Chapter 4

Natalie

Holy hell, he didn't really just say the Cartwright Endowment, did he? I mean, that's not possible, right? That the man who's making me all hot and bothered is part of the family that's been covering my scholarship for the last two years, and who'll be taking it away as soon as they see my newest grades?

"Didn't I say earlier?" Jamison asks, and I shake my head no, still staring at him in shock. "My family owns Cartwright Construction. I work in the carpentry division. Do custom jobs for clients for everything from cabinetry to woodwork, like moldings and trim. I also design my own furniture that we offer through the company and work with my sister-in-law Serena on the ready-to-assemble line that Adam's company then manufactures for us."

"Oh my god," I gasp, covering my mouth trying to breathe through the panic washing over me. I knew from the way he talked that his family had money, but the Cartwrights don't just have money…they have boatloads of money. Hell, they're the company that Nick mainly contracts through, which in turn allowed him to buy this place and fix it up.

All of my safety and security the last two years, can be directly tied back to them and Jamison's part of them? I don't know whether to laugh or cry about it, whether in happiness or fear is questionable though. I don't want to lose any of it, and I'm definitely on the cusp of losing all of it.

"What? What's wrong, baby?" he asks gently, moving my hand away from my face, holding onto it again.

It makes me feel so safe, seen, and special that I definitely don't want to lose this feeling. To find myself alone when he learns that everything I have comes from his family. Let alone the likelihood that I'll lose my scholarship if anyone knows there's something going on between us. There are so many rules tied to the scholarships that dating someone associated with it is surely to break one.

What happens if they revoke it? Will the school demand money from me? I wish I had internet out here to check my computer, but there isn't any, and I don't have a data plan on my cell phone that would allow me to go online that way. It's way too hard to read the documents on my phone.

Jamison draws my attention back up to him, as he gently strokes my chin with his rough thumb. It sends heat rolling through my veins and there's no denying that I desperately want him in ways I definitely never wanted Craig. It could be so easy to just shut out my brain's worries long enough to give myself over to him. But what might happen afterwards is keeping me from risking it. Especially now.

"I know it can be daunting for people to learn who my family is, Nat," he says, and for once, I love the shortening of my name. When Craig tried to call me that I despised it, made me feel like he was referring to me as some pesky little bug, but from Jamison? It sounds like a sweet caress. "Others see dollar signs and eagerly throw themselves at us, but they don't get close, because while we may have grown up with money, didn't have to worry about where we were going to live, what we were going to eat, our parents didn't spoil us either."

"Jamison," I sigh with a soft smile, shaking my head at the idea of him being spoiled. "No one could possibly think you're some rich spoiled jerk. They don't bother working and especially not with their hands the way you do, the way your hands say you do. They sit around, drinking at whatever time of day they want, spend their days golfing or yachting, anything to avoid doing any kind of honest work. They definitely wouldn't have stopped earlier when my head was telling me to slow down. They'd have run straight over all of my objections and taken what they wanted, even if I didn't want it, wasn't ready for it, right then as well."

"Our dad always told us if we were going to have sex to always be safe, and never pressure a woman that wasn't sure just because we wanted more. That it wasn't fair to either person, wouldn't be satisfying in the end. He also told us that sex for sex alone wouldn't truly satisfy the urges. Sure, you might get off, but it'd likely feel hollow afterwards. That real, true pleasure and fulfillment only happened with the right person, and it was okay to wait for that as well, no matter what anyone else said or thought. That if it weren't for Julie, he'd have preferred to wait until our Mom to even touch a woman," he adds, sending my brow upwards in surprise. "Not what you'd expect from a guy that started a million-dollar construction company from the ground up, huh?"

"Million-dollar?" I snort, staring hard at him.

"It was in the millions still when we were all born," he offers making me laugh softly. "The company really took off after Dad and Julie brought Serena onboard and started her décor line. With her help, followed by Johnnie and Jude coming in on the financial and operations side, before taking over as CFO and COO, it gave Dad time to expand things more. Opened up a lot of new avenues and created in-house departments rather than contracting with outsiders for most of it.

"When Jesse graduated, we all knew he was going to take over for Dad on the management side. He wasn't as much of a fan of the actual building stuff, but he had a head for business for sure. So, when Dad decided to retire to spend more time with Mom and the rest of us at home, he made Jesse the CEO of Operations and Julie the CEO of Construction Projects, because Julie loved every bit of the building process."

"Which is probably why you said she had some issues when it came out that she and Serena were together?" I guess, loving that their dad let his daughter take over a typically male role, while his sons took office jobs.

"Yeah, she got a lot of shit, some saying it should have been more obvious that she was a…well, a slur we don't let anyone in the company use if they want to keep their job," he says, his tone a bit grumbly and it just makes him hotter still. "Others didn't care who she slept with, though they still thought she wasn't capable of running the construction side of things because she was a woman, but Julie didn't take any shit. Not about her being in charge, or her being gay. When it came out fully to the public, the company actually grew further. Couples that had issues with other builders not wanting to work with them or do as they requested when it came to jobs because of their sexual preferences, started coming around to see if we'd take the jobs. With the zero-tolerance policy Dad implemented, everyone was welcome, whether client or employee."

"I bet they were glad to hear that. I was out with Craig last fall, we were at a restaurant for dinner with some of his friends and we had a waiter that was wearing makeup, had his nails painted and they were absolutely awful to him. They left no tip other than to tell him to stop dressing like a…" I stop as disgust rolls through me again. "I ended up seeing him on campus a couple weeks after that and we became friends. He's pretty much the only person that's been nice to me since everything with Craig went down. He's a few years older than me, but only a semester ahead of me in his early childhood education courses because he only has a partial scholarship. It covers six credit hours a semester, so he works at the restaurant to cover the rest and attends part-time.

