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Toronto.
At her new job. It was what she’d wanted. A good job at a prestige firm. It would be a great start to her career. It was perfect. Even more so that Cole decided to go with her. Sure, she hadn’t planned that part of things, but it didn’t matter. She could go with the flow. That in itself surprised her so much she had to laugh.Her, go with the flow?It was crazy how only a few days could change so much.
But even with all the changes—or maybe because of them—something still wasn’t sitting right with Amber. She should be thrilled that she was getting everything she wanted, but whenever she tried to picture herself walking into Wallace and McKwade—she couldn’t.
Maybe it was because she hadn’t formally accepted the job. But more likely it was because Amber was no longer sure it was what she wanted. After all, did she really want to turn into a workaholic who spent all her waking hours crunching numbers and poring over financial statements?
And then there was Cole. They hadn’t discussed what he was going to do in Toronto. In fact, she had no idea what he was trained to do. Had he even graduated from college? She didn’t think so. She remembered Josie saying something about how he’d dropped out halfway through to travel to Australia. Not that it mattered, not really. Besides, Cole didn’t seem concerned about what he’d do.
But she was.
Because the longer she drove, the harder it was to imagine Cole in a big city, working some kind of corporate job where he’d be miserable. He would hate it there. He needed an adventure, or at least somewhere with open spaces, no buildings to fence him in. He’d resent her. And then…
By the time they pulled up to the rental car return and dropped off their keys, Amber was fixated on the idea that no matter what he said, Cole didn’t belong in the big city with her.
“What’s going on in that pretty head?” he asked her as they walked through the airport hand in hand in search of the desk where Cole could change his ticket. “You seem a million miles away, and that’s worrying me a little bit.”
Amber shrugged. “I’m fine. I’m just thinking.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her to a stop before she realized what was happening.
“What’s going on?” he demanded.
She shook her head and was about to protest and say something that would smooth things over, but she changed her mind and said what she knew was right. “We can’t go to Toronto.”
“What?”
Once the words were out of her mouth, Amber finally felt as though she could breathe again.
“What are you talking about? Your job is there.”
“No.”
“It is.”
“Yes, I mean, no.” She stopped and smiled before continuing. “What I mean is, I don’t want to go there. I didn’t even really formally accept the job and I’m not even excited about it. In fact, I’m kind of dreading it.”
Cole’s face twisted up in confusion for a moment before he said, “So what are you thinking?”
“I don’t want to go to Toronto.”
He laughed but didn’t release her hands. “Okay. So whatdoyou want?”
“You,” she answered without hesitation. “I want you.”
“But not the job?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Australia?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know.” It was an honest answer.
“Okay.” Cole drew the word out. “So, you know you want me?” She nodded. “You don’t want the job?” She shook her head. “And you’re not sure about Australia?”
“Right.”
“So, what do we do?” He looked around. “We can’t stay here. I mean, we could go back to Crystal Creek and—”
“Cedar Springs.” The idea popped into her head, but the moment it did, it felt right. Her family had been wanting her to go visit and the holidays were coming. Besides, it’s not as if they had any other place to go. “My whole family is there right now,” she explained. “It’s complicated, but I have a few brothers I don’t really know and they’re all there and they all seem to be married or getting married and…why not?” she finished with a shrug.
