Window Shopping(53)

My grandmother nearly upsets her tea. “Yes. I did. Why? My driver is off today. I put my hazard lights on.”

Seamus winces. “It’s been towed, ma’am. Sorry. There was nothing I could do.”

I don’t miss the wink the custodian sends Jordyn. Or the look of promise she gives him in return, following him out of the office.

But I’m a gentleman, so I choose to pretend I see nothing.

“Heading back upstairs, boss,” Leland singsongs, still waving the lighter on his way out.

I start to offer the use of my car and driver to my grandmother and Brad, but Shirley is already on the phone with someone named Gregory, offering him double his daily wage to come pick them up and drive them home. They cast twin glares at me on their way out and yes, it still stings. Maybe it always will. But I feel lighter having let go of their expectations of me.

Simply meeting my own.

And finally, finally, I turn and give my full attention to Stella.

She looks like she’s caught mid-swallow and there’s a layer of moisture in her eyes. Without pausing in my attempt to re-memorize every feature of her face, I take out my pocket square, shake out the folds and hand it to her.

“Hi,” I say.

“Hi,” she whispers back.

“If it’s all the same to you, Mr. Cook,” Roxanne interrupts stiffly. “I’ll work from home for the rest of the day.”

“Actually, there’s something you can do before you leave,” Stella answers, catching me off-guard. “Mrs. Bunting, do you have a love contract handy?”

My heart catapults upward and slaps against my brain. “What are you doing?”

“I’m signing it. We’re signing it.”

By the grace of God, I manage to keep from kneeling at her feet and weeping with gratitude. I can’t, though. I can’t accept what she’s offering until it’s right. Until it’s good for her. “Not because of what I did here today, Stella. Not because you feel obligated—”

“No. No, it’s not that at all. I don’t feel obligated. I didn’t take the earrings. And what you said, about the windows. You were right. Maybe I haven’t quite earned my right to be here yet, but I am. I’m doing it.” She wets her lips, steps a little closer to me. Enough to make me lightheaded. “I want to sign the papers because…if you believe that much in me, enough to know I’m better than my past, then I can believe that much in us. I can try my best.”

Oh boy. I’m heading down the hill in that wheelbarrow again, but this time there’s no grassy field full of dandelions to land in. I just keep going and going until I’m free falling without an end in sight. For Stella. “You try for me and I’ll do the rest,” I manage, wrapping my arms around her, my damn heart knocking so loudly they can hear it in Staten Island.

“I just have to ask you one thing first,” Stella says. And I look down to find her definitely gearing up for something. Almost steeling herself. “Aiden, this…wanting to be with me, isn’t about…saving me, is it? You might not even realize what you’re doing,” she rushes to add. “You might truly believe you like me. But maybe your nature demands that you care for someone who needs it. And that’s lovely, really lovely, but I don’t think that’s good for either of us.”

It takes me a moment to get past my shock. Saving her? How long has she been worried about this? “Stella, you’re going to succeed with or without me. If I didn’t give you this job, you would have found another way in, here or somewhere else. I’m grateful I was the one who gave you a shot, because it’s how we met, but you don’t need saving. Support, yes. And I need it, too. But not saving.” I pause, hoping my words are sinking in. “This isn’t about me carrying you, it’s about us walking together and deciding where to go, all right?”

She takes in a breath and lets it out slowly. “All right. Let’s sign.”

A moment later, the sound of the printer spitting out the paperwork makes me smile. I look down at Stella to see if she’s smiling, too…and find her nose buried against my abominable snowman bow tie, instead. She inhales deeply and looks up at me, pupils dilating, her teeth sinking down into her bottom lip, her chest lifting up, shuddering down on a winded exhale.

And as soon as we get these papers signed, I have a pretty damn good idea how we’ll be spending our lunch break.





13





Stella





Well. I guess it’s possible to want no one’s help and be starved for someone to believe in me—all at the same time. And I had no idea. None. Not until Aiden stormed hell for leather into the human resources office. I was such an idiot to assume he would believe I’d stolen those earrings. Such. An. Idiot. Aiden Cook is not typical. He’s a salmon swimming upstream. He’s Sunday morning swooping in like a hero when you woke up thinking it was Monday.

So, hell yes.

I’m signing the paperwork.

I am given a document detailing my rights and the company’s sexual harassment policy. Unlike the employee handbook, I take my time to absorb and understand the words on the page. And once I do, my hand is moving, ink is coming out of the pen onto the dotted line and I’m consenting to a relationship of my own free will. Currently, I would probably sign a document agreeing to naked camping as long as I can be alone with Aiden sometime today. In the next fifteen minutes, preferably.