Page 66 of Hail Marry
“You’re the one who’ll be living there.”
I glance at her, hesitant to voice the thought in my head.
She looks at me curiously. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Lucas,” she says severely. She loves to call me that when she’s pretending to be mad at me, even though she knows it’s not my full name.
I shrug. “I’m just wondering what our plan is once the season starts.”
“What do you mean?”
I take a breath. Why is this so awkward? “During training, we have a good excuse for living apart—you’ve got your job, I’ll be gone all the time—but what about after?”
“Yeah, I was thinking about that the other day.” She cocks a brow at me as we get to the car. “Are you asking me to move in with you?” She fans her face. “This is all moving so fast.”
We get into the car, and I’m grateful for a few seconds to formulate my response. “We’ll just need some sort of plan, but we’ve got time.”
“Are you revoking your invitation?” she says as I start the car.
“Your name will be on whatever contract I sign. The place will be yours as much as mine. You can stay whenever you want for however long you want.”
She rolls down her window and looks pensively through it as we roll down the street. “I’d love to live in San Diego. How does it feel so different from L.A.?”
I look around as we drive through La Jolla. “It does, doesn’t it?”
She nods. “Maybe I should ask my boss if I can work remotely. Nah. He’d never go for that.”
I glance at her again. “Do you like your job?”
She just laughs.
“You know you don’thaveto work,” I say. “You say you want to figure out what to do with your life, right?”
She looks at me with skeptical amusement. “Yeah, so?”
I shrug and focus on the road. I don’t want this conversation to sound more intense than I mean it to be. “I shouldn’t be the only one reaping the benefits of our situation. Why not use this as a time to explore your options? See if you really do want to live in San Diego, look for jobs you think you might enjoy, live a little. It’d be a lot easier to do all that if you weren’t tied up all day working a job you don’t even like.”
Her eyes are on me, contemplative but doubtful.
“Just know it’s an option,” I say.
“Thanks,” she replies, but the way she says it, it doesn’t seem like an option she’s really considering.
“I like different things about all three places,” I say, changing the subject from my failed offer.
“They’ve all got their charm, don’t they? Is there one that’s calling to you?”
“Not really. They’d all be fine, I think.”
“All solid options,” she agrees. “I’d be completely happy to sign a lease on any of them. Though, I feel like you might attract attention in the gym at the Solana place, looking like that”—she nods in the general direction of my body—“and being a famous football player.”
She pulls out her phone, already moving on.
I’m still stuck on thelooking like thatcomment. Does she like the way I look? I definitely like the wayshelooks. It’s been getting more and more difficult to pretend my attraction to her isn’t growing.
“Dang,” she says. “Traffic sucks. I mean, of course it does, but I’d hoped to get ahead of it. Want to take me to dinner while it calms down?”
