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“Give me a hug.” She stood.
“Sure.” I hopped off the swing and wrapped my arms around her, and she started to sob. “Hey, what’s wrong?’
“Nothing. I’m sorry.” She straightened and swiped at the wetness on her cheeks.
“It’s not nothing if it makes you cry.”
“You’re going through so much.” Staring past me, she sniffed. “I can’t burden you.”
“We’re friends,” I said firmly. “In case you didn’t notice, I don’t have a lot of those left.”
“Why—”
“No.” I cut her off again. Maybe Barry would forgive me, maybe not. “You first, then I’ll tell you about Barry.”
“Okay.” She sighed. “I had a big fight with my dad.”
“About?”
“He wants me to go to college.”
I knew that. “And?”
“I said no. I stood up to him. Finally. You would have been proud, only he said if I didn’t go to college, I had to get married. As in right away. He rattled off a bunch of names. Older guys from his work.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah.” Her bottom lip trembled. “He said he’d cut me off if I don’t. No allowance. No inheritance. No car. Nothing, if I don’t do as he wishes.”
“Wow. What are you going to do?”
“Go out with them.” She waved her hands as if they were magic wands. “Then stall, I guess. Daddy can’t live forever, right?”
“Maybe you could get your mom to talk to him.”
“She was there when he delivered his ultimatum.”
“Oh.” I cringed.
“They stick together.” She frowned. “Always.”
“Martin?”
“My brother and my dad do not get along at all lately. Martin wants no part of my dad’s business. Not on my dad’s terms, anyway.” She bit down on her lip. “I think that’s why my dad’s being so stubborn about this. He wants someone he can raise up in his image to take over his empire since we don’t want to be lawyers.”
“He wants you to get married and have a baby.”
“Yes.”
“How very Victorian of him.”
She nodded. “He’s a character straight out of Dickens.”
“Maybe you can bargain with him.” Martin certainly liked his bargains. “You have something he wants. A potential protégé.”
“I guess so.”
“Definitely.” I spread my hands out. “So, convince him to let you choose the guy.”
