Page 4 of Imperfect Love

“Your mom is so proud of you. She’s always bragging about your company and everything you’ve accomplished.”

“Is that a fact?”

He nods. “And before you ask, I already own shares in Lone Star Tech, so I’m not after that. I don’t need it.”

“You own shares in my company?”

He nods. “Before I met your mom. I didn’t even make the connection until I saw your picture in her house.”

“You knew what I looked like?”

That’s odd. I avoid the camera, although my PR folks would like me to be more amenable to photos. I date a lot of models, so the paps tend to follow me around, but they are more about the women than me. I’m just the billionaire arm candy.

“Yeah. I don’t invest my money without a good investigation into the company.”

“Oh, and that involved my picture?”

My alert is going off like there’s an F5 tornado bearing down on us.

“Yeah. I’m a little OCD when suggesting stocks to my clients.”

“Clients?”

There’s something about him that is familiar. I glance at the guy who asked for the picture and then back at Ted.

“Have I met you before? You seem familiar.”

He shares a smile with my mother. “You were right.”

“Ted is a retired Dallas Cowboy, Jon. He’s a commentator now but runs an investment firm too.”

I blink and work back through my mind. His voice was familiar like I’d heard him before. I sometimes run sports programs in the background because I’m not usually interested in them.

“Oh. That’s why your voice is familiar. I don’t watch a lot of football.”

“But you know my voice?”

“Calculating statistics for a team’s chances each year is a good way to clear my mind.” I shrug. “I usually stick to baseball because there are more games, which adds more variables.”

He nods. “That makes sense. Football doesn’t have that many games, so comparing the number of games would be simple. Having a different pitcher would add another level of variables too. An NFL team usually has one quarterback.”

“Yeah. But I sometimes run sports in the background when I’m coding.”

“Ah.”

Silence descends on us again, and I try to think of anything to say. I’m more than annoyed with my mother for springing this on me. She’s the one who had me in therapy as a kid. She knows that situations like this aren’t great.

“We were talking about Juniper. I have to be down next week anyway.”

She cocks her head. “Why?”

“Grandmother’s annual get-together.” Estella has two parties a year. One for her birthday and the other one for a community party. Many people from Juniper come, and Estella does a silent auction for the charities she supports in the county. She also invites a lot of people from San Antonio and Austin.

“Oh, yes. I can’t be there because Ted and I have a thing.”

I frown. “When I tried that excuse, she said to figure it out.”

“That was last year, and you were lying.”

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