“I don’t want to be like them,” I whispered. It was a truth I’d never even admitted to myself.
“The kids?” Aiden asked in confusion.
I shook my head. “My parents. It’s always been about money and status and privilege. I keep thinking there’ll be a point where something inside of me will switch and I’ll look at a guy like Xander and see someone… lesser. Like how my dad saw Xander’s dad.” I glanced at Aiden and said, “They were friends once, did you know that?”
“Xander’s dad and yours?”
I nodded. “Well, friends might have been a stretch, but when Xander’s mom was around, their whole family would come over and Mr. Reed and my dad would sneak off to the study for a drink. He only ever did that with his friends. But when Mr. Reed started working for him…” My heart clenched and my throat felt tight. “He had to use the employee entrance if he wanted to come into the house.”
“The employee entrance?”
I nodded. “All the people who worked at the house could only enter through this side door in the laundry room. If they wanted to talk to my parents, they actually had to use this phone on the wall… they weren’t even allowed to come all the way into the house. Only the maid had free roam of the house, but even she had rules. They just became… non-people to my parents.”
“You’re nothing like that, Bennett,” Aiden said firmly. “You couldn’t be like that if you tried.”
I wasn’t so sure, so I didn’t respond. I let my eyes settle on the kids who were all completely engrossed in what Xander was saying to them. I dropped my eyes as soon as Xander glanced my way, because I was too messed up to deal with yet another look of hatred or disgust.
“I don’t want those kids to ever feel like that… like they don’t matter. Like they have to use a certain door. I know that doesn’t make any sense—”
“It does,” Aiden interjected and I felt his fingers brush the back of my hands where I had them clasped between my legs. “It makes perfect sense, B. But I think there’s more there, too.”
There was, but I was too wrung out to try to explain it. Fortunately, Aiden didn’t press me on it.
“So if running the foundation is what you want to do with your life, when are you going to tell your dad?” Aiden asked.
I felt a familiar bolt of nerves shoot through my gut. “I’ve already tried. He refuses to accept it. When he offered me the position with the foundation, he made me agree that it was temporary. He’s already talking about having me shadow the VP when I get back because the guy’s retiring next year. My dad wants to retire early too, which means I’ll only have a couple of years as VP before I take over as CEO.” Even saying the words out loud had weight pressing down on my chest and I couldn’t stop my breathing from ticking up.
Aiden put a reassuring hand on my knee and my eyes automatically sought out Xander. Predictably, he was glaring at me, and I quickly pulled my knee out from under Aiden’s hand.
After watching Xander turn away to continue speaking to the kids, I heard Aiden chuckle softly. I turned and narrowed my eyes at him. “What?”
He stood up and brushed off the seat of his pants. “The pair of you are so blind. It actually hurts to watch.”
Aiden wandered back toward the campfire, deliberately stepping in Xander’s line of sight as he walked past. I noticed Xander’s jaw tighten by the shadows from the firelight and wondered if Aiden realized how close Xander was to losing his self-control. I could tell it wouldn’t take much to set my old friend off.
As I got up to make my own way back, I remembered a time in middle school when some kids at a nearby lunch table had made fun of Xander after they’d seen his dad pick us up in his old pickup truck from school one day.
“Hey Bennett,” one kid had called out. “You getting rides from your parents’ gardener these days or is Xander’s dad doing double-duty as your chauffeur?” The rest of the kids at the table had cracked up and slapped the first guy on the back for his comment.
I’d looked over at Xander to see his reaction and had seen the familiar tight set of his jaw that had usually meant the timer on the bomb had been set and detonation was imminent.
“Don’t do it,” I’d warned my best friend under my breath. “They’re not worth it.”
“Benny,” he’d growled softly.
“I know. Just wait, okay? We’ll eat outside and then I’ll let you beat the shit out of me on the basketball court.”