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He shrugged. “It’s the truth. I knew it the moment I met you. You’re the type of person that’s going places.”
Why did it feel like tears were threatening to break loose behind my eyes? Those words were all I wanted to hear from people like Brian and my parents. Yet Nathan—someone who barely knew me—delivered them so easily.
“Maybe you should think about devoting more time to your passion,” he added. “I can tell you love this a lot more than your job.”
My mouth hung open. Was he implying that I should leave Love Linked? “Are you—are you threatening to fire me?”
His eyebrows shot up as his eyes widened. “What? Not at all. I just know how hard it can be juggling multiple ventures. You should invest all your time into your business if you want it to succeed.”
Confusion spread. What message was he trying to send?
“I’m sorry, are you actually encouraging me to quit and work at ConnectHer full-time?”
“If you believe you can make it a success, then you need to,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Oh, I would never quit. I love it there,” I swore.
Nathan leveled me with a look. “Charlie, I’m not dense. I know people have outside interests. I know your job isn’t everything. As valuable as you are to the company, and as much as I would hate to lose you, I would completely understand if you had to leave to work on your own business.”
“Really?” I asked quietly. Lila would be jumping up and down with joy if she could hear this conversation.
“Really. I saw that crowd you gathered a few weeks ago. That, coupled with your intelligence and competence, makes me positive you’ll be a success.”
“Wow,” I breathed.
“What?”
“Nothing. I’m just shocked to be getting this advice from my boss of all people.”
“I’m more than your boss,” he said, eyes locked on mine.
“You are?”
He tore his gaze away and shook his head as if trying to clear his thoughts.
“Well, I hope you can think of me as a mentor of some sort—maybe even a friend.”
He wouldn’t meet my gaze again.
“I do,” I finally said.
Little did he know my fantasies saw him as a hell of a lot more than that.
Chapter Seventeen
NATHAN
“That’s it!”Oliver exclaimed from below. “Ring the bell!”
Sweat collected on my brow. Grunting, I reached my hand up to press the buzzer. A ringing blared, signaling I had made it to the top of the artificial rock wall.
“Hell yeah, brother!”
I kicked against the wall and leaned back, slowly descending onto the mat.
Once my feet connected with the ground, Oliver clasped my shoulders and shook me.
“You finally made it to the top without incident. We’ll have to take it to the next level and go climbing outdoors next summer.”
