Page 39 of Billionaire’s Game

“You’re right. That was stupid, but you put me on the spot, so that’s what you get for being intrusive.”

“Intrusive, me? Never.”

I smiled. “How about you? What’s your type?”

“Smart, authentic, compassionate. You know, pretty much everything you are.”

“Stop being so nice. You’re going to make me blush.” I quickly tried to change the subject. I needed a safe topic. A topic that was the complete opposite of sexy. And suddenly I had it.

“Tell me more about your parents.”

I expected him to stubbornly resist my change of subject but, fortunately, he smiled and went with it. “Well, my mom is a hippie and, as you know, my dad is a lawyer.”

“How did that happen? How did they meet?”

“I’m not sure how they met. And Mom wasn’t always a hippie. In fact, she was quite the socialite before she found her life calling and did a complete one-eighty.”

“Life calling?”

“She lost her sister to leukemia and, after she died, Mom threw herself into adding color to her life... at least that’s what she called it.”

“What did she do?”

“She dropped the socialite lifestyle, started seeing a life coach. The life coach took her to a foreign country where Mom decided to renounce all worldly goods. She gave away most of her fortune and moved into a commune in Alabama or Mississippi. I can’t remember which one.”

“That’s, ummm, interesting...” I didn’t know what else to say.

He laughed. “I know it’s weird. You can say so.” He was turned toward me and there was a distinct twinkle in his eyes. He was clearly amused by my reaction.

“I’m not implying her actions are weird. Everyone has to choose how to live their life, right?”

“Right.”

“And she chose to live it with more meaning. I respect that. Change doesn’t come easy for me, yet she embraced change and let me guess, she’s a lot happier now.”

He nodded. “She is, but being a socialite was all she knew. Giving up her worldly possessions and everything that came along with it really shook up our family.”

I frowned. “I’m sorry. I never thought of that.”

He shrugged it off as if having his life turned upside down hadn’t been a big deal. His eyes told me otherwise though as he thought back on that time. “My parents divorced because of it.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

He looked away. “Dad wasn’t interested in the person my mom had become. It caused a lot of resentment between them.”

“How old were you when they divorced?”

“Seventeen... just about to head off to college.”

“It must have been hard having your parents split up.”

“My dad was so bitter. He completely shut me out. The divorce was nasty. And Mom was off just worrying about what made her happy. She didn’t care that she’d given away my entire college fund to some charlatan of a life coach. I had a resentful, bitter father on one side and a self-centered mother on the other.”

“I’m not sure which one sounds worse...”

“Oh, my dad was worse by far. My mom at least tried to get me to go with her. My father, on the other hand, made it perfectly clear that if I left with my mom he would pretty much disown me. So I spent, oh let’s see, the past ten years rebuilding my family’s fortune.”

“Trying to make it up to your father?”