However, I’d be the last one to complain.
“I don’t understand why you’ve never gotten a cat if you wanted one,” Seth contemplated.
“I always wanted a kitten as a kid. Desperately. But of course my mother had never allowed it. She hated animals in general, and cats most of all because they might scratch her furniture. Obviously, I couldn’t have one while I was in college. I lived in the dorms.”
“What about the last two years? You’ve been living alone.”
I shrugged. “I wanted to, but I was hesitant.”
“Why?”
“Maybe because I wasn’t sure if I was ready. I was kind of a mess in the beginning when I moved here. Recently, I’ve been meaning to get one. I’ve been thinking that I was ready. I’m leaving old memories behind.”
“Something upset you at one time. Something about cats.”
His words were a statement and not a question. He seemed to always know when there was more to the story.
I nodded as I cuddled Bandit just a little closer. “When I was sixteen, my father was working on a mining project in Florida. It was rare when he took my mother and me with him. But that time, he did. He was doing phosphorus mining, something my brothers stopped when they decided they wanted to focus on gems and diamonds. Understand, my father had no scruples when it came to getting things done on time and making a maximum amount of profit. When the mining project was all set up and ready to start, one of his managers told him that a Florida panther had been spotted on the mining land.”
“They’re endangered,” Seth commented.
“Very much so,” I answered. “And they’re still critically down in numbers, even today. Because my father was worried about the panther sighting disrupting his start schedule, he hunted it down and shot it. He buried it and swore the manager to secrecy. For some reason, he took me along on that hunt. I didn’t know what he had planned until it actually happened. I watched him kill a precious, majestic animal that was nearly extinct. He did it without a single ounce of remorse. I was heartbroken and traumatized. That incident led to my current passion for protecting endangered species.”
“Jesus, baby. I’m so sorry. As much as you love animals, it must have nearly destroyed you at that age,” Seth commiserated.
“I sat by that big cat, just petting it, until my father made me let go so he could bury it. I think I cried myself to sleep every night for two weeks. Not only was the panther beautiful, but I knew there would be one less to help their numbers recover. That’s when I became obsessive about saving every single animal I could from extinction.” I still had occasional nightmares about the horrible incident with my father, but knowing I’d helped dozens of other endangered species live on helped considerably.
Seth was quiet, so I continued, “It’s in the past now. I work to protect wildlife, and I feel good about doing it. Not that the work I do is actually atonement for that lost cat, but it just feels . . . right.”
“It wasn’t you who needed to atone,” Seth rumbled. “But I do know that you’re a damn tough, stubborn opponent.”
I smiled. “I can be. I took it a little easy on you since I was fairly certain Jade was going to talk you into giving up that property, eventually. She would have, right?”
“Baby, you didn’t take it easy on me over the summer. I’ve seen you play hardball. And yeah, I would have given Jade the property. If not, she would have gotten upset and cried. I’ve always hated that. All of us do.”
“So not seeing your sister cry is worth a multimillion-dollar deal?”
He nodded. “In a heartbeat. I’d like to think I’ve learned how to be ruthless in business. But this wasn’t about business. It’s about family. Family always comes first.”
I knew that now better than I’d known it a couple of months ago. Seth would cut off both his hands before he’d see his siblings hurt for any reason. “So why did you even put up a fight after she found out?”
He sent me a mischievous smile. “If you haven’t figured that one out yet, I guess maybe I need to spell it out. It was always about you, Riley. If I gave Jade the property easily, I would have had no reason to communicate with you. Maybe in the beginning, I didn’t want to admit what my motivation really was, but I learned what it was soon enough.”
My heart skipped a beat. “So you wanted to keep fighting with me?”
He shrugged. “I think I liked fighting with you more than I would have liked not hearing from you anymore at all. I was pretty certain I wouldn’t just be able to give away the property and ask you on a date.”
“Probably not,” I said regretfully. “I wasn’t exactly receptive to getting involved with any guy. And I knew you were trouble.”
“How did you know that?” he asked curiously.
“Because I was attracted to you and had been from the first time I met you. However, you were a foe at the time,” I teased. “Like I said . . . trouble. Normally, I’d never even speak to a defendant again after I’d kicked their ass in court.”
“I figured,” he drawled unhappily.
I laughed. It was almost incomprehensible to me that someone like Seth would go through that much trouble to get to know me better. Maybe I should be upset that he’d tricked me, but I couldn’t help but actually be grateful that he had. If not, we wouldn’t be together right now.
“Should we eat here or my place, or just go out?” he asked.
“Here,” I answered. “My brothers are coming for dinner. Will you stay?”
“I didn’t know they were coming,” he replied.
“It’s Saturday, and this isn’t about business,” I joked. “They’re just coming to see me. We have a lot of time to make up for, since we haven’t seen that much of each other.”
“I thought that was just during your childhood.”
I shook my head slowly. “They’ve pretty much always been away except for the last year. Even now, they go away frequently. But at least I see more of them. My brothers are all gifted. Their boarding school was designed for gifted children, and all three of them were graduated from college by the age of twenty. After that, they went into the military, Special Forces. I know none of them wanted to get out of the service. But they pretty much had to do it. After my father died, my brothers left Montgomery Mining in the hands of an unethical, crooked CEO who slowly degraded the company. They nearly lost Montgomery Mining because of it. Now, they’re all back, and the company is thriving again.”
“I didn’t know it was ever in trouble.”
“They had a lot of problems to wade through, issues that had escalated over nine years or so. I doubt they’ll ever turn the company over to anyone again.”
“I’ll definitely stay for dinner. I’d like to see them in a relaxed mode. They’re all smartasses, but I like them. They’re definitely intelligent, and great with business. And Riley, it’s not just them who are ultrasmart. All of you are gifted. You’re the smartest woman I know. I wish I had gone to college, but it wasn’t in the cards.”
I put my hand over his, and he threaded our fingers together. “It doesn’t matter, Seth. You’re just as smart as I am, but you’ve learned in a different way. I had opportunity. You didn’t. That doesn’t mean you aren’t brilliant.”