The unbidden thought disturbed me.Iwas lucky. I’d found everything I’d wanted in a partner in Bill. He was what I’d asked for. Calm. Safe. Easy to get along with. Thoughtful. Loving. And David was everything I pushed away. Passion. Heat. Unknown. Risk.
“Is that why you agreed to do the issue?” I asked. “To find something . . . meaningful? Someone to give your all?”
He examined his plate and looked up. “No. That’s not really why I decided to play along . . . there was a much larger factor.”
His expectant look dared me to ask what that was. Would he go through all this just to spend time with me? After his forwardness at Lucy’s party and since, it wouldn’t be far-fetched for him to admit that.
But if so, it was better left unsaid.
I continued chowing down, eschewing any chance at keeping it cool. It was too hard not to make a spectacle while plate-licking-good sauce dripped down my hands, and I chased slippery avocado into my mouth. “Next, I’d ask about college,” I said. “You went to Yale for undergrad, then Architectural Association in London.”
He nodded. “And you?”
“That wasn’t a question—I already knew.” I smirked. “So I don’t have to reciprocate.”
“Notre Dame,” he said.
I stopped chewing and swallowed. “When you take an interest in something, you don’t really hold back, do you?”
“Now you’re catching on.” His eyes gleamed. “I know where, but I don’t know why. What took you there?”
“Legacy,” I said. “I grew up in Dallas but my father went to Notre Dame.”
“Mine, too. What are the chances?” His dimples deepened with a large smile. “Wonder if they know each other. And your mom?”
“A novelist,” I said. “Or she was. She hasn’t put a book out in years. I’d assume her publisher dropped her, but if they had, my dad and I would’ve heard about it non-stop.”
He inclined his head to catch my eye. “Divorced?”
I nodded. “Right before I entered high school.”
“That must have been hard.”
Harddidn’t begin to describe. My father couldn’t leave Dallas because of work, but he’d relocated us to a different part of the city immediately, practically overnight. I’d started high school with no friends, no mom, and no understanding of my social status. I’d had no one to show me how to pick out clothes as my body changed or apply makeup to my angry, teenage skin. All the while undergoing a six-month-long custody battle where lawyers probed at me, child protective services asked questions I didn’t know how to answer, and people tried to make me choose between my parents.
I shrugged as casually as I could, wiping away the threatening memories as I dabbed my mouth with my napkin. “Is high school easy for anyone?”
David cleared his throat. “I suppose not.”
What was I thinking? He was not my audience. I couldn’t imagine someone like David Dylan ever experiencing an excruciating lunch period of not knowing where to sit or who to avoid. Of finally sitting down and being asked by a group of strangers if the rumor was true that my own parent had tried to murder me.
And then, upon learning that wasn’t true, watching as the excitement in their faces had quickly turned to boredom.
“High school was a breeze for you, wasn’t it?” I asked.
“I have only fond memories,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t be a good listener.”
“A good listener?” I asked.
“What was it like for you? Not easy. I can see it on your face.”
Damn it. He picked up on too much. I wasn’t used to that. I had to bevigilantabout schooling my expression around him. “I have fond memories, too,” I said. “My best friend convinced her mom to let her and her older brother transfer to my high school during my sophomore year. Their parents are divorced, so they understood. The three of us are still very close.”
David tapped his chin. “Since Lucy told me you two met at Notre Dame, you must be talking about Gretchen.”
Nothing got by him. Then again, Gretchen was hard to forget. I wondered if he’d noticed her at dinner, too. I still hated the thought of them hitting it off, but I had no claim over David, and he would’ve been a good match for her. “I can introduce you if you want,” I said.
“I’ve met her.” His gaze intensified. “If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you choose?”
