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“This place is fancy,” August says as we step inside. I feel pride swell in my chest at her comment. I came from nothing, building my business from the ground up. I didn’t go to college and I never had opportunities handed to me like some rich kids do. I may have been a millionaire by the time I turned twenty-five, but it was all because of me, myself, and I. And now, I have beautiful homes all over the globe, and a way to impress the one woman I’ve ever desired.
“Thank you,” I say. “It’s really started to feel like home the last few years.”
“Yeah?” August asks, perching on the edge of one of my blush colored couches. “More than California?”
I sigh. “California wasn’t really my home for a long time. There was nothing there for me except your dad. He’s the best friend I’ve ever had. After we finished high school, he offered me work at your grandfather’s company, knowing I had nowhere else to go. He took good care of me, making me a part of the family, basically. But I wanted to make something of myself, and I wanted to do it alone. It isolated me, my climb to the top. Your dad was still a good friend to me…but I guess I wasn’t that good a friend to him.”
“That’s not true,” August says. “He thinks the world of you. He talks about you all the time, says how proud of you he is…”
I feel a stab of guilt through my stomach. I feel like a fraud. Here I am, trying to win over my best friend’s daughter when he’s always telling people that I’m a good man, talking me up like I’m the better of us both. Now I realize that’s definitely not true. I glance at August and she smiles, but I guess she’s thinking the same. We’re both betraying him here. He deserves better.
And yet there’s nothing I can do. I can’t be without her. She’s brought meaning to my life. I’ve spent years obsessing over my company, money, building a life, but for what? None of it matters if I have no one to share it with. What’s the point without her at my side?
I can’t go back now. If she leaves for California and I can’t be around her every single day, it’ll drive me insane. I know I won’t be able to stop thinking about her, not even for a second.
Why can things never be easy? If I let her go, then I’ll lose everything. But if I take my chance with her, then the only thing I’ll lose is my best friend.
I take a deep breath and move to my minibar to pour us both a drink. I feel like I need it to process everything I’m thinking right now. The choice is simple, really. My happiness or his? Can I really put myself first after everything he’s done for me?
I hand August a glass of wine and sit down beside her with a sigh.
“Life can get complicated, right?” she says, her eyes meeting mine. “All of us walk through life on tiptoes, trying not to step on anyone along the way. But people always get hurt. It’s inevitable.”
I nod. I don’t know what made her say something so deep. Is she having the same thoughts that I am? Worrying about what her father would think about the pair of us, sitting close on the couch, our knees almost touching as we drink wine. He might say that I’m leading her astray, but she’s got a mind of her own. I saw from the way she moved tonight, swaying her hips for me. She’s doing this because she wants to. She’s here because she wants to be. So if we’re both choosing this, how can we be punished for it?
“Are you worried about treading on someone right now?” I growl, and her eyes flicker to meet mine.
“Should I be?”
It takes me a moment to realize that she’s not talking about her father. She’s wondering if there’s anyone in my life, a woman with whom I share my life with. I shake my head.
“No. There’s no one.”
She looks pleased. I guess she’s been worried this whole time that she was chasing a daydream. I mean, a man my age, I should be settled down, married, already building a family. But I’ve spent all this time alone hoping that the right person might come onto my radar. Now that she’s here, I can’t see a scenario where she walks out of here without me getting what I want from her, what I need. Not when she clearly wants the same thing.
She sips from her glass with a smile and I cock my head to the side.
“What’s on your mind?”
She blushes. “I was just thinking, this might be one of the best nights of my life.”
