admissions office while Katherine had her meeting with the dean. She came out with a thick folder and her face lit up, looking more beautiful than I’d ever seen her—and that was really saying something. She threw her arms around me right there in front of the receptionist and said, “He thinks all of my credits will transfer!”
Now she’s sitting across from me at the Purple Paisley with a grocery sack beside her on the bench and the contents of the admissions folder spread out in front of her. She’s only half eaten her tomato soup (the bowl now pushed aside), but my sandwich is nearly gone.
“Oh my gosh, they have a catering class,” she says, as she scans one of the many brochures. “That would be amazing!”
I pop the last bite into my mouth and have to practically scrub myself down with my napkin. It was that messy and that good. “Start your business by getting the recipe for the sauce they put on this thing.” I lick the last bit off my thumb.
Katherine watches this maneuver with interest then says quietly and slowly, “I cannot believe I’m actually doing this.”
The way she says those words, her disbelief sounding less like surprise and more like apprehension… It pops the bubble of happiness I’d been riding all morning. I swallow down my growing fear that she will change her mind, and lean into the table toward her. “You don’t have to do anything, D’Arcy. Take more time to think about it, if that’s what you need.”
She blinks, then her face breaks into a wide grin. I check to make sure I don’t still have sauce on my face.
“You are pretty damn fantastic, you know that?”
I sit back and slip into arrogant asshole speak, “I might have heard that once or twice.”
She throws her napkin at my face, and it falls into my lap. Just like she did. Just like this whole amazing summer did. Here I was, searching the world, and sheer perfection falls right into my fucking lap.
She gets a funny look on her face, something between worry and irritation. “I don’t want people to think I’m switching schools just to chase after some guy.”
I feign offense. “How is it that in fifteen seconds I’ve gone from ‘fantastic’ to just ‘some guy’? Katherine D’Arcy, you wound me.”
She shakes her head at my joke. “I’m doing this because of you, but not for you. There’s a difference.”
I’m not sure whom she’s trying to convince. “I know.”
She starts packing all the brochures into the folder and pulls her soup bowl closer. “I need to see what I can be without having to answer to my mom, or to my friends, or to any of the things that are familiar to me. You’ve given me the space I need to figure it all out and the courage to put myself first now and then.”
The waitress comes with our bill, and I drop a couple twenties on the table. Katherine picks up her bowl and drinks the rest of her soup.
“Let’s walk,” I say, slipping out of the booth and taking Katherine’s hand.
She gets up. “Where to now?”
“I gotta burn off this sandwich, and you need to check out what commercial spaces are available for rent on Main Street.”
Her eyebrows shoot up toward her hairline. “I do?”
“Mm-hmm.” I lead her out the door into the sunshine. “You’re going to need a place to run your business, aren’t you?”
“Eventually, yeah.” We start walking. New Porte is bustling with tourists today, and we dodge around people on the sidewalk. “Oh my gosh,” she says, her excitement bubbling up. “I’m really going to do this.”
I give her hand a squeeze. “You’re the captain of your ship, baby. Look up to the stars and chart your course.”
She stops short while I take another step. Her hand jerks me around, and she looks up at me in awe. “That’s what Macie said.”
“Your friend in Tibet?”
“Yeah,” she says quietly. Warmth skims down my arms as her eyes lock with mine. “I think she’d really, really like you.”
I smile and lean in. “Then she’s got great taste in men.”
She turns and hip checks me, making me step sideways and crack my elbow against the brick wall of a storefront. I would have joked around, maybe done the same to her, or pretended to put her in a headlock, or maybe pressed her up against the wall and kissed her for all the world to see. But I hear her murmur,