Page 98 of Wright Kind of Trouble

“I could be with you in the summer though. Maybe we could get a place in Cambridge, and then I’d work remote for the summer.”

“Chase,” I repeated more forcefully.

His eyes snapped to mine. “Does that not work for you? Do you…not want to try long-distance?”

“I don’t,” I told him.

His face fell, and it broke my heart to see it. “Oh.”

“Because I’m not going to Harvard.”

“Come again?”

“I withdrew my acceptance.”

“You did what?” He came to a sitting position. His brow furrowed, and his expression was grim. “Harley, why would you do that?”

“Because I don’t want to be a lawyer.”

He opened and closed his mouth. “You don’t?”

“I’ve been saying it to you for years. I don’t know why it took me accepting Harvard and getting all the material and shit to really figure it out. But I spent the time that you gave me to think about it. I made my decision, and then…I realized it was the wrong one.”

“But what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to work at Wright.”

Chase’s frown deepened. “You are?”

“I already worked it out with Morgan,” I told him, mentioning my cousin and the current CEO. “I asked her not to tell anyone else yet because I wasn’t ready. But I’m going to work in human resources and deal with the development of better inclusion programs. Hopefully, next fall, I’ll get a Masters at Tech to supplement my work here. Maybe get a PhD later if I want to make myself even more of an expert in the field so that I can facilitate change in more Fortune 500 companies.”

“And that’s what you want to do?” he confirmed. “Nothing to do with…me?”

“You’re a bonus,” I said with a laugh.

“Well, good. I’m happy for you. I’m glad you figured out what you wanted to do. I wasn’t looking forward to you leaving, but I would have been there for you.”

I nodded. “I know. I just have to…figure out how to tell everyone else now. They’re all so proud of me.”

“You lit up, talking about what you want to do. That’s all they should care about.” He rubbed his thumb over my knuckles. “If you change your mind, law school is always available to you.”

“I don’t think I’ll change my mind, but this is it. This is what I’m planning.”

“You’re going to be magnificent.”

I snuggled in closer to him, a deep sense of relief falling on my shoulders. I’d been so worried about everything. Harvard. My dad. My future. And I decided to do exactly what Chase had told me. I took everything else out of the picture. And at the end of it, I hadn’t wanted Harvard.

I mean, I had. In the sense that I’d always thought I’d become a lawyer.

But it was the name that was the draw. The sense of accomplishment that I’d chased my whole life.

It wasn’t what I wanted. It’d have been three more years of difficult work that I wasn’t even sure I wanted. Someone else deserved that spot in the end. Not me.

I was so content that I nearly fell asleep in Chase’s arms when a knock came from the front door.

Chase yawned. “I thought Bailey wasn’t coming home.”

“I didn’t think she was. Maybe she had to get something and didn’t want to barge inside in case we were naked.”

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