Page 65 of Whirlwind

My lips turn up softly, and I cup her cheek. “I know you, Finley. And I know you know me. Do you really think I’d quit my job if you didn’t mean something to me? If I didn’t know you? I know you, and I really fucking like you—maybe even more than like you.”

Silence stretches between us, making my blood pressure rise as I wait for her to respond. Different emotions flash across her face like a flip book: awe, disbelief, fear, sadness, and everything in between.

“Finley, baby. Can you say something?”

Her still-watery eyes flutter to mine. “I like you a lot, too, Ryker. I’ve liked you more than I should for a long time.”

My heart lifts, but then her shoulders drop, and the feeling quickly fades.

“If you quit your job, not only will that affect your life, but the school could scratch everything we did this weekend, too. You wouldn’t be able to publish the research paper, and you’d have to raise funds all over again. They helped pay for this roundof rocket production as well, right? You could lose too much. I don’t want that to happen to you or your team. They’ve worked hard, too.”

The points she brings up are all valid, but I’m not giving up. “My team are also my friends. I think they will understand once I speak with them. And there are other ways to fund chases, not only with my own money but also with donations and grants. You know I started chasing long before I was a professor, and the university isn’t the only way to get cash flow.”

“And the paper? All the data we got today?”

A prickle of sense tries to push past my Finley-filled brain, but I bat it back. “I’ll figure out a way. The data is too important; they won’t discard it—”

She takes my hands and grips them hard. “No, they might not. But this is what you’ve been working for—”

“There will be other papers. You’re more important.”

“No, I’m not. What you accomplished today—”

“Whatweaccomplished today,” I interrupt, and she almost rolls her eyes.

“Whatweaccomplished today, it’s going to change the way we look at tornados. It could save lives.”

“And I’ll still be part of that. I’ll find a way to make it work.”

Finley huffs out a frustrated breath. “Don’t you understand? I don’t want you to quit your job.”

“Then what do we do? I don’t see another way. If you drop my class, you won’t be able to graduate. If I quit, I know I won’t be your professor, but you’ll still have me. You can still learn from me. I see how hard you work, and I don’t want you to delay your degree or make things more difficult for yourself. This is the easier way.”

“I feel like a broken record, but I’m not the only one who’s worked hard. You worked hard for your job.”

I want to pin her to the bed and make her see that this is the best option. I want to tell her again and again while I worshipher body that teaching isn’t my life. That she…she could be my life. “I told you, I want to quit. I want you—”

She stops me. “I hear you, but now I’m asking you to hear me.”

I push down my words and nod.

She takes a shaky breath. “I want you, Ryker, I do, but this has been such a whirlwind weekend—we need to step back and think. These are our lives, our careers.”

“Exactly, and I don’t want those things without you in them.”

Finley’s eyes soften, and she touches my cheek. “You’re a good man, Professor West.”

Her words eat at me, and I don’t like the tone of them. “What are you saying?”

“That I think we need to take a step back. We have until the fall semester starts back up. You can use this summer to go through the data, get the paper done.”

“I’m not going to hide my relationship with you and keep you locked away all summer because of a paper. You don’t deserve that.”

“I’m not asking you to do that.”

I think my heart stops in my chest. I drop my hands so we’re no longer touching. “Are you saying you don’t want to be with me?”

“I’m saying we need to think about this, really think about it. Maybe you were right to regret—”

---