“I’m not really that rich.”
He stared at me for several long seconds, then drained at least a fourth of his new beer before he shook his head. “No. I’m not letting you get away with not answering questions anymore.”
I laughed. “Why not? You’ve known my name all along.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t connect the dots, which is on me. I’ve heard about your family, though. Granted, I clearly don’t know as much about them as Mara, but I’m not stupid. Even I know that the Westwoods are next level.”
“The others might be, but not me,” I said easily. “My sister and I are the babies. We’re on the lower level of the so-called next level. Don’t worry.”
He let out a bark of dry laughter. “Okay, let’s say I believe you. How rich is notthatrich to you?”
My first instinct was to lie. I wasn’t proud of it, but I knew these people now, and while I honestly wasn’t particularly rich according to my family or the Thayers’ standards, I knew Avery wouldn’t see it that way.
“That depends on how you look at it,” I said finally. It would be easier to lie but it wouldn’t be right.
I’d been honest with these people all along and they trusted me. I didn’t really want to give them a reason not to.
Avery groaned. “That’s not an answer either. It doesn’t depend on how you look at it.”
“Well, technically, that’s not true,” I argued lightly. “If you were to ask Alex or, God forbid, Sterling?—”
“I’m not. I’m asking you.”
I took a long sip of my drink, mentally searching for a way out of this line of questioning that didn’t involve lying or running away. Nothing came to mind. “Okay. Fine. It’s not a big deal anyway. I’m only a millionaire for now.”
For a few seconds that seemed like an eternity, he just stared at me, completely frozen. Then his eyebrows slowly hiked up. “Only?”
“Yeah. For now.”
“I don’t even know what that means.” He closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck before he looked at me again. “You do realize that’s not something normal people say, right?”
I shrugged. “It is when you’re me. I am a normal person, Avery. I’m still the same guy I was ten minutes ago.”
“Yeah. Except for the fact that I now know you have a million dollars in your bank account.”
“I have several.”
“Bank accounts?”
“Well, yeah, several bank accounts too, I guess.”
“So what you were actually referring to is that you have several million dollars?” He blew out a heavy breath. “Fucking hell. I’m not sure how to process that.”
“Severalhundredmillion, but it’ll be billions once I get my inheritance,” I said quickly, needing to just rip the band-aid all the way off so we could stop talking about this. “There. Now you know everything.”
Avery barked out a loud laugh, obviously thinking I was joking until he looked at me again. The laughter faded instantly when his eyes met mine. “Oh. You’re serious.”
“Yeah.”
He frowned at me. “Really?”
“If I said it was a lie now, would you believe me?”
Finally, he broke eye contact to glance up at the sky. “Motherfucker. That’s a lot of money.”
“I know.”
It took a few seconds before he looked at me again. “What exactly are you doing in Arizona? You could be anywhere in the world. Madagascar. Bora Bora. Belize.”
