Stripped Bare (Stripped #1)(51)

I didn’t know what to say. What did you say?

We darted to avoid two young women laughing. They both stopped in the middle of the path and looked at West as they passed us. He ignored them completely.

“We got married pretty quick. I thought I was in love.” He snorted. “Not even a year later, I found her banging one of the strippers in the back room. She still took me for almost everything I had.”

“Even though she’d cheated?”

“I was stupid, Mia. Not long after we separated, I hooked up with a woman I later found out to be a hooker. The court wouldn’t tell you, but Charlotte hired her and they collaborated to make it seem as though I was the cheat.” He half shrugged. “I didn’t have the strength to fight. As long as I held on to the club, I didn’t care what she took. I lost my house, my car, and everything but Rock Solid. I almost sold out to Beck just so she couldn’t have it.”

“Wow. She sounds like an epic bitch.”

“She was, but I was an epic idiot. That was when my grandparents bailed me out. They waited until the settlement was in place and the papers were signed. Seemed everyone had seen her for what she was except me.”

“Do you feel mad?” I asked quietly, looking at him. “That they didn’t try harder?”

“They did. I was twenty-six and stupid. I didn’t want to hear it.”

Hottie was preaching to the goddamn choir. I was twenty-five and dumb as f*ck.

Mind you, I hadn’t married an idiot yet, so maybe I was smarter than I gave myself credit for.

“I’m sorry.” I ran my teeth over my lower lip. “That’s pretty shitty.”

West looked down at me, a smirk on his face. “I’m over it, angel. Beck has this crazy idea that I let it influence my life. Perhaps I do, to an extent, but it’s unintentional. More...a preservative action.”

“Because you have a successful business and a thriving career, and whenever someone comes to you, you automatically assume they’re more interested in that than you?”

“That pretty much sums it up.”

I shrugged a shoulder. “I get it. I got my job right after graduating, one of the lucky ones, but I’ve kept it by working hard. Michelle could have sent any number of more qualified staff members to do this, but she sent me. Most of the guys I meet don’t earn as much money as I do and probably never will.”

West side-eyed me. “How do you tell them apart?”

“I’ll let you know when I work it out,” I muttered. “Besides, their ‘forgetting’ their wallet on your first date so you have a pay is generally a pretty big indicator.”

“Someone did that to you?”

“Yep. I took the check, and when I got home, I sent him an invoice for his half.”

West stopped in the middle of the pavement, yanking me to a stop too. “You sent a man an invoice after he made you pay for a date?”

“Yes.” I looked up at him earnestly. “The arrangement he’d suggested was that he was treating me to dinner. He voided it when he made me pay, so I charged him.”

“Did he pay it?”

“I sent him three reminders, and in the end, yes.”

He tilted his head to the side a little, and his lips pulled into a smile. “I’m...impressed and terrified at the same time.”

“Why? It’s no different than you and Beck going to, say, a bar, and agreeing to get two rounds each, but he only buys one and you get three. The next time you went, you’d make him buy three rounds so you’d be even.”

“It is a little,” he said, walking again. “I’d just do it to piss him off.”

“Right. So you’d make a friend pay you back, but an almost-stranger is crazy?”

“Point well made, angel.”

Obviously. I knew that. I wouldn’t have made it if I hadn’t thought I could make it well.

We’d turned around at some point, and now, we were back to the restaurant and by West’s car. My purse was snug in the passenger’s seat with my work files and my laptop.

“I love that your grandparents helped you,” I said once we were in. “Not many people would have done it.”

West shrugged. “They’re all I’ve had for a long time. Although there were some...issues...about my career choice, my granddad ultimately convinced my nan to do it.”

“Issues? Oh, right. That speaks for itself.”

“When they found out I was a stripper and had bought a strip club, Nan almost fainted, while Granddad whooped, punched the air, and asked me if I’d teach him how to dance.”

I laughed. “He sounds like a character.”

“He’s pretty special.” West’s eyes twinkled as he spoke about them. “It was when we bought The Landing Strip that he really got excited. He’s eighty next month and keeps asking me if I’ll host his party there and bring the best ladies in for him.”

“Seriously?”

“Oh, yeah. He doesn’t even want a lap dance. He just thinks it’d be fun getting all his buddies up here and watching them. He’s something else.”

That was crazy.

“And he retired to Imperial Beach,” I said.

“Yeah. I think the peace is getting to him. He likes to get a little crazy, even if it’ll throw his back out. Which has happened more than once,” he added almost as an afterthought. “He’s now banned from doing the limbo.”