If you like, I’ll stick around and we can talk it through. If you’d rather be alone, at least you’ll have food.”
Soft gray eyes blinked up at him, too grateful for what he’d offered. “You really wouldn’t mind?”
Not when she looked at him like that. Hell, no, he didn’t mind.
Ninety minutes later, the cold remains of their Shu Mai, Kee Mow, and Pad Thai littered the far end of the small kitchen table where they’d set up Elise’s laptop and the files she’d put together on her plan for the studio. Levi had sorted through the details asking questions here, offering an opinion there, and in between reminding her to eat.
Now, leaning back in her chair, she watched as he closed the laptop and eyed her across the open cardboard containers. “I could talk to Sandy with you.”
“No. Thank you, but I’d like to talk to her myself. After this—” she waved her hand between them “—I feel more confident with what I want to say.”
That and she didn’t want to risk Sandy feeling ganged up on. Levi could be intimidating when something threatened not to go his way.
Levi pushed back from the table and started closing the flaps on the various carryout containers. “Not sure I really helped that much. I’m impressed with the business plan you’ve submitted. I’m sure the bank will be too.”
Elise walked around to the fridge to put away the leftovers he handed her. “You helped. I put a lot of work into gathering the information we’d need, but I just don’t have the experience behind me to know if I’m missing something vital. So another set of eyes makes a huge difference to me.”
Then, propping a hip against the sink, she swallowed past the unexpected well of emotion. “I need this. I need it for myself.”
Levi set down the silverware and, wiping his hands on a dishcloth, reached for her. Took her fingers in that loose grasp and rubbed a thumb over her knuckles. “Tell me why?”
She wanted him to understand. Only when she opened her mouth to explain, she didn’t think she could.
As if sensing her hesitance, he leaned back just far enough to give her a bit of that devastating smile that flirted with her will. “Okay, how about we start small? Why yoga and Pilates? How’d you get into that?”
Easy enough. “I’d been taking classes with my girlfriends back in college. It started out socially, just something we did together, but when I realized how it cleared my head and strengthened my body, I was hooked.”
“College?” Levi looked past her and she could almost see the wheels turning in his head. The facts flipping through his consciousness. She’d told him she didn’t have a degree.
“I only got three terms in.”
“What happened?”
And that was where it got sticky.
“My parents had some … financial issues. And the money we’d thought we’d have for my education, wasn’t there. It wasn’t their fault,” she added quickly, hating the conclusions Levi might jump to. “It wasn’t anyone’s. Just how it worked out.”
Levi gave her a moment to elaborate, and, when she didn’t, simply took her answer at face value and moved on. “Did you like school—while you were there?”
She thought back to that first terrifying day, when she’d been so filled with nerves and apprehension she’d begged her dad to take her home. He’d walked beside her, promising that he and her mom were only a short drive away—that they’d always be there for her—but she needed to stay. Joking until she’d relaxed enough to put her fears behind her. She’d never doubted him.
And then there’d been the late-night study groups, the quad, her dorm and her friends. All that excitement and intensity around a future that was theirs for the making. Even now she felt the surge of it like an echo inside her.
So much had changed. So fast.
“Yes, I did.” She shrugged, because, really, what more was there to do? “But we were going to lose the house.”
It was only half the story. And that Levi wanted to press was evident in the faint lines between his brows, but she knew right now he wouldn’t. So with a simple shake of her head she went on. “Ally only had one semester left and a job lined up for when she was done— It just made sense for her to finish. My parents needed my help and I wanted to stay close … but I needed an income too. Something flexible. Which made me think of the yoga and the offer I’d had from one of the instructors to pick up a class. Well, that’s what I ended up doing. Along with a lot of other odd jobs. But the yoga stuck. I enjoyed it. My classes got more popular and pretty soon I had full load.”
“Had you chosen a major yet?”
“Business,” she offered with a little smile.
Levi nodded back to the files on the table. “You’ve got a head for it.”
“I guess that’s something we’ll just have to wait and see about. But I hope so.” Looking down to where their hands met, she thought about what there was between them. It was uncomplicated. Honest. Easy. Good. She could talk to him. She could tell him the rest. Maybe even tell him what was happening now—only there was a sort of freedom in his not knowing what she wasn’t prepared to give up. When they were together, she could forget. And so for now, half the story was all she wanted to give.
“I’d like to finish that degree some day. But until then, this studio is everything. Life isn’t perfect. It never will be. But I just want something that’s mine. Something I can commit to. Invest myself in and watch grow. God, I just want this to work so much.”
Levi pulled her into his chest, stroking a hand down her back. “You’ve made a good start, sweetheart.”
Drawing a slow breath, Elise melted into all the warmth and strength surrounding her.
She felt so good within his arms.
So safe and secure.
This was what Ally always talked about, she realized. Having someone to lean on. Someone there to just hold her when she needed a little extra support.
That was all that was happening, though. It was gratitude and a kind of empathetic understanding flowing between them, not some misplaced emotional connection. Levi knew what it was like to be starting out. He was offering his experience and support, because, no matter what he thought, he really was a good guy. Just not the kind of good guy she was going to keep.
But so long as she kept what they were doing and where they were going straight, she could enjoy this and no one would get hurt.
“I’M JUST saying, it’s weird, is all.” Ally folded a few slices of turkey onto a small wheat roll, covered them with a layer of bib lettuce and glanced over her shoulder. “I mean, I get not wanting to abuse Levi—your boyfriend, who hung up in my ear—with a bunch of forced proximity to the fam … but is meeting him really too much to ask?”
Playing with Dexter’s feet as he lounged down the length of her thighs, his heavy lids creeping closer to closed with each breath, Elise shook her head, answering in a quiet singsong voice. “Don’t try to work me over, Ally. I’m not going to give.”
A plate with the sandwich, a few baby carrots and a pickle spear slid in front of her. “It’s not like I’m asking for his social security number. I just want to meet the guy. Lay eyes on him so I know he’s on the up-and-up.”
“No.” Keeping her eyes on Dex, Elise gathered his slumpy body and handed him off to his waiting mommy.
“Down we go, little man. Mobile time.” Ally deposited him on his back in the small bassinet beside the kitchen table, tucked