Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
THANE
Why have I never thought of this before? I’m going to create glasses with the new intelligence technology I perfected. Adding facial recognition to them will allow the expressions to flash like a guide on the lenses of whoever’s wearing them.
It’s so much better than Rafe’s flashcards. Even better than my app.
I’ve been up all night planning. Now I’ll make a prototype. This is where I excel—coming up with ideas and then implementing them to perform better than anyone else ever has.
“Thane, are you ready?”
I pause with my fingers on my keyboard. Thane, are you ready?
Sighing, I close my laptop. Do I get bonus points for at least trying to understand if there’s hidden meaning in what Kara said? It was so much easier when I could take her words as: it’s time to go.
Even the glasses won’t help if you can’t see the person speaking.
Unless I integrated a voice and tone recognition element…
“Thane?”
“Where are we going?”
She appears in my doorway. “Tone.” She’s smiling, but Rafe told me this one is snarky. She’s enjoying putting me in my place, but if it helps me help her, I’ll deal with it.
“What did I say?” My neck is uncomfortably hot.
“Where are we going?” she shouts while waving her arms for emphasis.
“I did not wave my arms in the air.”
“Come on, you said we could go to the farmer’s market today.”
My skin shrinks around my bones.
How many people go to a farmer’s market? It can’t be that many. There are only three thousand people in the entire town. If ten percent of them show up, that’s three hundred people crammed into a quarter acre, but that doesn’t account for tables, booths, and?—
“Thane.” Kara stomps her foot like the cartoon bear for frustration did in the YouTube video Lottie sent me.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
“Tone—”
“Kara, don’t push me. A farmer’s market is my version of hell, but I’m trying.”
“Fine, I’ll say thank you instead. Maybe if you try whispering when you’re frustrated, we wouldn’t have to say ‘tone’ so much.”
I bite my tongue. If I identified the frustration before opening my mouth, that might work.
“Headed out?” Boone asks when I reach the doorway. The man must not have much of a life either because he’s here every day now.
“Did you need something?”
“Nope, I’m going to start taking down some walls as soon as we clear out the rest of the furniture. You’ll be coming into a construction zone for a while, so I wanted to make sure you were prepared. The kitchen will be functional, but not convenient.”
Kara groans, but I wave Boone off. “It’s fine. We’ll make do.”
“I’ve got a rental if you?—”
“We’re fine.” I study him a second longer, daring him to say the word “tone” to me. But it appears I amuse the man. He chuckles and goes back to his work.
People are exhausting.
* * *
“The farmer’s market is in a field?” Staring down at my Italian leather shoes, I shake my head. I’ll need to order hiking boots if I’m going to survive this town.
“It’s the fairgrounds.” The snark tugging at the corners of Kara’s lips has me reaching into my pocket for an antacid.
If she’s happy, I’ll make it work.
“What do we do here?” I scan the surroundings, immediately mapping out the route we’ll take, which avoids all the interior booths—people are far too close for my liking there.
I’m beginning to miss the days of social distancing.
“Shop. Can I have some money?” She holds out her hand.
“Why can’t I pay at the booth?”
Her pretty little face morphs into something that would have a lesser man backing up a step. How can teenagers be so fucking frightening?
“I’m not shopping with you, Brad . How am I supposed to meet any kids my own age if you’re hovering?”
“How am I supposed to keep an eye on you if I’m not?”
“It’s not like I’m going to leave the fairgrounds. It’s a twenty-minute drive back to the house.”
The volcano that resides in my chest starts bubbling. “Forgive me, Kara. But you ran away when I was in the same house as you. How do I know you won’t take off again?”
“You trust her.” Rafe steps into our little circle while Kara stares at me with a red face and misty eyes.
Jesus. Teenagers are erratic.
“I said I wouldn’t sneak out again.”
The first hints of lava erupt in my rib cage.
“I was terrified, Kara. I couldn’t even breathe right for three days. I don’t ever want that sensation again.”
Her mouth hangs open, and I flash Rafe the side-eye when she doesn’t say anything.
“You were scared?” she says it so quietly that I barely hear her. “You don’t even want me.”
Who told her I didn’t want her? Lava flows through my veins, and my narrator starts counting to keep the volcano from exploding. One, two, three, and four. Two, two, three, and four. Three, two, three, and four before he moves to the background of my mind to continue the sequence.
“I never said I didn’t want you, Kara.” Why would she even believe that? If I didn’t take her in, she would have ended up in foster care. Obviously, I’d never allow that to happen. She must know this.
