Page 14 of A Billionaire Gentleman

“What’s that?” Now that she knew I wasn’t going to scoff at her interests, the tension in her appeared to lessen.

“Cars and art.” I laughed. “It’s…unique.”

“I like unique.”

The knot in my chest eased. Her smile was small but genuine, and it made me wonder if she’d grown up as lonely as I had. At least I had my brothers. Based on what Ronall had said yesterday, her brothers had to be several years older than her.

“That’s good,” I said, “because I wanted to do something different than a dinner and movie sort of thing. My dad thought I should take you to a five-star restaurant, and we can do that if you’d prefer, but I thought you might like to see a bit more of the city than that.”

“I would.” She looked down at her clothes and frowned. “Unless you think I’m not dressed right for it.”

The urge to reassure her surprised me. “You look fine. We’re going to check out the Art Car Museum and then go for a picnic at the zoo.”

“A picnic at the zoo?” She glanced outside. “Isn’t it closed this late?”

I grinned. “One of the perks of being a Holden. We’re one of their biggest donors, so I pulled some strings.” My smile fell away as I realized how that sounded. “I don’t do it a lot. Use my family’s name and money to get special treatment. Hardly ever. I mean, not really ever before this. And not for anything…dammit.”

To my surprise, she laughed, her hazel eyes sparkling. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at you.”

“It’s all right,” I said with a sigh. “I’m not very good at this.” I gestured between us.

“You’re doing fine.” She reached over and patted my arm. “Besides, it’s not like I’m the least socially awkward person in the world. I get it.”

That was the most I’d heard her say at one time, and I found myself wanting to hear more. “Why don’t you tell me about your family? All my dad said was that you guys were old family friends, but I’d never heard about any of you. At least not in any way that would’ve made me realize how close they’d been.”

“I have a feeling you and I grew up in very similar lives,” she said. “I have three brothers, but I think the age gap is bigger between them and me than it is between your brothers and you. There’s Maverick, who’s forty, Pierce, who’s thirty-seven, and Heathcliff, who’s thirty-five. I’m twenty-one, so they were mostly all out of the house before I was even a teenager.”

I’d been pretty close in my estimate of her age. “My brothers are only three and six years older than me, but they treat me like it’s more most of the time.”

She nodded in understanding. “When I was really little, I used to feel like I had three extra dads.”

“Are you still close to them?”

She gave a half-shrug. “Marick and Heathcliff both live in Oklahoma with their families. We sometimes see each other at holidays.” Her expression tightened. “Pierce lives in Nashville, and I haven’t seen him in several years.”

There was something more to that, but I didn’t pry. It wasn’t my place.

“Nieces and nephews?”

Her smile returned. “Marick has two girls and a boy. Heathcliff has one of each.”

“Maybe when they visit, you and I can take them to the zoo,” I suggested. I made the last turn and pulled into the closest public parking. “If you like it. And I won’t be offended if you don’t.”

“Thank you for doing this,” she said. “I mean it. This move…caught me off-guard.”

I waited until we’d paid the entrance fee and moved inside to bring up my question. “Do you mind if I ask what prompted the move?”

She smoothed down her hair in what I recognized was a nervous gesture.

“You don’t have to tell me,” I said quickly. “I’m just curious. Feel free to tell me it’s none of my business.”

Another of those shy smiles. I was starting to get the impression that she wasn’t just delicate in appearance. She didn’t seem weak, exactly, but definitely the sort of person who’d been sheltered from a lot, who wasn’t comfortable enough in her own skin to stand up and say what she wanted.

“My mom decided God was calling her to be a teacher in China. She was the one with the real roots in Vernon, so when she told Dad, he said he wanted to move back to Houston with me.”

The troubled expression on her face told me that she believed what her parents had told her, but suspected that it wasn’t the entire truth.

It was time to change the subject. I wanted to learn more about her, but I didn’t want to bring up anything that would hurt her, and I had a feeling if we went any further down this path, it would cast a damper on the entire night.

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