Page 42 of Best In Class
Away.
Even though I want to be with him.
I’m afraid.
I refuse to be my mother. I won’t be the woman who loves more than she’s loved in return. I won’t stay with someone who could betray me, whodidbetray me.
Churchill said,“Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.”
I’m out of courage.
CHAPTER 11
Dom
Isee her at work. That’s the only guarantee I have when it comes to Luna these days.
Since Gabe’s pool party, which was nearly a month ago, the temperature in Savannah has been rising rapidly, but her attitude toward me is frosty. It’s not downright hostile, so that’s a saving grace.
I watch as she stands in the middle of the future atrium of the hospital at the job site, talking to two engineers from the mechanical team, gesturing toward the big white board that has the blueprints clipped to it.
She’s in a hard hat, steeled-toed boots, a tablet in hand—and she looks like an architectural goddess.
If anyone could read my thoughts they’d know I’m a puppy when it comes to this woman, wagging my tail while waiting for scraps, and looking at her like she’s my everything, which she is.
“This air return can’t happen here.” She points to thearea in discussion on the blueprint. “It’s interrupting the natural airflow between Zones A and C. And if we force it, we’re going to get dead zones and temperature inconsistencies in the south wing.”
The younger engineer blinks at her like she just explained quantum physics, but the other, the more experienced one, nods. “I’ll make a note. We can reroute through the vertical stack if you’re okay giving up a foot and a half of ceiling clearance?”
“I can live with that. It’s a pediatric wing, not a cathedral.” She flashes the engineer the kind of half-smile that makes my heart feel like it’s trying to break out of my chest.
She’s fucking brilliant. Focused. So far ahead of me professionally in some ways, inspiring me to learn and be better.
According to Mama, folks ought to be with the kind of people who make them more.
“The sum of the parts, Dominic,”she’ll say, with that look that means you better be listening,“ought to be greater than the parts on their own. Your partner—friend, wife, girlfriend, don’t matter which—should lift you up, not drag you down. And that goes both ways, son.”
She also says not to chase what I want with pride but with humility. That’s easy to do with Luna. Being with her is humbling. Seeing her in action is awe-inspiring.
What’s that song by Van Morrison? ‘Have I Told You Lately That I Love You’?
Yeah, that one. Makes sense now.
So, I hang back and let Luna run the site like the boss she is.
“What do you think, Dom?” she calls out to me. “You always have an opinion.”
I walk to the blueprint. “I agree with all your suggestions.”
She eyes me carefully as if determining if I’m fucking with her. Then, as if deciding that I’m being genuine, she goes back to the engineers.
We’re not ready to start the work, not until we have crossed all the Ts and dotted every I. In a project like this, if you start before you’ve done the prep work, the mistakes are insurmountably expensive.
Luna and I walk to the temporary office and meeting room, which is actually just a converted trailer serving as a workspace.
It smells like coffee, dry-erase markers, and sawdust.
The conference table is cluttered with samples—tile, fabric, wood grains—and on the corner, there’s a stack of blueprints rolled tight like ancient scrolls.
