“How’s your wrist?”
“Feeling a lot better, to be honest. I think the pain relief medication helps.”
Miles went into the kitchen and spied some sandwich fixings on the counter. “Dinner?”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, it was going to be until you showed up.”
He gave the stale bread and jar of peanut butter a disparaging look. “I’m glad I did, if that’s what you call dinner.”
“I wasn’t really hungry.” She sniffed the air appreciatively. “But what is that delicious smell?”
Miles opened the bag and removed the containers. “Green curry and vegetables with jasmine rice and a prawn pad Thai.”
Chloe gave him a sharp look. “Are you sure you’re not some kind of mind reader?”
“Not the last time I looked. What makes you ask?”
“Those are my favorites. I can never decide between them.”
“Then you can have some of each,” he told her. “But first, I thought we could set up your new phone. I’ve already charged it for you so it’s ready to go as soon as you’ve transferred all your data.”
“Miles, you really are too generous.” She looked rueful. “I’m not sure I can accept all of this from you. After all, we hardly know one another.”
Miles stilled. “Would you rather I leave? Have I come on too strong?”
“Too strong?”
“I’m going to be honest with you, Chloe. I know I never knew you existed before today, and it’s going to sound strange, but I feel like we were meant to meet. I’d like to know you better and I’m not the kind of man who likes to waste time.” He blew out a breath and looked her straight in the eye. “When I see something I want, I go for it. Life is too damn short to spend it wondering what if. But that said, I’ll go if you prefer.”
* * *
Chloe caught her breath at the earnest expression on his face. From anyone else, that could have come across as stalkerish, but for some reason his words sounded just right. And, the little voice in the back of her mind reminded her, it means he’s falling into line with what you have planned without any hard work on your part. You were meant to meet today, after all. He just didn’t know why—yet.
“I...” She blinked rapidly, unsure of what to say. “Please stay. I’m just not used to people like you.”
“Like me?”
“So sure of what you want,” she clarified. “Most folks I know are too afraid to reach for what they dream of.”
“Everyone has their reasons.”
“And yours are?”
He’d been in the process of putting their takeout in the oven to keep warm, and he closed her oven door and straightened.
“My reasons are simple. I never want to be beholden to anyone for anything. I got where I am on a vehicle of my own making and I have dreams I’m still reaching for. Anyone can ride along with me if they want to and if they’re prepared to work hard. I’m not into forcing compliance. I’m not into unreasonable expectations. I lay all my cards on the table and if people don’t like what they see, they’re free to go.”
Chloe weighed Miles’s words carefully. His outlook was basically the antithesis of everything she’d ever known about his father. The senior Wingate had been known for his ruthlessness. It must have been so galling for the senior Wingate to have been stricken by the first debilitating stroke he’d endured five years ago.
For a man so in control of everything in his life to be reduced to relying on others for even his most basic human needs? It would have been torture. And yet when Chloe had heard the news she’d found it difficult to summon even an ounce of sympathy for him. Knowing the man had died in his sleep two years ago had only served to stoke the fire of her anger. Her father had had no such luxury.
And now she had his youngest son in her crappy kitchen, espousing his live and let live policy on life. She’d always thought the apple didn’t fall far from the tree when it came to family dynamics and the way people grew up. But it seemed that Miles was different. For starters, he’d made his success here in Chicago, far from the Wingate empire that was centered in Royal, Texas, and which had arms that reached out internationally through aviation, oil and hotels.
Had she made a mistake in targeting the closest, easiest option for her revenge? No, she decided, she couldn’t think that way. Whatever Miles was like, it was his family she was after. She wanted them all to feel and know pain, like she’d felt and known it. To suffer like her mother had—and still did, locked as she was in her grief for the past.
Chloe forced a smile to her face. “Well,” she said as brightly as she could manage. “That sounds fine to me. I have a small confession to make. I’ve done a little research on you.”
There, it was out in the open. Not a lie, although the implication she made was that the research was recent, whereas in actuality it was of far longer standing. Miles began to grin and Chloe felt a twinge of something entirely feminine deep inside her body. The ma