“It’s kinda strange,” she said. “I don’t want to talk about work to blur the lines between our work and professional life, but I feel like that’s the thing we’ve dedicated our lives to, so it feels weird not to talk about it.”
“We can. I just think we shouldn’t reverse it.” My mom was really involved in my father’s business, and Emerson was practically running the show for Derek. Maybe that was why they had such strong relationships, because they were connected on every single level, emotionally, physically, professionally.
“Well, what was it like to be at Stanford at fifteen?”
“Um, kinda shitty.”
“What?” she asked in surprise. “How?”
“Because I may be smart enough as the other students, but we were still four years apart, so it wasn’t like we could connect in any other way. I didn’t have friends. I didn’t have dates, obviously. I just studied.”
“I never really considered that.”
“Being smarter than everyone else sounds really cool on paper, but it’s actually a deeply isolating experience. You can never connect to anyone around you because you’re not only intellectually different, but your age makes you incompatible. That’s why Daisy and I are so close, because we always had each other while we were skipping grades and not having a lot of friends. Things got better when I became a legal adult. It wasn’t so weird to be around people in their early twenties when I was almost twenty, so it normalized at that point.”
She nodded like she understood. “You get along with people so well that I never would have thought that.”
“If I didn’t have my family, it probably would have turned out differently. When I didn’t have friends at school, I always had Daisy, and my dad was always great because I could have the kind of intellectual conversations with him I couldn’t have with my teachers and other people.”
“I’m sorry that made it hard for you to relate to people, but I think your intelligence is super sexy.”
“Yeah?” I grinned. “Nerds turn you on?”
Her eyebrows immediately scrunched up together. “You aren’t a nerd.”
“No, I’m pretty sure that I am,” I said with a laugh.
“You’re a brilliant man who’s drop-dead gorgeous with a big heart and an even bigger dick. No, you are not a nerd.”
I stilled at her words, surprised she would say that so candidly, but also a bit amused by it. I smiled before I took a drink of my wine.
She didn’t look remotely apologetic or embarrassed by what she’d said.
Which made it even hotter. “Well…thanks.”
She smiled in response. “You’re welcome.”
I was finished with my food, but I didn’t rush to grab the check. I was afraid of my behavior when we were alone together again, so I was kinda dragging it out. “How are your parents?”
“Good. I haven’t talked to them for about a week.”
“Are you going to tell them about us?”
She swirled her wine as she considered it. “Not sure yet. My mom will flip out, so…”
“I thought your parents liked me.”
“Oh, they do,” she said with a laugh. “When she realized how young and handsome you are, she started drilling into me to make something happen. And you stole her heart with the whole pie thing.”
“I stole her heart eating her pie?” I asked incredulously. “She’s the one who worked her ass off to make it, and I just got to sit there and eat it.”
She smiled before she took another drink of her wine. “She loves that you loved it so much. That’s how moms are. They want people to love their cooking. And you were over the moon about it, so that was a huge boost to her ego.”
My mom didn’t cook, so I had no idea. Dad did all the cooking, and that cooking was usually stuff we didn’t want to eat. “Good to know.”
“And come on, Dex. Everyone you meet adores you.”
There was one person I knew who didn’t adore me, but I refused to think about her, especially right now.
“Did you tell your parents about us?”
I shook my head. “But they probably already know. They seem to know everything.”
She chuckled. “Your father’s speech was really nice.”
“Yeah. He’s not much of a talker, but somehow he always has something exceptional to say.”
“Maybe because he only says things that are worth saying.”
“Could be.” Now that I had Sicily there with me, as more than just an assistant, more than just a friend, it felt really nice. It was much better than fooling around with Natalia, picking up a random woman at the bar and deflecting most of her questions, and this was…peaceful. I hoped this peace would last a long time.
After I paid the check, we left the restaurant, and I walked her back to her apartment. It was February now, so we just had to hold out a little longer for spring to arrive. Then I could see her in summer dresses and heels, and I bet she’d be even more bangin’ than she already was.