Wrong For You (Before You Series Book 3)(10)
“No need. I brought you lunch.” He held out one bag of food for her. “Well, as long as you’re okay with burgers and fries.” Now that he thought about it, most women he knew would rather die than let a burger or a fry cross their lips. Her stomach grumbled and he chuckled. “I guess that’s a yes.”
She sucked her lower lip into her mouth and cheeks flushed tellingly. “My stomach doesn’t lie. I’ve been living on peanut butter sandwiches for a couple days. I’d take anything at this point.”
“What the hell?” he blurted out before he could stop himself.
She lifted one shoulder nonchalantly. “It’s not a big deal. I’m just trying to make the Foundation’s money last a little longer and I cut my salary. It’s only temporary.”
Even though he didn’t know much about Violet, he didn’t like the idea of her struggling to feed herself. “What about your family?”
She laughed, her eyes lighting up. “I’m not going to beg them for money, and even if I did, they wouldn’t help. I’d be playing right into their tough love strategy to get me to do what they want.”
“And what’s that?” Alec asked, watching her unfold the wrapper around her burger and lift it to her mouth.
“Mm,” she moaned as chewed her first bite. Watching her eat was one of the sexiest things he’d witnessed in a long time. Women in skimpy dresses didn’t have a thing on seeing Violet make love to her burger as though it were the best thing to pass her lips in years.
“Law school,” she answered, dabbing her lips with a brown napkin. “I come from a long line of small town lawyers. My parents want me to join their practice and be the third Emerson.”
“Huh?”
“Right now their firm is called Emerson and Emerson after my mom and dad. If I went to law school and joined their practice, they promised to change the name to Emerson, Emerson and Emerson.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
She shook her head. “Nope. I’m serious.”
His lips shaking, he nibbled on his lip ring.
She tossed a french fry at him. “Go ahead and laugh. I know it’s a silly name.”
“It seems like there should a better way to capture all three names without sounding so…redundant.”
She raised her eyebrows. “But then each of us wouldn’t get the recognition we deserved. Being a named partner is a big deal.”
“You really believe that?”
“Nope. I don’t care, but it was my mom and dad’s latest carrot to lure me into law school.”
“Are you going to go?” He took a drink of his soda, watching her face from beneath his lashes.
“I don’t know. Being a lawyer is their dream, not mine.”
“And what’s your dream?” He leaned back against the chair, stretching his legs out in front of him and crossing them at his ankles.
“For as long as I can remember, I wanted to make a difference in kids’ lives. At first I thought that meant being a teacher, but then I volunteered at the Foundation as a tutor and I was hooked. I’ve been here for six years, if you include my volunteer work before I graduated from college, but now…” She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s wearing on me.”
“How?”
“I’m okay if I can’t afford the best clothes, the best car, or other things, but I like to eat and pay my bills and that’s barely feasible anymore.” She bit on her lower lip, her lashes lowered. “I feel like a quitter because these kids have it so much worse than me, but still…”
She looked down without continuing her sentence, but Alec understood what she meant. He was one of those kids who barely had food on the table and lived with an alcoholic mom. If their house hadn’t been paid off with their dad’s insurance policy, he would have spent his childhood on the streets or in foster care. “You aren’t greedy for wanting to have a life.”
Avoiding his gaze, she exhaled loudly, playing with the top button of her white blouse. “Conceptually, I understand that, but sometimes I can’t convince myself and I feel guilty for putting my needs ahead of these kids who have so little. I volunteered at the Foundation because it fulfilled my internship for my social work degree, but after a day, I loved it. I thought I’d found my calling, but now I’m not so sure.”
He leaned across the desk and tipped up her chin so he could see her eyes again. They were innocent and full of life. He hated that she was hiding them from him. “You’re a good person, Violet. Don’t beat yourself up if you decide you need more stability. Everybody deserves stability. There are other ways to help. You don’t need to starve to prove you care.”