Heart-Shaped Hack(44)
“I think he would,” Ian said, stroking her hair. “After I graduated and left for college, I never looked back. MIT was a perfect fit for me. It’s where I came alive, Kate. I met other students who were every bit as driven as I was, and it was like being reborn. To everyone else, I was this computer whiz kid from Amarillo who was desperately trying to lose his accent, but I knew I could be anyone I wanted to be. They knew nothing about my history, and I spent my first year of college trying my best to forget where I’d come from. One day I realized I could use my growing skills to go anyplace I wanted. I hung around with other computer science majors, and we spent hours in our dorm rooms trying to one-up each other, competing to see what systems we could hack into. It took me a while to track down the man who’d cheated my dad, but I’m very patient and eventually I found him. Then I made his life a living hell by crippling every single scam website he attempted to launch and corrupting every computer he ever tried to use. Eventually I learned how to steal from people like him.”
“What about your mom? Do you ever talk to her?”
“She’s remarried now. I keep track of her, out of curiosity more than anything. I call and leave a message once or twice a year. She doesn’t call back. I don’t give her money. I would if she asked for it, but she can’t be bothered to learn enough about me to know I have it. So I give it to others, people who are more deserving. It makes me feel good.”
He grew quiet then. Kate shifted her body so she was lying on top of him. She pressed her lips tenderly to his and said, “I think you’re amazing.”
She kissed him again, slowly, softly, gently. His body stirred underneath her, and she responded with her touch because at that moment there was nothing she wanted more than to share that closeness with him again.
Maybe she didn’t know how it would feel to be loved by Ian, but she knew how it would feel to love him because that night, in his bed after hearing his story, Kate’s heart felt like it would burst and she fell hard.
The next morning when she awakened wrapped in Ian’s arms, he nuzzled his face in her hair and asked if she’d accept his donation.
“Yes,” she said. She could no sooner deny his request than she could the hungry people who walked into her food pantry, and he probably knew it. “But I’d like it to be my Christmas gift from you, and I’d rather it came from you personally. I don’t care that you take money from cyberthieves, but there’s no justifiable reason for you to do it on my behalf.”
“Whatever you want,” he said, and both of them were happy.
A few days later, she and Ian met at Target after work. If he was going to donate the money, she wanted him to see what he was paying for. They worked from the list Kate had brought, making sure to buy toys in a variety of age ranges that any child would enjoy, regardless if it was a boy or a girl. By the time they were done, neither of their SUVs could hold anything more. Because Ian was providing the toys, the organizations she was partnering with were able to put the money they’d raised toward the holiday meal, and everything was set for Christmas Eve.
Afterward, Kate insisted on taking Ian out for dinner and to Nicollet Mall where they walked hand in hand, looking at lights and checking out the Christmas Market. Then, when they were sipping mulled wine and watching the winter fireworks, he squeezed her hand and said, “I am falling so hard for you.”
She smiled up at him because his words filled her with joy. Kate wanted to tell him she’d already fallen. She wanted to tell him that when she woke up in his arms she wondered what it would be like to wake up in them for the rest of her life. She wanted to tell him that his babies were the ones she’d been thinking about lately. But she worried it was too early to say any of those things, so she squeezed back and said, “Me too.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Ian was sitting on Kate’s couch with his laptop. When she walked into the room, he set the computer on the coffee table, took off his glasses, and said, “C’mere, sweetness. I’ve got a number six for you.”
“I love the number six.” She sat down on his lap, and he cupped her face and pulled her in for a kiss.
“When do you need to leave?” he asked, sliding his hands under her sweater so that his warm palms rested on her bare skin.
Kate was meeting some friends from college for a Timberwolves game. She wasn’t a huge basketball fan, but the group had been going once or twice a season for years and used the outings as a way to stay in touch.
“Soon.”
“You don’t sound very excited.”
“It’s hard to get excited when it’s so cold outside and so warm and cozy in here.” Though Kate enjoyed getting together with her old friends, she was tired and really didn’t feel like venturing out on such a bitterly cold night right before Christmas. But the tickets had already been purchased, so she was going.
“I know a little something about hard and excited,” Ian said, a devilish smile on his face.
She smiled back. “Do you ever.” Kate gave him a long, warm, soft kiss, relishing the way it made him groan. “Will you stay? Wait here for me until I get back?” Though she couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept at his place, Kate didn’t want Ian to think he had to go home just because she was leaving. She wanted him to still be on her couch when she returned from the game.