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It would be better for my mental health if it were the last. I can’t stay on this emotional rollercoaster with him. I need to move on.
Being a thousand miles away from him will help.
Drowning myself in my dreamfinallycoming true will also help.
I hope.
“Law school,” he repeats. “I didn’t know you wanted that.”
“I haven’t told anyone,” I say.
“You got in? It’s for sure?”
I nod. “I actually got in two years ago. Right before Brian died.”
He moves his hand from the front of my throat to the back of my neck. The slide of his slightly rough palm against my skin makes shivers dance through my body, and my nipples tighten. He continues just to hold me, close enough I can smell his cologne and feel the warmth of his breath against my cheek.
“But you didn’t go,” he says.
“I couldn’t. I had to go to Ohio with Scarlett. I called the program to tell them I was declining the spot, and they told me about deferment. They let me postpone starting for a year. Then, when we were still in Ohio, and it didn’t look like anything was going to change, I called them again and tried to withdraw. They said I was such a great candidate, they really wanted me, and would I like just to defer another year. I said yes. And then you and Cian showed up and…” I let out a breath. “Now Scarlett is okay. She’s safe and secure. She doesn’t need me like she did before. So I can go.” I can’t help the smile that curves my lips. “Finally.”
He's looking at me with what almost looks like wonder. “How did you…how did you get through college? I didn’t even know you did that. Does Scarlett know that?”
Henry and I talked about our relationships with Scarlett and Cian, talked about what it was like to help raise Mariah, talked about him helping raise Cian’s niece when his sister was a single mom, talked about the places we’ve both lived and the places he’s traveled to. I’ve filled him in on my childhood, my mom, my biological father, and my stepdad.
But there’s plenty we haven’t covered yet. His visits to Emerald were always stolen time from his job and weren’t long. And, if I’m honest, we spent a lot of our time together naked.
So, he doesn’t know about this part of my life. He thinks I’ve been a stripper and bartender all my adult life. Which is true. It’s just that I haven’t beenonlythat.
“I took my college classes one by one, as I could afford them, over the past fifteen years,” I tell him. “I took most of them while we lived in New Orleans. I made the most money there.” Bartending and stripping in the French Quarter paid better than any of the bartending or waitressing jobs I’d had prior. “I took them from Loyola because they gave me scholarship help. And that’s where I got into law school.”
He nods slowly. “Wow.”
I smile.
“You’re so…amazing.” His thumb strokes up and down the side of my neck.
My panties get a little wetter, and I struggle to concentrate on our conversation. I wet my lips. “Thanks.”
“Why do you want to be a lawyer?”
That one’s easy. “So I can help people. I don’t like when people are taken advantage of by people more powerful than they are—big corporations, landlords, bosses, predatory lenders. I want to be more than a cheerleader or someone who can loan someone my car to go talk to legal aid.”
“You don’t have to go to New Orleans,” he says.
“I do.” I frown. “I’m in the Loyola program. They’ve been holding my spot.”
“Isn’t there a law school at Ohio State?”
Columbus is only twenty minutes from Emerald. I sigh. “Yes. But I haven’t applied or been accepted there.”
“So you should apply. If you can get in at Loyola, I’ll bet you can get in at Ohio State.”
That is not necessarily true, of course. But I know what that means coming from Henry. He’ll pull strings and get me in at Ohio State if that’s what I want.
I shake my head. “I’m going to Loyola.”
“That’s very far away from Scarlett and Mariah.”