He sighed at my words because it sounded like I was starting off with a refusal to his proposition.
“But I need you to understand, it’s not so much just my job I’m concerned about walking away from. It’s whoIwould be while with you.”
His look went blank.
“I can’t just walk away from my life and follow you blindly with no goals for myself. I need to know you understand that.” My eyes strayed from his. I couldn’t maintain the contact.
He reached out for my hand, but I pulled it away, reluctant to have any contact until I got something, anything, from him.
“Mare,” he said. “Listen, first of all, this could be a very temporary thing for me. I have no idea if this will work out. We could be talking a couple months and it’s over.”
He had no idea how talented he was.
“But I have thought about that.”
It was his turn to be unable to sit still. He stood from the stool and paced around the kitchen. By then he stopped, leaned against the counter with his hands and looked at me.
“The relationship between my father and me has always been strained. You know that. The way he assumed that mine and Gage’s path would be to work for this company never sat well with me. It worked for Gage, I get that. But one path doesn’twork for everyone. And I think we both know this was not the path for me.”
I nodded. We’d both known that for a while.
“I gave it my best shot. But it’s not what I want.” He paused. “Now, hear me out on this. I know you appreciate everything my father did for you when you got here. I do too, if I’m being honest. But he’s done the same thing to you he did to me, do you not see that?”
“Excuse me?” I was baffled by his statement.
“Mare, he chose your job for you. Literally had a contract made up saying you would come work for him. Don’t you see? He created your destiny, you had no say in your path at all.”
Everything around me began to spin. Within seconds, Chase was next to me, his arms around me.
Supporting me.
“I want to give it all to you,” he said. “I want you to be able to decide your own destiny, Mare.”
We moved upstairs, exhausted from our talk. Once we were in bed Chase put his arm up, which was his signal for me to lie in the crook of his arm, against his chest.
When Chase explained Robert’s actions to me in the way he did, a light bulb went on in my head. I would never not be grateful for the opportunities he afforded me. However, his son was allowing me to forge my own path moving forward.
He gave me the courage by watching him do it for himself.
“When you were a little girl, or not. Maybe later in life, what was your dream, Mare? What have you always wanted to do? Because this just might be your chance.”
He pulled me closer, his hand rubbing the skin of my shoulder as he did.
“Well, I do have a secret passion,” I told him.
He pushed me away and sat up in bed. His eyes were as round as saucers as he waited for me to continue.
“I’ve always wanted to write. I have a book I already started. A lot of it is in that journal you’ve seen around my apartment.”
Chase jumped to his knees, the bed shaking as he did. His smile couldn’t be contained.
“Mare, that’s amazing. Why have you never told me?” he asked. “What is it about?” He fell against the bed next to me again, still babbling with excitement. “Like, is it fiction or nonfiction? Holy crap, do you realize we’re both writers, in our own way?”
His enthusiasm caught on as he kept going. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was easily something I could do anywhere.
Like in any East Coast town.
“Chase,” I said.
