Forever. The thought should have scared him, being a standard fare red-blooded male. Especially in light of what had happened with Melinda. But the thought of not forever, of losing her, was the real threat. He would make it official and ask her to marry him, but he might scare her away. Asking her to move in had already been a big step, and she hadn’t said yes yet. She was still young. He felt vaguely guilty tying her down.
Not guilty enough to stop.
Besides, he knew better than anyone that putting a ring on her finger wouldn’t guarantee anything. It hadn’t with Melinda. All he and Erin had to offer each other was one day at a time.
For the first time, he thought it might be enough.
“You should ask her out,” he finally said. “Even if it doesn’t work out, at least you’ll have given it a chance. It’s better than not living.”
The other man studied him. “That sounds like the voice of experience.”
“It is, and you were one of the people who helped bring me back. I owe you for that.”
Jeremy clapped him on the shoulder. “Then come to work with me. A tenured position. The board will approve it in a heartbeat.”
Ah, it seemed they’d arrived at the hard sell portion of the evening. What the hell, he’d known what his answer would be. Teaching was too damn fun.
So was living, he had found out the hard way.
A swig of the expensive liquor. It went down smooth. “Then I accept. Oh, and by the way, can I ask you a favor? Could you send me a copy of the doctorate theses this year?”
“Sure. A little light reading?”
He allowed himself a small smile. “I like to know what the next generation is thinking about. And include the undergraduate senior theses while you’re at it.”
He really did want to know what the next generation was thinking about.
Reading Erin’s thesis would be a bonus.
Chapter Six
Erin
Frantic and dizzy with worry, Erin redialed Blake’s cell phone.
He wasn’t picking up at home either, but she took a chance that he’d fallen asleep quickly. The cab fare was thirty dollars just to get from her apartment to his empty, dark house. Damn. The Faculty Ball had ended at eleven and it was already midnight, so where was he?
She had a flash of panic. What if he were hurt? What if he’d had something to drink and he’d been driving and…no. Calm down. That was the kind of thing that happened in movies, like in An Affair to Remember. Blake was fine. If he did drink, he was probably waiting somewhere until he sobered up enough to drive.
His office, she realized.
He might even be
there to finish up paperwork or clear out his books. It was the type of thing he might do, avoiding socializing under the pretense of some work task. Especially if things had gone poorly. Damn, now she was worried about that too. Her worry was strung up tight like the string of a bow, pulled back and ready to fire. If only she had a damn target.
She returned to the waiting cab and shut the door. “Campus, please.”
“You got it.”
The fare ticked higher as they retraced their steps back toward the university. It was going to take everything she had in her wallet to pay the fare. She’d check the office. He had to be there. Because if he wasn’t, she had no idea where he could be, and she had no other plan.
“Any chance you guys go out of town?” she asked the cab driver.
“Sure. Where you headed?” When she told him the name of her hometown, he plugged it into his GPS. “That’d be a flat-rate trip. Looks like $450 to get you there.”
She almost groaned. Four hundred dollars? Her bank account had that much—but barely. She’d wipe it clean and have nothing left to fix her car with when she got back.
When they arrived at the campus checkpoint, she paid him, hesitantly adding a tip from her meager stash. If she ended up taking the bus, she’d use up the last twenty in her purse and it would be tomorrow by the time she arrived. The cab drove away, leaving her in a cloud of smog. She didn’t have a ride to the bus station now either.