“Because I have an eye for seeing the beauty in everything.” Stephen’s eyes roamed over Lexi’s face, slender neck and shoulders. She sat back and folded her arms over her breasts, causing Stephen to shake his head with a chuckle. How was he supposed to be on his best behavior with her seated across from him, looking as delicious as the dessert she devoured? “Which is how I became a broker. I’d buy homes from sellers, flip them and hang on until someone wanted to buy it or use it for a location.”
Lexi relaxed and her arms dropped to her side. “So you’re a regular tycoon, aren’t you?”
“Let’s just say if we played Monopoly, I’d win,” he teased.
“Whatever,” Lexi poked out her tongue. “If you want to see some nice homes, remind me to show you around town.”
“There you go, selling me on Southwood.” Stephen reached for the glass of wine beside him and took a long sip. “I’m here to stay, but if you want to show me beautiful things, I don’t have to look far.” His dinner companion instantly turned red and cleared her throat. “For a former beauty-pageant girl, you certainly don’t take compliments well,” Stephen pointed out.
Lexi pushed the hair behind her right ear. “I can easily take them when I’m in the right, ah, location.”
Would she take a compliment better in his bedroom? He didn’t ask but instead nodded. “I think I can understand.”
“Is real estate a family business? I believe Nate mentioned he did the same.”
“At eighteen I realized it was the easiest way to make fast money legally.” Stephen recalled his first sale at nineteen. He’d commissioned 7 percent and thought he was rich. “A shrink might cite my lack of parental support because my father often did not come home.”
“I’m so sorry!”
“Don’t be. My father chased a ghost all his life, trying to keep up with the family fortune on my mother’s side of the family. By not letting his father-in-law help with finances, he let his pride work him to death.”
“And so have you been able to prove him wrong? Are you as rich as you need to be and still have time for your family?”
No one had ever posed the question to him. He made all the money in the world he wanted, yet, when push came to shove, he would be damned if he couldn’t be there for Ken’s family. He thought of his brother’s modest home in Southwood. It easily could have fit into Stephen’s place. Yet Ken still had enough to provide for his wife and kids. “I guess I’m more like my father than I thought.”
The way Lexi pressed her lips together bothered him. The corners of her mouth turned downward with displeasure. “You don’t sound happy.”
“I guess when I say the words out loud, I’m not.”
“So what are you going to do to change? Ever been close to wanting to get married and settle down?”
“I married Alexia Guzman in the third grade. Does that count?”
A shriek of infectious laughter told him it didn’t count. He found himself laughing, also. A waiter came over and poured cups of coffee for the two of them. Lexi put several spoonfuls of sugar in her white cup and stirred the black brew with some cream until the mixture was the same color as her skin. When they were alone again, Stephen turned the question around and hopefully masked his sigh of relief when she said no.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. Men have proposed.”
Of course.
“Because no one seemed to get me,” Lexi went on. “Look how long it took me to settle on one career in life. I had a lot to do and a lot to accomplish before I settled down. I want to come into a marriage already being worth something.”
“Sounds like mother issues,” he noted with a nod.
“Perhaps. My folks married because it was a match made in heaven, financial heaven. My maternal grandparents had lots of money and my paternal grandparents had a place for them to put it.”
“Pendergrass Banks?”
“Yes.”
Stephen leaned forward, intrigued with the idea of her parents. “How did your grandfather start things off?”
A coy smile spread across her lovely face. “Robbing banks.”
“You’re joking?” Of course she was, her pearly whites flashing as she nodded her head.
“Yes, I’m kidding. My great-great-grandfather started a bank a long time ago in Samaritan—the longer you stay in Southwood you’ll come to learn about the Four Points—but anyway, he opened up his first bank there and branched out. He was blindsided coming to Southwood and saw its prejudices, but he kept trying to make a name for himself, hence trying to walk a straight and narrow line, and avoiding rumors and drama. It worked for a few generations, I guess you can say, until I came along. I think the drama I’ve caused put my folks’ arrangement to the test.”
His parents had married out of love, but the love ran thin after three kids.