“Tell me we’ll go visit it,” I say again.
“We’ll go visit it,” Noah appeases me.
Hunter shakes the hands of a lingering couple, tells them goodbye then walks in our direction.
“Do you mind giving us a second?” I ask Noah. His response is a quick peck on my lips, and I watch as he exits to the patio.
I won’t make my mother’s decisions. I’m someone else. I’m who I want to be. And as I admire the painting again, I realize I’m eighteen, and Meredith is twenty-one, and I have a family, and she doesn’t.
“What did you think of the showing?” asks Hunter.
“It was great.” It was. “Is it always like this?”
“Yes. No. You’ve been to smaller shows, but the game is the same when your work is on the line. It’ll get easier with time, but you have to remember that it’s a business, and the smart people know how to play the game. That’s why I like the idea of you taking business courses.”
It’s the reason I like the idea of enrolling in business courses, too.
“I didn’t have time to contact the University of Louisville, but I’m still hoping to see if they’ll allow you to take your business courses online while you study under me for the year.”
My eyebrows lift as I brighten. Here’s something I hadn’t thought of. “You’re not against the idea of long-distance education?”
“No.” His eyebrows pull closer together as he assesses me. “Why would I be? With technology as it is, I don’t see the need for person to person. You can get the same effect online, through Skype, through the phone. There are a million different ways to connect now.”
“So...” Come on, Echo, you can do this. You are a risk-taker. “If, for instance, I wanted to go to college in Louisville, and I wanted to study underneath you for the year, I could do it?”
His eyes narrow in suspicion. “It’s not the same.”
“But it is,” I push. “I can send you photos of my works in progress, and we can use all that technology you listed. I mean, I won’t be working at your coffee shop, but I don’t see how I’m missing out there.”
“Did you knock my coffee shop?”
Maybe. “You like girls with fire, remember?”
Hunter goes silent, and I don’t like it. “I heard I’m taking Meredith’s spot.”
“Did she tell you that?”
“No,” I rush out. “I overheard it. Hunter, why are you pushing Meredith off a year? Why not just ask me for next year?”
He leans into me. “Because if I don’t snatch you up now, someone else will.”
Um... “What?”
“I want to be the one that discovered you.”
Okay... “You did.”
“But if I pushed you off a year, then someone else will figure out your talent, and then you’ll study under them. At that point, I’ve lost the prize.”
I’m a prize? Doesn’t matter. “I don’t feel right taking her spot.”
“Why not?” Hunter has that same annoyed set of his jaw that my father does when he’s ticked at me, but I’m not shrinking.
“Because she’s my friend. Because if you’re willing to work it out for me to take online business courses for a year, there’s no reason we can’t set up the same in reverse. Because while Meredith needs this now, I’m okay delaying this for a year. I’m not saying no to working with you. I’m saying that I’m not okay hurting people in the process.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “And if I tell you that this is your lone opportunity?”
My throat tightens, and I have to swallow to breathe. He’s offering everything I’ve ever desired. All of my dreams, all of my hopes are in his hands, but how can I live with myself if I hurt people—if I break hearts just like my mother shattered mine? “Then I’ll tell you I’m still not okay with hurting people in the process.”
Hunter tugs on his ear like he can’t trust what he’s hearing, then pivots away from me and starts down the hall. My stomach sinks, and I look to my feet, expecting to find it on the floor. The urge is to charge him and tell him I made a mistake. To tell him that I didn’t mean it. That my morals and values and everything that makes me, me, aren’t worth it. That my dreams are more important, but I don’t.
I stay solid in my spot, completely crushed, because I could never live with myself if I sold my soul.
“One year,” Hunter calls out.
My heart stutters. “What?”
He slowly strides back to me. “I’m only going to do this long-distance thing for one year, and that’s because I want you to focus on the business courses. I don’t care what your schedule looks like now. You wipe it clean, and you fill it with business courses. In fact, send the catalog to me, and I’m picking the courses for you. After that, you’re mine for the year. Do you understand?”
Do I understand? I smack my hand over my lips to stop the squeal and when I remove it, my mouth pops open with no sound.
“Breathe, Echo,” says Hunter. “I’m not going to have your boyfriend angry at me because you faint.”
The first sound that falls out of my mouth might be a “thank you” and by the expression on Hunter’s face, he’s not sure, either.
“So Meredith’s back in?”
“Yes,” he answers.
“Starting this year?”
“Yes,” he repeats.
I hug him. Not long. Very quick. And when he touches me, I jump back. “Thank you! Will you tell her? Tonight?”
Hunter pulls out his phone and begins scrolling. “Yes, but you and I are working out the details of this arrangement tomorrow.”
“No problem!” I say goodbye then race down the hall, running faster than I have in my entire life. Even faster than when I broke into school to save Noah from being arrested. I burst through the door of the patio, and Noah turns away from studying the night sky to focus on me.
“Meredith’s in the program, and I’m in the program and oh, my freaking gosh...” It hits me like a tidal wave, and my heart stalls. “I’m going home with you.”
Echo
Noah waits outside the car in the gallery’s parking lot as he gives me space to talk to my father, and I’m holding my breath in the passenger seat. I’ve told my father everything, from Noah and the charges being dropped, to my conversation with my mother, to my success tonight at the gallery, to the agreement Hunter and I reached.