Page 65 of A Ticking Time Boss

“I didn’t mean to talk your ear off about my dates. I had no idea you minded,” I say. The memories feel awful now, somehow. Forcing him to listen to things he didn’t want to hear. “I didn’t think you…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Carter says, his half-smile back. “I know you had your reservations about me. Slashing jobs and all that.”

I shake my head. “No, I just didn’t know it was an option. Didn’t really consider it, even. You seemed so far above me. And you always wear a suit.”

His eyebrows rise. “You told me I looked handsome in suits.”

“I did? Oh. The anaesthesia.”

“Yes. You were lovely, by the way. You mentioned canyons for some reason, and never told me why.”

“Canyons. Like… the Grand Canyon?”

“I assumed, but who knows what went on inside your brain.”

I laugh and reach for my glass. “You do look handsome in suits,” I say. “I don’t need to be drugged to think that.”

He gives me a wide smile. “What a compliment. But why did that make you hesitate in the beginning?”

“Well, it’s… I suppose it’s a long story.” I say. “But the world of businessmen and briefcases and suits has always struck me as kind of fake.”

“Fake,” he repeats.

“Yeah. Like, snake-oil charmers and Wall Street bankers. People who can’t work with their hands, who don’t know a trade, you know. I realize this is all pretty insulting, and I really don’t mean it that way. I know you’re not like that.”

He shrugs. “Well, others might disagree. I help build companies and occasionally dismantle them. It’s a trade but it’s not a very visible one. I don’t get calluses from it.”

I shake my head. “It’s definitely a job, and an important one. It was really my own prejudice that got in the way. And combined with all the layoffs in the beginning, well…”

“You didn’t have a high opinion of me,” he says softly.

“Not in the beginning, no.” I hesitate for a moment, meeting his eyes. The oddly golden eyes, so often dancing with humor. They’re serious now. “You asked me why I wanted to be a journalist a while back. Didn’t you?”

He nods. “You spoke about reading the newspaper with your dad.”

“Yes, and that’s definitely part of it. But something else happened to my family when I was fifteen.” I twist my glass around, looking at the red liquid. “My dad’s a dentist, right? And he was approached by a businessman with a great investment opportunity.”

Carter’s voice is hesitant. “Ah.”

“Yes. It was a textbook con, but the man knew so much about Dad’s industry. Had statistics and books and could show why this dental company would revolutionize the industry. Several dentists in the area had already signed on.”

“I’m sorry,” Carter says. He’s already caught on.

I nod. “Well, Dad invested way too much. College funds, retirements. Thank God he didn’t take out a second mortgage on the house, at any rate. And the businessman—a con man, really—took everything.”

“Did you try to press charges?”

“Yes, but there was nothing to tie him to. The name was an alias. The addresses were PO boxes. The accounts were cleaned.”

“Let me guess,” he says. “He wore suits?”

“Impeccably tailored ones, yes. He had dinner with us all a few times too. Really wined and dined my parents.” I’ll never forget him, for the rest of my life. Nearly as tall as Carter and with dark hair. Lines around his eyes that crinkled when he smiled. A man who radiated warmth and trustworthiness. A shiver of unease runs through me, as it always does when I think about him.

To have laughed with someone who, all the while, was planning on stealing every last cent my parents had worked so hard for.

“Audrey, I’m sorry,” Carter says.

I shake my head. “It was a decade ago. My family’s recovered. Dad still… smarts from it, but no one got physically hurt at least. That’s what matters.”

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