Page 16 of His Good Girl

“Complicated how?”

His eyes narrowed very slightly, then eased. “Nothing you need to know today. Large public projects come with politics. Politics come with complications.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“It often is.”

“You sell it beautifully.”

“I’m not selling it. I’m just warning you.”

I should have been frightened by that. Instead, I felt something steadier begin to gather beneath the nerves. I had a job, a real one, in a place with structure and expectations and people who knew how buildings stood up. The thought felt enormous.

“Do you think I can do it?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“I think you can,” he replied. “I also think you will have to decide whether you’re done telling yourself the story that you’re the kind of person things just happen to.”

The words hit low and deep.

“I don’t like that,” I said.

“I didn’t imagine you would.”

“You’re kind of mean.”

“No. I’m honest. Mean is easier.”

I looked at him, at the calm line of his mouth, the gray in his hair, the impossible composure of him. “Marlena would have said the same thing.”

“Marlena would have said it to make you small.”

“And you’re saying it to make me what?”

His gaze did not move from mine. “Responsible.”

There were a dozen things I could have said, starting with something defensive, clever, or something designed to reduce the moment into banter before it asked too much of me. Instead, I sat there with my folder in my lap and my visitor badge clipped crookedly to my blazer, and just focused on what he said, which was terrifying in an entirely new way.

“I want the job,” I stated, infusing my voice with a certainty I’m not sure I felt.

“I know.”

“I mean it.”

“I know that too.”

“Then why does it feel like you’re waiting for me to convince you?”

“Because I’m waiting for you to convince yourself.”

I looked away first.

Callum gave me a minute, then pressed a button on his desk phone. “Ben, come in.”

The door opened so quickly I suspected Ben had been standing on the other side with his ear against it, though his expression suggested he had been born professionally disinterested.

“Yes?”

“She’s going to start tomorrow,” Callum said.