What? Where in the hell had that come from? She knew one thing for certain though.
“Vance, I can’t.”
“Why not?”
The crush of his brows made a twinge in her heart. She didn’t want to disappoint him or hurt his feelings but…
“I can’t live in your house.”
“What’s the difference between you living in my house here or you living in my house there?”
There were a million differences, but she couldn’t seem to put even a fraction of them into words so she tried a different tack.
“You like seeing me on the weekends, what if you don’t like seeing me all the time?”
“You understand I have kind of a bonkers job, right? I’ll still be doing it, you won’t have to see me twenty-four/seven.”
She leveled him with a glare. Why was he turning this around?
“What am I supposed to do there, anyway?”
“Whatever you want.”
Of course he’d think it was that simple. If he had a bunch of free time on his hands he’d probably take up croquet or clay pigeon shooting or something that required him to wear a sweater vest. She’d just continue down her anxiety spiral about what the fuck she was supposed to do next.
“What about Carey? What if one of the kids gets sick and she needs me? There’s not exactly a bus I can take and you just said yourself that your job is crazy so it’s not like you’d be able to make the trip at the drop of a hat. And there’s no way I’m driving your crazy expensive car even if you’d let me borrow it. I’d probably be so worried about scratching it that I’d plow into a tree.”
“We can buy you a car. A practical, reliable, mid-range car.”
“We? No, Vance. You.Youcould buy me a car and…” Lilith shut her mouth before she said something mean.
Vance was just trying to help and she shouldn’t punish him for that but did he really not realize how awkward that would be? How off balance she would feel? It was one thing to be living in what was literally an extra house, but for him to buy her a car? Madness.
She wanted to bury her face in her hands but couldn’t because of her makeup. “You can’t throw money at every problem.”
“I am all too aware of that,” he muttered, probably thinking of yesterday and the night before. Grief was definitely a problem money couldn’t solve. “But some problems can be solved by throwing money at them and this one can. So why won’t you let me? I’d really like you to come home with me.”
Wasn’t this what she’d always dreamt of? Having some dashing man rescue her from her shitty job and shittier place, hand her everything she needed instead of her toiling over every fucking cent and then losing it all because it was really fucking expensive to be poor?
But she wasn’t a princess and the happily ever after Carey had thought she’d found turned into a life of disappointment and broken promises, so what the fuck chance did she have? If she went back with Vance to Clover City, he’d probably be sick of her within the week and she’d be worse off than she had been before she met him.
“No. I’m sorry but I can’t.”