Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
“Jules?” Luc says softly, and I blink my eyes to clear my thoughts.
I make a command decision to take a risk and open myself up a little to see what Luc thinks. “Sorry, but yeah…I knew Jules would have some good insight based on her experience.”
“Jules will give it to you straight,” he says softly, his affection for her evident. She’s not even officially his sister-in-law, but I can tell Luc thinks of her like that already.
“And what do you think?” I ask, and then feel like I want to throw up by inviting his opinion. Why does his opinion even matter to me? But dammit, it does. I hold my breath and shake my head as he offers me the ice cream.
Luc pushes the spoon into the top, turns away from me to put the pint on the nightstand, and then turns back to me with a big smile. “I think it’s an amazing idea.”
“Really?” I ask with a goofy smile on my face.
“Absolutely,” he says with so much conviction that I get excited from the possibility. “If you do it, though, how are you going to manage your duties at the museum?”
Ugh. The museum. “Well, I might not have that job much longer.”
“What?” Luc exclaims as his eyebrows shoot high.
“My promotion was just an interim position, and it appears due to lack of funding, they’re going to delete my original position when they hire a new director of research and acquisitions. So I’m looking for another job that offers health insurance. I’ve got to make sure I’m stable before I give this idea any attention.”
“But wouldn’t this idea become your career?”
“Well, I’d make it a nonprofit,” I say.
“Nonprofits pay their directors and other employees,” Luc points out.
“Yeah, I know,” I say wistfully as my gaze drops down to my lap. “But it’s just too iffy. I don’t think I’d look at doing something like this until I got a steady job first to make sure I could pay my bills. And it would just be like a passion project to get it started, and then someone else could run it.”
“But if you could run it, you would?” he asks.
“Run it or just work for it.”
“What’s the real deal with you getting zoology and geology degrees? And don’t tell me it’s because you like rocks and minerals.”
I lift my head to look at him. His head is tilted at me quizzically.
I could play stupid, but I think Luc knows he’s got me figured out on that front, so I tell him the truth. “They were fairly easy degrees and I knew my parents would probably have a cow that I wasn’t going to Stanford or something. I did whatever I could to get their attention, even if it was bad attention, and well…that totally got a reaction from them.”
“Not a good reaction, I’m guessing.”
I smile grimly. “It wasn’t well received. But you know, I had absolutely no direction in life. No clue what I wanted to be. I had no role models except for Hilda, and while she took very good care of me and gave me love, I didn’t get a lot of guidance about important things like what I could be when I grew up.”
“Then I think you should really look into doing this,” Luc says as he reaches over and squeezes my thigh. “It’s something that’s clearly dear to your heart. I can help you do some research on how to get it started.”
That simple offer to help do research actually makes my heart swell a little. I’ve learned enough about Luc to know he’s a gallant being, and I almost expected him to offer me money. But he didn’t, and that makes me like him all the more, because I think he also knows I’m proud of the way I’ve taken care of myself since I was old enough to understand the concept of responsibility.
“I’ll take your help,” I say with a smile, feeling very much okay with my decision to accept what others offer me. “Jules said she’d help with that too and put some feelers out.”
“You should come with me Saturday afternoon to a party,” Luc throws out. “It’s for a teammate’s birthday and Jules will be there. We can all bat some ideas around.”
I just stare at him, trying to figure out if this invite is different from him wanting to take me out to dinner. He sounds very laid back about it, and it would be nice to talk about the concept with two people who think it’s a great idea. It wouldn’t be like a date because I’d be hanging out with him and Jules. That would keep this clearly on a friends-with-benefits level, as I’d be strengthening friendships with both of them. Then I could even lie to myself that things were staying casual between us if I accepted his invitation as just a means to toss around some ideas for this project.