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Her shoulders slumped. “I don’t know.”
She didn’t know? He tried to understand that, but he couldn’t comprehend. He’d always wanted to play football for a living. It’d been his dream ever since he could remember. How did she not have a dream of some kind? “What kinds of things do you like to do?”
She shrugged, still not facing him. He let her think for a moment, but when she didn’t say anything, he thought maybe this wasn’t something she wanted to talk about right now. Or she could be upset with him. But before he could try another subject, she said, “I like helping people.”
He smiled. “That’s a start.”
“Not really. There’s no job like that.” Finally, she turned to look at him, and he could see her eyebrows knit together. “I’m really not very useful.”
It pained him to see her think of herself like that. How can she have such poor self-esteem? He never would have guessed that in a million years. She was the daughter of a major movie star. She was on the television all the time. He’d never seen her acting self-conscious. She always looked like she thought highly of herself. Too highly. The camera made her look stuck-up. He was quickly figuring out that the camera lies.
“Of course you are. And there are plenty of jobs where you can help people.”
She gave him a skeptical look. “Like what?”
“Depends on how you want to help people. Doctors help cure people. Dentists help fix people’s teeth.”
She wrinkled her nose, but before she could say anything, he jumped in. “That’s fine, if you don’t like those. There are plenty of others. Police officers help people. Or 911 dispatch.”
“I don’t think I could do any of those. I don’t like blood. Or hearing people in pain.”
“You could be a therapist, and talk through people’s problems with them. Help them through though things.”
He expected her to shake her head at that one as well, but she brightened. “I would like that.”
“There you go. You could go to school and become a therapist.”
Her frown came back. “Couldn’t I be a therapist without going to college?”
“I don’t think so. Why? Are you worried your father wouldn’t pay for it?”
“I’m sure he would.”
Austin wasn’t sure what the problem was. “Then you’d be fine.”
She stared at the water bubbling out of the jet near her. “I’m just not very smart. So, if I could learn to do a job that helps people without having to go to school, that would be best.”
What did she mean, she wasn’t smart? She was naive, but that was only because of her upbringing. She wasn’t stupid. He opened his mouth to argue, but her phone sounded and she scrambled out of the hot tub to get it.
“Daddy?” she said as she answered it.
He couldn’t hear the person on the other end of the phone, but he sincerely hoped it was her father. He waited to see if her expression fell. But instead of disappointment, a hopeful smile widened on her face.
“Did you see? I got a job.” She seemed so happy that Austin prayed her father would be encouraging.
Her smile faded. “No, I didn’t get fired.”
Austin held in a groan. Why would her father ask that? How hard would it have been to simply congratulate her? His muscles tensed and he felt himself going into protection mode. He stood and crossed the short distance to her. He restrained himself from pulling her into his arms, even though he wanted to.
Dani frowned and nodded. “Yeah. I’ve been doing that.” The conversation went on, or rather the lecture, if Austin had to guess. From the way Dani kept saying, “Yes, Father,” and how her shoulders slumped lower and lower, he could tell she was getting spoken to. Austin’s mood darkened. He didn’t know a lot about Samuel Jordan, but his opinion of him was lowering quite a bit.
Finally, she said, “But I did what you said. Can’t I come home?”
She blinked rapidly, and it looked like she was going to start crying again. “But that will take a while.”
What was he telling her to do? Earn her own money to come home? Did he realize how much a plane ticket from the Cayman Islands to LA was going to cost? How much could she save if she were paying for her room and board? Did her father even care how hard she’d been working to please him?
“Okay, Daddy.” She stabbed at her phone and tossed it on her chair. She looked like she was going to break down at any second.
