He clears his throat and squares his shoulders like he’s preparing for battle. “I can admit when I’m wrong. I didn’t expect you to succeed, and I’m pleasantly surprised.”
“So I can tell the other faculty members that you’re on board?”
“Non posso crederci,” he mutters. “I have some thinking to do.”
“Is that a yes?” I ask as he turns away from me.
“That’s not a no.”
I smile at his back as he leaves the classroom. I’ll take what I can get. “I appreciate your support, Giancarlo.”
He stops in his tracks. “You may still call me Dr. Guarino.”
Small wins, then.
I vibrate while waiting for the last of Colton’s students to leave his room. I bounce by the door, desperate to release some of this energy until I can talk to him.
That wasn’t an official yes from Dr. Guarino, but it might as well have been. In a couple weeks, all five professors will stand up in Boston and say this program was a success. That the initiative will harm students more than help them. This won’t just be a step toward healing the Billings culture. It’ll be a fucking leap.
While I’m waiting, Inez wanders up, staring at her phone in a daze.
“Inez,” I call, the excitement nearly bursting out of me, and she jumps like a cat trying to escape water. She looks terrified, and my enthusiasm drains out of me. “What happened? Is everything okay?”
She blinks down at her phone again and then back at me. “I got it.”
In the excitement for my own victory, it takes my brain a few seconds to catch up.
“The job?” I ask, and she nods. “Congratulations!”
I wrap my arms around her before she can see the way my lip quivers.
“What am I supposed to do, Quinn?” she asks.
I pull back. My knee-jerk reaction is to tell her to stay in Boston, to beg her not to leave. But she doesn’t need my trauma dumped on her when she’s making one of the biggest decisions of her life.
“When do you have to give them an answer?”
“Three weeks. They said they recognize it would be a huge move and want me to have time to think about it. Which is a good sign for the work environment, don’t you think?”
A breath whooshes out of me. Three weeks means we’ll be back in Boston, and we’ll have proof that the faculty and staff can pleasantly work together. That may be the difference between her staying or going.
“It’s totally a good sign,” I say. “I can’t tell you what to do, but I can tell you that I just had a really great conversation with Dr. Guarino.”
Her eyes go wide. “He agreed to back off the initiative?”
I tilt my head back and forth. “Notofficiallyyet, but he’s going to. And he said he waswrong,Inez. Wrong! I doubt the man’s ever said that word before. So, you know. In case that changes anything.”
She smiles, but it’s wobbly. “He held out for so long.”
I take her face between my hands. “Whatever you decide, that school is going to be so lucky to have you.”
She dips her head. “You’re right. And we have so much to celebrate. Dinner tonight? You and Colton, plus me and Tomasso?”
“Stop trying to get us to double date,” I say with a laugh. “But yes, I’d love to go to dinner with my three closestfriends.”
She gives me a disbelieving laugh before heading down the hallway as the students started pouring out of Colton’s classroom. The excited jitters over getting Dr. Guarino’s approval mix with the nervous jitters over Inez, and I’m going to explode if I don’t get to talk to him within the next fifteen seconds.
When the last student leaves, I slip in and lock the door before running to Colton. At the sight of him, the nerves settle. Whatever happens with Inez, all five professors have admitted the value I bring to campus—and, by extension, the staff in general. I did what no one besides the two of us thought was possible. I jump and wrap my legs around him, something I’ve never felt comfortable doing in my entire life, but he’s already proven he can—and will—catch me. I brace my arms on his shoulders and devour his mouth.
