date, even if she didn’t think she liked them. Maybe she would with Harley. “I’m sorry. I sound like such a downer. A show would be nice.”
Amusement rose in his eyes. “The only thing great about a show would be that you and I were watching it together. And knowing us, we’d spend the whole time picking it apart, making fun, and wondering when they were going to serve drinks.”
“Oh, thank God,” she said with a laugh. “I love that you get it. My sisters get all excited about that shit, but . . .”
“But you’d rather shoot yourself in the foot with a nail gun.”
“Yes! Exactly.”
They both laughed, and her nervousness fell away, leaving behind a new curiosity.
“Do you miss living and working in the city?” she asked.
“Not really. Working on Wall Street was great, but stressful.”
“Ben said you were really good with investments and that you still handle some of his. Is that true? I mean, he’s an investor, so it seems weird that he’d have someone else invest for him.”
“Ben has his hands full with business investments. I handle his stocks and bonds and such. I enjoy the hell out of the work, but the environment on Wall Street was like a pressure cooker. To excel, you need to live and breathe the business, and I saw many good men get dragged down.”
“What do you mean? Fail at their jobs?”
“Fail, give up, become alcoholics, and worse.” His eyes swept over the people around them on the train, and when they found Piper again, he looked a little distraught. “Right before my father got sick, one of my best friends came close to committing suicide. He had three young girls and a sweet wife, but he’d gotten too aggressive and made some bad financial decisions. He was on the verge of losing everything, and he couldn’t see his way out. It was just dumb luck that I walked into the men’s room before he swallowed the fistful of pills he was holding. It was awful. I didn’t know what to do, so I called a suicide prevention hotline right there in the men’s room and got him help. I found him a psychiatrist and called his wife, who met us at his office. I stuck around to make sure they had a plan and he wasn’t going to be booted out the door and forgotten. It was hell, but with counseling and his family’s support, he got out of the business and eventually turned himself around.”
She couldn’t imagine how difficult that must have been for Harley and for his friend and their family. “Thank God you found him in time. Do you still keep in contact with him?”
“Yeah. His name is Ralph, and we talk once a month or so. My dad got sick a few weeks later. Once I came home and saw how sick he was, I knew I’d never go back. Delaney was right yesterday about not taking a minute for granted. Time is a precious commodity, and we never know how much we have left.” He brushed his thumb over the back of her hand and said, “Anyway, you asked if I missed living there, and the truth is, I never had time for much other than work. I don’t miss it at all.”
“So you’re saying you didn’t leave a string of brokenhearted bed buddies in your wake?” she said to lighten the mood.
“I’ve never been one to sleep around. Not that there’s anything wrong with it,” he added quickly. “I just need more of a connection than some people do.”
Piper knew that he probably thought she’d slept with many of the men she went out with. She hadn’t slept with most of them, but she’d been with her fair share of men over the years, and she wasn’t going to apologize for doing what she wanted or needed.
He must have noticed something in her expression, because he said, “It doesn’t bother me that you’ve been with other guys, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
Harley had never judged her, even though he’d stopped her from going out with several men he’d deemed not good enough for her. She’d never felt a need to lie to him about her personal life, and she wasn’t about to start now. “I’m glad, but I was just thinking that I don’t regret the things I’ve done.”
“And you shouldn’t. Experiencing life is how we figure out what we really want.”
“Lots of people feel otherwise,” she said honestly.
“Who gives a damn?