Chapter Fifteen
Roy – Sunday
I wasn’t ready for this at all, but I had a feeling that the sooner I got it done, the better. All I really wanted to do was hang around with June as if she were a friend, or a date, or something, and I felt like this could just be a blip; then we could get back to normal.
“So erm…do you want to start with the business?” she asked anxiously, proving that she had never really done anything this intense before. “Do you want to tell me when it started?”
“I was always business minded, even when I was in school. I knew that I was going to inherit the ranch, but all I ever saw my parents do was a whole lot of work, for not much money. I guess I didn’t want that for myself. I saw a bigger life, a wealthier one,” I sighed deeply, realizing how shallow that sounded now. Back then, it made perfect sense, but that was when I was a young, naïve fool.
“So, when I saw the opportunity to invest in oil arise, I did. And from there, I went on to build my own company. It was really the obvious choice.” I glanced over to where she was sitting, staring at me in awe, not making any notes or anything. “Don’t you want to take notes…or maybe switch on the recorder or something?”
“Oh God, I’m so bad at this,” she groaned, blushing brightly. I smiled to myself as she leaned over and flicked the recorder on. “Sorry; please carry on.”
“Okay, so then I met Lewis. He was just out of college and on his way to a good life,” I paused for a moment, wondering how to word this in the right way. “He had been through some struggles, but I helped him through that. I guess we helped each other. He has become vital to the company, really running it all by himself. Which is why…why I’m leaving it and handing it over to Lewis.”
“You are?” she gasped in surprise. “Really? But what will you do?”
“I’ll do all the things that I haven’t had time for up until now.” I shrugged my shoulders, trying to act like the endless time in front of me didn’t scare me as much as it set me free. “I don’t know. I think that I’ve just spent far too much time worrying about making money. I don’t want to miss out on anything else.”
“So… Wow, I don’t know what to ask you now. You have thrown me a bit with the announcement that you’re leaving your company behind. I don’t know what to do with that,” she laughed loudly. “It’s blindsided me; I don’t mind admitting that to you. Have you made that announcement yet?”
“No, I have one last business trip yet, but I will once that is done… Unless you want to do that for me?”
“Could I?” she gasped in shock. “Really? I don’t even know what to say to that.”
“Well, I mean I’m sure that I’ll get dragged into press conferences and stuff, but you can do it first.” I didn’t really care how the news got out, but I guessed that it would be the last thing I did before taking the quieter road in life. “Now, I guess you’re going to need the answers to some more personal stuff, too?” That was inevitable, and if she was too shy to get it, then I would take control of things for her.
“I suppose I have to,” she told me, looking really awkward. “I hope that’s okay.”
“I have an idea: why don’t I ask you a personal question for every one you ask me, that way it isn’t so weird?” I felt like that was the best way to keep things on even footing, plus it would allow me to find out more about her, too.
“Yeah…yeah okay, that could work,” she smiled, finally looking a little happier. “I don’t see why not. Shall I go first?”
“You are the interviewer, after all,” I teased, sending her a wink. “I think it’s best if you begin.”
“Okay…okay.” She glanced at her notebook, but I was pretty sure that there wasn’t anything written in there. “So, tell me about your parents.”
She thought that she was starting with an easy question. How little she knew. I didn’t mind being honest with her because I did want us both to get to know one another a little better. If I was truthful, she would be more comfortable with doing so, too.
“My mom was killed in an accident when I was seventeen,” I said this with no pity in my voice, just with a factual tone. I was used to this burden, it didn’t affect me in the way that it once did. “Then, my dad started to drink heavily, causing him to lose everything. I guess that’s what spurred me on to earn lots, too. He… Well, he eventually drank himself to death.”
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry. That’s such a lot to live through.” There was such a look of sympathy in her eyes that it almost made me crumble. The tears that were always there when I started to think about my parents almost gave way, but then I forced myself to continue. “I…that’s horrible.”
“My turn,” I jumped in quickly, not wanting to hear any more. I knew that I could ask about her parents, too, but I felt like she’d already told me all that she was comfortable with when it came to that subject. They raised her and abandoned her. It might not have been that way, and she might have refused to go with them, but I could tell that deep, deep down in the place where she wouldn’t even admit it to herself, that was how she saw it.
