Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
I didn’t wait for him, only mumbled something about finding a men’s room and took off. Unfortunately, Tilly was lying in wait for me when I came out of the hall bathroom.
“Major Denial,” she said, eyeing me up and down.
I couldn’t determine whether it was another nickname or simply a statement of my current emotional situation.
“Ma’am.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You worked things out yet? And before you answer me, I can already tell it’s a big fat no.”
“Nothing to work out,” I said, way more easily than I felt.
She nodded. “Alright then. I guess it’s a good thing he accepted the job offer this evening. Nothing more to say.” She patted me on the chest. “Take care of yourself, Foster.”
Instead of sticking around to provoke or needle me further, she simply walked away.
I didn’t know what bothered me more: hearing that Tommy had taken the job in California or hearing Tilly call me by my actual name.
Both things were devastating.
But only one made me feel like I’d lost something irrevocably precious.
I spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out how to be happy for Tommy. How best to support him. If he’d made his decision—and after seeing him at the scene of Hazel’s accident, I could understand why he had—I wouldn’t stand in his way.
22
TOMMY
Foster was quiet on the drive back to SERA. I figured he was experiencing a Marian hangover, so I left him to it. Maybe by the time we returned to the cabin, he would have put the trauma behind him.
In the meantime, I replayed the phone call from the chief of emergency medicine at UC Davis that had come in just after we’d arrived at the lodge. He’d caught wind of my availability and was eager to bring me in for an interview—practically pleading with me not to commit elsewhere until they’d had a chance to make their case.
After I’d hung up, I spotted a video conference invite from Stanford’s HR department for tomorrow morning. It seemed unlikely they’d go to the trouble of setting up a meeting just to let me down gently… but stranger things had happened.
I glanced over at Foster. The evening air caught the ends of his hair as the dashboard lights threw a cool cast over his skin. He flicked his eyes over to me and back to the road.
“Y’okay?” he asked softly.
“Thanks for coming tonight,” I said, feeling truly grateful. “Everyone loved meeting you.”
He shrugged. “You’ve got a great family. It was nice to see you among your… people.”
There was something off about the way he said it, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. “And you were able to avoid Tilly, I noticed. Not so much Granny and Irene, though.”
He winced. “That little one’s a fireball. Offered me five American dollars if I’d lift her over my head.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “What’d you say?”
“Told her if I started picking up random women at parties, I’d lose my gay card. She frowned and nodded. Seemed to think that made sense.”
Chickie tried to nudge my shoulder from the back, insisting on her share of the conversation, even though a moment earlier, she’d been so hard asleep there’d been snores coming from the back seat.
I reached back to pet her through the partition. “You ready for bed, Chickpea?”
Foster shifted in his seat but didn’t say anything about the name. Meanwhile, I’d been carrying it around all day like a bright, flawless little pearl hidden deep in my pocket. That kiss in Hawaii hadn’t just changed my life; it had left a mark on Foster, too.
“Long day,” Foster said after a few more minutes on the road.
I glanced over at him. “Yeah?”
He shrugged. “The hike to set the target. The SAR exercise and medical response. Dinner with your family—I mean, not… not like that. I just meant dinner at the lodge. Where your family happened to be.”
I bit my lip against a smile. “It’s my family’s lodge.”
“Right.”
“And they were the only ones there.”
“Yes.”
“So… technically, you had dinner with my family, Foster.”
He nodded but didn’t take his eyes off the road. “And I already told you it was nice.”
“Fine,” I said, letting him off the hook. Suddenly, I was tired of the games. Tired of being the only one in this supposed “fling” who seemed to want to push past it like two grown adults, even if the solution wasn’t neat or easy.
I was tired of Foster getting moody instead of talking to me about his feelings. One day, he was cold as ice, putting up his “physical only” walls, and the next, he was holding me tight and telling me how much he missed me. Making fucking love to me like I was precious. Like he never wanted to let me go.
Maybe this was a sign. Maybe this was exactly what I needed to see before receiving the official offer and making my decision.