“You didn’t have to.” Her voice rises, and she sticks out a stubborn chin. “Dad didn’t care about me either, so why the hell were you scared? All you care about is that I don’t disrupt your quiet, boring life and stay out of your way. All Dad cares about is public perception. None of that is caring.”
A warm hand touches my back, and the lava recedes.
“Everything okay?” Lottie might be speaking to the both of us, but she’s staring at Kara.
“He’s punishing me for sneaking out. Again. As if moving here wasn’t bad enough, now I’m not allowed out of his sight.”
Tilting my head toward the sky, I listen to my narrator do another round of counting in 4/4 time, hoping the ringing in my ears will stop soon. My baby sister can be loud when she wants to be.
When I can hear again, I lower my chin and stare at my sister. “Kara, that’s not what I said. Why must you twist everything that comes out of my mouth?”
Turning to Rafe, I expect him to jump in, to help, to do something, but it’s Lottie who enters the fray.
“I heard, Kara.” If everyone sounded like Lottie, I wouldn’t have an issue with tone. “But to me, it sounded like Thane was explaining why it’s hard to let you explore, and to be honest, you’re the one who broke the trust, so it’s up to you to fix it. It totally sucks, believe me, but this is one of those lessons most of us learn the hard way.”
“I never said you were under lock and key,” I grumble. “I said I need to know that you won’t run away again.”
Lottie’s gaze flashes my way, and a different volcano erupts, heating every inch of my skin. “If it makes you feel any better, no matter where she goes in town, someone will have eyes on her. That’s the joy and annoyance of living in such a small town.”
I study our surroundings one more time.
“Mrs. Perez is the organizer.” Lottie laughs, and my muscles unclench. “And all the Scuttlebutts are scuttling around. Trust me, there will be more people watching Kara than you could imagine.”
Kara groans and mutters something about privacy. But as I remove my hands from my pockets and she spots the wallet I’m holding, she snaps her lips closed.
“You have one hour.” Is that too long? “Then you have to meet me…” On the far end of the outer booths is a sign for coffee. “At the coffee counter over there. One. Hour.”
She lunges for the money I’ve separated for her, but I quickly pull it out of reach.
“One hour, Kara. Understand?”
The eye roll on this kid is unrivaled.
“Yes, Brad.” Another eye roll, but this time I hand her three twenty-dollar bills and she’s gone before I can say anything else.
“What will she even buy here? Strange soaps made of sheep’s milk?” Shaking my head, I tuck my wallet away.
“I’m sure she could find that, but I’m partial to the jewelry Sandy Shae makes, and the kids usually hit up the fudge or body care tables.” Since Lottie’s voice doesn’t pierce my ears as others do, I focus my attention on her.
She watches me as though she’s waiting for me to say something, but I stuff my hands back into my pockets and clench my fists. The way she stares at me sometimes confuses the hell out of me.
“Did you want to check out the market?”
I nod, knowing that if I open my mouth, I’ll say something like, obviously fucking not. Instead, I walk next to her and allow her to guide me into the pits of hell.
“I’ll be over here, wandering around,” Rafe says. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I turn around, he’ll be smiling, so I don’t give him the satisfaction.
We pass a booth filled entirely with jerky—there’s meat from animals I didn’t even know could be jerked. That can’t be healthy, and it certainly doesn’t appear to have been approved by the FDA.
“I’m not sure what to do with you, Thane.” Lottie’s words have me tearing my gaze away from the hanging meat in various colors.
“Why?”
She smiles at the ground, but I want it focused on me—which is terrifying because I never want anyone’s attention on me. Ever.
“For starters, you moved in next door to get close to me.” She places a hand on my forearm.
I stop immediately, my focus on the point of contact. “I couldn’t stay in New York with my father out on bail. It wouldn’t have been good for Kara.” I push the words out while cataloging the sensation of her skin on mine. She’s soft and warm. The pins and needles I typically associate with touch is muted beneath her heat. “We needed your help, and you’re here, so moving made sense.”
“But I was helping you via the hotline.”
“It wasn’t working. Why are we back to this? I thought we’d moved on.”
She drops her hand, and the fire in my chest rises.
“Perhaps you have. But it doesn’t work that way for everyone. I can’t say I’m over something when it’s still bothering me.”
“I don’t want to bother you.” The dull ache in my head buzzes in my ears now.
“No, you just want to get close to me. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were one of the assholes targeting me to get my research and patent.”
LotiTech will be able to expand her research beyond her wildest dreams. Once she hears my pitch to acquire her business, she’ll understand.
“Who’s targeting you?” As soon as I speak, her words replay in my mind, so I step in front of her as all the flashcards I’ve memorized flip through my vision. “Someone’s harassing you?”
