Page 20 of Wait For You

“What if we didn’t let him ruin it?”

“It’s not about me,” I whispered through the tightness in my chest. “It’s about Eric. If Rich is upset with me, he makes things worse for Eric.”

“Ah, okay. So we find a class in Juneau.”

“I can’t fly there for classes!”

“We have company group flight passes. You can go with me anytime. I’m pretty sure Rich can’t start monitoring the flights to Juneau,” Adam offered dryly.

The flight to Juneau from Fireweed Harbor was twenty minutes. “Really? You would do that?”

“Of course.”

I took a shaky breath. “That would be amazing.”

“Find a class and sign us up.”

The calm confidence in his eyes soothed me. “Does it matter when?”

“I’ll make it work. For work, I can usually move things around, work from home, or work late. It doesn’t matter.”

My heart fluttered, and a sense of surprising joy rose inside me. My cheeks hurt from my smile.

Chapter Twelve

Adam

As Tessa beamed at me, my heart kicked harder and faster in my chest. “So we’re going to take cooking classes together?” I prompted.

She waggled her brows. “We are. It’s going to be fun. We’re both going to learn something.”

I lifted my almost-empty bottle of beer. She held hers up, and we clicked them together. I found myself internally stumbling a little. I wanted to linger in the moment, and that wasn’t something I often felt.

Her cheeks started to go pink again, but she looked down and quickly stood from her stool. “I’ll clean up.”

Reluctantly, I followed her lead, and we quietly folded up the empty take-out boxes to put in the recycling bin. Tessa insisted she needed to rinse our plates.

She turned, her hand resting on the counter. “So should I?—”

“Stay.” That single word slipped right out before I could think it through.

“For the night?” Her eyes widened.

“Please.”

We studied each other before she nodded, just once. She glanced at her watch. “What do you normally do before you go to bed?”

“I watch a show and usually work on my laptop.”

“Let’s watch something. What do you normally watch?”

“Well, for the past week or so, it’s been the weather report. I’m really into it,” I teased.

Her lips pressed together as her eyes twinkled with warmth. “What else?”

“I have a few favorites, Schitt’s Creek, Ted Lasso, The Office, any of the crime shows where they solve it in one episode.”

Her eyes brightened. “I like all those shows. They’re good to rewatch. They’re comfort shows.”