I growl, shaking my head.
“I know now that those papers, both sets, were bullshit.”
Leanna wipes at her eyes, and I groan as I pull her close, hugging her to my chest.
“You thought I’d leave you?” I say quietly.
“It was from your email!” She moans, shaking her head. “And your phone blocked mine, or something. I called and called, and it wouldn’t go through. Same with emails or texts or anything. I even wrote you real letters, and they came back returned. Eventually, my dad even had pictures of the two of you.”
I flinch like I’ve been hit, the snarl curling on my lips.
“Pictures?”
“You and this cute brunette girl in a bikini, on a beach somewhere. Taken by a private eye or something that my dad hired.”
“There’s no girl, angel,” I mutter. “No beach, no bikini. It’s bullshit. Probably photoshopped. The divorce papers were bullshit too. One of your father’s assistants who’d just been fired called me two days ago and told me everything.”
She swears under her breath, holding me close. “I—I can’t believe he…” she shakes her head.
Her father, Philip. The man never liked me. Actually, “not liking me” would have been an improvement. No, I was trash to him. Working class. A roughneck piece of shit that had no business going anywhere near his daughter, much less marrying her. He made that clear as day, constantly. I knew it was at least part of the reason he got me the job on the rig through his company. But I also saw the potential for real money there, to be able to give his daughter the life she deserved.
But this is too far. He fucked with our lives. He tried to destroy our love and our happiness. And for that, he’s going to pay, that I can promise.
But later. For now, again, it’s just her and I, reconnecting. Remembering.
We hold each other for another few minutes, fingers just stroking skin.
“So, the helicopter?”
I chuckle. “O’Neil Enterprises?” A proud grin spreads over my face. “That, angel, is what happens when you divorce me.”
She chokes out a laugh. “Excuse me?”
“When you left—”
“I didn’t—”
“Okay, when I thought you’d left me, there was a rage and this fire in me I’d never known. I could have turned to drinking or drugs, or women, but none of that ever appealed to me. Instead, I turned to business.”
I tell her how I quit the rig the week after I got the papers, and how a few of the guys I’d been working with quit with me. I told her about the bank loan I had no business getting, and how I used it to fund my first minerals survey. That first survey, miraculously, paid out, and when me and my fledgling, four employee business sold the rights to a big mining company for a huge profit, we just went from there.
Turns out, this roughneck laborer had a latent talent for business. And all the training I got on the rig with some of the old-timer drillers and surveyors taught me everything I needed to know. And I got real good at what we did. In the last year, we’ve just kept rolling profit into new surveys, new people, and new tech, and at the moment, O’Neil Enterprises is the leading mineral and resource deposit surveying firm in the world.
“So, that’s where the helicopter and that suit you were wearing very well came from.”
When I’m done, I sit back, pleased with myself. Leanna blinks, her jaw dropped and this warm red glow on her face. It takes me a second to realize it’s admiration.
“Holy. Shit. Baby!” She grins, jumping into my arms. “Are you kidding me?”
I smile. “Nope.”
She kisses me fiercely before suddenly stopping and pulling away. “Look, you do know that I don’t need any of that stuff, right? That I’d have the happiest life in the world being broke here with you in this house?”
“I do know that.”
And I do. But this was for both of us. I knew Leanna was good with nothing. But there was no stopping that fire inside of me—the blaze that pushed me to go higher and dream bigger. I built this new life for me—for us—to prove that I could.
“Angel, we can stay right here. We can live in this house and be happy and just screw and watch movies all day.”
“Um, yes please?”
I laugh, pulling her close. “Say the word, and I’m retired.”
I watch her think about it for a second before she shakes her head. “No. This company of yours… you built something huge, Brooks. With your bare hands. And that’s important. And I wouldn’t want you to quit that for me, just like I know you’d never ask me to quit my career.”
I shake my head, kissing her softly before I frown. “Well, wait, does that douchebag from the restaurant work with you?”