Because I would.
I had no idea what that would look like, but I believed in myself. I had to. Otherwise, I would fall entirely apart.
“I promise,” he finally whispered. “And if I’m ever too much or too overbearing, promise me the same thing.”
It took me a minute to drag the words across my tongue because I didn’t want to say them. I didn’t want to make that promise. I wanted to just be here for him for as long as he needed me. For as long as he wanted me.
But it was only fair.
“I promise.”
Nash’s lips pursed, and he laid a kiss behind my ear before breathing out whatever breath he was holding and tightening his grip on me. “Tell me this is okay.”
I laid my arm over his, my fingers unclenched just enough to slot in between his. I pressed his hand harder against my heart. “This is okay.”
He hummed, and after minutes ticked by, honey-thick and slow, I finally began to drift off.
CHAPTER TWENTY
FOREST
‘If you could do anything besides teach,’ Dax asked me as he lounged in his chair, his feet kicked up on his table, ‘what would it be? Did you ever have a dream when you were a kid?’
I shrugged. ‘Egyptologist,’ I spelled carefully on my hands. My flare was still hanging around, but the bouts of stiffness were starting to abate. ‘But I don’t think that’s in my future.’
He snorted. ‘I’m pretty sure they don’t let random white dudes dig around in the pyramids anymore. I saw a documentary about the museum in Cairo trying to get back everything England stole.’
That wasn’t really my thing anyway. I’d spent two semesters studying in Italy, digging around Pompeii, then traveling over to Crete to check out the Minoan ruins, when I thought I was going to be the world’s best archaeologist who solved the mystery and broke the writing code of Linear A. I’d wanted to go down in history as one of the greats.
But that was not in my cards now.
‘What else?’
I wrinkled my nose at him. ‘What did you want to be besides a mechanic?’
‘Drummer,’ he signed with a shrug. ‘I had a band, but we had a big falling out during our sophomore year of high school. After that…’ His brow furrowed in thought. ‘I was happy working on cars.’
I didn’t want to give up history, but I also knew that the pressure and stress of teaching would always put me at risk for a flare. And I couldn’t ask my students to put up with a professor who couldn’t be there in the way they needed him.
‘I might like to write a book.’ I bit my lip. ‘I’ve kicked around a fantasy world based on ancient history.’
‘Romance?’ Dax asked, waggling his brows.
I scoffed. ‘Some romance. Some action. War. Magic. Spies.’
‘Kiss-fist that,’ Dax signed. ‘I want to read now.’
‘Give me time,’ I answered back with a laugh. But the truth was, it wasn’t the worst idea, and I wasn’t lying. I had a dozen outlines of book ideas that hadn’t been written yet. At least, not in the way I’d want to read them.
And while typing might be hard, there were other ways to get words down on paper. It was something, at least. A goal I could work toward. Something that could give me hope while everything else felt a bit…bleak.
‘So,’ Dax said, waving to get my attention. ‘My brother knows about you and Nash.’
I groaned, covering my face for a second. ‘Yes. He showed up to that work barbecue. We got busted.’
Dax grimaced. ‘Angry-him?’
‘Hurt that Nash didn’t tell him,’ I corrected. ‘Maybe a little angry. Tameron was probably angrier. I have to tell my brother.’
