Page 91 of Forbidden Puck
He cut me off before I went too far off the deep end.
“Hey, stop that. First of all, you do a terrible impression of me. Second, I don't want to 'bang' anybody else. Third, New York isn't that far from Boston at all. We'll find ways to sneak in visits. We'll make it work.”
“You really think so?” I asked, my voice tinged with doubt. I needed to be reassured.
“I do.” Ryan snapped his finger as if a great idea just came to him. “Oh! Hey, what are you doing next weekend?”
“Pft … probably working.” I rolled my eyes. “Why, what are youdoing?”
“The team's got a road trip to New York. If you can take time off, I'd love to see you.”
I squealed with delight. “OfcourseI can make time for you.”
But then reality, and a small bit of dread, started to soak in.“For this to be a thing, though, I'll have to start taking more time off work in general. I work through the weekends, you know. I've gonemonthswithout taking a day off.”
Ryan gave me a side-eyed glare, like I ought to know better. “And from what you've told me about yourself, your 24/7 work schedule has become a problem for you.”
I pursed my lips. “True. You're right. God, it's a hard habit to break, isn't it? I feel so guilty when I take time off …”
“Don't, Ella. Everyone needs to take time off. And I'm going to make sure you take it, by the way. You work too hard. If you keep that pace up, you're going to burn yourself out eventually.”
I rest my head against his shoulder. “Thank you.”
It felt so nice that I'd found a man who was already watching out for me; a man who would firmly tell me the things that, in my heart,Iknewwere true, but was stilltoo weak to tell myself.
“I don't want to go home,” I said forlornly. “I wish I could stay with you.”
He gave me a sweet smile. “I wish you could, too.”
“I'm tired of New York.”
“Move to Boston, then,” he said.
I couldn't tell if he was serious, but I perked up like he was anyway. “You really think I should?”
“If you think you'd be happy here, sure. I could introduce you to the Brawler WAGs so you could make some connections for your work—”
“WAGs?” I asked.
“Wives and girlfriends. They're like a social and support club. Plus, they're all really good friends. They keep each other company when the men are out on the road.”
“Ooh.”
“Point is, those ladies are great, and more than a few of them are also hard-working professionals. I'm sure they'd help you out any way they can. I can start asking around, if you'd like.”
“Mm. Let's not rush into thingstooquickly now …” I said, biting my lip. But I'd be lying if I said the idea of starting new somewhere else didn't excite me.
We were nearing Logan Airport and airliners now hung low in the blue afternoon sky. As we drove closer and closer to my destination, an awful sense of loneliness began the inevitable slide down into my stomach.
Soon, I'd have to say goodbye to Ryan—and although we'd weathered our first storm together, now we'd have to weather a whole other storm separately: being apart from each other constantly. And at such an early stage of our relationship, too. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little scared.
The closer we came to the airport, the harder I squeezed his hand.
And just like that, Ryan was parking the car and slinging my bags over his shoulder and walking me to the airport.
This is it…
***