No, I needed to keep things lighter; plus, there was a lot that I wanted to learn. Things that I might not have asked in any other situation. “So, what does your boyfriend think about you spending so much time with me?”
He face flamed, and she giggled, but as she shook her head, I felt relief crash over me in waves. “No, no boyfriend.” If there was no boyfriend, that meant I still had a shot with her, which was exactly where I wanted things to be.
“How can that be?”
“Ah, ah, it’s my turn,” she interrupted quickly. “What about your girlfriend? What does she think?”
“Well, in all honesty, there hasn’t been anyone serious since my wife passed away.” There was no point in trying to hide that fact – she could have found it out anyway if she really wanted to. Plus, I didn’t want it to be the elephant in the room, some unsaid thing between us. “There have been women, but no one serious.”
“What happened to you wife?” This was no time to tell her that she’d asked her question; I just needed this touchy subject over with.
“She had cancer. It was… It was horrible.” My head fell down, and it took all that I had to keep it all inside. “I loved her and she was just…taken from me.”
“How long were you married?” she whispered, emotion tainting her voice, too.
“Six years…six short years before she passed, and the one thing in the world that she wanted I could never give her.” I hadn't ever told anyone this part, not a single living soul, yet here I was willing to spill it. I wasn’t sure what it was about June, but she made me feel like I could confess anything in the world to her, and she wouldn’t judge me.
“All she ever wanted was a baby of her own, but it just never happened. After a while, Shelley made me go to the doctors to find out what was wrong, and we both had a load of tests done.” Just reliving that humiliation and sharing it with someone made it feel like a massive weight had lifted from my shoulders. “And it ended up being my fault. I guess I’m infertile.” I sighed deeply, feeling a little sick over that thought. “Before we could even decide what to do about it, she was diagnosed, and that was the end of it.”
“I… I don’t even know what to say to all of that,” she told me honestly. “It’s so much, you’ve been through so much.”
“It’s okay. I’m just getting through it,” I smiled at her. “Now I think it’s my turn to ask you a question.”
“Oh…yeah…sure…” she stammered, a little blown away. “Sure, whatever you want.”
“So, how long has it been since you were last taken on a date?” I preferred to find out about one another now, rather than to dwell on the past. There was only despair back there for me; the future held hope and opportunity.
“I…don’t think I’ve ever been taken on a date,” she confessed. “Is that insane?”
“Well, it does mean that you’ve been fooling around with the wrong men. You should be with the kind of guy who will wine and dine you, treat you how you should be treated.” I became impassioned by that. June was a great girl – one of the best – and it was a shame that she’d never experienced that kind of romance. “If I were to take you on a date, you would have the time of your life.”
With that statement hanging thickly between us, I felt an intense change in the atmosphere. There had been a sexual charge surrounding us ever since she stepped into my home, but now it had been amped up about ten levels, and we were being left with a choice. We’d established that we were both single, that we were both available, and from the way that we were looking breathlessly at one another, we both wanted something to happen. It was just up to one of us to make a move.
I was usually really good at that part; that was usually when the glimpse of the old me came out. But with June, it felt different, more intense because I knew that where it would lead would be something else. It wouldn’t just be a kiss and a hook up; it would be something real, and that wasn’t something that I hadn't assumed that I would ever be ready for.
Yet, with June, I felt like I was ready to take the risk.
I leaned in closer, inhaling her fruity scent before pressing my lips lightly up against hers. It was a soft, sweet kiss, but it sparked fireworks inside of me like nothing I’d ever felt before. I felt turned on, emotional, and incredibly happy all at once.
Then, when June moved her arms up to wrap them around my neck, knocking her journal to the ground with a loud thump, everything intensified. We kissed harder, more passionately, fiercer, and all of a sudden, everything became much more intense. This was leading somewhere, somewhere that I hadn't taken my emotions to for a very long time.
“Come on,” I panted into her mouth. “Let’s go to my bedroom. Do you… Do you want to?” There was no point in hiding what we both wanted, not when it was so damn obvious, and luckily, she nodded happily to that. I slid my hand into hers, intertwining our fingers together, feeling lighter than air. This was going to be absolutely amazing, I just knew it, and now that I’d accepted where we were going, I could feel the nerves turning into a very intense excitement. I couldn’t wait.
This is good; this is something new; this is moving forward – and who better to take that step with than June?