“It’s really unsettling when you study me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re trying to crawl inside my mind to read all my thoughts.”
“I am.”
She blinks three times.
“I am trying to get inside your mind. That would make my life a hell of a lot easier.”
Lottie nods as though she understands, but she couldn’t possibly. I’ve long forgotten what it feels like to want to fit in or be understood—it’s simply not in my deck of cards.
“My father’s trying to buy my company out of spite, but he isn’t the only one throwing their hat into the ring. The pressure to sell only gets worse the more success my platform has.” She moves forward, past a group of gawkers staring at us as if we’re the main event in a sideshow, and I slip into step beside her.
“There’s a new article coming out in Forbes , and I’m dreading its repercussions when I should be celebrating it as a success.” She peers up through long lashes and my narrator reminds me to breathe. “We’re already having security breaches, and if the wrong person gets their hands on my data, my company will capsize. My clients are too well off, too connected not to come after me if their private information gets leaked.”
There’s a lot to unpack, but I really only care about her father and whoever is fucking around with her company. Is her father truly like mine? I’ve heard the gossip—that Rupert Sinclair and Jonah Wilder are sworn enemies, but I never paid it much mind. I’m not a teenager with a grudge—who actually has sworn enemies anymore?
“Why is your father spiteful?”
She stops at a fruit stand and lifts a peach to her nose. Her chest rises as she inhales deeply, and her lashes flutter closed. My gaze lingers on Lottie’s throat while she makes small talk with the young girl standing behind the table.
Peace. She’s the perfect representation of it.
I stare, transfixed as Lottie places four peaches into a canvas bag. I’m handing the young girl a twenty before I realize what I’m doing.
“I can pay for my own fruit, Thane.”
I shrug, then tug on my earlobe.
“Too late.” I take the canvas bag from her shoulder and tell the girl to keep the change.
“You really don’t respect boundaries,” she mutters.
I have no idea what she means by that, so I ignore it.
“Why is your father spiteful?” I ask again.
Her gaze on me sends blasts of heat across my skin. She appears to be the only one who doesn’t make me want to claw at my own skin, so I face her head-on.
Her sigh is heavy, as though all her history rests on her shoulders. “My father had very specific plans for me. They included marrying a man of his choosing to increase his wealth and social standing.” She peers up at me with a small V forming between her brows. “Very archaic, right? He wanted me to be a Stepford wife and truly believed that was my only job in life. But I had other ideas. I took his missteps and failures as my father and turned them into a million-dollar company in less than three years.”
“What would he do with your company anyway?” My skin itches at the thought of her father forcing her hand at anything, especially marriage. But more importantly, I need to know if he understands exactly how valuable her assessments could be for everything from job interviews, to dating, grocery shopping, dream analysis, time management, movie selections, flight seating, even perfume creation. The possibilities are endless.
But there’s a dark side to her tech too. It would make discrimination easier and less traceable, and my mind recalls all the ways it could be misused while I stare at her.
“I honestly don’t know.” Lottie’s voice drags me out of the mind tunnel I’d dug. “Destroy it would be my guess.”
I don’t believe that’s why. Does she have any idea how her test is different than something like Myers-Briggs or CliftonStrengths? Lottie’s algorithm brings a human element to it like I’ve never seen before.
“And the other companies that want you to sell? What will they do with it?”
“I’ve had everyone from a company working on college roommates to dating apps. Even some government agency reached out, but they wouldn’t tell me what they wanted it for.”
She stares straight ahead as she speaks, but I’m glued to her face, fearful I’ll miss a reaction.
“Do you plan to sell?” We walk on the very edge of the market until we hit the end, then turn left and continue around the perimeter.
“That was never my goal. This is…it’s my baby. It’s something I created on my own and turned into a success. It’s the first thing I ever truly chose for myself, and I don’t know what I would do if I sold. My entire personality is tied to the success of my company right now. I’m sure that probably makes no sense to someone like you.”
“Someone like me?”
“I don’t mean that in a bad way at all. I simply mean, I’ve heard you’ve had many very successful accomplishments in your life, and you started at a very young age. For me, it’s different.”
“Why? Why is it different?”
Every time she stops speaking, it’s like ending a book on a cliffhanger. I simply must know what’s coming next.
She lifts her gaze to mine, and my heart stops for 3.2 seconds.
She bites on her bottom lip, drawing my attention to it, and the blood rushes through my veins, throbbing in my chest.
