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bust, and I had to make it. No matter the cost.
And, no, I’d never make the mistakes my mother did.
“I’m from nowhere basically; some town in West Virginia so tiny that you can barely find it on actual maps. No GPS finds it. I was happy to see it out of the cab’s rearview mirror. Let me put it that way.”
He nodded and cut into his steak. “I know what that’s like.”
“Huh?”
“I was hardly born with a silver spoon, Tiger. I’m from West Liberty, Ohio. It’s a quaint enough town, has a few antique shops downtown, and is the type of place with stone geese who get decorated every season. They wear raincoats in April and Santa hats in December.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because there’s nothing to do there but that. Oh, and bake pies. My mom was a county champion in blueberry. It wasn’t bad back there, but it was boring, not my thing. So, I came here too when I graduated college, and I never looked back.”
I blinked back at him. Frankly, I’d assumed he’d been a Park Avenue guy his whole life. “Do you ever miss it? The small town, the lack of pressure?”
“I loved my mom. Dad died overseas in the military when I was still a kid. I visited Mom till she died when I was about thirty. Damn how much she loved smoking, you know?”
I swallowed hard and took his hand. “That’s awful.”
“But I built a life here. I had something great for a while with my first wife. It went south, but I got Tammy out of it. I built a company I’m proud of—that anyone would be proud of. To be honest, if you asked me a few weeks ago, I’d say I had no regrets at all.”
“What changed?”
“You did,” he said, his eyes boring into mine. “For a while, I was enjoying my life, reveling in what I had.”
I sighed. “You mean enjoying different women every night. I… Mrs. Stewart wasn’t delicate about that part when she said she’d heard rumors about you that night at Vera Wang, that it was basically what she’d expect.”
He placed one hand over my own. “You need to know that I feel different about you. I don’t know if I have words for it. I’m not sure if I want to label it yet, but you’re more than just some girl from a Rolodex.”
“What’s a Rolodex?”
He laughed. “Fine—from Tinder and swiping right. I forget how young you are sometimes.”
“And you’re maybe a little old,” I said. Then, winking, I picked an onion straw off of his plate. “I mean, in a year or two, you’ll have a cane.”
“I will not!”
“Maybe,” I said. “I guess then you know exactly what I’m feeling, what I want. Maybe it’s the same story for the millions of people who flock here. I want to be something and never have to go back to my shitty town. And…”
“‘If you make it here, you can make it anywhere?’” he asked wryly.
“Basically.”
“Then, and I’d say this even if you weren’t the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen...”
“Flattery will get you everywhere, Mr. Duncan,” I said, bringing my tone down to a sultry alto.
“I know that look; that burning need for recognition. I’ve seen hundreds of new hires. The ones that last, the ones who make a dent at my company, have that hunger too.”
Heat flared in my belly, but it had nothing to do with my attraction to Brandon. No. It was pride, working its way through me. Everything I did, I did in order to take care of myself, to ensure I never went crawling back to my mother. If Brandon had seen other interns and new employees succeed who showed the same fire, then I felt better.
Like I might just make it.
He nodded toward me and set his napkin on the table. “I have another surprise tonight, Tiger. Finish up. You’re going to want to see this.”
Chapter Eight
