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Megan cleared her throat and he glanced toward her. “Have you lived here your whole life?”
He pulled his gaze away from her and didn’t answer right away. Perhaps she’d been confused. Just because he confided in her when they were in that cabin, didn’t mean he wanted to be buddy-buddy now.
“It’s okay. If you don’t want to talk to me, I get it. Really.”
Daniel sighed and tossed his rag into the soapy water. He turned from being perched on his knees to sitting on his backside and leaning against a freshly cleaned area of brick. “Yeah. I grew up here. This is the only place I know.”
“It’s an amazing town. The people are great too,” she murmured.
“Yeah, this place is great. The folks around here… they’re die-hard, you know.”
A smile tugged at her lips. “I don’t suppose many people end up leaving once they move here, huh?”
He quirked one brow upward, turning his head as he did so. “Actually, we don’t get many transplants. Most of the people who live here were born and raised or returned after exploring a little of the world. From what I understand, the rest of it out there is pretty disappointing.”
She huffed then mumbled, “You aren’t wrong.” Her own upbringing seemed to be less ideal than those who had a chance to grow up in the country. The only people who would understand that would have to actually visit and live in both places.
“You didn’t like growing up in the city?”
Her side-eyed stare actually made him smile. And that smile alone made her insides heat up unexpectedly. “It wasn’t just the city. Yes, it’s big and bustling and there’s so much going on. You can’t go anywhere without feeling like you’re part of a herd.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
Once again, she gave him that pointed look. “You herd animals all day. They don’t know any better. But if you were the one being herded… to your job, through rush hour traffic, and around the grocery store? You wouldn’t like it much either.”
“I suppose you make a good point.” His smile had widened, making her feel just a little better.
“But like I said, the city living part just wasn’t for me. The thing that got me to take the jump and get out of there was my parents.”
His smile faded. “You wanted to leave your parents?”
She turned her focus onto the work at hand and lifted a shoulder. “I mean, I love them and all…”
“Of course you do. We all love our parents. Okay, maybe not all of us.”
She could hear teasing in his voice but forced herself to ignore it. “Your folks are super supportive. They want to see you succeed not for themselves, but for you. It’s like they’re preparing you to make it in this world so they can enjoy your happiness.” Her brows pulled together. “My parents didn’t do that.”
“Your parents didn’t want you to succeed?”
Megan shot him a sharp look. “They absolutely wanted me to succeed. In fact, it was so important that it left nothing else in our relationship. They pushed and pushed me as if my successes were a measurement of their own. If I failed, then they were failures.”
He grew quiet. The way he didn’t add to her statements made it clear he was uncomfortable with what she’d said. That was fine. Most of her friends growing up tended to feel the same way. Just because she was used to it didn’t mean they had to be.
“I’m sorry.”
She released a dry laugh. “Don’t be. It’s the way my upbringing was. I have made peace with it. And perhaps it wasn’t all bad. Their drive—it was catching. I push and push myself now. I have to win. What else is there?”
“Weren’t you the one who said I should be happy? That I should follow my dream and put my drive into that?”
Megan laughed again. “That’s advice foryoufor the wayyouwere raised. I don’t know if you realize this, but I used to help people start up their businesses, so I know a thing or two about how different people operate. If you’re struggling with your business, there’s a variable at play and foryouit’s passion.”
That word reverberated in her head the second she let it out. She shouldn’t have said passion when speaking to him, it did strange things to her. It was inappropriate.
Glancing at him once more, she shifted so she could sit the way he was, against the building on the filthy ground. “The difference between us is that you’re pushing yourself in your business in order to succeed because you’re scared that you won’t find anything else. I’m pushing myself because there is no option of failure. Thereisnothing else.”
“Those two things sound the same to me.”
She smiled softly. “Being scared that you won’t be able to land on your feet is normal. It’s also something that we can fix. All you have to have is a back-up plan.”
