he caught me around the waist, pul ing me back down.
“A word, please, before you leave me—what did you say? Hanging free on the kitchen floor?”
“Yes, dear?” I asked, earning a raised eyebrow.
“So, using the base-rounding point of reference we’ve applied to this week, I’d say we just skipped ahead a few dates, yes?”
“I should say so.” I laughed, patting him lightly on the head.
“Then I think it’s only fair to warn you…Tomorrow night? Your last night in Spain?” he said, his eyes blazing through the twilight.
“Yes?” I whispered.
“I’m gonna try to steal home.”
I smiled. “Sil y Simon, it’s not stealing if I wave you in,” I purred, kissing him solidly on the lips.
Later that night, as I lay wrapped thickly in Simon, LC began to prepare. And Brain and Backbone began to chant…O…O…O. Wang? Wel ,
we knew where he was, pressed rather closely against Backbone.
Heart continued to float above, but was circling ever closer to home. However, an additional entity began to assert herself once again, trying to
influence the others. She tinted my dreams with her quiet whispering.
Hel o, Nerves.
My sleep was most decidedly…flaily.
Chapter Eighteen
“DID YOU ALWAYS KNOW you wanted to take pictures for a living?”
“What? Where did that come from?” Simon laughed, sitting back in his chair and looking at me over the rim of his coffee cup.
We were enjoying a lazy breakfast on my last day in Spain. Dark coffee, tiny little lemon cakes, freshly cut berries and cream, and a side of
sunny coastline. Clad in Simon’s shirt and a smile, I was in heaven. Nerves seemed very far away this morning.
“I mean it,” I insisted. “Did you always want to do this? You seem, wel , you’re very intense when you’re working. You seem like you real y love
it.”
“I do love it. I mean, it’s a job so it has its tedious moments, but yeah, I love it. It wasn’t something I always planned, though. In fact, there was a
different plan altogether,” he replied, a dark look passing over his face.
“What does that mean?”
“For a long time I planned on fol owing my father into his business.” He sighed, a rueful smile slipping into place.
My hand was in his before I even realized I’d offered it. He squeezed, and then took another sip of his coffee.
“Did you know Benjamin worked for my father?” he asked. “Dad hired him right out of school, mentored him, taught him everything. When
Benjamin wanted to go out on his own, you’d think Dad would’ve been pissed, but he was so proud of him.”
“He’s the best.” I grinned.
“Don’t think I don’t know about the crush you girls have on him. I’m aware.” He gave me a stern look.
“I’d hope so. We’re not exactly subtle in our admiration.”
“Parker Financial Services was getting big, real y big, and Dad wanted me to come onboard as soon as I was done with col ege. I honestly
never thought I’d leave Philadelphia. It would have been a great life: working with my dad, country club, big house in the ’burbs. Who wouldn’t want
that?”
“Wel …” I murmured. It was an idyl ic life, for sure, but I couldn’t picture Simon there.
“I worked on our high school newspaper, taking pictures. I took the class as an easy A. You know, good for my transcript? But even though I got
assignments like covering the women’s field hockey tryouts, I real y liked it. Like, really liked it. I just figured it would always be a nice hobby. Never
real y thought about it as a career. My parents supported me, though, and my mom even got me a camera for Christmas that year—the year that…
wel …” He paused, clearing his throat a bit.
“Anyway, after everything happened with Mom and Dad, Benjamin came out to Philadelphia for the, um, for the funeral. He stayed for a while,
got things in order, you know. He was the executor of my parents’ wil . And since he was living out on the West Coast, wel , the idea of staying
behind in Philadelphia didn’t sound so great. So, long story short, Stanford accepted me, I started studying photojournalism, I got real y lucky with
some internships, and then right-place-right-time, and bam! That’s how I got into this gig,” he finished, dunking his cake and taking a bite.
“And you love it.” I smiled.
“And I love it,” he agreed.
“So what happened to your dad’s company? Parker Financial?” I asked, spooning up a bite of berries.
“Benjamin took over some of the clients for a while, and over time he quietly closed up shop. The assets were transferred to me, per the wil ,