Pauline looked like she wanted to protest, but she followed his lead. “Anytime, Drew,” she said. “Day or night.”
The two of them walked away together, leaving Drew standing alone by his car. Carlos waited to see if he would call them back, but he didn’t.
Pauline was biting her lip. But she waited until they were well out of earshot to burst out with, “Why did you want to leave? It looked like we were making progress.”
Carlos was incredibly touched by the fact that she’d gone along with his implied suggestion even though she had her doubts.
“Thank you for trusting me,” he said, and Pauline blushed and glanced away.
“I thought you must have a good reason,” she said quietly. “And—well, nothing I’ve been doing has done any good, so.”
“I wanted to leave him on a positive note,” Carlos explained. “If we’d pressed until he clammed up and left, then he’d be thinking defensively, and he wouldn’t want to hear I told you so if he gave in. This way, he’s not resentful, we’ve given him something to think about, and if he contacts us it’ll feel like his own decision.”
Pauline was silent for a minute, thinking. “That’s very smart,” she said finally. “I’ve been chasing him too hard, I think. This way is more effective, I bet. Where’d you learn how to do that?”
“Business,” Carlos said frankly. “You learn a lot about managing people—sometimes people who start out feeling hostile to you. In the best business deals, everyone feels like they had a say and everyone goes away having gained something.”
“Sounds like those sorts of skills would translate really well to managing kids,” Pauline said thoughtfully. She glanced at him with a little bit of a smile.
“It’s true, businessmen are often indistinguishable from children,” Carlos agreed solemnly. “Clearly my talents are being wasted.”
Pauline laughed, pure as a bell. “I certainly would say so.”
It was a joke, but Carlos could see how it could easily become serious. Could we raise kids together?
It seemed like such an enormous thing. Like the prospect of it was too big for any one human to contain.
But people did it all the time. It was the most normal thing in the world. How could those two facts coexist? And yet, it was clear that they did.
“Can we go somewhere?” he asked suddenly. “Somewhere private.”
Pauline’s eyebrows went up, her cheeks turning pink.
“Not for—I didn’t mean—” Carlos shook his head and started laughing at myself. “Please excuse me while I put my foot in my mouth. I’m sorry.”
Pauline started to laugh, too. “It’s all right. I think—well, the fact that I went there so quickly probably shows where my mind is at.” Her blush deepened, but she kept her chin up, meeting his eyes.
Carlos took her hand. “I meant what I said last night,” he said, more seriously. “I don’t want to do anything that we’re not both totally on board with. I just want to go somewhere and talk.”
Although if she did want something more...and it looked like she might...he was ready to taste her all over, make her body thrum with pleasure, and see what she looked like when all that politeness fell away.
Pauline held his gaze, a smile still lingering on her lips. “All right,” she said. “Would you like to come over to my house for some coffee?”
“I would love to,” Carlos said with absolute sincerity.
***
Pauline
As they pulled up, Pauline realized that she hadn’t thought about the fact that she was inviting a probable-millionaire—billionaire?—to her tiny, slightly run-down house at the edge of town.
She’d just been thinking about Carlos, and his warm smile, his big laugh, his soft hands, his kind eyes.
Now, though, she was a little self-conscious. Everything was clean, at least—Pauline spent a lot of time keeping her home exactly how she liked it (or, at least, as close to how she would like it without any little feet running around). Now that her parents were gone, she sometimes had more free time than she really knew what to do with.
It was strange—when she was younger, and when her parents were sick and she was spending all her energy on taking care of them, she could remember yearning for time just to herself, to do just as she wanted. But now, when she was at home, looking around at her clean floors and her bookshelves stuffed with paperbacks, it often just felt...empty.
Then she moved further into the house, and Carlos came in behind her, and nothing felt empty anymore.