“List five that don’t include me not registering on her radar.”
“Is that what you think?”
She stared at the blurry horizon. “What would you think?”
“I don’t remember my mother. She dumped me in foster care when I was four.”
She turned to him. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I got over it.”
Had he? Did any child get over being rejected?
“What happened?” she asked.
“I grew up. I got lucky. I was in my first home nearly five years, so I had some stability. Joan, my foster mother, realized I was pretty smart and encouraged me in school. I skipped a couple of grades. Then she got sick and I was moved somewhere else.”
Losing his family all over again, she thought sadly. It put her pain in perspective.
“After that I moved around a lot,” Nick said. “It’s never easy being the smartest kid in the class. I buried myself in books, graduated at fifteen and got a full ride to Texas A&M.”
“At fifteen?”
“I was nearly sixteen by then.”
“Still.”
“It was better than foster care. I became an emancipated minor, so I was out of the system.”
Easy words, she thought. But a much harder life. Was his past the reason he kept everyone else at a distance? Was it the reason no one got close enough to touch any part of him? Or was she just looking for a way to mitigate the fact that he didn’t want to sleep with her?
“What happened after college?” she asked.
“I went to work for an oil exploration company a friend of mine owned.”
“So you raped and pillaged our natural environment?” she asked, teasing.
“I did my best not to. I had some ideas about drilling that were different. We tried them out.”
He paused for a long time. There was something about his voice, she thought, not sure what it was. Staring at his face didn’t help, either. She couldn’t really see any details.
“How did you get from oil exploration to here?”
“By car, mostly.”
“Very funny. You know what I mean.”
“I had some second thoughts about my career choice.”
She remembered Aaron telling her that Nick had a mysterious past. “Someone told me you traveled the world or something.”
“For a while.”
“What were you looking for?”
“Peace.”
“Did you find it?”
“No.”
“Before the explosion I would have told you I’d found what I was looking for,” she said.
“You would have been lying.”
“What? That’s not true.”
“You chase the thrill for a reason. What are you hiding from?”
“Nothing I’m going to discuss with you. Besides, I’m not hiding.”
“Look at what you do with your life. Your extreme sports. What you do for a living.”
“I was a welder. That’s not dangerous.”
“An underwater welder.”
“Okay, sure, but it’s not all that different. And it’s not like I drowned. The explosion wasn’t my fault. I’ll admit it’s not a completely normal job, but it’s not totally crazy, either. As to the explosion…” She hesitated, not sure what to say. “I think it was deliberate.”
“What are you talking about? Someone trying to get the oil company?”
“Not exactly.” She drew in a breath. “It seems that Jed had an affair before he married Lexi’s mom. He had a child—a boy—with the woman. While he set her up with a lot of money, he wouldn’t marry her. It’s an old story. Flash forward thirty-plus years, the boy in question grows up and he’s pissed. Something happened to his mother. She had an accident or got sick. We don’t know, but she’s no longer completely normal. She’s sweet and lovely, but different. My sisters and I wonder if Jed’s responsible for that. We’re not sure. So maybe it’s that, maybe he was just born mad, but our half brother, Garth Duncan, is doing his best to ruin the entire family.”
Nick didn’t say anything. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
She frowned. “Is this boring?”
“No. Sorry. I was listening. What do you mean he’s trying to ruin the family?”
“You name it, he’s done it. He tried to take Lexi’s business, legally, but it was pretty ruthless. We think he’s responsible for doping Jed’s race horses, for sending a false tip to the district attorney that Skye’s foundation was a front for money laundering. He also planted a software program into the books at Skye’s foundation making it look like executives were paid bonuses and that Skye was taking money. It’s nasty stuff. Skye doesn’t even take a salary. So money that could have gone to feeding hungry kids had to go to legal counsel. He’s planted illegal arms in some of Jed’s international shipments, so now Jed’s being investigated for treason, and we’re guessing he’s behind the rumors of mad cow on the Titan ranches. I have to say, Garth isn’t my favorite person.”