Page 14 of Big Nick Energy

He exhaled. “Yeah. But…” He shook his head and let the sentence trail off.

“But that’s not what that guy was asking,” I finished for him. “But your answer was real because you can’t control the job market or society’s tendency to undervalue social services work and workers. It’s not on you to convince people to be in this line of work.”

“Right?” Nodding, he continued staring at the crowd below. “Doing this work ain’t for the weak. They either have it in them, or they don’t.”

I tilted my head to the side as I assessed him. “That’s what you wanted to say on stage, wasn’t it?”

A slow smile curled his thick lips as he glanced over at me. “Was it that obvious?”

“I felt like you were holding back.”

He let out a short, dry laugh. “That shit was irking me.”

“Holding back?”

He nodded. “Among other things.”

“Your answer was a good one, though.” I turned my body to fully face him. “And from what I gathered from what you were saying on stage, it’s your corporate job that funded yournonprofit. It’s your corporate job that put you in a position to get the funding that you’ve secured. It’s your corporate job that is allowing you to expand your nonprofit and the work that you do. Just because it’s also your corporate job that allows you to buy expensive watches doesn’t negate the nonprofit work that you do.” I bit my lip as he lifted from the railing and rose to his full height to face me. “So yeah, you’re successful independently of what you do for the community. But you’re also successfulbecauseof what you do for the community. If people are just looking at the number of dollars to determine success, they won’t find that in social services. But if people are looking at the number of people you’ve helped, the number of lives you’ve changed, they will absolutely find that in social services work.” I pushed my forefinger into his chest. “In the work that you do.”

He caught my hand before I could pull it back.

I sucked in a sharp breath.

His touch was a shock to my system. Not just because it was unexpected, but because it was intentional. When he’d touched me after elbowing me, it was out of concern and worry.

This was different.

His thumb caressed the palm of my hand as he stared into my eyes.

“Where did you come from?” he wondered softly.

My mouth felt dry, and my mind scrambled momentarily. “Richmond.”

It was his smirk that alerted me to the fact that he wasn’t asking about my hometown.

He squeezed my hand and then released me. “You seem like a good girl. Please don’t feel pressured to go to this bullshit kickback tonight.”

“No, I want to go,” I clarified quickly. I could still feel his thumb pressing into my palm even though we were no longer touching.

“You sure?”

I nodded. “I’m sure.” I paused. “But don’t feel like you have to take me with you if you don’t want to. I kinda feel like Jason forced me on you.”

“If I minded being with you, I wouldn’t still be here.” He cocked his head to the side and brushed my forehead with his fingertips. “Now did they make me feel even guiltier for hurting you earlier? Hell yeah. But I was hoping to hear from you anyway. That’s why I gave you my card. I wanted to make sure you were good and also make this”—he gently tapped the spot above my eyebrow— “up to you.”

Leaning into his touch, I nodded. “A party is a good start.”

“It’s part-party, part-meeting,” he explained, dropping his fingers from my skin. “There’s about twenty of us who have to link up about the real party tomorrow.”

“So, you’ll be busy?”

“For like thirty minutes. The rest of the time I’ll be protecting you from any drunken homecoming stupidity.”

“The SONs aren’t known for drunken homecoming stupidity. That’s that frat responsible for The Lost Boys.”

“Mu Epsilon Nu.” He chuckled, running a hand over his chiseled jawline. “Most of them are pretty cool, but the ones that are associated with that podcast…” He shook his head. “Nah.”

“Exactly my point.”

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