Me? I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Didn’t have words, so I rolled over and kissed him instead. And it was so sweet and tinged with the goodbye I thought he maybe believed was best for us. “I’m not walking away, Professor. You’re worth it, and I think we should tell them. Let’s tell your parents and get ahead of it. If I lose my job, then it was meant to be, but I’d rather have you than anything else.”
“I can’t ask you—”
“You didn’t. Hell, I’ll call your dad and quit tomorrow if I have to. You just might have to be my sugar daddy for a while,” I teased, hoping to show him I was okay with this.
“Will… What if you end up resenting me?”
“I won’t. I want you. I…mightbeinlovewithyou.” My words blended together, but it didn’t matter. He heard them; he knew what I said.
Jameson grinned, so damn big and bright, this smile that I was fairly certain could change the world. “Imightbeinlovewithyoutoo,” he rushed out. We were so awkward together, he made me awkward, and I loved every second of it.
“Really?” I asked.
“Shouldn’t I be the one saying that?”
“We need to work on your self-esteem.”
“I’m trying,” he replied.
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” Jameson said, and it was the best moment of my life. “We can tell them…maybe at the beach house? But I want them to know that they have to keep your job and our relationship separate. I won’t let it hurt you in any way.”
I knew he wouldn’t, and I trusted him. “My boyfriend is the best.”
“Your boyfriend can’t believe this is happening.”
“Believe it,” I replied.
Two more weeks. We just had to keep this to ourselves for two more weeks and then hope like hell his dad didn’t feel betrayed that I’d lied to him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Jameson
Two weeks went by surprisingly fast. Each and every day I expected to wake up from this dream and find out none of it happened. Or maybe I’d been in an accident…I was in a coma, but I would wake up and discover I’d created a whole alternate reality in my brain. What really happened was I went on that first date with Will, got so drunk I fell and hit my head, and I’ve been out of it ever since.
Stranger things had happened, you know, like me having a gorgeous boyfriend who said he loved me and wanted to tell my dad he was dating me and risk his job, which I wouldn’t let him risk, because that was what boyfriends did. And I was determined to be a good one. I’d make sure my dad knew that I would never forgive him if he fired Will over this.
It was early morning, the Friday we were set to go to the beach house. Will and I had made up some excuse about riding together because his car needed work and blah, blah, blah. Sunday was his birthday, and at some point over the long weekend we were going to tell my parents we were a couple. Again, only if I didn’t wake up and realize this was a figment of my imagination and all that.
Then next week he was going to his mom’s house for a late birthday dinner, and I was supposed to meet them as well. I might be freaking out some about that, but I was trying not to show it.
“You got everything?” I asked Will as he grabbed his bag. He’d stayed the night last night, the way he did most nights because if we were real, we were basically the cutest ever.
“Yep, I’m good. You?”
“Yeah.” I locked up, and we went to my car, which I rarely drove. We threw the bags into the trunk. When I got in, I plucked my license from my wallet and the insurance and registration from the glovebox and tucked them into a slot on the dashboard, then started the engine.
“Why do you do that?” Will’s brows furrowed.
“In case I get pulled over.”
His frown deepened. “I don’t get it.”
I sighed. I forgot this was the first time we were in a car together when I drove. This wasn’t a reality for Will. It was one of the reasons I hated driving. “I do that to be safe. So if I get pulled over, I don’t have to reach for anything. It’s something Dad taught me…hell, I don’t even remember how early. It’s just something I’ve always known we do. He does it too. When Crane Entertainment first started doing well and Dad got a BMW, he got pulled over at least once a week. One time, someone called the cops on him because they didn’t think the car was his. It’s just my reality.”
Will gave me this intense stare, one that felt like he was seeing me differently, or hell, maybe seeing himself differently. “I… Shit. I don’t know what to say. Fuck, this world is a shitty place.”