“I know what you’re thinking. It’s what everyone thinks. The answer is no. I don’t live off Wolfe money. My painting pays my bills. Though Wolfe money did buy this place. But I don’t live off it day to day.”

“That’s nice.”

“Nice?”

“I mean, nice that you don’t need to depend on your painting.”

“But I do. I just told you. My father hated that I wasn’t interested in the business. He tried to lure me into it at every turn. He bought me this apartment after I refused to live in the Wolfe building, and then he nearly had a stroke when he saw what I’d done to the master suite.”

“Why didn’t you tell him to shove the apartment up his ass?”

He laughed then. I was growing pretty darned fond of his laugh.

“You may think my man bun is stupid, silver, but I assure you I am not. Would you turn it down if your parents bought you a place?”

“It’s a moot point. My mother can’t afford to buy me a place.” My father could, but that was another story.

“It’s hypothetical. What if she could? Would you turn it down?”

“It’s a tough question.”

“Why?”

“Because I pride myself on my accomplishments. No one has ever given me anything, Roy. I didn’t go to college because I didn’t want to take loans. Instead, I took paralegal courses at a community college, and the job with Lacey is my first.”

“You’re evading the question,” he said. “Don’t try to make me feel less worthy because I allowed my father to pay for my home.”

“Why are we fighting about this? Is it really that important?”

“It is to me.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re making me feel…” He shook his head with a sigh. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

Then I knew.

He was feeling inadequate. Inadequate because he’d taken money from his father. Money that now belonged to him—as long as Rock stayed at his position as CEO of the company.

Did that bother Roy? That Derek had chosen Rock instead of him? They were both wayward sons. Roy hadn’t left town, but he was no more involved at Wolfe Enterprises than Rock had been.

Maybe that was why…

I shook my head. I was making things up now.

“All right, Roy. If my mother bought me a home, I’d probably take it. I’m not an idiot. It’s just that the concept is so foreign to me. It’s unreal.”

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Why? I never wished for a different life.”