Double Dare(360)

And he nodded, chuckling deep in his chest.

“Yeah, it was pretty exciting when I found it in the closet because suddenly I had a reason to see you. A lame one, sure, because I could have mailed it, but honey, I had to see you. You know that. You’ve been gone two weeks now and it’s been pandemonium at my place.”

My eyes went wide suddenly.

“Oh my god, is Violet okay? How is she?” I gasped. Suddenly, I felt guilty, like a bad person. “I keep meaning to call but it’s been … you know, hard.”

Mr. Parker just laughed.

“I know,” he said comfortingly. “I hated the thought of us talking on the phone like strangers, that’s part of the reason I wanted to come up in person. But no, I meant pandemonium in a good way.”

I shook my head. How could chaos be good?

He grinned at me.

“I remodeled the basement at our house, and the first thing I did was put in a jungle gym for Violet, complete with monkey bars and swings. Indoors,” he said meaningfully. “So our little tyke is always playing down there, shrieking and laughing with joy.”

And I smiled then. Sure, what he was describing was an incredible luxury, beyond the means of ninety-nine percent of the world, but it was no big deal to someone of Mr. Parker’s wealth.

“So Violet’s happy?” I asked tremulously. “With her own jungle gym, her own indoor playground?”

“Very much so,” he growled, nodding. “But not so much her dad.”

And my heart began beating furiously.

“Why not?” I asked, just to hear his answer, although I knew what was coming. And he didn’t let me down. Taking my palm in his big hand, the alpha squeezed my fingers tight, looking meaningfully into my eyes, those blue ones suddenly blazing, so hot I could feel them scorching my skin.

“Because baby, I’m in love with you, and these two weeks have been hell,” he growled. “It’s been a fucking hellhole, what with you gone, the construction going non-stop, Violet missing you, me missing you. People shouldn’t be apart when they love one another,” he growled, those blue eyes feverish, eating me up. “And that includes us.”

The world slowed then, the sands of time dropping grain by grain through the hourglass because possibilities were unfolding, a myriad of colors springing before my eyes, my breathing growing deep, yet shallow at once. Was this really happening? Was Mr. Parker declaring himself, did he have a plan to bring us together? I wasn’t sure, so I tread carefully.

“But what’s changed?” I asked quietly. “I’m a student here at Evergreen and you live sixty miles away in New Jersey. Are you expecting me to drop out of school? Or commute? You know I can’t,” I said gently. “The New Jersey turnpike is awful, it would be three hours of driving each way and there’s no way I can do that for four years.”

The big man was silent for a moment, taking me in, blue eyes fixed on my face, the way my lips trembled slightly.

“Well, that’s a start,” he rumbled. “At least we’re talking about meeting in the middle, on the same page.”

And I blushed. How did Peter always do this to me? Throw me off balance like this? Of course I wanted to be with him, didn’t he know that? But maybe I’d taken things for granted, maybe he didn’t know how much I wanted to explore a life together, how I was willing to discuss compromises, changes that could be made on both sides. So I spoke, baring my heart.

“Peter, of course I love you,” I said, squeezing that big palm, smiling with a lump in my throat. “And I want to be with you, but the problem is how? The question is more logistics than anything, but I know we can work it out, somehow.”

And this time, he nodded.

“That’s right baby, it’s nothing that a little imagination can’t solve. Or in this case, a little common sense,” he said wryly. “Because,” and here his voice turned serious, “I don’t want you to drop out of school, nor do I want you to commute. Our lives weren’t meant to be spent sitting in a car, and honey, you’re smart, you’re brilliant, I want you to have a career if that’s what you want. So I was thinking,” he said slowly, taking a deep breath, “that I’d move up here. I’d move myself and Violet up here, and the three of us could live together near campus.”

Now I was shocked, completely silent, my mouth in a round “O.” Mr. Parker was willing to move here, to upstate New York, to leave the comfort of his mansion in New Jersey?

“But what about your job?” I stuttered. “What about your company, and your house? Didn’t you just re-model? And what about Violet and school?”