Page 179 of Hidden Nature

That brought a smile. “They’ll clear me, but they’ll want to do that before they share more. Anyway, that’s what I know, that’s what I think, and you were right. I need a break, so tell me how the office goes.”

“Nearly there. We decided to do one wall in this old barnwood we scored, so it’s taking a little longer. There’s enough left over. It’d look good in your office.”

“My office.” She turned to look toward it and those Barbie-pink walls. “Well, damn it.”

“It’s out in the shop if you want a look. We planed it down smooth, and it was worth the extra time. Oh, and CJ’s hair is orange now.”

“Sure, it’s baseball season—nearly. Oriole orange.”

“Huh.” Because Tic got up and went to the door, Nash rose to let him out. “I guess wearing a jersey or hat isn’t enough.”

“Not for CJ.”

“Clearly.” Though he planned to stay, he got a Coke rather than another beer from her fridge. Then he sat, studied her.

“What?” Instinctively she lifted a hand to her face. “Do I look that bad?”

“You’re beautiful.” He spoke it as fact, not a particular compliment. “It’s disconcerting sometimes. I tended toward tall brunettes.”

“Really?”

“Going by that, you shouldn’t be my type. And yet. I came over tonight because I missed seeing you, talking to you. We’ve both been busy, add better than a foot of snow. I’ve got no problem with alone, or I wouldn’t have bought the house. No problem with busy, or I wouldn’t have bought the house and started the business.

“But I missed seeing you.”

The fact he’d say it, and in a tone that clearly indicated he wasn’t altogether pleased by it, meant a lot to her.

So she gave him back in turn.

“I liked opening the door and seeing you there, for the same reason. And I think I make good use of alone. I’d have been glad to see you even if you hadn’t brought pizza and Tic. They’re the bonus.”

When Tic gave one quick bark, Sloan rose to let him back in.

“We don’t call them parents, Theo and I,” he began, and Sloan turned back slowly. “But for clarity, I’ll use the term.

“I don’t know why they had us, except it’s something you did, were expected to do. Have progeny and form them into doctors, lawyers, CEOs, important careers. Power careers. Put them in the right schools toward that end. Lead, guide, or push them eventually into the right marriage—not necessarily good, but right.”

He paused a moment. “‘Right’ supersedes all. So that includes said progeny’s membership in the right country club, the purchase of the right home for hosting the right people. A second home—the Hamptons, Hilton Head, maybe the tropics. All this resulting in more progeny who would continue along the same expected lines.”

She sat again. “I’m sorry.”

He met her look levelly, impassively. “Don’t be. They made me what I am today. Theo, too. We’re just not what they expected or… invested in. I was supposed to be the doctor. But that really wasn’t going to work, and even they clued in there. So finance—the right firm, the right clients. They come from money, have money, respect money, so that was tolerable enough.”

He shrugged that off. “I had a knack for it, even enjoyed it. They tolerated my summers working with Habitat, designating it as overt charity work, which is also important, at least the overt part of it. What they didn’t see, and maybe I didn’t for a while either, was that’s what I wanted. Building.

“I did what was expected for longer than I like to admit, but you get into the habit of it. It’s easier to go along, or at least give the appearance of it, than to constantly run into the wall.

“They don’t like each other very much, they divorced years ago, but they still make a hell of a wall together.”

“My parents make a hell of a wall together, but of a completely different kind.”

“So I’ve noticed. They had staff to take care of us, watch us, feed us, deal with clothes. We had all the right schools, carefully curated companions, and we got trotted out when it was appropriate or advantageous. The rules were hard, fast, and not in any way negotiable. Go outside them, you paid.

“Not physically,” he added quickly. “Some prized possession taken away. Not for a day, or a week. Just gone. Demoralizing lectures on how insufficient we were. They paid the staff extra to report on us if we broke some rule. Some of them did, some didn’t.”

“Abuse doesn’t have to be physical.”

“No, it doesn’t. I figured that out long ago. The best parts of my life were when, for whatever reason, they weren’t speaking to me. I’m in one of those now. Theo was, but they’re once again to trying to push him to return to New York, back into an important law firm.”

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