I chuckled. “Fair enough, but this is, uh, it’s hard to explain without sounding like a complete dickhead, but we’re wealthy.I’mwealthy.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, her gaze moving from one of my eyes to the other. I waited for questions, skepticism, or some big reaction, but instead, she simply seemed to absorb the information. Then she shrugged. “Is that why you’ve been so mysterious? You didn’t want anyone to know that you have money?”
“I wasn’ttryingto be mysterious,” I objected on a low groan. “It wasn’t about the money either. I’ve just been trying to fly under the radar so I could just be me for a while.”
“I’m not sure what that means. Aren’t you always you?”
“I am, but not the me I’ve been getting to be here,” I said quietly. “Back in Chicago, my family is kind of a big deal. I’m not even really sure why. It’s not like we’re celebrities, but people know us, and for some reason, they’re always interested in what we’re up to.”
“So what do you actually do, then? Why are they so interested in you?”
“I think it’s because we’ve always had money,” I said, drawing patterns with my fingertips along her spine. “Our family business is old. Boring but old.”
“Boring?”
I shrugged. “Yeah. It’s actual business, you know? Acquisitions. Development. The occasional takeover. It’s all spreadsheets and figures.”
Her nose crinkled. “No offense, but that reallydoessound boring. What do you do there?”
“That’s a little more complicated,” I said, surprised that she didn’t actually seem to care about the money or the public attention. “Honestly, I’ve never really known where I fit in.”
It was the first time I’d ever said it out loud, but it felt good. Even if it did surprise me that I’d actually come out and admitted it.
Raquel stayed quiet, those gray eyes soft on mine. I drew in a deep breath, figuring that I might as well keep being honest now that I’d started. “I liked marketing.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I smiled. “I was actually pretty good at it too.”
“So what happened?”
“Alex happened,” I said. “He’s my oldest brother. He’s been trying to give me exposure to all the different departments in the company and it doesn’t hurt that I’m adaptable. I keep saying yes and then figuring out how to do whatever he needs from me after.”
“That sounds like you,” she said gently. “It’s exactly the same as what you’ve been doing around here, if you really think about it. Whatever Frieda asks, you get it done.”
“Yeah, I suppose that’s true.” I sighed and raked my free hand through my hair. “Maybe that’s just who I am. The guy who’s always going to be trying to figure out something new.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” she murmured. “We don’t always have to fit into a neat little box, Theo. Look at me. I spend my days digging around in engines and my nights dreaming about coming home to a pink bedroom.”
I felt a slow smile spread on my lips. “So what are you saying, that we’re both multi-dimensional?”
“I would never use those words, but sure,” she teased softly, chuckling before she looked at me again. “If you want to keep moving around from department to department, then that’s what you should do. You could even open a little business on the side as a handyman if you really wanted.”
I barked out a dry laugh. “Yeah. No. That won’t work. There’s no way my family would be onboard with Theo the handyman.”
“What about whatyouwant?” she asked. “Doesn’t that matter?”
I shook my head slowly from one side to the other. “It matters. Just not as much as the family’s reputation.”
“What if you didn’t have to worry about that?” she asked. “What would you do?”
As soon as she asked the question, the answer was right at the tip of my tongue. It’d been there for years. No one had just bothered asking before. “I think I’d like to start my own business.”
Raquel propped herself up on one elbow, her eyes wide and excited. “What kind of business?”
“I haven’t quite figured it out yet.”
She smiled. “Well, that’s not particularly helpful, but like you told me earlier, you’ll get there.”
