He rolled his eyes. “It’s a long-ass story.”
“Well, if you want any more answers out of me, you’re going to have to pony up the long-ass story.”
His eyes narrowed. I could tell he was deciding what to say and how to say it. He took a deep breath and let it go. “Grant Fawkes is obsessed with his legacy and passing on his vast amounts of wisdom and knowledge to future generations. And he was very careful about shaping his offspring…”
I nursed my water and watched him over the rim of my glass. This was getting interesting. Jordan and his daddy issues. I’d wanted a piece of this ever since that whacked-out family reunion.
He continued, “We were homeschooled. I finished high school at sixteen, started college before I turned seventeen—”
“Wow. I knew you were a brainiac, but that’s over the top.”
He pushed his plate aside and shrugged. “Not all it’s cracked up to be. I was way too young to be starting college. And he should have known that.”
I nodded, completely understanding what it felt like to be wiser than my own parent. Knowing how it felt to be at their mercy when they should have been watching out for you. A brief memory flitted through my mind of my mom’s second husband, Cliff, backhanding me across the face when I’d accidently broken his prized golf trophy. I was eight years old and went to live with my dad full-time for years after that. My mom hadn’t said a thing—hadn’t wanted to disrupt her cozy living situation or the promise of future alimony.
Yes, I understood what it was like for a parent to look out for their own best interests over that of their child’s.
“He probably did know that,” I finally said. “But his goals were more important to him.”
He tilted his head, looking at me as if trying to size me up from a different angle. “Yeah…he had me earmarked to become an environmental engineer, like him. As far as he saw it, it was my entire purpose in life.”
“That’s a lot of pressure at a very young age.”
He clenched his jaw and then released it. “That’s why I went to Caltech to study. He footed the bill for my tuition and it wasn’t cheap. He had to sacrifice a lot, even with my partial scholarship. I was too young and scared to tell him I didn’t want his vision for my future. So eventually… I changed my major without telling him.”
I traced a finger along the edge of my drinking glass, afraid to look up because it might break the spell and he’d stop talking.
He fiddled with his plate as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. “As you can imagine, he was pissed when I announced a week before graduation that I’d be walking the stage with the Business and Economics Management department instead of the Engineering class.”
I let out a long breath. “That must have been a hell of an explosion.”
“My dad’s non-confrontational and passive-aggressive. He holds grudges. It’s a slow burn.”
“So he’s held this grudge since you graduated? You’re twenty-five now… how long ago did you graduate?”
“It’s been five years.”
Ah yes, Jordan and Adam, the Draco wunderkinder who achieved so much at such young ages. Their bios and impossibly gorgeous faces were about to be spread across the covers of every business magazine now that the IPO was almost a reality. They were young, hot, brilliant, and soon to be even more incredibly rich than they were now. The world was their oyster.
“That’s a long time to hold a grudge…”
“Yep. There’s other stuff too, though.” He seemed about to say more and then shrugged. “We haven’t seen eye to eye for a long time.”
Sounded like something straight out of a Steinbeck novel to me…
He reached for his glass and swirled the liquid within. “Jesus, this water just isn’t cutting it…”
“Still teetotalling?”
“Yeah, you?”
“Hell, yes. I lose all functioning brain cells when I’m drunk.”
Something about that seemed to trouble him. But he looked away and then back to me. “So about you…”
I raised a brow. “What do you want to know?”
“Your parents. If they split when you were a baby, where were you growing up?”
“My parents had fifty-fifty custody for a while, so I bounced back and forth between them. Then my mom found another sugar daddy and couldn’t be bothered with having me around. After that, I lived with my dad and a nanny, and sometimes my grandma.”