“I thought…I don’t know. It felt like something you’d want to do. I kept thinking about your creepy bedroom.” I choke out a small laugh. “And how someone as brilliant as you had to abandon his dream…” I pause. “Not that you’re not great at what you do now. I just hate that you had to give something up.”
The file cover closes quietly in his hands, and now the entire weight of his attention is on me.
“Would it have made a difference?” he asks quietly. “With us?” He shakes his head. “I’ll always be Adam Erickson from Maple Hollow.”
“I…” I falter. “You are so much more than your name or hometown. Though, for what it’s worth, I happen to think both are pretty great,” I say carefully. “Where is this coming from?”
He sets the folder behind him, on the desk, jaw ticking. “At first, I thought that’s why you left. Because you never saw a future with me.” He runs the tip of his tongue along his teeth. “I’ve always known we were from different worlds. Then Blanca made it clear we were doomed from the start.”
My mouth opens and closes wordlessly. I rush in a breath. “You wereeverythingto me!” I search his face. “It’s not true. Itnever was. I never cared about that! Who cares what anyone else thinks?!”
The idea that he’s spent all these years believing I saw him as less than suffocates me.
Adam shrugs. “You always did.”
“Yes, but only as it applied to my role in the company. It had nothing—” My palm slashes through the air. “Nothing! To do with you.”
This conversation has gone wildly off script, but I can’t leave it at that. “You are the most caring, smart, selfless… Oh, my God!” I’m beginning to hyperventilate. “Is that what you thought?”
He’s now staring at me, throat bobbing, his silence louder than any confirmation.
“Hey,” his voice is soft, “look at the bright side. Once you told me what really happened, I realized something. I was the one tearing myself apart. No one else.”
That doesn’t make me feel better. Not even a little.
“How long have you…felt like that?”
“First day at Harvard.”
Oh, my poor Adam. Baby-faced freshman. My heart twists for him.
“It wasn’t all bad,” he says, voice warm. “After all, I met Carter there. And then you came along.”
I look down, throat tightening. Suddenly, we’re standing at the edge of the real reason I came here, and I’m not ready.
“Well, that didn’t exactly go over too well, so, yeah…” I ramble on, the carefully crafted plan I rehearsed in the car unraveling in real time. “I know it doesn’t fix anything. It’s not supposed to. That’s not why I created the fund.”
My mouth keeps moving, panic curling around my ribs. I’m scared he won’t forgive me this time.
But Adam is unaffected by my verbal stumble, and walks calmly to the window, pressing a button. The glass tints instantly.
For a moment, I’m rendered speechless. My throat works around a dry swallow as I watch his fluid movement around the room, mouth open, until he shuts the office door behind me.
I can barely hear the distinct click over my heart pounding.
“I… I don’t expect anything in return,” I whisper, my words coming out strangled. “That’s not why—”
Adam towers over me, so close I feel his body heat roll across my skin, setting my cheeks on fire.
He hooks a finger under my chin and tilts my face toward him, until his breath ghosts my lips, as he murmurs, “You take my breath away, Jackie.” His voice dips even lower. “Always have.”
That drop of hope bubbles in my stomach like champagne. But it feels unearned, knowing what coming here might cost me.
Guilt still clings to my skin, but he crashes his lips over mine with such hunger, it makes my knees buckle.
“And there’s something about your sense of justice and care that really turns me on.”
The hand squeezing my side possessively scatters my thoughts, and I forget I’m supposed to come clean.
