“I like that better,” he said honestly. It had made him feel all sorts of unhappy to think that she was flirting with random men like Evan. Men he had to see at the track, who couldn’t be trusted to understand just how special Imogen was. They might just see her as a different pond to dip their toe in. Nothing more than a hookup.

Ty snapped a twig in his hand. Holy shit. He had been one of those guys. Sort of. Definitely not that crude about it, but he hadn’t expected that he would want a relationship with Imogen, and he did.

He really frickin’ did.

“Do you think it sounds more legitimate? I’m not sure I’m satisfied with it as such either, but honestly, for someone who thrives on academia, homing in on a research topic has been a nightmare. I’ve had zero self-confidence and have talked myself around in circles until I can’t decide if I have a legitimate thesis or a ginormous mess.”

Ty barely heard her, so stunned was he by his own thoughts. “Ginormous?” He didn’t think he’d ever heard that word before.

“Sorry. It’s like gigantic and enormous meshed together.”

“So really big?” Sort of like the heart attack he was about to have. Because he was about to lay it all on the line and make a ginormous jackass of himself.

“Exactly.”

“Um, Imogen?”

“Yeah?” She blinked at him, tugging on the drawstrings of his hooded sweatshirt.

“I was thinking that, you know, I’m having a really good time with you, and well, I know that you have every right to date other guys or whatever, but just so you know, I’m not going to be dating anyone else. I’ll just be dating you.” Ty felt a sweat breaking out on his forehead. Oh, yeah. Serious jackass-age. “That is, if you will let me. Date you, I mean.”

“Are you suggesting that we exclusively date one another from here forward in order to really get to know one another without fear or jealousy creeping into the equation?”

What she said. “Yes.”

Imogen’s face broke out into a shy, sweet smile that she seemed to be struggling to contain, but couldn’t. “I believe that arrangement would work.”

Ty grinned back, his shoulders relaxing. So they were dating. For real. “Drop the professor talk and tell me you’re cool with this.”

She walked over to him where he was sitting by the fire circle and looked down, taking his cheeks between her hands. “I like you. A lot,” she said with more simple honesty than he thought he’d ever received in his life. “So yes, I’m cool with this.”