Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
“Aren’t they always?” she asked with a wistful air. “Damon and Penny split their time between The Garden and their home in the countryside. They’re about to have another baby. I suspect Penny will start staying out there quite a bit. My friend Hayley and her husband Nick recently had a little girl. They’re looking for a place close to The Garden. Last week Owen and Rebecca announced they’re pregnant, too. There aren’t many singletons left in our group. Certainly not since the lads got their freedom back. Is it odd to be surrounded by these lovely people who treat you like family and still feel so outside? Like they’ve all invited me in, but I can’t quite make it through the door.”
“Why do you think that is? You said you weren’t close to your sister. How about your parents?” He was going to keep her talking. He hated the wistfulness in her tone, like she wanted something so badly but couldn’t reach out and grab it. He understood that, too.
She thought about it for a moment before answering. “My family wasn’t like yours. My dad was pretty distant, and I don’t think my mum ever really understood me. She was closer to my sister, who definitely never understood me.”
“My brother…I thought he did,” he admitted. “And maybe he did, but I didn’t try enough to understand him. I’m fully aware there’s blame in here for me. I thought because I was happy that he was, too. The whole twin psychic connection thing might be true for some, but not me and Mike. Did you only have the one sister?”
She nodded. “Yes. She’s five years younger than I am. It should have made us close, but we never were. We never had that sibling relationship for some reason. I think we were just far enough apart that we didn’t spend much time together.”
“You wouldn’t have been in the same schools. Mike and I were obviously always in the same class.”
“Yes, we just missed each other, though I don’t know if it would have mattered. We’re quite different personality-wise and in what we want out of life,” she said. “It was like we lived in the same house but completely different lives. And then we didn’t live in the same house at all. After university I lived in France for a long time, and it was a demanding job. At least that’s what I told myself. My parents divorced while I was in my teens, and my father got remarried very quickly. His new wife didn’t want to have anything to do with us, so he didn’t. I haven’t seen my father in ten years. When I moved back to London I spent a bit of time with my mum, but I found I couldn’t take the comparisons to my sister’s perfect life.”
“I doubt it’s perfect.”
“It looks that way on social media, and that’s all that matters to my mum and sister.” She was quiet for a moment. “I’m surprised you’re not on social media more often.”
“I can’t stand it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a page to keep up with people I was friendly with in high school and college, but I almost never post. Half the time I don’t have Internet access. I don’t think anyone wants to see pics of me sweaty and covered in grease. That’s pretty much my existence when I’m on a rig.” He realized he wasn’t even doing the speed limit, which here was seventy-five. He was trying to drag out their time together. It wasn’t fair to her since they had to be up and on a plane in the morning, and she would likely stay up doing her prep work. He forced himself to ramp up the speed.
Nina snorted, an oddly sweet sound. “Sure. The Internet would hate pictures of your sweaty muscles. Everyone would be disgusted. I bet we could make a calendar of you on oil rigs and it would sell like crazy.”
“Then I could give the profits to green causes and make my dad insane.” He wouldn’t mind as long as she was his photographer.
“You really are exploring sustainable energy?”
“Absolutely,” he replied, though he needed to be completely honest with her. He wasn’t some vegan, spare-the-earth type. He had practical reasons for what he was doing. “I’m working with the king of Loa Mali. Don’t think I’m doing it to save the earth or anything, though. I’m doing it because if I don’t someone else will, and they’ll be the ones making money off it. Though a cleaner earth wouldn’t be so bad. I like clean air as much as the next guy. Maybe more since I grew up with so much of it.”
She relaxed back. “I liked your family quite a bit. They’re oddly down to earth for a group of billionaires.”