Page 69 of Wishing for Love

It’d been a few weeks and what they had might be different than a normal dating couple, but it was real.

More real than he’d had with another woman.

They’d even gone out on a date last weekend. Crystal left first, about ten minutes before the sitter showed up, and then he left after that.

It’s not as if Crystal actually left, but she went and sat in his car. Elsie wouldn’t go in the garage to know Crystal’s car was still there and she’d been sleeping when they returned.

An hour later, his phone rang and he saw it was his father and answered. “I got your message,” his father said. “That’s great West is coming tomorrow.”

“I’m not sure what it’s about. I mean I know. He said he wants to invest, but I don’t know what that means. I thought he’d give me some pointers.”

“Your cousin doesn’t throw money out to anyone. If he liked what he saw there is a reason.”

“I don’t want to feel like a charity case,” he said.

“Don’t. I’m going to tell you something. When West was starting out, one of the first businesses he invested in was a tech company. The one he sold that bankrolled the rest of his empire.”

“I know the story,” he said.

“What you don’t know is that I wanted in on it. He’d told me no. That I had a lot of kids to support and he didn’t want to risk my money when it could go to better use.”

“I didn’t know that,” he said.

“I offered to help my sister over the years too and was told the same thing. But I wore your cousin down and he let me invest. I told him I wasn’t an idiot and believed in him. I think he needed to know someone did when he was being rejected so much prior.”

“Damn,” he said. “So you hit it big too?”

“Not like you think. I didn’t have a lot to invest, but it was enough. I earned back plenty and put it right into more investments on my own. Over the years I’d reach out and see if he had anything good going on and he’d laugh. I’d heard the same story, that I had a lot of mouths to feed.”

“At that point, you really did,” he said.

“I invested in you,” his father said. “Because I believed in you. I used the money that I earned from West. Maybe this is coming full circle. The guy knows what he’s doing. Go in with an open mind. You might not like what he has to say, but hear him out.”

He sighed. “I’ve built this company. I don’t want to lose what it stands for.”

“Hear him out,” his father said again. “That is all I’m asking of you.”

24

FEAR OF MESSING UP

Crystal was putting lunch on the island when Phoenix walked in the door.

“Did you want a nooner?” she asked, grinning. “After we eat? The food is warm right now.”

She’d made soup and grilled cheese.

“No,” he said. “I mean, I’d never turn one down, but that isn’t why I came home. I wanted to talk to you without Elsie being around and didn’t want to wait until tonight.”

The smile fell from her face. Oh man, she messed up. She knew it.

He was going to tell her that this was a mistake. She should have never settled in and thought things were going so well. That’s when everything hit the fan and spread like a stinky failure in her life.

Then she took a calming breath. Maybe she was reading more into it.

That had to be it. He’d said he wouldn’t turn down sex, but maybe that was all he wanted even though he’d said otherwise.

“What’s going on?” she asked, forcing her voice to be as neutral as possible. She sat at the island and tried to eat, but the soup wasn’t going down her throat.

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