Bachelor's Bait by Mari Carr

Decided I’d use my powers for good rather than money.”
    Sophie fell silent for a moment. He wondered if she was appalled by his decision.
    Sophie glanced around his office once more. “That’s pretty gutsy, Marc. And very, very cool.”
    Her words were completely sincere and once again he was struck by how different the real Sophie was from the one he had created in his mind. “My parents’ response was the opposite of yours. You say ‘gutsy’, they say ‘insane’. You say ‘cool’, they say ‘What the hell are you thinking?’.”
    Her brow creased and for the first time, he noticed sadness in her eyes. “I guess it’s obvious you went against their advice. Are they okay with your decision now? Are you still close to your parents?”
    He leaned back in his chair. “I’m not going to lie. We had a rough year or two. Lots of family holidays have ended in arguments, but they’re getting there. Enough time has passed that they know my decision wasn’t just a whim. That I’m serious about what I want to do with my life. The main problem was, it was my dad’s law firm that I quit.”
    “Jesus.”
    Marc chuckled. “Yeah. Well. Dad suffered a minor heart attack last year and I think it’s opened his eyes to why I made the decision I did. Since then, I’ve noticed the disappointed looks he used to heap on me have disappeared. He’s started asking about my work here when before he pretended I didn’t have a job at all.”
    “That’s progress then. It’s a shame it took something like a heart attack for him to realize the work you do here is good. And important.”
    Her words touched him more than he could say. If anyone would understand how he’d grown up, the pressure that had been put on him to succeed, to make money at any cost, it was probably Sophie.
    He’d given up his former life while fighting to keep his identity relatively anonymous in Portland. He was determined to keep all of that in the past, but something about Sophie made him long to share confidences.
    Marc pushed the thought away. He’d already stepped over the line last night, telling her things he shouldn’t have. Time to put some space between them. “I don’t think you came here today to hear my life story. What’s up?”
    Sophie bent forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “I want to hold a fundraiser for the community center.”
    Marc blew out a long breath. “Soph. I know you don’t think your dad is involved in purchasing the property, but—”
    “I know he’s trying to close down the center.”
    For a week, Sophie had stood her ground, insisting her father would never be involved in the shady dealings surrounding the community center while trying to get in touch with her old man. Looked as if she’d succeeded. “You do?”
    “He’s back in town. I went to see him this morning. He told me he was trying to buy the property and what he hoped to do with it. I basically told him I’d stop him.”
    Marc didn’t respond immediately as he tried to picture Sophie and Jasper going at it head-to-head. In the past, he would have put his money on Jasper, but after spending time in Sophie’s presence, he had no doubt she could hold her own in an argument with her dad.
    “We have less than two months, Soph. The kind of fundraising we’d need to arrange would have to be on a large scale. Events like that take longer than a few weeks to organize.”
    “I know, but I’ve already got something in the works. Originally, the dinner last night was phase one in a two-part charity drive for the domestic abuse shelter. I stopped by there to talk to Jenna, the manager of the shelter, before I came here. The second fundraiser, a bachelor auction, is set to take place in a few weeks. Jenna agrees that the center needs to be saved. So many of the women and children who seek shelter at her place have benefited from the programs offered at the center. We’ve decided all the money taken in at the bachelor auction will be used to