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Then he says, “My relationship, if you can call it that, ended.”
“Do you feel like elaborating?”
“Not really.”
Definitely a story there, but he just met me. I can’t blame him for not wanting to spill his guts. Still…I’m curious. I want to know his story. I want to know what makes him him.
He rises. “You ready to go?”
Yeah, I must have overstepped. “Sure,” I say.
He reaches into his sporran and pulls out a money clip. So he does have cash, after all.
And the clip is full of hundred-dollar bills. Damn. I resist the urge to let my eyes go wide. There’s having cash, and then there’s having cash.
He pulls out a crisp hundred, places it on the table.
“You don’t have to tip here,” I say.
“We ate here, didn’t we?”
“Yeah, but it’s not—”
He holds up his hand. “I believe in being generous.”
“That’s beyond generous—”
He holds up his hand again. “I do it because I can. Because I know it means a lot to the people who work in service positions. One day, if I can no longer do it, I won’t. But while I can, I will.”
I cock my head, look up into those gorgeous blue eyes. He’s genuine. This isn’t a flex. It’s simple generosity. He can, so he does.
He’s a good man.
A good man who’s affecting me in ways I can’t quite understand. And even though he’s ready to leave this place now, I’m still not ready to say good night yet. I’m pretty sure I offended him before by getting too personal, and I don’t want to end our night on that sour note.
“Ronan,” I say, my mind turning over an idea, “would you like to see something amazing?”
His eyes sparkle as he meets my gaze, but his lips don’t curve into a smile. “I’m looking at something amazing now.”
My cheeks go hot…again. “I mean…you just got here. I’m wondering… Have you been to the Top of the Rock?”
“What rock?”
I let out a short laugh. “The observation deck at Rockefeller Center.”
“Is it higher than the Empire State Building?”
“Lower, actually, but I like it better. First, you can see the Empire State Building from the Rock, and you get a way better view of Central Park. Plus…I guess it’s just that…well, everyone goes to the Empire State Building. I like to be unique.”
“You, Mary, are the definition of unique.”
Simple words, yet the way he looks at me… I can’t hold back a shudder.
I glance at my phone, check the time. “If we hurry, we can catch the last elevator.”
…
Ronan gets more than a few glances from both women and men as we ascend to the seventieth floor of the Rockefeller Center.
