Page 24 of Fire
“Yes. I just moved into that apartment with her,” I ramble, as my face goes flush, remembering all the places those lips had been. I swallow. “It would be rude of me to just leave after she graciously allowed me to stay there. Plus, she gets…lonely.”
Violet is the type of person who has a lover in every city. She isneverlonely.
“Well, lucky for you, we don’t leave for two weeks. So you’ll have time to…settle in.” He grins.
“You think two weeks is enough time to settle in?”
“Isn’t it?”
I throw my hands up in frustration, annoyed by how chill and confident he’s being. He acts as if I’ve already said yes, or at the very least, I’m about to. “You haven’t even told me anything about the job. Why do you think I would even be interested?”
“Why wouldn’t you? It’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”
“Um, because I already have a job and a practice,” I state, throwing my hands up in a frustrated gesture. “Or didn’t you see the sign when you came in?”Had. I had my own practice. Man, when is that going to sink in?
“Your practice is named after a tree,” he replies dryly. “And you mentioned something about wanting to leave your practice the other night.”
“I did?” Why can’t I remember anything other than…I avert my gaze. “Right,” I say quickly. “Well, I haven’t exactly made up my mind.”
“You said that too.”
I blink back at him as a conversation from Saturday night before starts to come back to me. We were driving back to my place, and I was nervous. Really nervous. So I just started to talk,and talk.
I told him about my sister the model, and how amazing she was to let me stay with her. I told him how weird it was to live with her after all these years, especially since we were polar opposites.
I mostly skipped over my divorce because I didn’t want to be the person who talked about their ex, but I did mention the practice and how much I loved my patients. I left out the part about how I was now my ex’s employee and said I was thinking about moving on to something else.
Eventually.
After the morning I had with Tanner, though, I’m not sure I can hold out for “eventually.”
“So what do you want to know?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at me.
I scoff. “Uh, everything?”
He grins. “I’ve got you invested now, don’t I?”
I open my mouth to protest, but before I have a chance, he produces an envelope from…Actually, I don’t know. Had he been holding that the whole time?
I look down at it. “What is this?” I ask.
“A job offer,” he says in an amused tone.
“Wow, you’re really serious about this, aren’t you?” I stare down at the crisp white envelope in slight shock.
“You thought I was joking?”
I give him a half-shrug. “No, I just didn’t expect you to be so…organized. Don’t they have people who do this sort of thing?”
“Yup. That’s me. I’m one of those people.”
I stare at him, confused. I feel like that’s all I’ve been doing since he got here. He points to the address at the top of the envelope.
The Creed Agency.
“I work for my dad,” he explains, his expression tight, like admitting that cost him something. “As his assistant. This offer comes with his blessing. Everything you need to know is in there.”
“And your dad works for the band?”
