Mother, Please! Read Free

he’d associated with over the past few years appealed to him even less. Ever since his mother had died eighteen months ago, he didn’t want to do anything anymore—not even visit his father, who still lived in upstate New York where Gunner had grown up. Quincy Senior had walked out on Gunner’s mother when Gunner was only two. They’d barely heard from him—until Gunner started seeing some real success with racing. Then Quincy Senior began to show significant interest,and now all he could talk about was when Gunner won Rookie of the Year, the Busch Clash, the Coca Cola 600, his first Winston Cup, his last Winston Cup, his other Winston Cups, or his statistics for any given year.
    Glory days. Gunner didn’t like discussing the past with his father or anyone else. Recounting the achievements of his racing career made him feel as though the best part of his life was over. No one wanted to be a has-been at thirty-five.
    “Your father mentioned you’re a physicist,” he said, preferring conversation to his thoughts.
    “Yes.”
    “Which means you spend your days where?”
    “Working in a laboratory for Lenox-Moltinger.”
    “What kind of company is Lenox-Moltinger?”
    She twisted slightly to study the crowd at the edge of the dance floor, and he saw a blush creep up her neck. Following her gaze, he noticed a fiftyish woman smiling into the face of a young man, both of them unnaturally tanned for Christmastime. They were standing by the silver and white tree, holding hands in a way that suggested to Gunner they weren’t mother and son. “Someone you know?” he asked.
    April jerked her attention back to him and flushed even more brightly. “Lenox-Moltinger builds computer processors,” she said, reverting to his earlierquestion. “You see, light travels extremely fast under normal circumstances, Mr. Stevens—”
    “Gunner,” he broke in with a smile. He’d heard the respect and pride in Walt’s voice when he’d introduced April and knew it couldn’t hurt to win her over.
    “Um…okay. Gunner, then,” she said, obviously flustered and still preoccupied with the couple she was surreptitiously watching. “Anyway, light is a very efficient way to move data.”
    “Hence the use of fiber-optic cables.”
    “Exactly. But I’m trying to do the opposite. I’m trying to slow the speed of light.”
    Her eyes were now fixed on a point past his shoulder. Never had he received less of a woman’s attention. When he glanced back, he saw that it was the same couple who held her interest. “Slow it?” he said, bending his head to fall within her range of vision.
    “As much as possible,” she murmured.
    “Why? When it comes to computers, I thought speed was the name of the game.”
    “It is when you want to move data.” She tilted her head to look around him and he finally turned so she couldn’t see anything.
    She blinked and focused on him. “It’s much less desirable when you want to store data.”
    “So that’s what you’re trying to do? Store data using light instead of the usual hard drive?”
    “Simply put, yes. In a few years, the Bose-Einstein condensate will enable us to revolutionize the whole computer industry.”
    Gunner noticed the older woman with the younger man leaving the tree. “Ashton Automotive employees seem pretty close,” he said, turning her and nodding toward the couple.
    Her lips tightened, but she didn’t reveal the reason for her acute interest. “Is that why you want to purchase the company?” she asked. “Because of the camaraderie?”
    “Partly.” Ashton Automotive had several elements that appealed to Gunner—it was the right size, sold the right product, had the right image. But he was mostly interested in owning a business he could continue to build. Since he’d retired a year ago, he’d been living the rich bachelor’s life, spending millions on houses and cars and boats, and hanging a new supermodel on his arm for every charity function he attended.