Page 39 of How to Undo the Proud Billionaire

“Maybe not. But it’s worth a shot. I also intend on giving some personal interviews explaining our rationale, highlighting our commitment to good governance and community involvement. Make it clear that we are tough negotiators but fair, and that we say what we mean and mean what we say.”

Brin couldn’t imagine what living with his parents had been like, but it was obvious it had damaged Radd to an extent. She wasn’t sure his expensive campaign would change anything, though. She’d begged her sister and mother to change, but nothing she said could sway them. “Sometimes people believe what they believe and always will, Radd. Some minds will never be changed.”

“But I still feel the need to try. I need to do it for Jack, for my grandfather, the grandfathers that came before him. They were good men.”

“That’s a lot of pressure from dead people,” Brin pointed out.

“What do you mean?”

Brin shrugged. “I think that if you had to have a conversation with Jack and your grandfather, with all the grandfathers, I’m pretty sure they’d tell you to stop thinking so much and be happy. To stop worrying so much about what people think about you and start living life, on your terms.”

Radd looked like she’d slapped him, and Brin cursed her tongue. She waved her words away. “But hell, what do I know? I ran away from a bossy sister and an impossible-to-please mother.”

They’d both been hurt by family, sliced and diced by the people who were supposed to love them the most.

“Families can be…” Brin tested the words on her tongue…Infuriating?Annoying?Hurtful?Soul-destroying? She settled for “…complicated.”

Radd’s mouth briefly curled at her understatement. “Tell me about yours. You’ve given me a little information, but you know far more about me than I do about you.”

Brin jerked and hoped he didn’t notice. And what could she say, what should she say about her equally messed-up situation? “What do you want to know?” she hedged, desperately racking her mind for a way to distract him.

“Whatever you want to tell me,” Radd commented, stretching out his legs and leaning back on his hands. “What do your parents do? Your sister?”

“As I mentioned, my mother raised me as a single mom, then she met and married my stepfather, who is an accountant, and they had another child, my younger sister. I’ve never met my real dad. My mom helps my sister run her business.” There, that was subtle, but still vague.

“In?” Radd persisted.

Ah, damn his curiosity. “Public relations.”

Well, being a celebrity, an influencer and sometimes an actor could be called PR, couldn’t it?

“You’re even more reticent than I am,” Radd complained, tipping his head back as Brin climbed to her feet.

Maybe so, but she couldn’t tell him that her sister was Naledi’s archrival, that if her presence was discovered here, she’d put his plans in jeopardy. No, he most definitely did not need to know that… He’d told her he didn’t like secrets, and she was keeping a whopper to herself.

Radd rolled to his feet and came to stand beside her at the railing. Brin could feel his heat, and his sex and sunshine scent made her feel weak at the knees.

“When you went off at me earlier, it sounded like you’ve had experience being treated badly. Have you?”

Brin chose her words carefully. She wanted to tell him, shedid, but she didn’t want to risk him being angry with her and spoiling the evening. She would tell him, she should, but not now. “My previous boss was difficult. And entitled. Honestly, I was,am, surprised I said anything. Normally I keep quiet and accept that status quo.”

“Really? What’s different about me?”

Because you make me feel like I am standing in a safe zone, a solid barrier between me and the world. Because I feel you might be the one person who gets me. But, while we might be walking this section of the road together, soon our paths will diverge.

“I guess it’s because you’re not going to be a permanent part of my life.”

Brin thought she saw a flicker of hurt in Radd’s eyes at her off-the-cuff comment but immediately dismissed the errant thought. Radd didn’t feel enough for her to feel hurt. But there was still a part of her that wanted to reassure him, to tell him that, strangely, she felt comfortable expressing her anger and her disappointment to him. She earlier suspected, but now knew, that Radd would never use her feelings or opinions as a weapon, to dismiss or to diminish her.

He might not agree with her but, around him, Brin never felt less than unimportant.

“So what’s your big goal, your life quest?” Radd quietly asked her, loosely holding his glass in his big hand.

Brin hesitated, not wanting to spin more threads that would bind her and Radd together, making it more difficult for her to leave. “I just want to be financially secure and to have my own space to stand in, a spot of sunshine that’s mine alone.”

“And will you get that once I pay you?”

Brin nodded. “In time. In a few months, I’ll own my flower-and-coffee shop and, hopefully, in a few years, I’ll be able to buy a house, put a little away for a rainy day.”

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