She hastened to add, “Of course, people should make their own choices. Ambition isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
Ambition was a very good thing, particularly when someone had a past like his: a legacy of poverty, despair and why the hell bother.
“I had a weird upbringing. Guess that’s where I get my drive.” He put a little more sugar in his cup and listened to the tinkle of the spoon as he stirred. “How about you?”
“As far as drive goes? I want my business to do well.”
“It’s important to you?”
“Of course.”
He looped back to the heart of the question. “And your upbringing?” Her childhood?
“I wouldn’t say it was weird. More filled with challenges, I suppose.”
The previous night, they had learned so much about each other, and not all of it purely physical. And yet now, in the morning light, Teagan still seemed largely a mystery.
They both had flights to catch. Nevertheless, he wanted to know more—feel more, which was a big step for him. It was the right time, right place.
Certainly right girl.
After she’d finished two pancakes and Jacob had put a decent dent in his generous helping, he dabbed the corners of his mouth with a linen napkin then tapped back into that question.
“So, where did you grow up again?” When they’d met, he’d asked about the accent, which wasn’t always noticeable but definitely cute.
“Australia. Sydney.” She chose a fat strawberry from the fruit platter. “My family’s still there. Well, my father and his wife and their kids. My oldest brother and his wife, too.”
“And the rest of the clan?”
“My other brothers are in the States now. Actually, the middle one lives here in LA. He’s engaged to someone who grew up in Oklahoma so he spends a lot of downtime there. The other brother’s in New York.”
“Hey. Small world.”
“Wynn’s a dyed-in-the-wool workaholic. Although, now that he has Grace in his life, I’m sure that’ll change. Or I hope that it does.”
In the middle of topping up coffee cups, Jacob hesitated as a chill rippled over his scalp. He shook it off. Found a smile.
“Wynn? That’s an unusual name. I’m putting a case together at the moment. The defendant, if it gets that far—” which it would “—his name is Wynn.”
“Wow. How about that.”
He nodded. Smiled again. Yeah. “How about that.”
Seeming to read his mind, Teagan laughed. “Don’t worry. It couldn’t be my Wynn. He keeps his cards close to his chest, but a libel suit? He’d have said something about that. Social media would be all over it.”
“We haven’t submitted yet. No one knows.”
Teagan reached for another berry while Jacob finished his second cup of coffee. She hadn’t spoken about her family the previous night and hadn’t gone into much detail now, not that he’d been particularly forthcoming in that area, either. Admitting that his background was weird was the tip of a Titanic-size iceberg. His childhood had been beyond toxic.
But right now he was more interested in Teagan. And Wynn.
“So what does your brother in New York do? We might know each other.”
“How many Wynns have you met again?”
He grinned and conceded. “Only one, and that’s on paper.”
“So you couldn’t know my brother.”
Ha. Right.
Still...
“What did you say he does for a living?”
Teagan gave him an odd look, like, “maybe drop this.” And he would, as soon as this was squared away, because the back of his neck was prickling now. Could be nothing, but he’d learned the hard way to always pay attention to that.
“Wynn works for my father’s company,” she said. “Or an arm of it. All the boys do.”
The prickling grew.
One arm of a family company? “Sounds as if your father runs a big enterprise.”
“It’s big, all right. Out of college, I decided to do my own thing. I didn’t want any part of the drama.”
“You’re not estranged from your family, though.”
Her eyebrows snapped together. “God, no.”
“Everyone went to that wedding?”
“Everyone was there.”
“So you’re all close.”
“We’ve had our differences, between my brothers and father particularly. Too much alike. Although, as they get older, it’s not as intense. And, yes. We are close. Protective.” She pulled the lapels of her robe together, up around her throat. “That’s the way it is with our family. We can say what we want about each other, but anyone throwing shade from the outside needs to brace himself for a smackdown.” She set her napkin on the table. “What about you?”
Jacob was still thinking about Wynn and family companies with arms in Sydney, LA and New York.
He tried to focus. “Sorry? What was that?”
“Your family, Jacob. Do you have any siblings? Nieces or nephews?”
“No siblings.” As far as blood went, anyway.
“So, it’s just your parents and you?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s complicated.”
Her laugh was forced. “More complicated than mine?”
Shrugging, he got to his feet. Teagan got to hers, too.
There were questions in her eyes. Doubts about where he’d come from, who he really was. Okay. Let’s see.
His A-hole father had jumped ship before Jacob was in school, right before Mom had screwed up monufreakingmentally. As a teenager, he’d gone off the rails and literally crashed before lucking out and finding a buoy at just the right moment.
But that was a lifetime ago. So forget about the past and concentrate on this. On now.
Jacob took her hands and stated the glaringly obvious.
“I had a great time last night.”
Her expression softened. “Me, too. Really nice.”
When he lifted her hand and pressed his lips to her palm, every fiber in his body sat up and took notice.
“You smell so good,” he said. Like vanilla.
“It’s called soap.”
“I skipped the shower. Didn’t want to wake you up.”
She tilted her head and gave him a teasing look. “I’m awake now.”
His gaze roamed her face...the thousand different curves and dips he’d adored and kissed long into the night. Then he considered their backgrounds again, and that yet to be filed libel suit. He thought about his Wynn, and he thought about hers.
It didn’t matter. At least, it didn’t matter right now.
Leaning in, he circled the tip of her nose with his and murmured, “That robe needs to go.”
Her beautiful eyes smiled before she unraveled the bulky tie at her waist. A second later, the robe lay pooled on the floor and they were headed for the bedroom again.