Page 141 of Reckless
“Sharing is caring I suppose.”
She nearly choked on her wine laughing.
"You know what I love about you?"she said.
Her face blushed pink.She loved me?My heart pounded.
"You're staring," she said.
"I'm appreciating."I said.
"Same thing."
She laughed."That is the most billionaire answer possible."
"You say billionaire like it's an insult."
She sat back."Sometimes it is."
"And now?"
She then shrugged."Now it's just a fact about the man I'm having dinner with."
That sentence sat in me like warmth.
I reached for the folder after the first course.
Her eyes dropped to it .
That should have warned me too.
Instead I slid it across the table and said, "I want to show you something."
Her fingers rested on the cover without opening it."What is it."
"Open it."
She did.The first page was the rendering of the entrance.The second, the restoration outline.The third, the land summary.She read fast and furious.
By the fourth page, I knew I had made a catastrophic mistake.
So still.
Every part of her seemed to tighten inward instead of open.
A look I had seen once before on her face and hated even then.
The look of a woman realizing the room has tilted under her and she is now expected to act grateful before she has even found her footing.
"What is this," she asked.
The tone of her voice should have made me stop.
It didn't.
"It's the zoo," I said."Restored.The board was leaning toward redevelopment, so I bought time and?—"
Her eyes snapped up."You what."
