I shook my head and almost asked him to repeat his words. For their part, Jordan and Adam appeared to watch my reaction closely. Jordan put a hand on my shoulder. “You, ah, need a minute?”
I shook off his hand and bumped fists with him instead, then took Adam’s extended hand. “Welcome aboard, Lucas. It’s going to be one helluva ride but I hope it’s a good one.”
Suddenly I couldn’t restrain my grin. My cheeks were aching with it. Whoa. Whoa. This was… whoa.
My mind was racing with all the things I had to get done before I took on the new job—and all the people I needed to tell.
I halted, mid-thought. “About not telling anyone—”
“You have to swear her to secrecy,” Adam replied, immediately understanding who I meant. “Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t have any problems with a spouse being told right away, but she works here. And she has some good news coming her way as well but I’m going to wait and tell her that directly, if you don’t mind.”
I nodded. “Sure, sure.” Hopefully that meant she was getting that brand new white box testing job that they’d been talking about creating just for her. She’d be so good at it.
Jordan walked me back to the Den, rattling off “invaluable tips” for the board presentation. I couldn’t fault him. So far his advice had been good enough to help me get the job—or maybe it had been my own hard work.
He slapped me on the back just before I opened the door. “Congrats again, Lucas. Adam was lit with all your ideas. Especially that take on a Draco version of Pokemon GO.”
One thing was certain, there was no way I would have gotten this job without Katya. Both with her help pushing to the deadline which was the original reason I married her to keep her in the country. And afterward, with her input into my design. Her suggestions had been spot on and I’d used them all, sometime embellishing here or there. I wondered if there was a way I could thank her. If I could buy her something special or…
Maybe when we were in Canada, I could take her out to dinner somewhere nice.
That was assuming she still wanted to even be around me after how I’d reacted to her admission of love yesterday. She had to be mistaken. She had to be confused. Those were the only things I could think of. Love was never meant to spring from this.
I decided to wait and spill the beans on the drive home. Best to keep in private. Especially since the secret hallway was now compromised, as she inadvertently proved all those months ago when news of our marriage had gotten out.
As it was dark, it was a little hard to read her face. But she seemed to be acting normal if not quite her usual exuberant self.
“So, this afternoon Jordan pulled me aside,” I began.
She looked up from her phone and turned toward me. “Yeah? Did he have any news?”
“Well, when I got to his office, he ushered me into Adam’s office and—”
“Oh my God! I knew it. I knew you’d get it.”
I frowned at her. “What? I mean how—”
“If you were telling me this story because you hadn’t gotten the job you would have been acting like Scrooge and the Grinch’s love child. That used to be your norm, actually.”
I blew out a breath. “Accurate… I guess.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, did I rob you of your moment telling me the good news?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s fine.”
“Well, you’re driving, so I’ll save your congratulations hug for when we’re out of the car.”
I smiled. “Thank you.”
“Also, on my break, I got us our plane tickets for next week and a reasonable hotel room that isn’t in a divey part of town. Man when did hotel rates in Vancouver go up so much? I suppose I could have looked in PoCo but I don’t feel like possibly running into people I know.”
“PoCo?”
“Port Coquitlam. It’s the nickname for my hometown.”
I nodded.
When we got out of the car and I freed Max from the back seat, she came around the front end of the car, arms open wide. “I am sooo excited for you. You deserve this. This week has been good to us so far!”
She wrapped her arms around me. Her happiness was genuine and infectious and only made my current joy surge. I pulled her tight against me, closing my eyes briefly, relishing the smell of