"Hell no. I want to be there for her through it all, no matter what it turns out to be. But I can't throw myself at her."
Ollie laughed. "Last I checked, your whole problem was girls throwing themselves atyou."
Reaves rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but this is different—Alara’s different."
"And how you feel about her is different, right?"
Ollie held his gaze, but Reaves didn’t say anything. They both knew the answer, even if he didn’t dare say it out loud yet.
They looked up when Grady approached their table.
"Can I get you guys anything else?"
Reaves checked his watch. "No thanks, I should get going."
"Me too," said Ollie. "Just the check, please."
"I'll get it," said Reaves. "And I need to settle up with you for the last time we were here."
"That's okay, call it my treat," said Grady. "It seemed like you guys needed to get out of here in a hurry. Was Alara okay?"
"Yeah, she's fine. She just needed to get back to Zia."
"Well, do me a favor and remind her that Zia's welcome to come hang out with us anytime."
"Thanks, Grady."
As they walked back to their vehicles, Ollie punched his shoulder. "I'm proud of you."
"Why? What do you mean? What for?"
"I mean about the business cards."
Reaves nodded. "I know it's only a little thing, but it hit me hard when Caleb asked for one yesterday, and the only thing I could give him made it look like I've got nothing to do with the House of St. James."
"I know. I get it, I get why you did it." Ollie looked more serious when he asked, "But you know it begs the question—are the cards just for show, or do they mean something? Are you starting to move in that direction?"
"Yeah, I think I am. I want to. I feel like shit, Ollie. I've let Dad handle everything all by himself for so many years, and there's so much I could have done to help him."
"Yeah, but you were doing your own thing. Your dad's awesome. He’d never want you to feel like you had to do anything."
"I know, but it's not about obligation, is it? It's about…" He fumbled for the words, and Ollie filled in for him.
"It's about loving your dad and everything he built. I get that."
"It is. But it's also about—how the hell am I supposed to run a business I don't understand? I can learn, but I don't know that I can do him justice. And you know it raises the question we're both tiptoeing around."
Ollie nodded. "It sure does. But I think I've been tiptoeing around it a lot longer than you have."
"What do you mean?"
They'd reached his Land Cruiser, and Ollie leaned back against it.
"I'm only going to tell you how I feel and what I've been thinking. I don't want you to make any decisions based on it. Whatever happens, I want you to agree that we'll talk it all through between us, and whatever we decide, we decide together, okay?"
"I'm not sure I can agree until you tell me what we're talking about."
"Ever since I met Callie, I've been thinking about wanting to work less. I don't like being gone so much. I'm not saying I want to give up flying altogether. But the job as it stands… it's a lot."
