“Wow. That’s fighting talk if ever I heard it.”
“With just a few bucks in my pocket, I headed in the opposite direction. I was totally on my own now, and after years of being institutionalized it felt great. I know it sounds clichéd, but as I walked off into the sunset, I felt free and liberated, as though I could achieve anything, if only I put my mind to it.”
“And you did, Mac. You went on to achieve great things.” The more he spoke, the more her admiration for him grew. Mac’s really was a rags-to-riches story. Eager to hear more she impatiently tapped him on the arm. “Go on, go on. Don’t keep me in suspense, boss.”
He shot her a mischievous glance. “Patience, Ms. Van Heusen. Patience. I then had a succession of dead-end, low-paid jobs, all of them requiring more brawn than brain. During this sorry period in my life, I still had no regular place to stay, nowhere to get my head down at the end of the day, so I spent most of my time sleeping rough and turning up for work looking like shit. After a few months, I’d made enough money to take a room in the seediest motel imaginable. One with cockroaches the size of cats.”
She shuddered at the thought. “No, that’s too gross. You’re kidding me, right?”
“It’s the God’s honest truth, honey.”
His story intrigued and inspired her. She could see why the Mac Buchanan of today had so little time or sympathy for people who relied on state handouts. He’d done it the hard way, and he saw no reason why every other able-bodied person couldn’t so the same. With a deft nudge of her elbow, she encouraged him further. “Keep talking. Don’t stop.”
Mac took a deep breath before continuing. “I saved every goddamned cent I could. Often skimping on heat and food. I knew I wanted something better from life, but I also knew I’d have to work for it. Nobody in the fucked-up world I inhabited back then had done me any favors, and I didn’t see that changing any time soon.”
“You really are Mr. Self-Reliant.”
His stare was uncompromising as he looked at her, and she saw hardened steel in the gray depths of his irises. “What other choice did I have?”
“Crumble. Fold.”
He shrugged. “I wouldn’t know how to do either of those, honey. I’m just not made that way.”
“You were certainly tough and self-reliant. There’s no doubt about that, but it sounds like you were unhappy, too.”
“Often I was, but that just made me strive all the more.”
“What did you do for fun? Did you have any joy in your life at that time?”
“Very little except for…”
“Except for what?”
“Except for reading. I loved books, and I’d devour anything I could get hold of. Some of it trashy, some of it informative, some of it downright inspirational and thought provoking.”
“Ah, I see a pattern emerging here.”
“Right from my early days in the care system I was an avid reader. My life was devoid of hope, but books allowed me to travel to magical, far-off places. Places I thought I’d never actually visit. Reading helped me escape the misery of my childhood.”
She watched his face light up as he became animated, passionate even. “There’s something about the written word, Kendall. Something magnificent, life altering even.”
“Yes. Yes you’re so right, Mac. I felt exactly the same way when I read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I can remember being elated for days afterward. His way with words just blew me away.”
“Yeah, that’s right, honey. You feel it, too, don’t you? That’s yet another connection we share.”
Obviously energized, he continued. “Words have the power to change the world. They have the power to make and also bring down governments. The power to turn people’s lives around. The power to turn despair into hope.”
The way he spoke with such feeling and passion, she felt her heart beating out of her chest. Even talking books, Mac made her feel sexy as hell, and she knew her pussy was wet with arousal.
Enjoying his sheer zest for life, she now understood for the first time how he’d come to be the most feared and revered newspaperman on the East Coast. Against the odds, first he’d survived, then he’d thrived, and finally he’d triumphed. The man, her man was an inspiration.
“I was managing to save about fifty bucks a week to begin with, but it wasn’t enough. I had big plans for the future, so I needed more.”
“You could have robbed a gas station,” she joked.
“The thought did occur.” He winked at her, letting her know he wasn’t really serious. “For the next four years of my life, I was never in one place for very long. I regularly crisscrossed the country to find the best paid work I could.”