Page 5 of Mile High Baby

"If you hadn't intended to be going home, why are you?"

"To help my family,” I said.

His eyes narrowed as he scrutinized me again. "Let me guess, your father?"

I studied him back. "Why would you say that?"

He shrugged. "You seem like a daddy's girl."

I suppose technically, I was, but the way he said it made it sound bad. "You have something against daddy's girls?"

He gave me a look of indifference. "They’re not so bad, except for their general sense of entitlement and brattiness."

I gaped. "Listen, old man, I have not done a single thing in the few minutes that we've known each other that would be considered entitled or bratty. Second, I'm not a fifty-year-old man pretending I'm twenty, gallivanting around, spending his inheritance in every corner of the world."

His expression was a mixture of offense and amusement. "What makes you think I'm gallivanting around spending Daddy's money?”

I tried to adopt his deep velvety voice. "’There isn't a place in this world that I haven't yet visited.’" I gave him a hard stare. "Only rich people who have no responsibility and an endless amount of money can do something like that."

He had turned back toward the window as if he was done with the conversation. Fine by me, Mr. Prick.

The plane took off, and I reached down to pull out my tablet thinking I might watch a movie or read.

"I'm not quite yet fifty, and I do have responsibilities. I'm just fortunate to have a career that involves travel or allows for it."

I didn't look at him as I tapped the side of my tablet. "Good for you, Mr. Magoo."

"Now you think I'm blind too?"

I shrugged. Mostly, I said it because it rhymed, but Mr. Magoo was old too, wasn’t he?

I wanted to continue to ignore him, but the need to set him straight about me was too strong, especially since he'd bothered to tell me about himself.

I turned to look at him. "For your information, I am very close to my father, and I'm not going to apologize for that. He raised me pretty much on his own, so it wouldn’t I be a shitty daughter if I wasn't devoted to him? And second, while Icangallivant around the world like a spoiled princess, I don’t. I’ve earned my way by building my own company."

"I'm sorry if I offended you."

I harrumphed. "Yeah, well, maybe you should stop being so judgmental. Is it me or do you just hate women in general?"

He turned his body in his seat so that his shoulders were almost facing me. "I've given you the wrong impression. I love women."

It was a smarmy line, and yet, weirdly, my reaction to it wasn't repulsion. "Let me guess, you love women, but because you're so ill-mannered, you don't have any luck with them."

He let out a free, deep-throated laugh that surprised me. "I can see why you would think that. I suppose if a shrink were here, they would say that I was taking my anger at the last woman I was with out on you. Like you, she was beautiful and sexy as fuck with a taste for travel off the beaten path."

I blinked in incomprehension. He thought I was beautiful? And had a body that was sexy as fuck?

Finding my voice, I said, "Did you accuse her of being a spoiled brat too?"

He shook his head. "She ran off with a sizable chunk of my retirement, which has soured me a little bit."

No doubt. "Well, I'm not like that. I don't have to steal, but even if I were hungry, I wouldn't."

His eyes narrowed like he was scrutinizing me. "You know, I think I believe you."

I rolled my eyes. "Gee, thanks." I was going to let it go. The steward arrived with my drink, and I took a moment to sip it. But the cool liquid didn’t soothe the burn. I had to know more. “Did you get your money back?"

"Nope. But I did put her in jail."