The Billionaire Next Door(21)
“She sell any of her work in galleries?”
“She’s more into the creation end of things rather than the retail.” Lizzie sipped at her cappuccino. “And well…honestly? She’s not that good at it.”
“Sounds like an expensive hobby then.”
Lizzie’s voice grew wry. “Yeah. But the thing is, it makes her happy. So I support it.”
“Where’s your father?”
“He left about five years ago for the third time and it finally stuck. My mother is enchanting, but she can be difficult to handle. She’s a child in many ways, and like a child, she’s both irresponsible and beguiling. So I can’t say I blame him.”
“Do you see him?”
She shook her head. “When he left, he left us both. Said a clean cut was best. It was no big change, though. She was always what held his interest, not me.”
Good Lord, he thought. “That’s harsh.”
“Oh, I don’t mean to come across that way.”
“Not you, Lizzie. Him. To leave his daughter like that?”
There was a quiet moment. Then she murmured, “I think it’s hard for him to see me. I look a lot like her and our voices sound the same. To him, I am the younger version of her.”
“So what? He should man up and get over that.”
Her eyes flipped to his, and as he saw the sadness in them, he wanted to hunt down her father and yell at the guy for dumping his daughter.
The urge got even stronger when she said with dignity, “It is what it is. I used to hope he’d be different, but he is who he is and it’s better for me…healthier…to accept him and move on. Waiting for change is hard and not all that realistic.”
Yeah, well, Sean respected the fact that she wasn’t looking for sympathy and he could see her point, but it still sucked. “You don’t have any brothers or sisters do you?”
“No.”
“Which means you deal with your mom all by yourself.”
“Yes, but it’s not that bad. The house is paid for and her expenses aren’t that high. Usually.”
He kept his curse to himself. “No offense, but it strikes me that the parent-child thing is ass-backward.”
“But I love my mother. And without me…”
“She’d be forced to grow up?” In the silence that followed, Sean cursed out loud. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to get in your face about this.”
There was another long pause. Then she said, “I don’t tell people this usually, not because I’m ashamed or embarrassed, but because I’m not interested in pity…. My mom’s mentally challenged. She can function independently to a point, but she’s always going to need help. First my father was that for her. Now I am.”
Sean’s eyes widened. “Oh, God…Lizzie, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” She smiled. “There is no tragedy here and no shame, either. You know, it’s interesting. My father is much older than my mom and I assume in the beginning he thought that she was just young and eccentric. Like she’d grow out of her ways or something. It wasn’t until I was in my early teens that he took her to doctors and we learned that it was not an issue of maturity. But again, there is no catastrophe here. My mother’s happy and healthy and she’s full of joy. So it’s okay. But can you understand why things between her and I aren’t just a case of a parent dropping the ball?”
“Yeah. Totally.”
The waiter showed up with the check, and without even thinking, Sean took out his wallet.
“How much do I owe?” Lizzie asked.
Sean froze. He’d been about to pay the whole thing and to hell with his Dutch rule.
Get back with the program, he told himself. Stay tight.
Doing some quick division in his head, he said, “Sixty-seven dollars.”
Her eyes flared, but she reached for her purse.
“Let me pay for the wine, though,” he cut in. “I picked it.”
“No, that’s okay. I drank my share.”
As she put three twenties, one five and two ones on the table, he noticed that the edges of her purse were worn through. In a rush, his net worth funneled into his brain, that cool billion dollars or so in stocks and cash and annuities and T-bills and gold.
He reached out to push her money back to her.
“Wow, that’s a beautiful wallet you have.”
He stopped, jarred as his normal mind-set about women returned.
Man, that stuff about Lizzie losing her job had seemed true enough and so had all those blushes and the revelation about her mother. But he got tangled whenever he thought about her relationship with his father. Surely she couldn’t have enjoyed that miserable bastard’s company. So that left Good Samaritan-itis. Or her being after something.