Page 61 of Destined To Fall

“Which was?”

“My dad wanted me to have some prestigious job, something high-profile, seeing as I was their only child, and he didn’t get the son he’d so desperately wanted. My mother, on the other hand, wanted me to marry wealthy. Sending me to an Ivy League school was the only thing they could agree on, so they applied behind my back. I got accepted to Yale, though I am sure it wasn’t solely on my 4.0 GPA.”

“You could have done anything.”

I close my eyes and shake my head.He doesn’t get it.“No, I couldn’t. My father refused to pay for anything that wouldn’t end in a doctorate, or the like.Thetrust fund wasn’t going to kick in until I was twenty-one, not that I wanted to use it. My only choice was to fly solo.”

“So you flew the nest.”

“I flew the nest. Not without a lot of rough landings, but I’m soaring now.”

He chuckles and shakes his head.

“Be thankful I didn’t follow through with my marketing degree. You’d be out of a job,” I tease, ribbing him with my elbow.

“I guess I can take comfort in the fact you aren’t after my job. Silver lining,” he mutters, staring past the television, seeming lost in thought.

“Yeah, yeah.” I snuggle farther into the pillows and turn up the volume on the TV.“No more about me, please. I haven’t talked this much about myself in…I never talk about myself.” Jeremy opens his mouth to speak, but I pull on his arm, bringing him down to my comfy level.“Shh, this is my favorite episode. I love Brendan Fraser.”

“This one? But—”

“I know, I know.”

“Are you…a crier?”

“Pfft. No.”

But not even twenty minutes into the episode sees Jeremy handing me a Kleenex to silence my sniffles. He bumps shoulders with me, and the familiar electrical current that usually follows Jeremy’s proximity runs the length of my body, leaving goosebumps in its wake.

“She does have a heart after all,” he whispers playfully in my ear.

“So it would seem.”

And it’s beating a little too fast for comfort.

Chapter Twelve

A soft snore rouses me, but I refuse to open my eyes, burrowing deeper into the crisp cotton sheets.Cotton?

My heart rate spikes seconds before my brain does. My eyes ping open, now fully awake. I take note of the white ceiling above me, and the gray peeking around the edges of my peripheral vision. I groan, remembering which hotel room I fell asleep in, or more specifically, whose.

The snore comes again, and I bite my lip, holding back my chuckle.Well, this is a first.I slowly turn my head to the left, careful not to make a sound or move the bed. Sure enough, curled up mere inches from me is Jeremy, sound asleep, snoring softly. His eyelashes flutter, and his forehead pulls down, the longer hair on top slipping over the crease. I raise my hand up to brush it back, only to freeze an inch from contact. Friends, he said. I chew on my lip, continuing to watch Jeremy sleep. He looks so young, so innocent, so…appealing. I’m sure he has his own dirty secrets hiding in the back of his closet. But celibacy, really? I did not see that one coming.

A smile teases the corners of my mouth as I slide off the bed and quietly head for the door, collecting my things on the way. Friends?Challenge accepted. How hard can that be?

“So, how was last night?” Laura asks, stepping aside from the counter as we wait for our coffee.

“You’re going to quiz me before I’ve had caffeine?” I ask. She quirks a brow in response.“Different.” A grin I can’t seem to fight crawls its way up my face.

“I know that look.”

“What look?”

“The I-had-the-best-night-of-my-life look. It’s been a while.”

Her smug expression makes me want to punch her.“I don’t think I’ve ever had that look, Law. This,”—I wave my hand in front of my face—”is hardly that look. It’s the my-coffee-is-almost-here look.”

“Sure it is. Is he likely to be a repeat performance?”

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