Page 12 of Any Cowboy of Mine
“I had, wellhave, something I want to celebrate with you. I’m sorry if that didn’t come through.”
“Okay. I’m listening.”
Drew perked up, smiled fully for the first time all evening. He almost looked normal when he smiled like that. He was certainly more handsome without the scowl.
“Okay, Sophie,” he started, “we’ve been together almost five years now, right?”
She nodded, and against her better judgment, excitement pushed the rest of her emotions aside. She thought about what she wanted, and was pretty sure it was still Drew, no matter how crazy he drove her. Her pulse raced, her breathing came in short bursts.
This was it!
“Well, you also know that I asked you to at least try to concentrate on getting your career on track a while ago, and you’ve done that, babe. Tenfold. I’m so proud of you for how much you’ve done for you and for us. So, I talked to my dad,” Drew paused as he reached in the breast pocket of his suit and Sophie’s heart pounded so fiercely she worried it might beat right out of her body. “And we—I—wanted to give you this.”
At that, he handed Sophie a flat, white envelope. It was too slight to have anything other than paper inside, a fact she confirmed as she held it up to the light. Yep, only paper. She looked at the front, thoroughly confused. It had her name typed on the envelope, but otherwise gave no indication as to what was inside.
Her head cocked and eyebrows arched, she opened it, scanned the first page. It was a letter of intent to offer Sophie a partial partnership at Drew’s law firm. She read the letter three times through, not really sure where to start. Her skin felt as if it might slide off her body, she was so out of sorts. She inhaled deeply, the stale restaurant air offering little relief. This couldn’t be happening. Not after all this time, all this work. Fury was the only thing that kept her tears at bay.
Finally, after her pulse slowed, she put the offending offer down and stared at him, her jaw firmly set.
“You don’t look as happy as I thought you would. Did you read the whole thing?” he asked.
“Three times.”
Drew laughed nervously.
“Okay. And?”
“And what, Drew?” Sophie could barely utter the words, her teeth were clenched so tightly.
“And what do you think? It’s a pretty good offer if you ask me.”
“Is it, Drew? Is it really? Would you have theaudacity, theballs, to offer a guy that same deal?”
Now it was Drew’s turn to look confused.Ugh.She could have kicked him in the shins for not even noticing the discrepancy. It would have been better if he’d done it intentionally, that way she at least knew where she stood.
“I’m not sure what you mean, Soph.” He wasn’t sure, was he?What a jerk.
“I mean this ‘partnership’ essentially means that I’ll be paying you to work. I’ll earn less than I do now.”
“Well, yeah,” Drew said, smiling tentatively. “I mean, you’ll have to pay for dues and overhead, things of that nature, but you’ll be a partial partner. Isn’t that great? It’s what you wanted, right?”
Was he really that obtuse?
“Drew, hun,” she said, not caring that she sounded condescending as hell. “Do you and your father pay that percentage?” She tapped her fingers on the table, a bleed over habit from trial.
“Well, no…” Drew started.
“And are you two ‘partial partners’?”
“No, but listen…” he tried again. Sophie put up a hand, the same gesture Drew used ad nauseum on her, silencing him.
“No. I came here tonight thinking you were going to ask me to marry you, so I bought a new dress, the dress I was going to getengagedin, only to get here, have you act like a prick all night, then give me a crappy deal that I should be grateful to take, just because it came fromyou?”
She was spiraling, but didn’t care. It felt damn good to finally tell him how she felt.
“You thought—” he started, but she cut him off with another wave of her hand. She tried not to notice how when she brought up marriage, he looked as if it had never even occurred to him.
Of course it hadn’t.
