I reach over and squeeze her hand. It’s either that or squeal with glee, and I don’t want to draw too much attention to myself in public. “I’m so thrilled for you!” I scream-whisper. “My gosh, I wish you weren’t pregnant so we could celebrate in style.”
“After the baby.” She beams. “I don’t want to jinx it or anything, but I think this year’s going to be my year, you know? The baby and the site. I feel like I’m at the top of my game.”
“You are.”
Our server comes by to check on us. I order a bottle of White Jasmine Sparkling Tea since it’s the closest thing to bubbly.
We clink our glasses and sip the lovely fermented drink. My phone buzzes just then, and I check it. It’s a message from Craig Richmond’s office. I totally forgot about the lawyer. We already went over the prenup, and he’s pissy about the alimony. He thinks Ryder’s offering too little—the amount should be at least twenty mil.
Jeez. But I suppose it’s his job to grab every penny for his client.
I still haven’t decided about the alimony yet. To be absolutely honest I’ve been trying not to dwell on that…or the volcanic orgasm in Samantha’s office.
Bethany has a second glass of the sparkling tea, and I decide to ask her opinion. She’s one of the smartest people I know.
“Would you ever…” I stop for a moment.
“Would I ever what?”
Clearing my throat, I reach for my drink to wet my suddenly dry throat. The bubbly goes down smoothly. “This is hypothetical, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Would you choose money over se—I mean a man?”
She gives me a look. “You mean a career over love?”
“Something like that.”
She thinks for a moment. “I guess it would depend on the circumstances. How much money are we talking about and who’s the guy?”
“Um. More money than you could ever spend, and let’s say he’s the hottest guy you’ve ever met.”
“If all there is to him is that he’s hot, I’d choose the money.” Bethany rests her chin in a hand. “But at the same time, I might be tempted to choose differently if it was a guy I might, you know, wonder about for the rest of my life. Most people have one of those.”
“Do you?”
She nods. “Donald Left from high school. You remember him, don’t you?”
“Yeah.” He wasn’t in any of my classes, but I knew him by reputation. Supposedly a really nice guy. Played football. Smart. Worked hard.
“After we graduated,” Bethany continues, “he told me he loved me and asked me to marry him.”
I gasp. “You never told me!”
“Well, you know. It wasn’t really share-worthy.”
“So what happened? I mean, obviously you turned him down.”
She laughs. “Obviously. The thing was, if I’d married him, I’d’ve been stuck in Sweet Hope forever. He was set to inherit that brewery his dad ran, and I wanted to go to L.A. and do my art and stuff. So in my case, it was a dream versus maybe the love of my life.”
“Do you regret it?”
“Hmm.” She dips a fry into ketchup. “Not really regret, exactly. But I do wonder sometimes. You know, how my life would’ve turned out if I’d said yes. This was before I met Oliver, of course.”
“Huh. Have you looked him up to see how he’s doing?”
“We ran into each other last time I visited Mom and Dad. He’s quite happily married with two kids—four and six.”
“He didn’t waste much time pining for his high school love,” I joke.
She laughs. “Nope. Too practical. Thankfully I have Oliver, who I love to pieces, but if I didn’t and wanted to pick things up again with Donald, it’d be too late.” She shrugs. “But that’s how life is. Opportunities don’t wait, and they don’t always come back. I chose my dream because that’s what mattered the most when I had to make my decision. So I’d say that in your hypothetical situation, the person should choose what’s most important.”
I stay quiet as I process what she just told me. Money—even a huge amount of money—isn’t particularly important to me. Maybe it’s a reflection of my background, but I don’t need much to be comfortable, and being rich has never been an objective.
But Ryder…
If I’m honest with myself, I know where my hesitation is coming from. It’s the fear that what he’s offering is going to turn into something heart-felt and real on my part…while it remains just a physical act for him. I mean, the guy sees more ass than a proctologist. His reputation may be exaggerated in some cases, but not when it comes to women and relationships.