Page 57
He paused like he was expecting a response, but in my despair over the ignorance of my teenage self and his current use of the past tense, my voice had abandoned me. Swallowing, I scraped a barely audible “okay” out of my throat.
“I know exactly what’s happening in your department, Shay. Of course I realize that idea was yours, and I was planning to deal with it in a less public setting. Edmond is a dishonest little thief, and Booboo probably doesn’t even realize it was your idea since I doubt he listened to your original proposal in the first place. I’m not blind, Honeycutt, and yet, despite plenty of proof to the contrary, you still think I’m an idiot.”
Chastened, I lowered my voice. “I never thought you were an idiot.”
“Just vapid and unlikable.”
I pressed my lips together. “I apologized for saying that.”
“You didn’t, actually.”
I scooted to the edge of my chair. “Whatever. If you know what’s happening, why aren’t you doing anything to stop it? Why did you accept the idea today, but not when I gave it to you weeks ago?”
He sighed, his rigid posture loosening. “My father. He thinks I’m giving you special treatment.”
I almost laughed. “What? Why?”
His gaze wandered to his computer screen. “Because even though he forbade Ivy to hire you, I allowed her to create a position for you at his company. I convinced my best friends to look after you. I let my mother meet you. I entertain your ideas. I made—” His jaw clenched a moment before he released it again. “Any number of things. He picks and chooses which things are significant.”
I stared at his profile while pondering that. “So… You treated me like a normal human? And that’s bothersome to him?”
A striking smile appeared on his face. “You have to understand. My father sees you as a threat. He always has.”
“A threat to what?”
He ignored my question, and his blue eyes sparked fire. “What he fails to understand is that in order to be a threat, you’d have to possess a desire to cause the damage he fears.”
I blinked, no longer sure what we were discussing.
His next words were spoken on a tired breath of air. “But you never have, have you?”
“I never…what?”
He leaned forward abruptly, resting his forearms on the desk. “You’re better than all this. You realize that, right? Shay, you’re better than them, better than Shep, than me, better than us all. You asked me why you’re here? You’re here because I’ve known since I was fifteen that you will do extraordinary things, and I wanted for one small chapter of my life to be a part of it.”
There he went again with that word. Better. How could I be better when I struggled even to exist in the same sphere as these people? But that last part…
You will do extraordinary things.
I wanted to be a part of it.
My heart thudded too quickly inside my chest, breaking a sweat across my skin. Those words were a sharp blade, slicing painfully through years of barriers I’d built against him, assuming he thought me unworthy. The infatuation that had built a home in my heart set to work expanding its walls, strengthening its borders, burning down obstacles.
He appeared unfazed, but his bright eyes burned into me with unblinking intensity, and his knuckles blanched as he squeezed his hands together. “Does that answer satisfy you?”
Throat dry, I merely nodded, trapped in the sparkly blue of his eyes. “I’m sorry I called you vapid,” I whispered.
He finally blinked, breaking our connection with a tiny grin. “And unlikable.”
“I’m sorry for that, too. I was just trying to hide that I liked you, too.”
He bounced his hands against his desk a few times. “You did?”
I scowled. “Obviously.”
He chuckled. “It wasn’t obvious to me. I— God, I misunderstood everything.”
That brought me back to my earlier revelation. He had liked me. Those looks, that kiss… It wasn’t simply lust like I assumed. I wasn’t the girl he slummed it with to brag to his buddies. He’d liked me.
