exactly what they were saying, but it felt like there was a message going between them that hadn’t been there before. Like he was acknowledging that things were shifting. Or maybe she was. Or maybe he figured out that she felt more for him than what a secretary should. But that didn’t explain why he was switching things up just for her.
She gathered all the courage that she contained, and she said, “Why? Why are you doing this?”
She felt like she was good at her job. She tried hard to be good at her job in fact. But he wasn’t going to recoup the losses that he was going to take by making the changes he was going to be doing.
His jaw flexed as his eyes met hers steadily, then something shifted there before his whole body turned toward the lake. He seemed to search the horizon for the answers to the question that she hadn’t even meant to ask.
“I know I told you that you could ask me anything, and I would tell you. But I guess I can’t really tell you the answer if I don’t know it myself.”
He turned back to look at her, and while there was no insecurity on his face, it wasn’t the usual confidence that she was used to. There was a softness there, in the crinkle of his eyes and turn of his lips, that she wasn’t used to seeing.
“I guess if I figure out why, I’ll let you know.” There was a short pause, then he lifted his chin just a fraction. “And I don’t need any promises from you. I’ve already decided what I’m going to do, and I’m going to do it regardless of what you do. Are you good for tomorrow?”
She nodded slowly, although it took her a couple of moments to figure out exactly what she was supposed to do tomorrow.
That’s right. Go to Chicago, pack up the offices. It would take up most of the week.
