Then I clear my throat. “I’m sorry. I sidetracked you. You were telling me about your parents.”
“Right. Okay. Well, despite that affair, Mum and Dad really did love each other. They had drifted apart. Dad was immersed in running Collings Motors and the F1 team. Mum felt alone, even though she traveled with the family. She was vulnerable, and she found the attention she craved in Lars. I hated him so much at the time, because he was myidol.I wanted to be him, you know? I was gutted to find out he was part of the reason my family was nearly destroyed. but I’ve let that go now. They both messed up. Lars lost his girlfriend over it. Mum almost lost her family.”
“But she didn’t,” I say.
“No. They went to therapy and worked it out. It took a toll on me, and a different one on Catherine. She couldn’t forgive Mum for a long, long time after that. But eventually she did, and we’re all okay now.”
Now I’m the one who is quiet as I’m digesting this information.
A wry smile passes over his face. “See? You hit the interview jackpot this afternoon. All you had to do was pull the lever, and this story would have been yours.”
I shoot him a look. “No. That was never on the table.”
His eyes meet mine, this time sparking with intensity. “I wasn’t testing you with it. I would have told you everything I said just now if you would have asked the question.”
“I know you would have. But I didn’t want that story for the world. I only wanted to hear it off camera, with no pressure put on you to share it.”
Caleb falls silent, this time assessing me with something different in his eyes.
“That means more to me than you could ever know,” he finally says, and I know I’ve touched him. “Thank you.”
“There’s nothing to thank me for. Now, let’s go on to more vital questions. Do you like owls?”
Caleb laughs. “What?”
“Do you like owls. How you answer is very important.”
“Sure. I have nothing against the owl. Why?”
“Because they’re my favorite animal. And if you hated them, that would have been a deal-breaker.”
The expression of joy that spreads across his face causes my heart to skip a beat.
“No, the owl won’t be a deal-breaker. But I need to confirm that you like kangaroos. Because that’s my deal-breaker animal.”
He likeskangaroos.
And I couldn’t love his answer anymore if I had written it myself.
We go on to talk for hours, getting to know each other better. We’re both competitive people who hate to lose, even if it’s playing a board game. We both like dancing. Caleb hates having to attend sponsor galas like the one he went to tonight and finds them incredibly boring. I tell him I can’t resist cake of any kind, and I always have a slice of my leftover birthday cake for breakfast the next day with a big cup of coffee. We talk about our childhoods. Our families. World events. How we both jog, with me running along the coast in Miami Beach and him running the hills of Monte Carlo.
And with each little thing I learn about him, I find my crush on him growing.
Because this is a man worth taking a risk for.
No matter how big of a risk it might be.
“Are you into horoscopes?” I suddenly ask.
“You have the most abrupt shifts in topics,” Caleb says. “One minute I’m talking about jogging in Monaco, and then you want to know my zodiac sign.”
“I know you have quick reflexes, so I have complete faith in your ability to keep up.”
He grins at that, and I find myself grinning back at him.
“I’m a Scorpio,” I tell him.
“I have no idea what that means, but I’m a Cancer. And I have no idea what that means either.”