Model Attraction by Sharon C. Cooper Read Free Book Online

from the ground up and within five years had made it into a million-dollar business. While in college, Austin had interned for his father, working six days a week while carrying a full class load. He had always had business sense, even from a very young age, and had been good with numbers. His father had groomed him to one day fill the role of chief financial officer. His BA in business and finance, as well as his MBA, enhanced what he had learned on the job.
    â€œI had planned to have that information to you this morning, but you’ll definitely have it on your desk before I leave today.”
    Austin got to the closed conference room door before his father spoke again.
    â€œSon, I know it’s none of my business, but when are you going to let the past go?” He nodded toward the newspaper. “It’s clear you two have some unfinished business. And I have watched you the last few years, getting in and out of relationships, looking for something you apparently haven’t found. Is it possible that you’ve been looking in the wrong place? Maybe Janna is what’s missing in your life.”
    â€œDad.”
    â€œHear me out.” His father grabbed the newspaper from the table and refolded it, sticking it in the file that was in his hand. “There’s nothing I want more than for you and your brother to find women who will make you as happy as your mother has made me. But there’s something you need to understand. Getting hurt is a part of life. Staying hurt is a choice.”
    Austin stood stunned. His father was an intelligent man, a man he’d always looked up to. Hearing him go deep on him was a new experience, though.
    â€œYou are never going to find what you’re looking for until you deal with whatever happened between you and Janna. You’re also not going to find it if you continue to spend every waking hour here at the office or holed up in your workshop.”
    When most people went home to their families or out for drinks after work, Austin spent his spare time at home in his workshop. Since he was a kid, he’d loved working with wood and as an adult built cabinets and chests in his spare time.
    â€œSearch your heart and reevaluate your priorities. I guarantee you’ll get the life you long for.”
    Silence fell between them until Austin asked, “So when did you know Mom was the one?”
    His father chuckled. “The first time I kissed her. From that moment on, she was the first person I thought of when I woke up each day and the last person I thought of before I fell asleep each night.”
    A sick feeling swirled around inside Austin’s chest. Hearing the same words Zoe had spoken made him realize that he hadn’t thought about her all weekend. What the heck? How could he have planned to marry someone whom he could forget that easily? The day before the fundraiser, she had flown to Tampa to check on her mother, who had taken a fall.
    Shaking his head, he followed Patrick out of the conference room.
    â€œI’m sorry things didn’t work out with you and Zoe, but in a way, maybe it was a blessing in disguise,” his father said before he headed down the hall toward his office.
    Austin stared after him before returning to his own office, feeling the weight of his father’s words. He was right about one thing. It was time Austin put the past in the past. But how could he? Each time he saw Janna, the hurt she’d caused came back to him as if it had happened yesterday.
    Austin placed the files on his desk and dropped into his chair, his head in his hands. Janna came crashing back into his life as only she could do. He shook his head, unable to stop the smile that came with the thought. Even without trying, she had shaken up his world as she used to do. He had always been a slave to routine and normalcy, while she was the opposite. There was never anything normal about their time together. Either she was doing something