“In many ways, yes.”

Not able to stop himself, he reached out and lightly stroked her head. Her hair was soft against his fingers. He suspected the rest of her would be, as well.

If wishes were horses, he thought to himself, reaching for his own menu.

Unity straightened. “I’m done whining,” she announced. “I want to talk about you.”

Their server came and they ordered. As promised, Unity asked for a chocolate shake with extra whipped cream, along with a bacon burger and fries. Thaddeus went with iced tea and a regular cheeseburger.

When they were alone again, Unity looked at him expectantly.

“What?” he asked. “I’m not going to start sharing random facts about myself. What do you want to know?”

“You said before you followed a girl to Las Vegas. And that you put yourself through school. Was this when you were doing construction? That must have been hard. And how did you get from that to investing?”

He’d wondered if the question would come up, although he hadn’t decided how he would answer it. Generally, he avoided the truth. People—women—frequently got the wrong impression.

No, he mentally amended. There was nothing wrong with their impression. It was their reaction he had trouble with.

Her eyes widened. “You’re not sure what to say. That means there’s a secret.”

“You sound happy about the possibility.”

“Sure. I don’t have any secrets. I never have. My life is pretty much what you see.” She leaned forward, her expression eager. “Tell me. Please? Tell me, tell me, tell me.”

Their server brought them their drinks. Unity ignored the massive chocolate shake in front of her, instead staring at him with both delight and intrigue—an irresistible combination that made him unable to deny her anything.

“I told you the girl I followed to Las Vegas was a dancer.”

She nodded eagerly.

“When we met, I didn’t know how to dance. Not beyond what you do in high school and at clubs. I really liked her and wanted to impress her, so I took lessons.”

“That’s so romantic. She must have been excited when you first took her out dancing.”

“She was, but the real surprise was that I had some ability. Dancing came easily to me.”

Unity dipped her spoon into her milkshake and tasted it. “No wonder Dagmar wants you to come and dance with her. Oh!” She stared at him. “Dagmar wanted to be a dancer when she was younger but her parents would have disapproved, so she became a librarian. You probably get your ability from her.”

“She told you about that?”

“Uh-huh.” Unity licked her spoon again, distracting him with the sight of her tongue. “Go on.”

It took him a second to remember where he’d been in the story. “When Amari and I moved to Las Vegas, she had a job in a big production show, but I couldn’t get work in construction. There weren’t any jobs and without a job, I couldn’t get into the union—”