Page 38 of The Confidant
“That since he added Religious Studies as a second major, he’s actually not going to graduate until next year. So he could definitely still show you the ropes.”
“I guess I didn’t realize that,” I said. And even though we’d just been talking theoretically, I was suddenly worried that he was asking me to pick Yale because he was there.
I mean, we were getting along fine, but I didn’t want to pick a college just because a cute guy my dad actually approved of went there.
If cute guys had any weight on my college decision at all, then Columbia would already have the acceptance letter from me because Hunter was going there.
“Do you have any ideas on what you’d like to major in?” Xander asked, not seeming to notice my hesitation.
“I’ve been thinking about journalism,” I said. “Since I already have experience with the school newspaper and I’m pretty good at it. But I’ve also considered studying something like Family Life and Human Development. I figured something like that would be useful for raising a family.”
“So you want to be a mom?” Xander’s blue eyes lit up.
“Yeah.” I shrugged. “I mean, don’t most girls dream of that?”
“Not a lot of the girls I’ve been talking to lately. I mean, they talk about wanting a family later on. Like once they’re settled in their careers and, like, thirty years old or something. But it’s never in their plans for the near future.”
“Don’t they realize that they can’t have more than one or two children if they start that late?” I asked.
“I don’t think they want more than that. Which is why it’s so refreshing to hear you’re already planning for it.”
Anyone listening to our conversation would think we were crazy. Talking about plans for our future families when we were only on a first date.
But since you dated to get married, it made sense to get expectations and future plans laid out from the start, so you didn’t waste time falling in love with someone on a different life path.
Not that I was actually considering dating or falling in love with Xander. I was still hoping Hunter would be the next guy I dated.
And even if my hopes for Hunter and me didn’t pan out the way I wanted, I was still in high school, obviously, and planning to wait until I’d at least finished my first year or two of college before settling down.
But maybe Xander was interested in pursuing me?
He did seem to have a pretty good idea of what he wanted in a future wife.
“Are you hoping to have a career like your mom does?” he asked. “Or do you think you’d rather be more like Megan and focus more on things at home?”
Did he have a list of questions memorized and was just checking them off?
Because if so, no wonder my dad had picked him as the guy for me to ask to the dance. Xander would be an ideal patriarch for a good family.
“Let me guess, you want the best of both worlds?” Xander asked when I didn’t immediately answer his question.
“Not necessarily,” I said. “I’m just thinking. These questions are a little deeper than I expected for a school dance.”
“I guess you’re right.” He chuckled like he only just now realized how deep he was getting. “Sorry, people tell me I can be a little intense sometimes.”
“It’s okay. I actually prefer depth over small talk.”
“So, what do you think?” Xander asked. “Career woman, stay-at-home mom, or a mix of both?”
I bit my lip. If he was trying to get my answer based on him being part of that future scenario, then me bringing in an income was something that would simply be for fun. I’d be working because I loved my job, not because I needed money.
But if he was asking just in general, if I were picturing myself married to someone else… Someone not quite at the billionaire level, then…
I sighed. “I think most people would expect me to say that I want to be a career woman like my mom, since I’ve always been pretty driven to succeed—”
“I’d expect nothing less than the best from a Caldwell,” Xander agreed.
I nodded. “But I’m actually not sure what I would choose.” It was a question I’d wondered about a lot since I liked to be challenged and feel like I was working toward something. But you could do that as a mom too, right? Raising kids the right way seemed like a big job all on its own.
