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The bluntness of his question took her by surprise. But she found she liked it. She shook her head. ‘No, I’m not with anyone right now.’
Hadn’t been for ages. But he didn’t need to know that. She struggled to remember the last time he’d been linked with someone. He always seemed to choose women who were intimidatingly beautiful and accomplished. Something Faye had obviously absorbed subliminally over the years.
‘It’s strange that we’ve never met face to face before,’ he noted. ‘When we’ve been present at many of the same events over the years.’
Faye bit back a wry smile. ‘That might be the case, but I don’t think we’re quite on the same...level.’
‘Your family name is about as old as mine.’
Faye shrugged. ‘Nevertheless, MacKenzie Enterprises is a minnow compared to Holt Industries.’
‘Smaller, maybe, but no less successful in its own right. How is your father, by the way? I’ve always had a lot of respect for him. He’s straight-talking.’
Faye pushed aside her niggling anxieties. ‘He’s fine. Slower now, but no less able.’
Her father had been involved in a car accident some years previously and had damaged his legs, so he was now confined to a wheelchair, or walking frame.
‘It’s just you and him?’
Faye nodded, wondering where this was going. ‘Yes. I’m an only child, and my mother passed away when I was still a teenager.’
‘I’m sorry...you were young to lose her.’
Faye shrugged minutely. ‘My father and I had each other.’
‘He never remarried?’
Faye shook her head. ‘No, he adored her. They were an urban legend...a love-match.’
‘You were lucky to have that. My parents were most definitely not a love-match, and my father has never been the paternal type.’
‘They divorced, didn’t they?’
Primo nodded. ‘When I was much younger. Our mother walked out the door one day and never came back. I’ve only seen her sporadically since then.’
Faye sucked in a breath at the easy way he’d revealed an undoubtedly traumatic incident in his life. ‘That’s tough.’
Primo seemed unconcerned. ‘It was a long time ago. I don’t like to dwell on the past. It holds us back.’
Faye took the hint.
Move on.
Emboldened by this frank exchange, she said, ‘I read that you have full control of your family business now.’
‘My father never really did care about the legacy. He just did his job and retired as soon as he could.’ Primo’s mouth twisted a little. ‘No problem with succession in our family.’
Faye frowned. ‘Don’t you have a brother?’ She vaguely recalled something about him walking away from the family business some years ago.
‘Yes, Quintano. But he’s never been interested in the family business—and he became even less so when he found out our father wasn’t his father.’
Faye had heard about this, but had never been sure how true it was. ‘He doesn’t live here, does he?’
‘No, he lives in Brazil with his wife and his son. And they had twin girls a few months ago.’
Faye felt a familiar clutch of pain down low in her abdomen. A mixture of emotion and the memory of the pain she’d suffered. ‘Do you see them much?’
A shadow crossed Primo’s face. The first time this evening she’d seen it.