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“Will do.”

“Thanks, Lynn.” Touching the screen, he hung up. Glancing next to him, he saw that Sienna was still asleep.

One thing he learned about her was she could sleep anywhere and slept hard. Not to say that he didn’t have fun ways of waking her up, but she was someone who took her sleep time very seriously. Mick knew he was going to have to get on this call as soon as they got back to the house and was going to suggest that Sienna just go and lie down in the bedroom and get a real nap in. Hopefully he could wrap things up with Lynn and his team quickly. He hated when the media started speculating about things, but he supposed this was a good way to start generating a little buzz for Simon. If people were reaching out, that meant they were interested and would follow any news of his career.

I love this part of the job...

He loved his job. Period. It had been his dream since he was a teen and while there were times it was challenging and frustrating and mentally exhausting, he still loved it.

Even though it cost him...well...this.

He picked up Sienna’s hand and held it again just because he loved to touch her—to have that connection. They had to make this work. He was used to a lifestyle where he was only home for short periods of time, so he knew he could move to North Carolina and travel for business. Ideally, he wished there was a way for her to have the time to travel with him because he found he enjoyed traveling so much more when she was beside him.

Soon.

The conversation was going to happen today come hell or high water.

Once he finished talking to his team, he and Sienna were going to talk.

And they weren’t going to stop until everything between them was settled.

****

This view is everything...

They were back at Mick’s house and she was standing out on the deck, lost in her own thoughts. Yeah, Sienna knew she could stand out here and stare at the ocean all day and not get tired of it. It was so peaceful and tranquil, and she knew she would have nothing like it when she was home. And now she wasn’t so sure she could settle for not having it.

They had survived the rest of their Disneyland trip—and truly had a great time—and had made the drive back to his house after breakfast that morning. The plan for the rest of the day was to simply relax and have some quiet time together. Tomorrow, she was supposed to fly home and had opted to take the red-eye so they’d have one last full day together.

Great, like those few extra hours were going to make that much of a difference, she thought miserably.

She’d never been away from her job or her home for this long and she imagined there would be at least a little bit of excitement about returning to it. But there wasn’t.

And she was dreading it more than she ever thought possible.

Mick had argued that he could charter a plane to take her home, but she had turned him down. He had a life to get back to just like she did, and her flying back to the East Coast alone just made more sense. In the car, she had gotten the sense that he was trying to find ways to come home with her—using the excuse of wanting to meet Eleanor—but...they were going to have to learn to be apart for at least a little while. If things went the way she hoped they would, it wasn’t like she was going to move in with him today.

They had kept their word and not talked about what came next, but she knew it was never far from her mind and greatly doubted it was far from his. Mick was a natural planner, and she knew what kind of self-control he was exercising in order to appease her. It was amazing the way he just...he understood her. She never felt any pressure, or like he was actively frustrated with her need to take things at a different pace. Of course, if they hadn’t had such an active and fully scheduled trip, it might have been a different story.

That they were at an amusement park meant there were plenty of distractions and it wasn’t hard to find other things to talk about. Even on the drive home, Mick had talked about the sights they were passing and shared stories about some of the towns they drove through. It was another look into his life, and she soaked up every word of it.

Now it was quiet. He’d gotten a call as they walked into the house and was currently in his office. She was outside, alone.

And really, it was a good thing.

Today was the day they were going to have to talk.

Really talk.

And she still wasn’t sure she was ready for it.

Logistically, there was a challenge. That much was obvious. Technically, Mick could work from just about anywhere, but... she was tied to her job at Duke. There was no way to work from home in her profession.

So don’t work from home. Take a sabbatical.

Okay, there was that, but eventually she’d have to go back to work. She’d come too far to simply give up everything just so she and Mick could be together. Why should he get his career and she had to give up hers? How was that fair?

I am so getting ahead of myself here...