In Your Corner
Chapter forty-four
Hayes Rosewood
I stick my hands in my pockets, then take them back out.
Shift from my right to my left foot. A restless sort of energy burns in my limbs.
I went to my old boxing gym earlier while Aurora was dancing, but I still feel like I’m trapped inside my own skin.
Though I’m not wearing a tie, it feels like there’s one around my neck growing tighter by the second as I wait for Aurora to join me in the hotel lobby.
My parents offered for us to stay in their penthouse, but I turned them down. The last thing I want is for Aurora to feel as trapped as I do. I adjust the sleeves of my black suit jacket, the gold cuff links with my initials glinting in the light. The R seems to stand out, glaring up at me.
I can’t keep living like this. My head tips back to rest on the wall I’m leaning against. I shut my eyes.
It used to be easier to distract myself.
Host another fight, go to a party, date a new girl.
But even before I started dating Aurora, that had stopped working.
Now that I’m with her, it’s like my future is knocking on my front door, demanding answers I still don’t have.
“Hayes?” Aurora’s voice floats over to me.
I open my eyes and all the breath leaves my lungs.
She’s—everything. That’s the only word that can hold how I feel when I look her over.
She went with the red dress, the one that I secretly hoped for all along but thought she wouldn’t choose because it’s brighter than what she usually wears.
The neckline is high, wrapping around her slender throat, but there’s a slit up the side that exposes one of her long legs as she walks toward me.
And I know from purchasing it that her back is exposed, the fabric draping down low.
She gives me a shy smile as she approaches. All I can do is stare. Her hair is twisted up in a soft bun, with pieces curled and left down around her face. Heat spreads through me, chasing away that restless energy and replacing it with a hunger to draw her close and kiss her berry lips.
“Are you okay?” she asks.
I clear my throat. “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure my heart stopped beating when I first saw you.”
She ducks her head, hiding her smile. I reach out and tip her chin up.
“You look incredible, Aurora. Everyone is going to be jealous of me tonight.”
An emotion I can’t quite place sparkles in her blue eyes, which are enhanced by the soft, smoky eyeshadow she’s put on.
“You clean up nice too, Prince Charming,” she teases, resting her hands on the lapels of my jacket. “Are you ready to go?”
I let out a sigh.
“We could say you’re sick?” I echo the thing she said right before I met her family for the first time.
She laughs a little.
“It won’t be as bad as you think.”
“You’re right, it could be worse,” I joke, and tuck her beneath my arm.
She’s taller in the heels she’s wearing, but still not taller than me.
“What are you so worried about?” she asks as we walk across the lobby’s marble floors. “I haven’t asked because I didn’t want to upset you, but I’m concerned that I’m going in unprepared.”
I grimace. I should have explained sooner, but I didn’t want it to taint our time together.
We step out into the breezy city air, where a sleek town car is waiting, with Mac ready to drive us to Farm to Rooftop, an infamous restaurant in the city—a spin-off of the successful Farm to Table.
The rooftop location is smaller and more exclusive.
It’s actually one of my favorite places in New York.
I wouldn’t have minded taking Aurora alone one day.
I let Aurora slide in the spacious back seat first, then join her.
“They’re not cruel,” I tell her as Mac closes the door on us.
“But they don’t view things through the same lens as normal people.
Everything is a chess move of some kind.
They won’t see you for who you are, but what you bring to the table.
Eventually, they relax and get to know you, but tonight won’t be that way. ”
She nods, her expression hidden by the darkness of the car. Mac begins to drive, the lights of the city flashing as we go.
“That makes sense, I guess, given their line of work.” She fidgets with the clutch she brought along. “Do you think they’ll judge me for being your tutor?”
“We don’t have to tell them, if you’re worried about it,” I reply.
“Won’t they know, since you’re spending so much money?”
I almost laugh at the thought but refrain.
“They won’t notice it’s gone.”
“They won’t notice a hundred thousand dollars has left their account?” she asks, her disbelief evident.
“It’s coming from my account, which they rarely look at. And that number is pocket money for them. My mom spends that on a purse.”
Aurora’s hands still atop her clutch.
“This bag is from TJ Maxx.” Her tone is horrified.
In all honesty, I’d considered ordering matching bags and shoes to go with the dresses but thought Aurora might get overwhelmed by a bunch of designer bags showing up at her door. Those are harder to hide the labels on, unlike the dresses, which I removed the tags from.
“Don’t worry about that, they aren’t shallow, just calculated,” I assure her. “My mom won’t care what bag you’re carrying so long as she thinks you can hold your own in a ballroom full of executives.”
I realize as soon as the words are out of my mouth that I’ve made a mistake. I said way too much.
“A ballroom?” Aurora sounds panicked. “Executives? Hayes, I barely know how to socialize at a frat party. How am I supposed to make them think I can handle a gala?”
I grab her hand and squeeze it.
“You don’t have to do anything, just be yourself. I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t want you to worry about any of that.”
Aurora shakes her head, her nervous expression illuminated by a bright billboard we pass beneath.
“I want to make a good impression, the way you did on my family.”
My chest tightens at her words. I wish I would have refused my parents, told them I wanted more time. Then again, I don’t know if it would have helped in the end.
“Your family is different from mine,” I say quietly. “I love my parents, but they live a life so removed from society that I don’t know how to just be around them. I’m sorry I made you nervous. You really don’t have to be. Whatever happens tonight, I want you, and that’s all that matters.”
“Okay,” she whispers, and my throat grows tight.
Is it already happening? Will I lose her because of my last name? Though it kills me to form the words, I have to give her a way out.
“If we get through this dinner, and you decide it’s too much, I won’t blame you. I’ll take you home and leave you alone—”
She cuts me off, turning in her seat to look at me.
“What are you saying? That we’ll break up if this doesn’t go well?”
“I don’t want to, but I don’t want you to feel trapped. I’ll give you the money for your intensive—”
I’m cut off again, this time by her fingertips on my mouth.
“I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to hit you more than in this moment,” she says, and my eyes widen. “I know you’re terrible at Digital Logic, but I thought the regular kind wasn’t lost on you.”
She moves her hand from my lips to grab my chin, staring me in the eyes.
“It will take a lot more than one difficult family dinner to lose me, Hayes. So quit spiraling on your own, because we’re a team now. I’m in your corner. Got it?”
My lips part. The only thing I can think of is: I love you.
I almost say it, but this would be the least romantic timing, and she deserves better than that. Especially after the speech she just gave me.
So instead, I smirk.
“Have I ever told you how pretty you are when you’re angry?”