Jax smiled. “Well, I do have a day off coming up. Someone rented the bar Monday night for a private party.”
Perfect. “So may I take you to dinner on Monday?”
Jax grinned. “It’s a date.”
“Date!” Alice shouted.
Ari smiled. He was excited too.
ALICE WASclearly a spy sent to Jax under the guise of cuteness to gather information about his life for Jax’s meddling sister. She spilled the beans about the date almost as soon as they walked into the house.
“Date!” she yelled and ran headlong into her mother’s legs.
Sam lifted her into the air, kissed her face, and asked, “You’re a bit young for that, aren’t you, sweetie?”
“Date!”
“I think she just likes the way it sounds,” Jax said as he unloaded the diaper bag from his shoulder.
“I see.” Sam looked at Jax, then back to Alice. “And where did you hear about dates?” The tone of her voice suggested the question was for Jax, but Alice was obviously in a helpful mood.
“Ari.”
Sam stilled, but then a wicked grin took over her face. “Oh, Ari, eh? Jacob Hall, did you use my baby to woo your new man?”
“Not intentionally.”
Sam laughed. “You are shameless. Fortunately for you, I’m all too happy to let you use my kid to get in there. Now tell me everything while I make you dinner.” She placed Alice in a playpen and returned to her cutting board. George stood at the stove, stirring sauce.
“I might be shameless, but it wasn’t actually a deliberate ploy. I ran into Ari at the park, and we had some fun together. Alice took a bit of a shine to him, which is understandable.”
“Hm, he is kind of shiny,” Sam agreed.
Jax chuckled.
“But,” George said, “when do we get to meet him?”
“Don’t push. You sound meddlesome.” She tossed a carrot top at him, and he yelped and dodged.
“Like you weren’t lamenting it last night,” George defended.
Jax rubbed the back of his head and said, “Soon I hope.” It wasn’t like Jax wanted to keep Ari away from his family—well, his sister’s family, at least. Ari and George would get on like a house on fire, sitting back and watching the Hall Sibling Show like it was the most bingeable streaming entertainment available. And Sam would love him. She hadn’t always been fond of his dates and crushes and tended to fuss every time he fell for someone new, but Ari was serious and earnest, and most importantly, he was serious and earnest about Jax.
Sam grinned. “Excellent. How about dinner some weekend?”
“Make it lunch and you have yourself a deal. Bartender.”
Her mouth twitched like she wanted to say something but bit it back.
He clapped his hands together. “Now, what can I do to make food happen, because I am hungry, and I have to be at work in an hour and a half. Why did no one tell me that watching a toddler was so much work?”
Chapter Thirteen
NOW THATOperation Finish the Goddamn PhD so Everyone Would Shut Up About It was underway, Jax remembered how much schoolwork was simply boring. First, Jax contacted MIT and declared his intention to return.
The bursar and registrar offices were all too happy to send him forms to fill out and tabulate tuition fees. The only snag being the answer to the question, Who is your advisor?
So began a lengthy email chain with the registrar offices, the math department administrative director, and Jax, as they all debated how best to handle that. Did he need a new advisor? Surely since Grayling had said he was ready, Jax could defend without an advisor. He didn’t need a replacement for Grayling. They could just add one more faculty member to his committee. Did Jax have evidence that Grayling had signed off on the project? Perhaps it should be reviewed by someone else. Now that almost two years had passed; it was possible that changes in the field of statistics and mathematics had impacted the results Jax would wish to defend.
