Page 41 of Some Like It Hott

“My mom and a series of husbands—we have three different dads, which is why we don’t all look alike—but yeah, my grandfather was this kind of—I don’t know. Patriarch? Titan? He was always there for us, but he was also…” He hesitates. “Always an asshole. Had to be right. Had to win. Knew what was best.”

“That sucks,” I say because—sometimes that’s all youcansay. And I worry for a second that it’s wrong, but he nods, and the corner of his mouth curves—his not-quite-smile.

Someone who didn’t know him might not even catch it as it flits by. But I know him.

“He didn’t want me to go to college on the East Coast. We got into a pissing match about it, and I dug in. He’s a stubborn son of a bitch, and…” He stops again.

“And so are you?”

His eyes flash to mine, the corner of his mouth curving higher. “Yeah. So I went. Studied finance because I thought it would help me when I went home to run the ranch. Except I fell in love with Kali.”

His voice is low. Rough. Vulnerable. I’m peeking into the heart of this gruff, self-contained man, and my own heart constricts at the gift of it.

My heart’s pounding. I think of Sonya sayingThis is how it starts. You start out wanting to understand what makes them tick.

Now I want to ask her,And then what?What happens once you find out what makes them tick?

“I came home with her, and he—hehatedher.”

“Because—”

“He was already angry at me for leaving. And Kali’s dream life was in New York, and that’s where she wanted us to live. But also, she was an artist and a social butterfly, which were two things he couldn’t understand at all. He said if I went to New York with her it would end badly. He threatened to disinherit me if I did. We got into a huge fight. He said I wasn’t cut out for New York finance, that it would eat me alive. That I’d regret leaving the one thing I was actually good at. That I’d end up back in Rush Creek, begging to run the ranch.”

I wince.

“Yeah. It was ugly.”

“You’ve proved him wrong,” I tell him.

I want to say,You don’t have to keep proving yourself.But I don’t want to make him shut down, either. I want more of this. More Preston.

“Not yet,” he says. “But when I get this promotion, I will have.”

“Why that?”

“Because everything else I’ve done, a lot of people do. But this promotion I want—not a lot of people ever get this far. It’s rarefied air. This is the hard part.”

This. This is what makes Preston Hott tick. This is why he was so angry at getting called back here, why he was so combative that he tried to have me fired. Why it’s been so hard for him to comply with the will. Because to him, it still feels like his grandfather is trying to take away what’s important to him.

He sighs heavily.

“You okay?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he says. “Feels, um, good to talk about it.”

“Thanks for telling me.”

“Yeah. Of course.”

But we both know there’s noof courseabout it.

“It went well today,” he says, and I know if he wants to talk about activities planning, he mustreallywant to change the subject. It makes me smile.

“It did.”

“People seemed like they were having fun.”

“Did you have fun?” I ask him.

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