Page 70 of The Forever Rule

“And he put his name on it?”

“Of course he did. The lake itself was manmade. And it actually helped some of the irrigation and ice flow. When the highway was put through the mountains, it changed the way that the natural formations worked, and the lake was a good idea. Again, you should ask Hudson, I’m not quite sure exactly how all that works.”

“Says a man who helps build environmentally clean architecture.”

“I help fund it, and I help with the paperwork. I also help with the overall designs, not so much the structural engineering. That is why I hire others.”

“Well that’s good to know at least.”

“Are you going to tell me you know all about the structural engineering?”

I shook my head. “Not even the slightest. Although I’m doing my best to learn a little bit of everything with these microloans program.”

“That’s James’s baby, and I’m proud of him for it. He’s kicking ass. And you are going to help make that even better.”

“That’s the goal. Now, go back to that town. I’m intrigued.”

“There’s not much to it. We spent our summers there. I’m now realizing that we might’ve spent our summers there so that way Dad could say that he was working intown, but really he was spending time with his other family.”

I nearly choked on my water and shook my head. “I hate the logistics of that.”

“I have no idea how he did it. Other than the fact that he wasn’t around as much as I really thought he was. He was just so big in my mind, that I didn’t realize that many of his business trips weren’t actually business trips.”

“And Isabella had always said that he was absent often. I guess nobody realized how absent.” I didn’t want to divulge into Isabella’s truth any more than that, so I just gave him a sad smile and he nodded, seeming to understand.

“We didn’t live in a mansion, in fact, I had to share my room with two brothers.”

“Of course you did. But there are many of you.”

“Seven of us. At least in the house. The fact that my mother, a woman who perpetually didn’t like children, and was ice cold to most, had seven children still astounds me.”

I winced. “Oh, that’s not nice.”

“Not even a little. We didn’t have nannies, we had Mother. And yes, she makes us call her Mother. Dorian gets away with calling her Mom, and I bet the others do as well. I just got in the habit of it, and frankly, I do sometimes add that little accent to it just to annoy the fuck out of her.”

The curse surprised me, and I beamed. “Oh, look at that. See you don’t always follow the rules.”

Something slid over his face, but I didn’t know what exactly that meant.

“I try to follow those rules,” he whispered. Then he cleared his throat. “The town is far west of Denver, up in the mountains, but not the high hot elevations where the side of the mountain will make part of the area perpetually dark.”

“I’ve driven by those places, where there’s always snow no matter what.”

“Except during fire season,” he said with a shudder, and I joined in, remembering the fires that had crested over the mountains throughout the years.

“Well, considering that Isabella and her family grew up east of the Colorado Springs suburbs, and moved up north later, it sort of makes sense that you guys didn’t cross paths.”

“I guess so. Still though, the miles that man must have put on his car.” He rolled his eyes as he said it, but there was still an anger there.

“Well, I’m glad that you didn’t have that silver spoon, even though you do have a town named after you.”

“Not after me. After my great-grandpa, the land baron.”

I laughed at that. “You should look more into that history.”

“I should. I was too busy looking toward the future, trying to make sure that I could bring the company to this new age along with my brothers. Not everyone wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps, at least in terms of work.”He scowled a bit, and I had to wonder exactly what footsteps he was thinking about in that moment.

“We were pretty normal. I don’t know if we’re too normal right now,” he said dryly.