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“He wants to meet you,” she said.
“I’ve got no problem with it. What about your mother?”
“She’s known all along. She’d like to meet you too if we go see my father.”
“We can do that,” he said. “Tell me what works for you. It’s not that far.”
“We’ll get to that in a minute. First I need to tell you a few more things I’ve withheld. Not horrible. Just well, things I don’t say right away to people.”
“Things that you don’t tell men you’re dating or friends?”
“Men more than friends. Some friends find out later on. Depends on how close I am to them.”
“You can trust me,” he said, reaching for her hand and threading their fingers together.
“I know. I don’t want you to be mad. First I want to say that I know if anyone could understand why I didn’t say it, you’d be it.”
“Just say it then,” he said.
“My father is very wealthy.”
“I assumed so when you said he had a lawsuit and that you lived in a house on the same property as him growing up.”
“More than lawsuit money,” she said. “My father is an engineer first and foremost. After his accident, life wasn’t easy.”
“I’m sure it’s not easy today either,” he said.
“It’s more so. He’s always been creative. With his schooling and background. My grandfather, his father, was an engineer too, and together they just started to develop and create so many things that would make my father’s life easier. The life of anyone in a wheelchair easier.”
“Oh,” he said. His jaw dropped when she said the name of the company. “I didn’t put it together.”
“Not many do,” she said. “My last name is pretty common.”
“You’re right, I can see where you would keep that quiet.”
“I think my father might have met your father, I don’t know. My mother seems to think so. Then I got thinking maybe you know and would assume I was keeping it from you.”
“I don’t know if my father met your father or not. Being a surgeon he might have, but I doubt it. It’s not his specialty, but many doctors would know of some of the products. I mean not everything your father has created is tailored only to those in a wheelchair permanently.”
“I know,” she said. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before.”
“You have enough success yourself that there are men that would be interested in that and not even think of your father.”
It was one thing he didn’t worry about with Laine. That she wasn’t out looking for a free ride in life when he’d had that happen to him before.
He knew many in his family had that fear and it was probably why so many were single for so long.
“My father is very protective of me,” she said. “He normally has any man I date looked into.”
He frowned. “I’m not keen on that.”
“He’s not going to do it,” she said. “I think that is what got me thinking more. I’ve talked about the island since I’ve lived here. He knows about your family history. I’m very immersed in the life here.”
“Which I love,” he said.
That was another thing. Finding someone that was willing to live on the island.
“Me too,” she said. “My last boyfriend… Dawson and I, we dated about five months. My father looked into him. On the outside he was fine. Nothing in his history to worry about. But he didn’t like me living here and said it one too many times. Nothing my father would have found on him would show that. Don’t think it. And I’ve never encouraged him to do it. I always hated it.”
