“Your profile is on the town’s website. All the city officials are.” Duh, I’m the one that updates that website.

“Right. I forgot. You’re all into the Internet.” I wouldn’t have guessed Marco to have Wi-Fi, but his home is nothing like what I thought it would be. Add some Christmas lights outside and decorations in the home, and this place would be perfect for a family.

A picture perfect one. But I’m guessing a man who lives out in the middle of nowhere alone isn’t looking to fill his home with people. He’s out here by himself for a reason. A reason I really want to know. I’m not sure if I should bulldoze my way in and ask, which is my normal way of doing things, but Marco isn’t what I thought, so maybe my approach should be different with him.

“Into the Internet.” He lets out a deep chuckle.

“But still. Why is that interesting?” He’s reading me and I want to know what he sees.

“I’m guessing your parents were very absent in your life but you worked hard to get your degree. Bet you graduated at the top of your class to impress. Did they show up to your graduation?” Wow, that is crazy accurate. I’d even graduated with a higher GPA and more honors from college than they had.

“No.” The reminder burns. I try to pretend I don’t care, but I do. They didn’t show up to my high school or college graduations. They had sent someone to give me flowers at my high school one.

“You worked so hard, and they didn’t even take the time to notice. I’m sure they did when you didn’t go on to law school.” His tone gets more serious. I put my fork down.

“They did.” They both lost it. It was the first time I had both of their attention on me. We’d fought back and forth over the matter for hours. I don’t think they realized I wasn’t as much of a pushover as they thought. I’d partly raised myself. Plus, I was the daughter of two of the best lawyers out there. Arguing was in my blood. Here they thought they’d been grooming me into a lawyer. You have to be around to do that. If anything, they made me more independent. “I didn’t want to be a lawyer, so it doesn’t matter.” Them not being around taught me that I didn’t want their lifestyle. One that didn’t have room for anything or anyone that wasn’t involved in their jobs.

“It matters, angel. If you ask me, you got the shittier end of the stick when it comes to parents. I don’t have to think about what mine would want me to be doing.”

“Are you always this good at reading people?”

“When you grow up in the system, you learn to understand and predict what people are going to do. It’s a language of its own.” Marco gets more interesting by the second. This isn’t helping the crush I’ve been harboring for him.