arrival. “She left,” he said sourly. He sat down in the nearest chair and took a bite of pizza. It tasted like sawdust in his mouth, but he chewed anyway. He’d driven for an hour to get here tonight, and he couldn’t stand the thought of making the drive back to the condo.
“She’s not happy about you taking the job,” Elise said.
“I know that,” Hunter said, sending a glare down the table. “I’m not sure why, though.”
“What did she say?” Dad asked.
“She said I wouldn’t have time for her.” Hunter didn’t want to admit to the truthfulness of that. He barely had time to see her now, and he left the lab by six every evening. Now that school had started again, she’d be busier than ever. He wasn’t complaining about her job.
The more he thought about her issues with him taking the job, the more selfish she started to look. Hunter passed on dessert, told his parents to keep the leftover pizza, and didn’t ask to stay in his old bedroom.
His father wouldn’t let him leave without a tight hug. Afterward, he looked him straight in the eye and said, “You’ll do the right thing, Hunter.”
“I just want to make everyone happy,” he said miserably, recalling the conversation he’d had with Molly about this very thing. “I want you to be proud of me. I want to do right by the Hammond name.”
The real problem was that none of those things lined up with what he really wanted.
“Hunter,” Dad said. “I am proud of you. I couldn’t be prouder, in fact.”
Hunter nodded, but he wasn’t sure he believed his dad.
“You have done right by the Hammond name already,” he said. “You’re doing so much with what you’ve been given.” He cocked one eyebrow. “And Hunter, you can’t make anyone happy. That’s not your job.”
“Feels like it.” He sighed, because he’d felt like this when thinking about his relationship with his mother too. “I need to go, Dad. It’s a long drive back to the city.”
Dad just nodded, sometimes his silence saying more than his words.
Hunter left the farmhouse, hoping the long drive would give his thoughts time to straighten out. They didn’t, and he simply arrived on the twenty-third floor more exhausted than ever.
Hunter kept his head down and did his work in Lab Six. He led the meetings he’d been assigned to lead, and he studied the reports coming out of the control room. He noted adjustments that could be made in the organic makeup of the drug he and his team were working on, and he ate sandwiches for lunch and ordered dinner to his condo in the evenings.
He made sure to text Molly whenever the thought occurred to him—and according to the alarm he’d set on his phone for seven p.m. Even just to ask her about her day in the classroom, if he couldn’t think of anything else.
Nothing much happened in the lab that was too exciting, so he’d stopped talking about work. She didn’t seem to want to hear about his job anyway.
She responded to his texts, but it felt like they were dancing on eggshells, and by the end of the week, Hunter’s mood couldn’t be worse.
Her house was closer to the city than the farm, and Hunter tossed his lab coat toward the hooks just inside the door of his condo and dialed her. He loosened his tie as the phone rang, and he’d just collapsed on the couch when she said, “Hunter, hello.”
She didn’t sound tired or upset. Quite the opposite, in fact. The sound of her voice sent a river of happiness through him, and Hunter didn’t want to lose her. His throat tightened, and he swallowed, trying to find the right thing to say.
Did he love her?
He’d loved her as a teenager. He’d loved Abby as an adult. He loved his family, and Hunter knew what love felt like. He knew what it sounded like, and more importantly, thanks to his mother, he knew what it didn’t look like and sound like.
“Are you there?” she asked. “Hello?”
“Yes,” he said quickly so she wouldn’t hang up. “Sorry, I just…what are you doing tonight? Would you—might you have time to come have dinner with me at my house?”
“Your house?” she asked, and he could envision her with her eyebrows up.
“Yeah,” he said, looking around the condo. The whole place reminded him of a hospital room, though the lights splashed a yellow glow around the room instead of white. Nothing here said