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on were the sort at which my father schmoozed with congressmen, senators, and their families—the kind with gorgeous resorts featuring nice, clean swimming pools and lovely cabanas. Were there beaches somewhere that weren’t lined with resorts, littered with sunbathers, and dotted with colorful umbrellas? Did such places exist?
    I felt tears pressing in, crowding my eyes and my senses. My gypsy king was gently telling me good-bye, justifying all the reasons he needed to go. I heard his voice almost in the background now, like a television droning on when you’re busy with something else.
    â€œÂ . . . The salary isn’t really any higher, but there’s so much included. The house, the utilities paid, a company vehicle. It’s like making twice as much as I make now. I’d be able to finally work my way out from under some bills and start putting away money for Nick’s college.” His eyes met mine again, and I took a small bit of encouragement from that. Maybe he really did mean to continue our relationship long-distance. I didn’t see how. There wasn’t a major airport in Moses Lake. “It’s the difference between two completely different lives, Mallory,” Daniel said.
    Yes, it is, I thought, my long-distance fantasy dissolving like a mirage on a hot day. It was the difference between us and you-there-and-me-here .
    â€œAnd that’s not even mentioning the work.” Daniel was so excited, he was talking ninety miles an hour, overloading my brain, causing it to whir. “This guy is a little . . . atypical, but he’s light-years ahead of conventional science on all kinds of things, not just the super crops, but low-impact growth environments and foods that fight cancer. You wouldn’t believe all the good his work could do. And he’s got the funds to keep it going. Private funds. And I’ll have a share in any patents we’re granted. If we come up with the kind of modified seed grain I think we can, there’s no telling what the bio-patents could be worth. Imagine corn that could grow in the desert, or wheat that produces under drought conditions. Imagine what that could mean.”
    I nodded, swallowing hard. Sue me, but at that particular moment, I didn’t care about growing corn in the desert; Icared about the life I wasn’t going to have. With Daniel. I’d finally found the right one, my prince had come, and some billionaire was determined to tumble my castle of cards before I could dab enough glue on it. Why couldn’t Jack West buy someone else’s boyfriend? Why did he have to have mine?
    Because Daniel was brilliant, and he was wasting away at that USDA lab, and he was made for better things. I knew the reason. I knew I should love him enough to let him go. He wasn’t happy in the job here. He was trapped in it.
    His hand slid across the map, covered mine, clasped it. I felt reality staring me down like a Rottweiler, dark-eyed and malevolent.
    â€œCome with us.”
    At first I wasn’t sure I heard the words correctly. “Huh?”
    â€œCome with us,” he repeated, more emphatically this time, his eyes taking on a glow that pulled me in. “Come on, Mallory, think about it. We both know that we . . . us . . . the two of us and Nick . . . Something so right doesn’t come along every day. I realize it’s not the best timing—it’s only been a month, but life isn’t about waiting for perfect timing. If you’re not careful, life happens while you’re stuck in a holding pattern.”
    My heart leapt, and fell, and leapt, and fell, the rebound a little less complete each time, like the bounce of a basketball slowly losing air. “Daniel, I don’t even know where I’d live in a place like that, or where I’d get a job, or . . .” Anything. “ . . . how I’d pay my bills