Page 4 of Since Always

"I'm trying to tell her she doesn't need to," Chris says. "Once she starts working at Sloane she's going to get a masters-level education, anyway. She might as well just get started with us."

"Have you decided what you'll be doing for the company?" Owen says. For the first time tonight, his eyes are searching my face. It's hard not to stare back. For a split second, I wish we were alone. Wish I could reach across the table and touch him.

Stop it, Cassidy.

Out of the corner of my eye I see my brother quickly, almost a little too quickly, swipe away a message on his Sloane smartwatch, but he then turns to me, smiling.

"We're putting her in R&D. I think if anyone can develop our next line of computers, it's Cass. She's great at engineering. Always been a wiz at math and science, as you know."

"Do I need to kick you again?" I turn back to Owen. "I don't actually know. My degree is in business, but I like writing, so maybe marketing or PR. I did a minor in marketing. We haven't figured out the details yet, I may actually try a few different departments. Chris thinks I should, anyway."

"It's just a good way to get to know what we do for when you are in management rolls later and taking your place on the board."

My body tenses at his words. The future of mine that he paints. The future that has been laid out before me my entire life. The truth is, I don't want to stay in school to get my MBA, but I also dread the thought of starting my career with my family's company. Prolonging school seems like the best way to delay that.

“We'll see where it goes." I shrug, needing to change the subject. "So, how is DC, Senator?"

There is something in his eyes in the second before he answers that tells me he is not fooled by my nonchalance. My mom and brother, however, shift towards him, waiting for his answer, wanting to hear the juicy details of Owen's glamorous life.

I grab my margarita, and as he talks I picture it, the life that he has been leading so far from my own.

It isn't long before my mom asks the question I've been dreading since I found out he was coming on this trip.

"So, what about women? I saw something about you and Emma Dane."

"The girl from the reality show?" Chris asks. I hold my breath, but lock my eyes on the ski jumping competition playing on a TV in the distance. I work to keep my face looking uninterested. I can feel him glancing my direction, though, and know that again, I have not fooled him.

"Emma and I hosted a fundraiser together. I met her twice and never spoke to her outside of that. You know better than to believe what you read."

"Disappointing," Chris mumbles.

"It was actually a really cool fundraiser," he says, turning towards my mom. "You'd have liked it, Jess."

As he explains to her about the cause and the night, I notice he is once again avoiding my gaze. He doesn't want to talk about other women around me. Maybe that means nothing, but I can't help but feel that ray of hope again.

I sigh and take another long drink of my margarita.

This is going to be a long week.

CHAPTER 2

Owen

"Hey man, so I have something to tell you," Chris says. We are sitting on the chairlift for our favorite run on Snowmass, one of the four mountains in Aspen.

"I love it when you preface shit like that. I always know it's going to be good."

"You're going to freak out a bit when I tell you."

"Well, then, telling me here is a brilliant idea." I gesture to the ground, some twenty feet below us.

He takes a deep breath, preparing himself for whatever bomb he is preparing to drop on me.

“I’ve been seeing Stephanie again."

I don't know what I was expecting him to say, but it certainly wasn't this.

"You've been...are you fucking kidding me?"

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