Page 84 of Stripped

“You get attached. You care and you like it.”

“You care.” I rolled my eyes. “You've gone out of your way to help more than one of your employees.”

“I'm not a monster. If I can help someone, I will, but I won't sacrifice my own happiness to do it. I don't get attached.”

“What's your point?”

“You didn't just leave this dude you were fucking, you left all the dancers you were taking care of, you left behind everything that felt important.”

“I don't miss any of that,” I said. “It's a relief to not have to worry about anyone but myself.” I took a bite of heavenly omelet to relieve the sting of my lie.

He laughed long and loud. “Bullshit, Abs. If that were true, you'd be going out with your new co-workers or hitting the clubs. Instead you're holed up in the apartment chatting with people in Mule Creek and working on ways to help them.”

His words sunk deep and hit their target. “I'm where I want to be. There are so many more opportunities here, there's so much more to do.”

He chewed on a huge bite of omelet and shook his head. “You're where you think you should be, babe. I get it. I know the life you lived, I get you don't ever want to struggle or watch your dreams die, but maybe you've been chasing the wrong dream. If you want to see the world, you can travel, babe. You're smart. You can do well, make something great of yourself wherever you are. You just have to figure out what you really want.”

Zane. His name flashed in my mind unbidden. He was what I wanted, he was all I wanted and that scared the hell out of me. I'd seen too many people madly in love, my parents especially, who ended up poor, miserable, and bitter because they'd allowed love to blind them to the poor choices they were making. I couldn't make that mistake. I wouldn't. Maybe you don't have to. Maybe you can really have it all. I pushed the thought aside and focused on Gage. “Is this your way of avoiding talking about that bruise on your cheek?”

He grimaced. “Dude got handsy with one of the dancers. He didn't like it when I told him to get the fuck out of my club.”

I sighed. “That's what you have bouncers for, Gage. You're the owner, you should stay out of that crap before you get yourself seriously hurt.”

Gage was a good guy, but he had a temper and he'd grown up learning that using your fists was the way to communicate. He'd been in more than one brawl and he'd never learned to keep emotion out of it or to remember to protect himself. “I'm working on it,” he said. “I wanted to beat the shit out of that preppy punk asshole and I didn't. I'm better than I used to be.”

“Ever consider getting a job that doesn't make you want to kill someone every other day?”

He sneered. “A desk job? It's bad enough I have to sit at a desk to do paperwork for the club. I'd hang myself if I had to sit at a desk all day every day.”

I didn't argue. I knew him well enough to know he was probably right. It wouldn't stop me from worrying about him, though.

After breakfast, we went back to the apartment and Gage went to bed. I dressed in warm clothes and headed out to see a new exhibit at one of the local museums. I needed to take advantage of everything Denver had to offer, to remind myself why I was there.

The whole time I walked the museum, though, Gage's words kept replaying in my head. Was he right? Had I moved to Denver for all the wrong reasons?

As I studied the art on display, I tried to get lost in the beauty, but all I could think about was Mule Creek and an idea I had that might just solve all their problems.

---