For a second, neither of us said anything. He stayed close, his thigh still pressed to mine, and I loved being able to be this close to him again.
Then I exhaled. “Devon talked to me.”
His expression changed immediately. “He wants you in LA.”
“You knew?”
“He mentioned it yesterday.”
“You could’ve told me.”
“And ruin your dramatic office moment?” He shook his head. “No chance.”
I snorted. “He said he wants us because we earned it.”
“We did.”
For a minute we just sat there, with the river in front of us and the bike cooling off behind us. Then Keaton turned more fully toward me.
“So,” he said, “what else happened today?”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You don’t drive to my work after hours with a spare helmet and a whole secret river setup just because Devon picked you for LA.” He looked at me. “Something else get under your skin.”
I blew out a breath. “I spent part of the evening looking for a job.”
“And?”
“And it sucked.” I rubbed my hand over my jaw. “Security jobs, warehouse work, random retail listings—stuff I could probably do but don’t want to. I stared at the screen for two hours and wanted to throw my laptop across the room.”
“That bad?”
“That bad.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Something that works with training hours.” I glanced down at the blanket. “Something that doesn’t make me miserable five minutes in.”
“That narrows it down.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.” He shifted a little closer. “What do you actually want?”
I stared out toward the river. “I don’t know yet. I know what I don’t want.”
“Which is?”
“Anything that feels like I’m just killing time until I can get back to the gym.”
He nodded slowly. “That makes sense.”
“Does it? Because right now it feels like I’m supposed to magically know how to build a life here while I’m trying to get ready for LA and not screw this up with you at the same time.” I chuckled. “That sounded more dramatic out loud than it did in my head.”
“No,” he answered. “It sounded like you’re being honest about how you feel.”
“I am.”