“I was adrift for a long time in my life. It’s hard growing up not realizing that you have options, or that you’re not the cookie-cutter version of yourself that everyone in your life formed you into. I struggled to find my value and my place in the world.”
Her eyes grow wide enough to show the white all around her light blue irises, and she bites on her lip again.
“I can’t believe I just spewed my history to a near stranger.” She’s laughing, but the sound doesn’t match the tightness around her eyes.
“I’m not a stranger. I’m your neighbor.”
“You’re a client who intentionally moved in next door to me. I truly don’t know what to make of that. Logic tells me I should probably call the police or at the very least, install a security system, but for some reason, I don’t. Do you understand why that’s confusing for me?”
I tilt my head to the sky and think about my words before I open my mouth. Fucking Rafe and all his systems.
After three deep breaths, I face Lottie again. “I thought we had moved on from that. I’m not a stalker. I’m a brother, a businessman, and an entrepreneur. I’ve never kicked a cat or been arrested, but I do go after what I want or need, and my sister and I need you, Lottie. I’m not accustomed to needing anyone for anything, so this is all new to me as well.”
Some of the tension leaves her muscles, and the small indent between her brows disappears. I like her much better like this.
“You’re also a puppy dad.”
I scoff. Then scoff again. “Temporarily, but please don’t remind me. I had to take three meetings yesterday with that little fucker strapped to my chest.”
She laughs and steps up to another booth. This one has oils and lip balms—the stench is overpowering, and I sincerely hope she doesn’t put any of that shit on her perfect body.
“What is it you want from me, Thane?”
Your mind. Your body. You.
It’s official. I’m obsessed with my neighbor.
“Why don’t we start with…friends.” The word forms foreign on my tongue, and I barely get it past my lips.
“Do you have a lot of friends?” She lifts a brow in my direction, and it’s so sexy my lips tug at the corners, and I make no effort to stop them.
“No,” I answer truthfully. “I have employees, my sister, Ophelia, and Rafe.”
“You must have left a girlfriend or two behind.”
Is she asking if I’m single?
“I’m not in the habit of dating much.”
“No?”
The flashcard for shock comes to mind.
“No, it’s never been something I was much interested in…until I got here.” It’s the truth, and except for the fact that I also want her research, I’m inclined to be so honest with her that it makes my skin itch for an entirely new reason.
“Until you got here? Who caught your eye? Mrs. Perez is quite the looker.”
“Mrs. Perez is like eighty years old. I was talking about you. You’re easy to talk to so I know I wouldn’t have to make an excuse to get out of a mind-numbing conversation. If I say something you deem rude or offensive, you tell me instead of storming off. If I cross some arbitrary line, I think you’d even explain it to me.”
“You really are a charmer, aren’t you?”
“No. I’m not.”
She smiles sweetly, and I take a snapshot of it in my mind. “Unfortunately, I don’t date clients.”
“Then you’re fired.”
She keeps walking as though she doesn’t believe me, and I follow beside her, working through a solution in my mind.
I live next door, so I’ll see her all the time. Rowan’s been okay, but I’m not making much progress with her anyway. Thoughts move at warp speed as a plan unfurls.
“Do you date business partners?”
I’m not sure what she finds funny, but I’m not annoyed by the sound she’s making.
“I’ve never had a business partner, Thane, so I have no idea.”
“But you’re not opposed to it?”
“No.” She shakes her head, her eyes shining in the sunlight. “I suppose I’m not opposed to it. What are you going to do? Bring me a business proposal to get a date?”
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
She stops walking and frowns, but she doesn’t get to say anything because Kara walks up behind her holding a grocery bag.
“There are no kids here.” Kara looks even less happy than Lottie does. “Can we go?”
Lottie straightens her shoulders and turns toward my sister. “My friend Imogen from yoga has a daughter your age. I’ll ask her what Emma does over the summer.”
“Thanks, Lottie.” Kara turns to me and glowers. Lottie gets smiles. I get the she-devil. “Can we go?”
“Sure. But we have to find Rafe first. Lottie, thanks for the…talk. I’ll be seeing you soon.”
“I’m not really in the market for a partner, Thane. Any kind of partner.” She slides her gaze to Kara while both of their cheeks tinge pink.
“Are you hitting on Lottie, Brad? Gross. You’re like…way older than her.”
“I’m not old, Kara. Jesus, I’m thirty-two. Let’s go. I’ll see you tomorrow, Lottie.” I don’t wait for either of them to answer. The lava is bubbling again, and I need to get out of here.
But I will get that date with Lottie, and I’ll give her a proposal she can’t say no to, right after I figure out who the fuck thinks they can force their way into her company.