Page 39 of Hired Husband

“I’m an open book.”

She snorted. “You’re really not, but okay. Here goes. Why are you so much more easygoing than your brother? Colin acts like he’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders because of what happened with your family, but not you. Why?”

I blinked hard a couple times, but when I finally opened my mouth, the answer came easier than I’d expected. “I think it’s because I’m the only one who was somewhat relieved when our money vanished.”

Her mouth dropped open. “What?”

“Is that really so hard for you to imagine?”

“You’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions. Your father is in prison for just about every white-collar crime a person can be convicted of. How on earth did that make you happy?”

“I didn’t say it made me happy. I said I was relieved, and I really was.” I chewed the bite of spectacular seafood I’d just taken, washing it down with a sip of my surprisingly strong cocktail before I managed to get a hold of my thoughts again. “If we hadn’t lost our money, I’m not sure I would have pursued a career in engineering.”

She didn’t interrupt, so I kept going, still finding all of this coming out a lot easier than it should’ve. “Obviously, I’d rather not have a father in prison and I definitely would’ve preferred if my younger brothers hadn’t had it so much harder than me, but all things considered, I’m choosing to look on the bright side.”

“The bright side being your career?”

“Yep.” I ate another bite of my food, unable to stop now that I’d started.

She really might’ve been right about finishing all this. As we ate, I told her more about my family than I’d probably told anyone before. Usually, I played this kind of thing pretty close to the vest but not with her. Not tonight.

“When it all went down, everyone acted like it was the end of the world,” I said. “In a way, I guess it was. It was definitely the end of life as we’d known it, but it also led us to where we are now, which is life on the other side of all that.”

“Like what?” she asked. “What wouldn’t you have known?”

“What it feels like to have this kind of freedom,” I said. “We never would’ve had to figure things out for ourselves and we never would’ve been forced to think about what we really want to do.”

“And that’s a good thing?” she asked finally.

I shrugged. “It’s the thing we have, but yeah. It’s actually pretty good. Especially now that they’ve found the money. Ryan, Holden, and Wyatt will have their trusts restored, which means they’ll also have the financial freedom I never did.”

“What about you? Isn’t your trust being restored?”

“Honestly? I don’t know and I don’t care. I’ve been making my own way in the world and I’m doing pretty well now.”

“But it’s millions,” she said. “Presumably, anyway. You really don’t care?”

“It all still feels a little surreal,” I admitted. “The FBI finds an account after all these years and it finally turns out to be the missing money? That’s not something I could process quickly.”

“Hasn’t it been months?”

“Yeah, but I’ve had other things on my plate,” I said. “Colin and Jane have been carrying all that. They deserve the peace they’ll have now. I do know that. I also know that Wyatt and Holden will get to make decisions about their futures without having to worry about how much it will cost. I’m not sure about Ryan, but he seems happy exactly where he is, and frankly, so am I. That’s about how far I’ve gotten with figuring things out.”

She looked at me like she’d discovered an alien species, but there was something a lot softer in her expression too. It was almost like I could see her guards sliding down, all that self-involved defensiveness flickering for a moment before her eyes were shining in a whole new way.

“You worry about them,” she said. “Your younger brothers.”

“Yeah, all the time,” I admitted, surprised I was saying any of this at all. “After my dad’s arrest, we were all shocked. We were all worried, but Jane had already gained access to her trust fund, Mom still had some money left in her accounts, and there were some assets in her name we could sell. None of us knew at the time how long the whole thing would drag on, so I think we all thought we would be okay.”

“Were you?”

“No. By the time Holden had to start thinking about college, the money was pretty much gone. He and Wyatt had long since learned that even the simple things needed to be budgeted for. New sneakers. A night out. The rest of us didn’t have that.”

“Neither have I,” she said softly. “I can’t even imagine it. That’s probably bad, right?”

“Nah, I don’t think it’s bad. I think it just gives a person a bit of a different perspective on life.” I smiled at her across the table. “What about you? What do you want to do when you grow up?”

She laughed. “You know, I never really thought about it until I had to, but I enjoy just existing in the present.”