“He’d always hoped, not you?”

“I know this sounds silly, but I don’t know if I ever considered what I wanted before I started school. Since I didn’t have a passion for anything else, and that was what I was expected to do, I went through the motions.”

“What made you change your mind?”

Autumn looked down. “Everything.”

I stayed quiet, waiting for more, but she didn’t elaborate.

“So how did you get into social work?”

She sighed. “It’s sort of a long story. But I met a young girl who’d gone through some tough times, and I wanted to help her in some way, except I didn’t know how. That got me thinking, so I audited a class that was part of the masters in social work program to see if that might be what I wanted to do. By the third week in, I decided to enroll in the full program. I’m working on my PhD in counseling psychology now. I take part-time classes. I took the summer off, but I should finish next year.”

“Wow. That’s impressive. It’s not easy to jump off a path once you get on. I give you a lot of credit for backing up and figuring out what you wanted to do. Most people would’ve just finished law school and been miserable practicing.”

“Thanks.” She smiled. “What about you? Did you always know you wanted to be a lawyer?”

“I knew I’d either need one or be one. I just wasn’t sure which way things would shake out.”

She laughed. “Is it a coincidence that you grew up struggling, and you’re in a profession that pays well and you deal with wealthy clients? Whereas I grew up in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, pretty much spoiled and surrounded by wealthy people, and I’m in a profession that pays crappy, and I deal with mostly people in poverty all day?”

I rubbed my chin. “I guess we both learned what we didn’t want out of life.” I paused. “Do you still keep in touch with her?”

Autumn’s brows drew together. “Who?”

“The girl you met who you wanted to help, but didn’t know how?”

She smiled. “I do, actually. Skye turns twenty-two next month, and she’s become my best friend over the years.”

Bud walked over and pointed to his watch. “Time to close up shop.” He motioned to two guys standing a few feet behind him. “I got Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum to help me break down and load everything in the van. Why don’t you two kids get out of here before it gets too late?”

I raised my hand to my ear and cupped it. “What’s that? I must’ve heard you wrong. It sounded like you just offered me a free meal.” I looked across the table to Autumn. “No one eats for free more than once on Bud’s watch.”

Bud waved his hand at me. “Watch it, smartass. Or I’ll make you sand the rust off some pipes I have in my basement.”

I shook my head. “Is it time to do that already? Feels like just yesterday you had me doing that with a piece of sandpaper that had been used so much it barely had any grit left on it.”

Bud winked at Autumn. “I had fresh sandpaper in the drawer all along. I don’t remember what he’d done that time to piss me off, but I’m sure he deserved it.”

Autumn laughed. “I believe you.”

“Besides,” Bud said, “I got some holes in my walls that can use spackling, if you haven’t lost your touch with a Spackle knife. I know manual labor isn’t your thing these days. I can tell by your soft-looking hands, pretty boy.”

“My hands are not soft, old man.”

“Good.” He nodded. “Then you can pay me back for dinner when you bring the kid to start earning that bike.”

I looked over at Autumn. “Is it okay with you if Storm does some work for Bud?”

She nodded with a smile. “I think that would be really good for him.”

We said goodbye to Bud, and I told him I’d see him the following weekend. Autumn was quiet on the drive back to her apartment. So was I, but that was mostly because I spent the time debating kidnapping her and dragging her to my place to remind her how incredible our weekend together had been. A few buildings away from hers, I parked and cut the engine.

“I’m going to walk you up,” I announced.

“That’s not necessary.”

“Maybe not, but I’m going to do it anyway.”

I jogged around to her side of the car so I could open the door and offered my hand to help her out. She hesitated, but took it. Way too soon, we were at her door.

She turned to face me. “Thank you for tonight. And again, I’m sorry for jumping down your throat without understanding where you had taken Storm and why.”

I shrugged. “It’s okay. He needs someone to protect him. I’d rather you get pissed off than no one giving a shit at all.”

Autumn nodded but looked down. When she looked back up, I could see hesitation in her face. “Can I ask you something personal?”

“Shoot.”

“Was social services ever involved when you were younger? I mean, you found Bud because you needed a place to eat. Didn’t they intervene?”

I shrugged. “Sometimes. Mostly when I got in trouble. But I’d call my friends and have them go to my mother’s usual places, and they’d pay her twenty bucks to go down to the police station and pretend she gave a shit, like I was just an out-of-control kid. Social services didn’t really look deeper since someone had come to pick me up. Guess there’s too many kids like Storm who have no one to even pretend.”

She sighed. “The system is far from perfect.”

“It all worked out in the end.”

“I guess.”

“Can I ask you something personal now?”

“Of course. It’s only fair since I’m so nosy.”

“What’s the reason you don’t want a relationship and only date guys who want the same?”

She frowned. “You really cut to the chase, don’t you?”

“Sorry. Occupational hazard, I guess. But I’d like to understand what I’m missing here. I know it’s something.”

Autumn nodded. She looked away before she started speaking again. “I was in a relationship that…ended. And I’m just not ready for that again.”

I could see she was uncomfortable talking about it, but she’d let me in a bit, so I gently pushed. “How long ago did it end?”

“Six years.”

Wow. That was a long time to get over things. But it dawned on me that maybe she’d suffered a loss. That could definitely make it take longer than usual to get back on the horse, so to speak.

Before I could ask anything more, she turned to go in.

“Goodnight, Donovan. Thanks again for everything.”

CHAPTER 10

* * *

Autumn

Ten years ago

“That was a nice gift you gave Lena.” The deep voice seemed to come out of nowhere.

“Jesus. You scared the crap out of me.”

“How long have you been sitting back here?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Maybe twenty minutes.”

The backyard was pitch dark, but I knew the voice. Braden Erlich. The son of my dad’s newest partner at work. Correction, the ridiculously hot son of my dad’s newest partner at work.