“I do have telephoto lenses. I can bring the images far closer than they really are.” She smiled weakly, her body limp from the warm water. Even though it wasn’t exactly a compliment, it felt good to hear Jason say she had talent. She’d never really needed validation, but it was nice to have someone she knew, someone who was close to her brothers, know about her career. The only person in her life who’d supported her was David.
“But you know the dangers,” he rumbled.
“David’s death hit close to home for me. I do know, and I’m not chasing tornados anymore, Jason.”
“And what about the hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons?”
“I’m as careful as possible. I try to stay on high ground because of the storm surges, and I base myself in a building that should be able to withstand the wind speeds,” she told him carefully.
“Should be?” he grunted.
Hope shrugged. “Nothing in life is guaranteed, Jason. Anything we do has risks. Just getting into a vehicle every day is risky. But we do it.”
“The vehicle is usually moving away from danger, not toward it.” His voice was graveled and raspy.
“Can we just call a truce? Just for tonight? Tell me what you’ve been doing since you finished school…other than making a ton of money and becoming one of the hottest bachelors in the world.” She wanted to know what Jason’s life had been like, where he’d traveled. She also wanted to know whether there had been any important women in his life, even if it was none of her business. They were separating soon, but she was still curious. “How’s your mom?” Hope had always liked Jason’s mother.
“She’s good. It took her a long time to get over my dad’s death, but she’s doing well now,” Jason answered warmly, the affection he had for his mother clearly evident.
“I never got to tell you that I was sorry about your dad. He was a good man.” Jason had lost his father just as he graduated from college, and she hadn’t seen him during that year because she was in her first year at the university. Unfortunately, she hadn’t even heard about his father’s death until the funeral was over; Grady informed her during one of their routine phone calls.
“He was a very good man,” Jason agreed. “But he wasn’t a great businessman. When I took over his company, it was nearly broke.”
“How?” she asked in a shocked voice. Jason’s family had lived close to hers, right down the street in a mansion just as big as their own. His dad had been as wealthy as her father. “He was rich.”
“He wasn’t,” Jason confessed roughly. “He was trying to keep up the façade, but he had some bad investments, sunk a lot of money into companies that didn’t fly.”
“Oh, God. I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Did my brothers know?” Hope knew any one of her brothers would have stepped in and helped Jason out.
“Nobody knew. You’re the only person I’ve ever told other than the upper management of his company. Even my mother never knew. I couldn’t bring myself to let her know that my dad didn’t leave her with much,” he confessed reluctantly. “I just tried to pick up the pieces after he died. I did some risky things, took some calculated bets that paid off. Then I did it again and again.”
Hope was willing to bet that they weren’t all that risky. Jason was brilliant, had a sharp mind for investing. If he thought a company would fly, he had reason to believe it. “So you rebuilt the company and became wealthy all over again. By yourself.”
“I got lucky in a few areas, but yeah. Then I started my own investing. I found out I was damn good at making some money into more money. A lot more money.”
“Have you ever had a bad investment?” Hope was now awed by what Jason had accomplished. She’d thought he was a rich boy who’d gone on to become a richer man.
Jason shrugged. “Rarely,” he said without any false arrogance. “If I do, I cut my losses quickly and move on. That’s one thing my father didn’t do and it nearly ruined him.”
“How do you know if an investment is good?”
“It’s mostly analysis,” Jason answered nonchalantly.
It was more than that, and Hope knew it. If it could be done strictly by analysis, a hell of a lot more people would be rich. Jason had a gift for sniffing out good investments, an excellent gut instinct combined with that analysis. “You have a talent, Jason. I think you’re incredible. What you’ve accomplished is almost impossible, yet you did it.”
He was silent for a moment, almost as if he didn’t know how to answer. After a few minutes, he rose and took her with him.