Page 30 of You, Me, and Forever

“Give it your best shot,” I said.

“Is real estate a family business?”

“Yes. My grandfather taught me everything I know, and I made the decision to take over his company when he passed away. That hadn’t been the plan, but it was something I was passionate about from a very young age, and I had a vision to expand our growth outside of New York.”

“What was the plan before you took over the company?” she asked, her gaze searching mine.

“I was a third-year medical student when my grandfather got sick, and I took a leave of absence to take over for him. The plan was to become a surgeon like my father, but it was never what I wanted to do. This was the right move for me.”

“Was your father okay with your decision? Or did he want you to finish medical school?”

I chuckled. “My father is very single minded, and he has tunnel vision. It’s his way or the highway. Even though this company that he looks down at is what made his wealth initially. His father, my grandfather, started the St. James Corporation from the ground up and built it into the largest commercial real estate company on the East Coast. His investments and business decisions put him on the Forbes 400 list, which has benefited my father and our family greatly. But he’d never acknowledge that.”

“I sense some hostility there?”

“My father is a brain surgeon, and that profession comes with a certain—confidence. So yes, he’s done very well for himself, and he’s been written up in magazines as a world-renowned surgeon in his own right, and he enjoys having his ego stroked. And even after years of having it drilled into my head that being a brain surgeon was the only career choice to consider, I realized that it was not what I wanted to do. Obviously he didn’t approve. But I no longer felt the need to get his approval after my grandfather got sick. It made me look at my life differently, I guess. At the end of the day, I wanted to build things, create things, so that’s what I did.”

“That’s admirable, Myles,” she said, smiling just the slightest bit.

“My father would disagree. But thankfully my brother Samuel followed in his footsteps, so he has that.”

“Myles St. James, are you telling me that you’re sort of the black sheep of the billionaires?” She clapped her hands together.

“Is this funny to you?”

She nodded. “Yes. It’s like one of those Netflix shows about wealthy families. You’ve got the arrogant surgeons, and the noble real estate developers, all making a ridiculous amount of money and fighting this internal turmoil about living up to familial expectations.” She shrugged.

“‘Familial expectations,’ huh?” I laughed.

“You see, when you’re raised in a tiny house with just your dad, and you spend your weekends learning how to change tires on a car and taking the canoe out on the water—life is fairly simple. I’ve never had familial expectations, because Dad and I just support one another’s dreams. Always have. I knew I wanted to be a wedding planner before I went to college. I never wavered. He never tried to change my mind. So, I wake up every day and I do what I love. It’s not a bad way to live. And it sounds like that’s what you finally did.”

Damn. She had a way of making things seem a whole lot less complicated than they actually were.

“It’s not a bad way to live, Honey Badger.” I smirked.

“So are you close with him now? Were you able to move past it?”

“This isn’t a one-sided conversation. How about you answer a few questions first.”

“I’ve got nothing to hide. Ask away,” she said as she forked a carrot and popped it in her mouth.

“You live in Alaska—why is your name Montana?”

“That’s your question?” she laughed.

“Hey, I didn’t judge your questions.”

“Fine. It’s not the happiest story, so prepare yourself.” She sighed, setting her fork down and dabbing her mouth with her napkin. “My parents met in college at the University of Montana. You know the tale.Boy meets girl. They fall in love. Girl gets pregnant. Dad drops out of college to raise the baby, while Mom continues to chase her dreams to become an attorney. Dad moves back home with the baby that she insisted on naming Montana, because she clearly has no imagination. He has support from his family there, and he raises her on his own. Obviously, they grow apart over time. And Mom never joins them after she graduates because she falls in love with someone else.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“I shit you not, Moneybags.”

“She never came to Blushing?”

“Nope. Not once. She wrote him a letter letting him know that she had moved on and told my father that keeping me had been a huge mistake. She gave him the choice to keep me and continue raising me on his own, or she suggested he could give me up for adoption. I was a freaking child at the time. The woman is clearly not very maternal.” She shook her head with disgust. “He doesn’t know I know that story, by the way. I found a letter that she wrote him. So anyway, it’s always just been me and Dad. But I get to have a name that was chosen by a woman who wishes I was never born.”

“Fuck her.”

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