Page 100 of The Ice Queen in the Corner Office

She looked at the museum and back at me. “This is why you didn’t want to talk about your past? You didn’t want me to know you’d been arrested?”

I’d had a lot of time to consider my answer to that question, a lot of time to consider my reasons for holding back with her. I wasn’t going to go back to her if there was a chance she was right, and I was pushing her away because I had commitment issues. I knew the problem wasn’t her, because I felt certain, with every beat of my heart and every fiber of my being that she was the only woman I wanted. “That might have been part of it. I try to pretend I don’t have a past, that I learned from my mistakes and now it’s okay to move on. I don’t talk about this stuff with anyone and so it came natural to avoid the subject with you.” I sighed and braced myself for the hard part. “And I didn’t want to give you another reason to think I wouldn’t stick, that I’d be no good at a relationship, that I wasn’t someone you could trust.”

Her forehead crinkled in confusion. I wanted so badly to pull her into my arms and kiss away that crinkle. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve got loyalty running through your veins. it’s in everything you do. I didn’t want you to know that while you were taking care of your family, looking out for your siblings and working for the family business, even studying business in college because it was what the family needed…While you were doing all that, I was doing everything in my power to get away from my family, from my hometown.”

“But you’re still close to them, I can see that.”

“We’re close now, but I wasn’t there for Willow when she was in high school and might have needed her big brother. I was working two jobs and trying not to fail out of college. I wasn’t there to convince Rick to get back in shape and get back on the college scholarship track because I was thinking of getting myself on track. I ran when I should have stayed, or at least visited.”

She looked at the roof of the car, thinking over my words, or thinking of how to let me down gently. “The difference is that my family encouraged me to go to college. By the time I left home, the family had moved to downtown Atlanta and everyone was doing well. There was a family business for me to participate in that I knew would make my life better and give me a job doing something I genuinely love doing. You left because there was nothing left for you here, but you came back and I bet you tried to help them as soon as you were able.”

“They would never let me help,” I said, still frustrated by my stubborn family.

She grinned. “But you visited and you called and you remained a part of the family when you could have cut them out of your life. That’s loyalty, too, Alex. I’d never think less of you for bettering yourself, for working to become the successful, independent man you are.”

“Damn, I love you,” I said. “Please tell me you’ll go to dinner with me.”

“I’ll go to dinner, but I’m not making any promises beyond that. This is our first real date and you’re going to have to impress me if you want to get in my pants.”

Relief and joy washed through me, and I laughed. “Oh, I guarantee you’ll like what I’ve got planned.”

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