“Why the hell not?” Hank demanded defensively. “I see people get lucky all the time, living on the edge and doing things wrong. I’ve spent a lifetime doing everything right, planning and preparing, and where did that get me? Sheila wants to travel. She’s waited that lifetime with me, and worked her backside off to see the world. Now I have to tell her she waited with the wrong man. I destroyed her dream.”
Jason and Kat had spent years apart, chasing opportunities he’d naively called dreams that were supposed to make them happy. For him that idea had been a big failure. “You two have something special, Hank. Whatever goes right or wrong, you have each other, and that’s what matters.”
“I know that,” he said. “I do. But Sheila has always dreamed and I swore I’d make those dreams come true.”
“You still can,” Jason said. “I’ll give you the money you lost including the return you were promised.”
Hank stared at him blankly, as if he didn’t compute what he’d said. “You’re telling me that you’d give me five hundred thousand dollars,” he snapped his fingers, “just like that.”
“Without a second of hesitation.”
Hank blinked at him and then scrubbed his jaw. “Holy hell.” He mumbled something to himself and then refocused on Jason. “I’m not taking your money, son, but the fact that you just offered it to me tells me that you love my daughter even more than I thought you did. You do what you have to do to make her see that. You win her back.”
“I’m going to give it a try,” Jason assured him. “Look, Hank, you and Sheila have always been family to me. Besides, the studio pays me an insane amount of money for sitting at the judging table. Millions of dollars which I invest and turn into more. I won’t miss this money, but you will. You and Sheila go live your dreams together, the way Kat and I should have lived ours.”
“If you were me, would you take the money?”
No, Jason thought. He’d have too much pride. “This will be our secret with no strings attached. If Kat kicks me to the curb, it changes nothing. This is my gift to you.”
“I’m not taking your money, Jason.”
There was such absoluteness to the tone that Jason knew he had to change strategies. “How much do you have left in your retirement fund?”
“Ten thousand.”
Of the five hundred thousand he’d thought he had. Jason knew that had to sting. “You say you want to gamble tonight? To throw caution to the wind?”
“That was the idea.”
“Then bet with me. Give me the ten thousand dollars to play, because let’s be honest here, you don’t know what you are doing at those tables. If I can turn that money into a hundred thousand, then you let me take it to my investment guy to work some magic. Your money turned into more money. No borrowing and no gift. No need to be prideful. You can forget any of this ever happened and book your first trip to wherever you want to go.”
“How are you going to turn ten thousand into a hundred thousand?”
“I’m really good at craps,” Jason said, pushing to his feet. “Which I’m going to play at the high stakes tables. You have to bet big to win big.”
Hank stood up, his eyes clouded over, his pupils dilated. “And if you lose?”
Jason patted his back. “We’ll be needing a lot more tequila.”
The waitress approached but Jason waved her away before Hank saw her. The last thing Jason needed right now was more of a buzz going on in his own head.
They left the lounge area with Jason fully intending to get Hank to take his money one way or another. Jason was taking care of Kat’s parents. The craps tables were confusing to newbies, and though Jason really was good at the game, Hank would never know if Jason won or lost. Not if he tipped the right people enough money, which he intended to do. He had this under control despite the tequila. Everything was going to be fine. And Jason believed that right up until the moment he and Hank walked around a corner and straight into the path of two men in suits. Hank and the two men stopped dead in their tracks.
Hank—calm, collected, normally reserved Hank—was apparently hanging by a thread that snapped. “These two buzzards work at Smith-Wright,” Hank growled and shoved one of them.
Before Jason could even react, the cameras began to flash and people gathered around them. Trouble was here and it wasn’t going to go away without dragging him and Hank into a whole lot of that spotlight Jason didn’t enjoy. And he knew the press. They’d investigate Hank, and they’d figure out the connection. He and Kat were about to be outed as exes and if he didn’t calm Hank down, that might be the best of the worst to come.