What happened to your mom? She looked at the coffee. Breast cancer. I was 23. I'm sorry.
Me, too. She said it simply, not with the practiced grief of someone who'd told the story many times. With the plainness of someone who had accepted it and still felt it every day. She would have told my father to his face that the Heartley thing was a bad idea. Would he have listened?
No. But she would have said it anyway. She looked up. You have a daughter, Amara. Nine.
What's she like? He thought about this. He thought about the way she'd taken her math book into the Whitmore's house like she was going to a sleepover. The way she'd looked at him when he said work thing, not fooled, but willing to let it go. She's smarter than me, he said.
And she knows it, but she's polite about it. Lauren almost smiled. It was quick and it didn't quite make it all the way, but it was there. How long have you been raising her alone? 5 years since the divorce.
Was it bad? He picked up his coffee. It was necessary. She nodded like that was a complete sentence and didn't push. That was the second time in 20 minutes she'd done something that surprised him.
The first was not getting offended when he said he wanted to keep his job. The second was recognizing when not to ask another question. Can I ask you something? He said, "Sure. You clearly have people around you all the time.
Your father's people, event staff, security. You've got money. You've got connections. Why are you in a diner at 9:30 on a Friday night with your dad's fleet supervisor? " She looked at him for a moment because you're the first person tonight who talked to me like a person instead of a position. He didn't know what to say to that, so he didn't say anything.
Everyone in that room tonight, she said, was calculating something. Even Evan, he wasn't rude about it. He was actually very charming. But he'd been briefed. He came in knowing things about me and asking questions he already knew the answers to.
And the whole time he was smiling. This smile that said, "This is a good arrangement. Not you're interesting to me. Not I'd like to know who you actually are. Just this is good for both our families. " And your father thinks that's enough.
My father thinks it's everything. She set her mug down. He built something from nothing, Daniel. Three trucks in Durham. Now he's got 42 million in logistics contracts.