Page 96 of With Us

“Hrmph,” he muttered. “I’ll ask my lawyers in the morning. The real one, not this middle of the night morning.”

As the alarm began blaring, I pressed the button to turn it off. “I’m only working for a few hours since the weekend opener can’t come in until closer to ten. How about if I borrow the Rover and drive myself, that way you can sleep? Maybe you’ll still be in bed, and I can just crawl in next to you when I get back.”

He reached for me again, but I backed up. I knew how it would go if he pulled me into bed with him. I’d rush around and still be late, even if I’d spend the day with a permanent grin on my face.

“I’m up, gattina. I’ve got things at Amaric that could use my attention. After that, though, I get the rest of the weekend with you.”

“Deal,” I said over my shoulder as I rushed into the bathroom.

???

“What do you want to do?” Theo asked, adding, “With your life. Work. That kind of thing.”

I shifted my attention from the car window to my travel coffee mug to him. “You’ve got to wait until my second cup of coffee before giving me a life crisis. Maybe third.” I pointed outside. “You definitely have to wait until the sun is actually up before expecting me to have a coherent conversation about anything more substantial than how I want my coffee and how sucky mornings are.”

He chuckled. “Noted.”

Sighing, I leaned back and closed my eyes, holding my coffee cup up so I could smell it as I spoke. “Why do you ask?”

“You just don’t seem happy with Java Brew.”

Suspicion poked at my still sleeping brain. “Did Rosa say something to you?”

“No, was she supposed to?”

I shook my head. “I’m not happy,” I admitted. “Wendy, the owner, started seeing a psychic and has been taking his business advice. I already wasn’t happy since a lot of the work falls on me, but at least that meant I was making the decisions. Now Mystic Stones, and, yes, that is his legal name, is running the show from a velvet curtained room he rents in the back of a head shop.”

“So quit,” Theo stated simply, as if it were that easy.

“I can’t. If things had been different, I could’ve maybe quit the café and taken more hours at Weggies. But I couldn’t work with Jerk Bill. It was too toxic. But at least there I had growth opportunities. At Java Brew, I’m stuck. The only way to move up further is toownthe place, and that would be worse than what I’m doing now. That’s just a headache I have no interest in, so it isn’t like I envy Wendy and the choices she has to make. I just think she’d have an easier time if she listened to me and not a psychic.”

“So quit,” Theo repeated.

“And what? Sit around all day, reading by the pool?” I meant it to be snarky, but the idea had a lot of appeal. More than it should’ve.

“Yes. Come to work with me and hang out. Help, if you want. What’d you want to be when you were a kid?”

A mom.

Late at night when I was a kid, unable turn off my thoughts, I’d imagine my future life. Long after my real family came to get me, explaining the mistake that’d been made, I’d grow up and have my own kids. A house full of them. And I’d be an amazing mom. Patient and loving. Sometimes strict, but mostly fun. We’d have lots of fun and goof around and behappy.

And they’d never, not even for a second, doubt I loved them and they werewanted.

Not sharing any of this with Theo, I shrugged instead. “I don’t know. I was going to go to Salem State after high school, but even with financial aid and all that, I couldn’t afford to not work. I attended a semester while working nights at Weggies, but I got less sleep than I do now.”

I’d been so exhausted, I felt like I’d never get enough rest again. And, for the most part, I’d been right. It had been nearly impossible to stay up to date with my coursework, bills, and have time to eat and sleep. I’d figured taking a year or two off to work would allow me to save enough money to try again without having to work.

I’d been wrong.

And still exhausted.

“Move in with me and quit the café,” Theo said casually. “Go back to school. Take some fun classes and find a new hobby. Sit by the pool. Come hang out at the office with me. Work at the office. Hell, find a different job that you actually like. Do whateveryouwant.”

God, that sounds amazing.

Once again keeping my thoughts to myself, I made a dismissive snort.

I could see Theo looking at me in my peripheral vision, but I pretended not to.

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