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you ratted me out to my dad.”
    He narrowed his eyes at her. “Ratted
you out? What the fuck?”
    “Hell yeah.” She met his gaze head on.
“That was what you did.”
    His forehead tightened. “Fuck, Honey…”
He leaned forward. “You needed to smarten up.”
    Her eyes flashed at him. “Proving my
point about what you thought of my intellectual
abilities.”
    “Christ,” he muttered. “Wrong word
choice. You were doing stupid things. You were hanging around with
stupid people. But I never thought you were
stupid.”
    “Whatever.” She didn’t seem to want to
accept his praise. “You were right.”
    “I just never got why.”
    Her eyebrows drew together. “Why
what?”
    “Why you were hanging around with
stupid people, doing stupid things.”
    She sighed. “Long story. Took years of
therapy to understand. It doesn’t matter.”
    Weirdly, he felt like it did
matter.
    “Anyway, I’m not so sure I do know
what I’m doing. Last night I was ready to quit this
job.”
    “What?” He gaped at her. “Just because
a few people were being dicks? You shouldn’t let them chase you
away. I mean, those are good people, I’ve met some of them before,
but they’ll get over whatever it was that was up their
asses.”
    “It’s not just that.” She bent her
head. Then she sighed and looked at him again. “They only gave me
the job because of my dad. They don’t really expect me to do
anything. Except maybe sort paper clips.” She gave a short
laugh.
    “I’m sure that’s not true.”
    “I’m pretty sure it is. They think
they know me,” she said quietly. “They’ve formed opinions about me.
They don’t think I can do the job. They probably think I’ll be more
of a liability to the foundation than a help. And they might be
right.”
    Shit. He stared at her. He got what
she was saying. And there was some truth to it. “If you want to do
this job, then do it. Show them.”
    Why was he encouraging her when it
meant he was going to have to see more of her?
    Fuck me. The truth was, he wanted to see more of her. He also found he didn’t want to
see her looking so doubtful of her own abilities.
    She lifted her eyes again and met his
briefly before her gaze skittered away again. Then she asked in a
low voice, “What if I can’t?”
    He studied her face, her pretty lips
pressed together, her eyes lowered once again. He gave his head a
small shake. “You said it yourself, Honey. You’ve got the
education. You’ve got experience through your field work. You’ve
got connections in L.A. You’re smart. If you’re willing to work at
it, there’s no reason in the world you can’t do it.”
    He saw her throat move as she
swallowed, using her fork to move lettuce and cheese and tomatoes
around in her salad bowl, but not eating any of it. Then she lifted
her eyes and met his.
    “You don’t even know me,” she said
quietly. “How can you be so sure of that?”
    He wasn’t sure how to answer that. It
was true; he didn’t really know her any more. But hell. He believed
in her. He shrugged. “I don’t know. But I am.”
    She nodded. “Well. Thank
you.”
     
    *
     
    Honey was kicking herself for
confessing all that shit to Matt, putting her insecurities and
vulnerabilities out there for him. She didn’t do that with anyone,
so why she was spilling her guts to Matt Heller she had no
idea.
    She’d just moved into an apartment
that she needed to pay the next month’s rent on. She’d met Farrah
and Mia—not that they were best friends or anything, but Mia was
cute and she liked hanging out with her. And if she didn’t do well
at this job, she’d just prove everyone right—she was nothing but a
spoiled party girl. Those were all good reasons to stick it
out.
    But most of all, it was Matt’s faith
in her that cut right to her core.
    Because in all her life, she didn’t
think anyone had ever believed in her like that.
    It made her feel weird, all squishy
and warm inside, a feeling that seemed to swell