AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He wiped his fingers with a napkin after the last bite and pulled out his iPad again.
“You sure read a lot.”
“Work,” he replied. “I’m behind. I expected to have all week, and like I said, it got cut short.” He pointed at the book in the seat pocket in front of me. “You’ve been reading too.”
“True. But I’m reading to relax.”
“I’m envious.” He lifted his tablet. “This book is on business strategy.”
“Sounds pretty dry.” I was happy to be done with books like that.
“It is,” he said tilting the tablet my way.
I made out the title and author. It was one I’d been assigned in school, anddryonly began to describe it.Sleep-inducingwas more like it. “You might try one by Porter instead. At least it would be easier to stay awake.”
His brows lifted, and his eyes narrowed. “Porter, huh? The Harvard prof?”
I shrugged. “Dunno.” I’d already said too much.
He shifted to look more directly at me, and his pale blues held me in their tractor beam. “You’ve read this one?”
“It sounds familiar,” I admitted.
A smile followed his nod like he’d hooked a fish. “Tell me more, Nicole.”
“Nothing to tell.”
“Did you go to Harvard?”
I shook my head and took in a breath to admit the truth. “Stanford.” That was always enough to have my dates change the subject.
“Impressive.” He almost sounded like he meant it. “Undergrad?”
I nodded with a sigh.
He pointed a finger at me. “And that’s not all, I bet.” He rubbed his chin. “MBA as well. Nobody else would willingly read a book like this.” He lifted his iPad.
Busted.
I nodded. “Yeah. How about you?” It was time to turn the tables.
“USC. Sort of a family-expectation kind of thing.”
“And now you work for your father?”
“Yeah, my older brothers got away before I did, so I’m stuck with it.”
“You don’t want to be in the family business?”
“You wouldn’t understand. It’s not an option.”
He was right. I didn’t understand that at all. Being part of the business my family had built was a natural fit for me, and I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
“I sort of like it, the family aspect,” I said, soft-pedaling it.
“You’re lucky,” he said as he turned back to the tablet. “Let me work my way through more of this, and I’ll probably have some questions for you.”
That was my cue to let him read in peace, so I picked up my novel, opened it to the dog-eared page, and started reading.
