with.”
Well, that got a tingle in my happy place. I pick up my glass of wine and take another sip. “What would you like to know?”
“Where did you grow up?”
“Colorado. Dad got a transfer here when I was ten.”
“And college?” he continues, lifting his own glass of wine to his lips and distracting me wickedly as he takes a slow, measured sip.
“Business Management at Northwestern.”
His eyes widen in surprise and he nods. “Impressive. So hotel management was always the goal?”
Seems Dani has been talking about me, or Cade has been asking. I’m not sure which is better or which I’d prefer. “Not initially, but I’ve always liked dealing with people and tourism has a lot of that so it has been a good fit.”
“And the stripping?” he asks, his eyes looking straight into mine, and for some reason it reassures me that he wasn’t just blowing smoke up my ass on Sunday when he said he was fine with it.
“I was living with a guy in my early twenties who totally conned me. Lost his job, got into debt, then got me into debt. I was young, naïve and cock-dumb, or that’s what I like to think, but I honestly thought I loved him and—despite his many faults—that there was a good guy still under there. I kicked Bryce out when I discovered he didn’t have a job because he was a drug addict, and I had effectively been funding his habit for a year.”
Cade’s face grows dark, and his jaw tightens. Needing to say something—anything—to break the silence, I sally forth. “So in order to pull myself out of the hole I dug myself in, I went into the Pink Monkey and asked about getting a job. And voila, four years later, here I am. I’m only dancing one night a week now, not because I need to anymore, but because I like my boss, I like the other girls—and if I’m honest—it’s a bit of fun.”
His expression softens, and it scares me more than his dark and brooding look from before. “You’re fucking amazing, Abi.”
Say what now? That is so far from what I expected him to say.
“And what about you Mister Hotshot Doctor?” I ask, needing a subject change so that I don’t do something completely inappropriate for a date ‘get to know you’ dinner.
“NYU undergrad, then Northwestern for med school.”
“Nice. Why New York?”
“I wanted to stretch my legs a bit and get out of the Carson family shadow.” He frowns but quickly hides it. “That’s where I met Daniel, Noah, and Thomas.”
“Thomas? I don’t think I know him.”
“He was at Throb on Saturday with us. Blond hair, preppy-looking. One of my best friends, and currently my roommate.”
“Ah yep, I know the one.”
His eyes widen, and he nods. “Checking him out, were you?”
I gasp in mock offense. “What kind of woman do you take me for?”
“One who is not ashamed of the fact she checks men out. You’re just lucky I’m confident enough in my own looks and performance to know I’ve got nothing to worry about when it comes to you and Thomas,” he says with a wink and a smile.
I shake my head. “Is that so?”
“You know it.”
“You don’t think I’m weak? I ask, thinking again of Bryce and what an idiot I’d been.
“Fuck no,” he bites out, and my head jerks at the weight of his denial. “You did what you had to do to get yourself out of that mess. There is not one thing you should be ashamed or embarrassed about.”
“Wow.”
“What? You thought I’d think badly of you for finding yourself in a situation and doing whatever possible to get yourself out of it? That shows more strength than most people have in their little finger.”
“I—”
“And, just saying, if you ever see that asshole and I’m with you, don’t tell me because it won’t look good for the future mayor if one of his sons is facing an assault charge—again.”
“Again?”
“Let’s just say that my brother, Cameron, went into the army for a number of reasons.”
I lean forward onto my elbows. “Now this sounds juicy.”
He chuckles, taking another sip from his wine glass. “Together we prove that the adage that twins can be polar opposites is true when it comes to Cam and I.”
“Twins,” I say dreamily, a smirk playing at my mouth. “Is he the yin to your yang?”
“More like the oil to my water.”
“You don’t get on?” I ask. My own twin brothers are closer than anything.
“We do, we’re just different