Sylvie’s face. “I could. I could stay here. If you want to know my preference, I want to stay here and start a relationship with Sylvie. We can make it work. I can come up and see her on weekends.”
“On weekends when you’re not working and she doesn’t have a project.” Dre sat down at the kitchen table. “Look, my sister is a grown woman, but she’s had a crush on you since she was a kid. I’m going to ask you a question and I want a straight answer. No matter how much you think it’s going to hurt.”
“All right.”
“How far have you gone with her?”
He put a hand up. “I kissed her. Tonight. It’s the first time I’ve kissed her, and it didn’t go any further. But I want it to. I’m not playing with her. I want to have a relationship with Sylvie. I want to see where things go. I should have talked to you about it earlier.”
Dre shook his head. “You don’t need my permission. Rene, you’re under the mistaken impression that I disapprove of this relationship. I love my sister. You two are the most responsible, genuine people I know. I would trust you with her, but I don’t trust that she’s going to do what’s best for herself if she gets involved with you.”
Rene didn’t like the sound of that. “What is that supposed to mean? I would always look out for her.”
“It means that you’re done with college and you’re starting your life. But she’s not, and if there’s one thing Sylvie is good at, it’s sacrificing her own needs to help others. I’m not saying you would mean to do it, but I think you could sidetrack her.”
“I support her getting a degree,” he argued. “I would never want her to give that up.”
“But you’re already talking about sacrificing for her,” Dre pointed out. “Would you go to Chicago if she wasn’t in the picture?”
“But she is.” Rene didn’t like where this conversation was going. He might have preferred an angry Dre to this sympathetic logic.
“Would you go?”
“Yes.” He hated it but it was the truth. “I should spend some time in all of the satellite offices. I’m going to be the CEO one day. I should study the business for the next several years.”
But that would mean leaving her behind. Or . . . he could spend the summer with her, could test it all out, and then if they were happy, he could ask her to marry him. She could see the world with him. Why did she need . . .
“You just figured something out.” Dre pointed his way. “I know that look on your face.”
“I wondered why she needed a degree if I can take care of her.” He hated that he’d even had the thought. She was smart and ambitious, and he could probably convince her to give it all up for him.
“And that is why I’m going to ask you to wait. She is not ready for what you want,” Dre said solemnly. “I know it’s a risk. She could find someone while you’re away. She could get involved in her career and never come back to Papillon. She’s eighteen. You’re in a different place in your life. If this was a casual hookup, I would say go for it. Get it out of both of your systems and move on, but that’s not what’s happening between the two of you. You and Sylvie are serious. If she’s in a relationship with you, you’ll be married within a year and she’ll start having kids. There’s nothing wrong with that if it’s what you both truly want. But she’s always dreamed of working in DC. I have no idea why, but she wants it. So the question is, do you care enough about her to take the risk of letting her follow that dream?”
The thought twisted his gut, but he was self-aware enough to see the truth in his friend’s words. He might start out with all the goodwill in the world, but what happened a year from now when he was lonely in a new city and his girlfriend was right there and wanted to be with him, too? It would be easy to convince himself that she could finish up college later, transfer to a school close to him, and then when he moved again, another. Or it would be easy to slip up one night and start the family he wanted someday.
She could