Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
“You can’t call her princess. That’s like the most cliché dog name of all time.” I ignored the hand he offered to help me up. I was staying right where I was.
“And yet, you seem determined to be her white knight.” Finally dropping his hand, Sam looked down at the dog. “Okay, Buttercup. Let’s see if we can sneak you past Queen Delilah.”
“Buttercup is hardly…” I paused, another tendril of a memory snaking its way through my brain. Movie night. Youth group at church. Old movie, everyone quoting parts they’d long since memorized. Sam’s laughing face popping up over the back of a couch where I sat with some girl. Late night. Hide and seek. Sam raiding the junk food with Holden and me.
What are you going to do after graduation, Worth?
Take on the world.
God, if I could only go back. My voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. “Okay. We can call her Buttercup.”
“We? Are you coming in to help then?”
Another firework sounded, and the dog whimpered pitifully. “You want me to come inside? The house?”
“That is where the shower is,” Sam said mildly. “Were you planning to spend all night under this tree?”
“Not sure I had a plan.” Understatement of the fucking century. I closed my eyes. “Just wanted to find my tree—”
“My tree.” Sam was quick to correct me. Not mean, just accurate, but damn, that stung.
“You know what I mean.” I pursed my lips.
“I do.” He pursed his right back. A stalemate.
“Anyway, I thought if I could just sit here long enough, I might find… God, I don’t even know.” I hefted myself to my feet, irritated at my own ridiculousness. “A reason? Sounds stupid saying it aloud.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Sam exhaled hard, voice gentling. “But I have to say, you look pretty rough. Did you sleep on the plane?”
“No plane. I drove.” I pointed at his driveway. I’d parked in the back like I always used to. I was surprised he hadn’t noticed my Beemer, but maybe I was surprise enough. “The car pointed itself north, and well, here I am.”
“Sounds like quite the plan.”
“Plan A, B, C, and D have all failed.” My voice was as caustic as my stomach. Fuck it. “No more plans.”
“What happened?” Sam’s voice wasn’t unkind, but the way he shifted the dog and glanced at the front porch said he was quickly losing patience with my delay tactics.
“Guess you’ll find out soon enough.” No more eager to enter the house, I relieved him of the dog, who cuddled her damp self right into my dress shirt. Oh well. I’d seen worse. “Surprised the gossip hasn’t arrived ahead of me, actually.”
“Why don’t you tell me?” Sighing, Sam perched on the top step. I half expected him to break out treats next, to lure me up the steps like a lost puppy.
“You already know the start of my story. Local boy makes good. Standford MBA, cushy investment banker job, high-rise condo, living the life.” I paused for dramatic effect, waiting for Sam to nod. “And then…it all crumbles. Perry & Ellis is no more—”
Sam narrowed his eyes. “You worked for Perry & Ellis?”
“Ah. He does know my story,” I said to the dog before returning my attention to Sam. “Yep, the same investment firm making headlines for duping customers, embezzling funds, and a pretty sweet Ponzi scheme. And me? I was their star associate on an inside partnership track. I was Perry’s right-hand man up until the feds hauled him away, and he squawked like an angry parrot to anyone who would listen about how Ellis masterminded the scheme.”
“So you lost your job?” Sam asked when I paused for a breath. “The scandal broke months ago, I thought.”
“Oh, it gets better. No job, and not much savings because I was strung-out on credit, waiting for the partnership offer to come, trying to keep up with a high-dollar lifestyle. Thank God I paid for my car with my last big bonus, or else I guess I’d be on a bus to nowhere tonight. My condo foreclosed because, silly me, I kept waiting for everything to blow over. Except it didn’t. I’ve got no hope of a new job because the whole damn world, including every last friend and contact in the financial world, thinks I was in on it.”
“Were you?” Sam asked as casually as if he were inquiring if I preferred fries or tots with my burger.
“How can you ask me that?”
“Because your answer matters.” He shrugged. “If you say you didn’t do it, you didn’t.”
“You can’t just take someone’s word for something like that, Sam. Geez.” If only life were that damn easy. Sam might be all grown up now, but I seriously worried about his naivete.
“Well, did you?” He sounded fully prepared to believe me either way, which was all kinds of disconcerting. First, the kid had had a serious case of hero worship for me way back when, which seemed to have all but evaporated. Also, even without the blind adoration, Sam seemed willing to believe the best of me at a time when no one else was, not even me.