Luke, putting her hands over her stomach to try to quell the hive of bees that seemed to be trying to bash their way through her skin. “What do you really think of her plan? Do you truly think it has legs?”
“Hell, yes. I think it’s exactly what this area needs … and a lot of areas within driving distance. Opening up this school will give us the opportunity to target kids like Sam and Eve—get them out of their current situations, but give them the kind of education that’ll feed their souls, rather than sticking them where they can never belong.” He put up his hands. “And I’m not saying that in judgment. I’m just repeating what you said to me.”
“I know.” Gabi sighed. “I just—I can’t fathom how it would all work. It’s so huge.”
“It is. But when you look at the expertise you, Oliver, and I bring to the table, it’s three pretty damn good brains. I don’t get the sense that Laura makes stupid decisions, and she’s got this one planned out to the finest detail. The woman’s practically made of money, it sounds like, but she’s trying to do good things with it. We’d be insane not to take her up on this.”
He reached for her hand, and she let him take it. As his skin touched hers, she felt the buzzing subside, and she took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
“Gabriela, this could be your chance to make the kind of difference you’ve been wanting to make for all these years. This is your chance to give fifty, a hundred, two hundred kids a better life … in just one year. No fighting the Pritch-bitches of the world. No watching trust funds grow while kids go hungry. You could be right here, with us, making every day count. Think about how that would feel.”
His voice was soft but convincing, and Gabi felt herself caving little by little as he talked, but she still couldn’t quell the nerves zapping every inch of her body.
On the surface, it seemed like the perfect solution. She’d get to do great things, she’d get to live in a place that belonged on postcards. She’d get to … be with him. Every day. Maybe every night. It seemed almost too perfect to be true.
And that was exactly why she knew she needed to step back, take some time to think it through, and not jump in with both feet before she’d thoroughly considered all of the angles.
“Please don’t hate me,” she finally said, “but I can’t say yes to this. Not right now. Not yet.”
He sighed. “Because?”
“Because I need to think, Luke. This is huge with a capital H. This would be me upending my entire existence on a chance that things might work out here. This would be me leaving behind any sense of stability I still have. Me leaving everything I know in the rearview mirror. I can’t turn that sort of decision around in twenty-four hours, as idealistic as this whole project sounds. I just … can’t.”
“Understood.” He nodded slowly, pulling his hand back. “How long do you think you might need?”
“I have no idea. I need to go back to Briarwood, settle the girls back in, and take some time for myself so I can think it through. I just—I don’t honestly know how long that might take. I’m sorry.”
“Okay,” he said, and she couldn’t help but see the hurt expression in his eyes as he turned away.
“It’s not just the school we’re talking about here.” Gabi’s voice cracked as she spoke, and she tried to swallow the emotion so it wasn’t so damn obvious.
“I know, Gabriela. And I guess I was looking at that as falling firmly in the pros column, rather than the cons.” He tapped his fist quietly on the arm of the chair. “But maybe I’m the only one seeing it that way.”
“You’re not. I mean—” She put her head back against the chair, blowing out a long breath. “We’ve known each other for a whole three weeks. That’s it. And now we’re talking about tying our professional futures together in a pretty tight way. And maybe that’d be all fine and wonderful if our personal lives were similarly entwined. But good God, Luke. That’s a lot of togetherness, even for the most solid couples. And we’re not even—”
“A couple?” He raised his eyebrows.
“Well … yes. We’re … I don’t even know what we are, at this point.” She closed her