“Are you allergic to certain foods?”
“Well, no,” she shrugged. “But sometimes, food allergies come on later in life. I’d hate to learn that the hard way in your friend’s restaurant.”
This woman. Always trying to control her environment.
“Ceel, that’s a risk you run in most restaurants,” I reminded her. “Chefs could cook in peanut oil that you don’t know about. Or slap raspberries on chocolate cake and not post it on the menu.”
My answer wasn’t great, but it seemed to appease her for the moment. She took a big gulp of her wine.
“Do you want to talk about what happened today?” I cautiously sipped my wine.
Celia threw back another gulp, finishing off her wine. She sighed, grabbed the bottle, and refilled her glass. “My ex-husband is coming after me. Again.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “What does that mean?”
“He’s coming after my patent money.”
“You have a patent?”
The most adorable blush colored her cheeks as she appeared way too interested in her wine glass. “Uh, yeah.”
I shook my head. “How do I not know this?”
“It’s not something I talk about to just anybody. My family knows. And, yeah, that’s about it.”
“What did you patent?”
“Non-lethal bullets for crowd control.”
You could have knocked me over with a feather. “You’re kidding?”
“No. I was studying criminal justice in college, and we were going over how deadly riots can be when law enforcement opens fire,” she gulped her wine. “I researched other options, then designed the non-lethal bullet out of rubber. My father encouraged me to apply for a patent, which I did.”
“I didn’t think a patent would mean money, necessarily,” I stared into her eyes.
She raised a shoulder. “On its own, it doesn’t. But when someone licenses the patent to mass-produce the design. That leads to big bucks.”
I blew out a breath. “Wow.”
“Big, big bucks.”
“Double wow.” Yeah. I was wooing her with my pretty words today.
She chuckled.
“How did you keep that money away from your ex?” I gripped the edge of the table a little harder than I should have. I backed off when I heard the wood crack.
“Ah, that was the genius of my advisors,” Celia finished her second glass of wine. “My economics professor urged me to put the money into an irrevocable living trust where I would be the sole beneficiary. The trust pays me every year, like a salary, with the rest of my patent money staying in the trust’s investments, earning interest.”
I smiled at her. “That’s brilliant.”
She leaned her elbows on the table. “It was the second-best thing I ever did.”
“What was the first?”
She frowned and leaned back. “Having the twins. Although, today might knock them down to second place.”
I reached out to grab her hand. “You’re their mother. You love them unconditionally. They’re going to do shit that makes you crazy, but you’ll still love them, right?”