"Presley was the only place that offered him any type of assistance at all, the other schools ignored his applications since Greg came from the foster care system. He moved around a lot, which resulted in him moving from school to school based on where the homes were located—he's from Sherman originally," I add when Jamison's brow furls a bit.

"Ah, yeah, they have what, four high schools there," he muses, and I nod. "So you're going for early childhood education?" he adds, a smile on his lips and I know I have to tell him the truth.

"Yeah…I um…well, my scholarship," I start, holding up a hand when he looks like he's about to try and reassure me again that I'll be able to complete my degree if I lose it. "It's from the Cartwright Endowment," I rush out, a shiver running through me at the smile that lights up his face.

"You're the first recipient of it then," he says, and I nod. "If anyone deserves it, I know it's you baby."

"I just…I'm sure people—the school would have problems with this…us," I add when his brow furls again in confusion, "if they knew I won it. If I'm able to keep it even."

"Why?" he questions, his eyes showing his confusion still.

"I'm sure it's against the rules to associate with the endowment's family. It's supposed to be an impartial program, to not award things based on who you know or might be involved with," I explain making a smile cross his face as his hand slid back behind my head, causing little shivers to shoot through my entire body. His touch completely enthralls me, and I seriously want more of it.

"Nat, you already had an association with our family when you won it," he says, and I shake my head at him because that's definitely not true. "Yes, you did, even if you weren't aware of it," he tells me, but I don't know what he means by that either. "If they wanted to ensure there were no associations with the benefactor of the endowment, they'd look into everyone that they knew, that had even the slightest attachment to them to disqualify them. It would only take a quick search to have learnt that you're Nick's sister and not only is he my friend, but we subcontract a ton of electrical work out to him through our company. If the school has an issue with us being personally involved, they can go fuck themselves, especially after doing nothing to help you with the Craig situation. Shit, that alone is likely to have my parents ready to pull the endowment, baby."

"They wouldn't care that some girl they don't even know was being harassed," I argue with a sigh, although it sounds amazing to think they'd fight for me. No one really has. I'm sure Nanci and Nick would if I told them what was going on, but it's not like they'd be listened to, not when there are people with money involved.

"They would, especially with the endowment at Presley," he argues making my brow lift a bit. "It's only been established for two years, not because my parents didn't want to offer help to students that needed it, but because they didn't want it to cause any unfair advantages for the rest of us kids."

"What?" I ask, not following at all.

"My mom was attending Presley on scholarship, going for an early childhood education degree," he adds making me smile a bit. "She didn't really want to be in school, to spend her life working—and not because she wanted to marry some rich guy and be pampered like a princess either. She wanted a family, kids, husband, all of that most. The scholarship was her way of getting out of a bad situation though, so she took it, and it led her to Dad. Neither of them forgot that, so they've quietly been supporting other scholarship foundations over the years to help others in similar situations be able to get an education. They didn't put it under their name because then when we all applied to college, we'd have an unfair advantage of being accepted. Not for what we've achieved ourselves, but because of our last name alone."

"Pretty sure they still saw your last name on your applications," I tease pulling a chuckle from him.

"True, but there are other Cartwrights out there in the world. It's not like we listed our family owned Cartwright Construction on the applications," he returns, giving me a wink. "We also weren't applying for scholarships because Dad had education funds arranged for all of us when we were born on top of trust funds that we couldn't touch until we attended college, or with his permission if college simply wasn't in our future," he adds, his tone grumbly and my brow lifts at that.

"I had plenty of arguments with my folks because they wanted me to get a degree in conjunction with going through the carpentry program at State's technical school. I didn't see any up side to doing the regular education courses or even getting a business degree. They told me that it wasn't that they didn't think I'd do well in the technical program or think it wasn't good enough for me. Hell, my dad encouraged me to attend it when I was determining what I wanted to pursue after high school. He wanted me to be aware of the other parts of business though. So if I didn't want to work for the company, wanted to do something on my own, I'd know how to lead or oversee anyone that worked for me. Much as I hated to admit it at the time, but my dad was right about getting my business degree—even though I ended up working for the company anyway. It's helped immensely with going through contracts with other companies. I was thankful for that as well as his requirement that we worked at least two summers while we were in high school."

His smile says everything. That while it might have been annoying not being able to do what they wanted for those two summers, they still respected their dad for making them do it. Not a lot of parents with money do that with their kids.

They think a trust fund and name is plenty to set them up in life and I hate it. Saw way too many of them back home in my high school since it was in the better part of town, let alone from the ones at Presley with money. He led by example which has to be why Jamison is so unlike all the guys with money I've ever met.

"We all worked for the company in some capacity from the time we were fifteen, learning about every department so we'd know if it was something we wanted to do in the future, while also teaching us work ethic," he adds putting a light smile on my lips. "The only ones in the family that don't work for the company in some capacity that are done with school are Jackie, Jennie, Jasmine and Jordan.

"All the girls took turns around some of the units outside of the construction processes, including Design, Finance, and Administration. Jackie's a full-time wife and mother but working in the financial unit helped her stick with a budget since Ethan didn't want to rely on her trust fund or take handouts from Dad to support them entirely. Jennie never really found a niche it felt. She helps out with some charities, takes care of her house and son, but she didn't desire to have lots of kids like Jackie did, or work like Julie did.

"Jordan probably hated working for the company the most. Not because he had to work, but because it wasn't what he wanted to be doing. He's always had two passions, cars and basketball. Dad relented for his second summer, letting him go to a basketball camp for the majority of it, as long as he agreed to work the rest of it somewhere within the company as well as every weekend until basketball season started the following year. He's now playing professionally," he says, and my jaw drops a bit in complete and utter disbelief that he could possibly mean what I think he does.