I took a sip of my coffee, thinking the same thing. "I don't think she'll ever accept me as a full-fledged member of the Marshall family clan. She was hoping for a union of two old money families, I guess. But she'll have to just accept it eventually."
"Money," Candace said with a shrug. "The rich really are different, aren't they?"
I pursed my lips, thinking if Luke was different from other men I knew.
"The only difference between Luke and other guys is that he doesn't even think about money, except how he can use it to do what he wants. Other than that, he's the same as other guys. Well," I said and shook my head. "He's much better than other guys I've known. But you know what I mean -- he watches sports and drinks beer and loves sex and likes to joke around with his friends. His bank account is the only difference."
"But that makes all the difference, doesn't it?" Candace asked. "When you don't have to worry about your next paycheck, life is different on a basic level. And if you have enough money to do whatever you want, life is different completely. Luke wants to be a space entrepreneur. He can. He's got the money. He can just go to any of the guys in the space industry and tell them he's got a half-billion dollars to invest and he wants to be involved." She snapped her fingers. "Voila. He's a space entrepreneur. How many of us poor folk can do that?"
I nodded. "You're right. He's lucky. The rich are different in that way. But you know, his parents died when he was a small boy, he's got problems with his adoptive parents, and his sister's husband was cheating on her. Money doesn't fix those problems."
"Yeah, but it makes it easier to bear. You can just plunk down some cash and fly to the Bahamas for a weekend and drown your sorrows in margaritas." She smiled. "You're going to be rich, kiddo. You better enjoy it for the rest of us."
I sighed. She was right. If I married Luke, I would be rich. We'd likely sign a pre-nup agreement that would limit any divorce settlement to protect Luke's inheritances, but while we lived together, I'd never have to worry about money.
"I'll try," I said and squeezed Candace's shoulder. "If you ever need anything, don't ever hesitate to ask me. If I'm going to be rich, I'll do what I can to help others. I did nothing to earn any of Luke's money, so I won't be greedy. One thing I love about Luke is how generous he is with his money. He paid for your mom to come out and stay. He's rich, but he's not greedy about it."
"I know, and you tell him I'll be in his debt forever. I still can't get over how great that was of him. He really is a keeper."
"I know." I smiled at the grin on her face. "Now, if we could only find you one of his rich banker friends, we'd be all set."
"It's my dream, it's my dream. As soon as I get this cast off," she said and patted the cast, "I'm going to goad Luke into matching me with one of his buddies."
I laughed at that and we spent the next hour just talking about everything.
When it was time to leave, I gave her a hug and left the apartment, glad I'd dropped by, promising her that we'd take her out for some food on the weekend.
I made my way down the elevator and out the building, walking the few blocks to the subway so I could go home. I stood on the platform, way back from the edge, and thought about Candace. She was brave and strong, with such a good nature to get over the attack so well. If it had been me, I'd be much more afraid. I thought that having spent months on the ocean sailing in a catamaran, would make me much braver than I had been before. But standing there on the platform, I felt just as vulnerable as I had before I left. I glanced around, wondering if there were any psycho cases on the platform who would randomly push someone onto the tracks, but there wasn't anyone who I thought could fit that description.
I squeezed into the car once people started to board, and stood in the center, holding onto one of the poles. I took in a breath and exhaled. There was no way you could think about safety one hundred per cent of the time. You just had to move on and live your life. I was lucky to be living in Manhattan, with Luke, going to Columbia to do my PhD. If I spent my time worrying about my safety, that amazing life would be wasted.
So, I pushed all thoughts of danger out of my mind and focused on going home to Luke.
Just thinking of him waiting for me in the hotel made me smile, and that was everything to me.
Chapter Eight
Luke
On Saturday, Alexa and I spent the morning in bed, sleeping in, and then rolling around in the sheets, starting the day off right. When we were both satisfied, we had a quick shower together and went down to the restaurant for breakfast.
After the waitress seated us, I reached out across the table and took her hand.
"Today's the day," I said. "Going to break my mother's heart."
"I know," she said and squeezed back. "I feel bad but there's a part of me that wants to laugh in her face. Am I a terrible person?"
"No," I said and took the menu, thinking I'd be pleased as well to see my mother's face when she learned the news. "Or at least, you're no worse than me."
We smiled at each other and ordered our food, then sat back and drank coffee while we waited for our meal to come.
"So, I forgot to tell you that I got a call from Detective Russell, who's in charge of Candace's case. Blaine didn't check in on time, so officially, he's on the lam, so to speak."
I frowned. "That's not good," I said, a sense of doom filling me. "If he's willing to break the terms of his parole, who knows what he might want to do?"
"Push Candac
e off the platform to hurt you?" I offered.