She sat there, speechless.
So he continued on. “The summer after your freshman year of college, you made it very clear you had no intention of coming home again.”
She had. The instant the dorms had opened up, she’d been out the door. She hadn’t waited for a ride to the airport. And she hadn’t left a damn thing behind.
“You had every right not to want a relationship. I’ve done my best to respect your wishes.”
What? “You—” she sputtered, unsure where to even begin.
“But I’ve watched you. I’ve followed your career. Pulled whatever strings I could for you.”
He’d—Oh, fuck.
Her cheeks flushed hot while the rest of her went ice cold. “You what?”
After she’d told all the other interns that she’d gotten here on her own merits. After she’d judged them all for needing connections. She’d worried herself sick about being Dr. Kramer’s daughter, but when no one had called her out on it, she’d thought she’d avoided the association. That she’d forged her own path, never asking for a favor, never dropping a name. Sure, she’d known all along that her father had some pull here, but she couldn’t have dreamed—
He’d never stuck up for her before.
He held up a hand, like he could hear her protest. “You never needed it. You were always a top applicant, but I made whatever calls I could.”
“How did you even know I applied here?”
His smile was small and sad. “Where else would my daughter want to go? You never did set your sights low, Jo.” He struggled visibly with the name. “It’s part of why I’m so proud of you.”
It was like the floor falling out from underneath her.
Finally, she managed to choke out, “This doesn’t change everything.”
“I didn’t imagine it would.” His hands flexed around his coffee mug.
The same way her fingers wrapped so tightly around her own.
“But,” he said, “if you were willing, maybe we could finish having coffee together. Talk. A little.”
He didn’t even deserve that much. But being angry was exhausting, and the freedom she’d felt walking away from him hadn’t been about the walking away. It’d been about letting go.
Despite every instinct telling her she should, she didn’t get up. She raised her coffee to her lips. And took a sip.
Adam dozed for another hour or so after Jo snuck out. By the time his alarm went off, he was basically awake, but he lay there a little longer anyway.
How was it possible to feel so drained and so energized at the same time? Jo had worn him out last night, emotionally and physically. He’d given her everything he could, and he’d received more than enough in return. She’d been so pliant beneath him, that spark that had always drawn him in still there, but a layer of her armor stripped away. She’d shown him who she was beneath it all and fallen asleep in his arms. The well of love inside him ran almost too deep.
How was he supposed to go back if she decided to raise her walls again?
He wanted her any way he could have her, but Jo herself had warned him never to wait for someone to feel about him how he felt about them. His first few weeks here, missing Shannon had proven her words a hundredfold. He couldn’t go through that again, holding out for scraps.
He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, then threw the covers off and sat up. Lounging around here worrying about what happened now wasn’t going to help him any. He’d get up and get moving, and Jo would do whatever and be whomever she wanted to be today. And he’d be patient—with her father still here, she was going through so much. But after that…
God, he hoped she wouldn’t shut him out.
He skipped his run and scarfed down a bucketful of cold cereal for breakfast as opposed to braving the cafeteria. By the time he left, Tom was already gone, and Jared’s door was closed, Kim’s bathing suit hung up to dry in the shower leaving him with a pretty good lead as to what was going on there. So he made the trek up to the observatory alone.
And he really was planning to head straight to his office. But when he went to turn down the hallway that would take him there, a nagging voice in his head had him turning around. It wouldn’t be overkill to swing by Jo’s office and say hi. Hell, it wouldn’t even be all that far outside the norm. Most mornings, his visits weren’t about checking in on her, though. She didn’t usually have a reason to accuse him of coddling her or acting like she was fragile.
Well, he wouldn’t act like that now, no matter how shattered she had seemed the night before.
Decided, he picked a direction and quickened his pace.
Only to find her office door closed.
That was weird. He knocked regardless, but there wasn’t any answer. Across the hall, one of the other staff scientists tapped away at his computer. Adam considered asking him if Jo had been in today, but the guy looked pretty engrossed. And besides, after he’d made out with Jo on the beach yesterday, there’d be more than enough fodder for the rumor mill without him giving them any more.
He retreated to his own office, which was empty, too. He let himself in and set his bag down beside his desk. A sticky note from Lisa said that she and Heather were working in the library for the morning, so at least that explained Jo and Heather’s space being completely deserted. Maybe Jo was with them? He shook his head. Something still seemed off.
Not a whole hell of a lot he could do about it. He fired up his computer and sat down. In another hour, he’d go get a soda and skulk around some more, see if Jo was in, or maybe think up a question to go ask Lisa.
In the meantime, he settled in to try and get some work done. Except he couldn’t focus. Protectiveness flared inside him. What if Jo’d run into her dad again? Her reaction last night had been bad, but if she felt cornered, it might be even worse.
She could be somewhere alone right now. Hurting.
He smacked his fist against the desk and spun around in his chair.
Only to find Jo in the doorway, staring at him. Eyes glistening.
Oh, hell.
He rose in a single motion and crossed the room, hands going to her arms, her face, her side. “Are you okay? What happened?”
But she just shook her head. Slipping past him, she stepped inside, then motioned for him to shut the door. It closed with a click, leaving the two of them there in that space.
“Jo…”
She gazed at him, an expression he’d never seen before on her face, one he didn’t know how to read.
His heart stuttered in his chest, his mind skipping straight to the worst possibilities. Something had happened. Something bad, and it was all his fault. She’d made herself vulnerable for him last night, and he’d taken advantage. Maybe literally. They’d both been so lost in each other, and making love to her had felt so right. Only, what if it hadn’t felt right to her?
But then she smiled, and it was a hole punched clear through his chest, but in a good way. The best way. It was the most open smile, the most beautiful one, pure Jo but different.
Free.
He sucked in a breath, daring to hope. “Jo?”
“You were right,” she said, and then she was launching herself at him.
He caught her without a second thought, thrown back against the wall beneath the weight of her body and the weight of his feelings. Pure relief rushed over him like a wave as she wrapped her arms around his neck and hauled herself up. He bent at the knees and lifted her to put them face-to-face.
Dizzy, he asked, “I was?”
“I talked to him. I told him everything. Everything,” she repeated.
“About—”