“There are steps that need to be taken, hon,” Beth said quietly. “Avoiding the lawyer isn’t going to bring her back.”
I let out a sigh but nodded. “I know. I’ve been realizing that and I think I’m coming to terms with it.”
Beth had been telling me for weeks now that regardless of whether I felt like the money was mine or not, it had been left to me and I needed to step up and manage it.
“You’ve decided then?” she asked, curiosity and sympathy mingling to darken the light blue of her eyes.
I lifted my hand and dipped it from side to side. “Sort of. I still don’t really want to make too much of a dent in it, but I’m thinking about moving closer to school and really focusing on getting my doctorate done.”
My best friend’s lips spread into a wide smile. “That’s a great idea.”
I shrugged. “I think I need some time away from work anyway. I don’t know how I’m going to help the kids if I’m having trouble helping myself.”
“I can see how that might be a problem,” she said. “Besides, this is only a temporary job, right?”
“Right, but the agency already had something else lined up for me. It’s a permanent position on the staff of a high school somewhere in the city, but I turned them down.”
“It’s for the best.” She nudged my arm with her elbow. “Want me to help you shop for a place to move into? I love going to open houses.”
Despite the melancholy of the moment, I chuckled. “I think I should be fine. For some reason, I think that it’s important to try to do this alone. Can I let you know if I change my mind?”
“Of course,” she said, slinging her arm over my shoulders to give me a side hug. “Whatever you need, girl. Just remember that I’m here if you need me.”
“I know.” I smiled at her as she released me, watching as she finally tucked into her own lunch. “Thanks for everything you do for me. I think they’d have locked me away in one of the very institutions I might end up working at if it wasn’t for you.”
It was true too.
Little by little and day by day, I was trying to reconstruct the world that had come crashing down around me when the doctor had given me the news. It looked a lot different from what my world used to look like, but at least it was starting to look familiar again.
A bit battered, a bit skewed on its axis, but familiar nonetheless. What I needed now was a new place to live, a place where I could bask in the familiarity of the things I could while not being caught up in memories of a past I could never get back.
Chapter 4
Taydom
“You should’ve fucking been there, my man. It was epic.” Andrew spread his arms open wide and grinned. “I don’t know how you can keep passing up the opportunity to come out with me. I’m a good time.”
“You are, but if I keep coming out with you, I’m going to develop liver failure or catch something that’s going to make my dick fall off.”
A couple of ladies eating lunch at the table beside ours on the patio at the country club gave me the stink eye. I flashed them my most charming smile and pulled my aviators off my face.
“I’m so sorry. Please excuse my language. Let me buy you all a drink to apologize for my lapse in judgment. My mother would never forgive me if I didn’t.”
Crow’s feet deepened as all three of the older women gave me smiles in return. They wore wide-rimmed sun hats, even underneath the broad umbrella over their table, but at least they didn’t seem to be as uppity as it made them appear.
“We’ll have a bottle of bubbly, son,” one of the old birds said. “The good stuff, or we’re getting your mother’s number out of you and calling her ourselves.” She winked at me before exchanging a look with her friends. “Also, I’ll have you know that no appendages have been lost as a result of any one of us.”
Andrew choked on his craft gin with some kind of flavored tonic, and I nearly did the same on nothing but spit, but I managed to catch myself just in time. “I’ll get you a bottle of the finest Champagne the club has to offer.”
When I turned back to Andrew, I mouthed, What the fuck?
He lifted his big shoulders in response, then shot me a smirk. “I swear you could get a wall to drop its pants for you.”
“Too bad walls don’t wear pants.”
He rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean, and it’s exactly why you should’ve come out with me last night, dude. The women were fine, and they lose their panties when they even hear your name.”
I risked a glance at the ladies, but they seemed to be too absorbed in their own whispered conversation to have heard him. Since Andrew had lowered his voice some, it didn’t look like they’d even been able to hear him.
“Please tell me you didn’t test that theory.” I kept my volume at the same level his had been, and since I didn’t hear any snickering and no one had threatened to call my mother again, I figured we were in the clear.
Andrew’s chest swelled with pride and his smirk became a smug grin. “I did actually. I used your name to get a girl to come home with me. She was extremely disappointed when she found out I wasn’t the billionaire of the hour. Did you know that since Hannah’s article came out, you’ve got this whole mystery-man thing going on that chicks apparently dig?”
“What?” I scoffed. “That’s ridiculous.”
I’d been sent a copy of her article, but I’d only scanned through it, and even that had been weeks ago. Andrew swallowed the sip of his drink that he’d taken, then nodded. “I know, but apparently, you’re the billionaire bachelor of choice around these parts now. Every girl wants to be the one who gets to, and I quote, ‘break through the handsome yet ice-capped exterior’ that you apparently portray to the world.”
I laughed and pointed at him with my beer bottle. “You know, you could be a billionaire yourself if you’d only work.”
“I’m fine with being a regular old millionaire, thank you very much. You know I don’t have your drive. I just want to live in a nice house, drink whenever and whatever I want, and fuck pretty things, all of which I can do without a bank balance the size of an island.”
“Your ambition astonishes me,” I said dryly, but if I was being honest, I kind of envied Andrew’s approach to life. He was a laidback guy who never took anything, including himself, too seriously.
He was one hell of an agent and one of the best I had, but he had no intention of progressing any further than he was now. Being able to live off the commission he earned and doing it well was more than enough for him.
“My ambition is to have as much fun as I possibly can while I can still enjoy it.” He wagged his eyebrows at me. “What were you doing last night that could be better than that?”
“I was looking over some properties on the housing market that will be good for us to sell. Get us the right kind of exposure in the right neighborhoods to remind people we don’t only deal in commercial property.”
“I don’t know why you’re still messing around with residential properties. We make more money on one commercial deal than we do on ten houses in some of the neighborhoods around here.”