Page 11 of 7 Dirty Lies

His smile brightened.“Can I ask what you studied or does that make you think about all the things you aren’t supposed to be thinkingabout?”

“Yes and no,” I said because it was the truth.This was exactly the reason why Ted told me to hold tight to my Annie persona.She gave me a way of talking about myself without having to bring in the baggage.“I double majored in art and business.Art is what I love, but business is what keeps the lights on, so to speak.”It was all true, just with a little color thrown in foreffect.

But something I said seemed to upset him.He focused on the last few bites of salad and didn’t ask any follow-upquestions.

Feeling him slip away I grabbed at the first question that came to mind.“Do you have anysiblings?”

That brought him right back.“A meddling sister who booked me a vacation, packed me a bag, and refused to give me any option other than getting on aplane.”

“Ilikeher.”

He grimaced.“You would.I love her, really I do, but she doesn’t understand, mostly because she’s chosen not to.”I didn’t really know what that meant and he realized that when he saw the expression on my face.“She’s supposed to be part of the family business and she is, but not in the way I need her to be.I know that makes nosense.”

“I get it.I have a sister, too.And she’s also chosen her own route which has left me holding everything.”I didn’t mean to say that much.“She deserves everything she has right now, but sometimes I wish that we were in thistogether.”

He took his empty salad plate and stacked it on top of mine, pushing them out of the way, then he took my hands in his.“What do you doforfun?”

“I think the better question is whatwouldI do if I wanted tohavefun.”

He winced.“Okay.We’re more alike than Irealized.”

“I used towrite.”

“What did you write?”His thumb ran over the back of my hand, back andforth.

“Stories, poems, lyrics...it wasn’t until high school that there started to be a rhyme or reason to any of it.In college I realized I wanted to write stories about life so I wrote a book.It was terrible, but taught mealot.”

“But you don’t write for aliving?”

“No.Maybe one day?”I was walking a very fine line between truth and fairy tales right now.I did tell stories for a living, but not by writing.And I did want to do more writing that would hopefully become an income stream for me one day, but not in books.I wrote screenplays.I had every intention of moving behind the camera at some point...but then I stopped writing right around the time my parents were indicted for tax evasion—and my finances went under the microscope right along withtheirs.

It wasn’t fair considering I’d never had my money tied to theirs, thanks to my sister Elizabeth.She went through hell and back in a very public legal fight over what my parents did to her money.And yet, here I was, having to prove I wasn’t a crook like Cybil andRoger.

And that was just the beginning of the crazy that was my life for the last twoyears.

“What about you, cowboy?What do you do for fun?”I needed to stop thinking about myself and get lost in my rugged newfriend.

He didn’t like the way I changed the subject, but he didn’t fight it.“Cowboy, huh?Is this aboutthehat?”

“Of course it’s about that fantastic hat.Why didn’t you wear ittonight?”

He practically shuddered.“That thing is not dinnerappropriate.”

“That thing?”He made it seem like he hatedhishat.

“Look, my sister literally grabbed me off the ranch—something I was actually happy to be doing for a change—shoved my suitcase at me, and had me driven to the airport.I was wearing the hat when I got on the plane, and since she didn’t pack me another, I’ve been wearing itallweek.”

The ranch.So my cowboy really was a sometime cowboy.Oh sure, he seemed to be stuck in some CEO-type role most of the time, but somewhere in his life there were cowboy hats and ranches.“And thelaptop?”

He grimaced.“She just barely let me keep that and the phone for a call I couldn’t miss today.That’s why I had them out at the pool.And get this—she had IT lock me out of both of them until the call, and then locked me back out the minute itwasover.”

I fought back a smile because he was so adorably upset, but in that brotherly, I’m-mad-but-can’t-hate-you kind of way.“She wanted you to come meet me and have some fun, can’t say Iblameher.”

“And how did you get here?”heshotback.

I shrugged.“Not all that different.Ted dragged me here to get me to relax because I had reached that insomnia stage where I wasn’t eating or sleeping anymore.He did it for my own good and I’m glad.”I couldn’t see how bad I had gotten.Thank goodness for goodfriends.

Gerald returned with our main course.“The Mahi Mahi for the lady and the Swordfish for the gentleman.Now, will there be anything else or shall I leave you to your flirting?”He shot me acheekygrin.

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