Page 19 of Burning Love
“Are you going to list them all and what they do?” he asked.
“I will if you want, as it will get to me and part of this story that you said you don’t know about. Unless you’d prefer I don’t bore you.”
“I’m not bored,” he said. “More like I wasn’t sure where you were going.”
“We’ll get to it. After Foster is Elias. He owns Fifth Kid Brewing.”
“I know him and his beer well.”
She laughed. “I figured as much. I picture you the type. He didn’t want to work in an office. Not everyone was expected to either. West said he’d give us all a start with something, but we had to come up with a business plan.”
“Seriously?”
“Very. There are no handouts in our family.”
“Not even to your mother?”
“Oh, she gets what she wants, but sheneverasks for anything. Ever. It drives West insane so he just gives it to her. Like the house. He had that built after his first big money fall so that we could have space as kids. Those remaining in the house. After Elias is Rowan and he creates custom surfboards on the pro circuit. He’s in Long Beach. Nelson is the last boy. He’s in New York with the other crew and works for West. I’m the baby.”
“Working for West,” he said.
“I am now, but I haven’t been until recently. People want to get to know me because of my brother. It’s annoying.”
“Just like you’re not like other women, I’m not like other men. I’d rather get to know the smoke show in front of me.”
She bluntly threw it out there and he returned it.
Now she had to believe it.
7
HAVE MY WORD
Talia flipped her hair over her shoulder. “You think I’m a smoke show?”
“You’re fully aware that you are. Even down to the red lipstick.”
She picked up her glass of wine and took a seductive sip of it, her blue eyes sparkling over the rim as they assessed his face.
He hadn’t shaved today and didn’t normally when he had a few days off. Mainly it was laziness.
“If I’m going out, I might as well look good,” she said.
“You look more than good.”
“Thank you. I do try.”
“The question is why you’re trying with me?”
Two types of women came after him.
Those out for a relationship hoping he was ready to settle down because of his age or those wanting someone to call when they had an itch.
He was usually willing to scratch it if he was around and it was someone he’d been with before. Long gone were those one-night stands or bar pickups.
And those that wanted a commitment.
He wasn’t willing to give in to that.
