She stared at him, so he continued. "Nearly every time one of us meets a woman and starts a new relationship, it ends up doomed. It seems all glamorous at first, but then when it comes down to it, it's usually more than a woman can take."
"I never saw this as glamorous, Dominic. So I don't fit the mold from the start. In fact, I'm not really interested in all the glamour. I was hoping you would keep that part separate from me." She bit her lip and then nibbled on it.
"Keep it separate? How?"
"I don't want to travel with you for one. I'm serious about my business. I have a job. A career. I worked hard to build it. I'm not giving it up. And you have a job you love. I wouldn't expect you to give it up, either.
"So we'll work around it. See what happens. Take it day by day. If it's meant to be, it will work out. Even long distance."
He couldn't move or breathe. This wasn't how he saw this going down. He made a lot of money. She didn't have to work. "Could you maybe take a few months off? Could Stephan run the gallery for a while? Maybe Ava could help? Or do you have other employees?"
She narrowed her gaze and pushed on his chest until she could take a step back. "No, big guy. It doesn't work like that. It's my gallery. And even if I could take time off, I don't want to. That's my career. Do not belittle it just because you make more money. I'm a grown woman. I've built that business up for years. I'm not going to quit and run off with some twenty-six-year-old ballplayer until he gets tired of me. What would I have then? Nothing. Don't be so cocky. Your suggestion is insulting."
He reached for her, but she stepped back farther, wrapping her arms around her middle. He wanted to take the last ten minutes back and call a do-over. He was also a little pissed that she didn't seem to take him seriously. "Lily, don't."
"Don't what? Don't have my own dreams? Don't keep a business I spent years building so I can follow you around the country while you play your little game?"
"My little game?" His voice rose. He dropped his hands from her altogether. "Is that how you see my job? As a hobby?"
She shrugged. "It's volatile. You have no way of knowing if it will last from one season to the next. Or even one week to the next. It's insulting for you to insinuate I should quit my job to follow you around. Why don't you quit yours and help me out at the gallery?"
He rolled his eyes. "Be reasonable." Why was she being so emotional?
"Me?" Her voice rose. "You just asked me to quit my job and become a baseball groupie so that you have someone to fuck between ten in the morning and noon. Who's being unreasonable?" She took a step back and turned around. "I think I should go home."
Fuck. That had not gone at all as planned. "Lily, wait."
She kept walking. A moment later, she pulled the glass door open and stepped back inside.
He raced to catch up, but by the time he reached their table, she was already grabbing her purse, and Ava had a horrified look on her face.
"Lily, can we discuss this? Like adults?"
She spun around. "Adults? Who are you accusing of not being an adult here?" She glanced around, exaggerating her movements.
"Lily … "
She pushed past him. "I don't want to discuss this anymore today. I'm not sure I ever want to. I'm going home now. It's getting late, anyway. It's a long drive."
"You can't leave here angry." Dammit. Why couldn't she see reason?
"Watch me." She turned toward the door.
Ava said something to Xavier and then raced after her sister.
Dominic stood staring after them, completely unsure what to do. On the one hand, he didn't want Lily to walk away from him. However, he also didn't want to chase her down and beg. That wasn't his style. And she was about to be extremely disappointed if she was testing him in that way.
"Cordes?" Xavier asked. "What the fuck did you do?"
Dominic whipped around to face his friend. "Me?" He pointed at himself. "What about her? She was being completely unreasonable."
Xavier took his arm and led him out the front door. The women were nowhere to be seen. They'd sped off. Dominic kicked himself for letting Lily drive her own car to the restaurant. If her car had been at his condo, he could have talked to her on the way back. But she'd insisted they needed to head back to Miami after dinner and dancing.
"You want to talk about it?" Xavier asked.
"Not a fucking chance in hell."
Chapter Sixteen