"Because I got tired of them kissing my ass," Laurie said quietly. "I'm not saying that they are all bad people. But most of them hung out because of who my father is. And the ones that didn't care about my father weren't exactly interested in my conversation. They would agree with anything I said just for a chance to get into my pants. I realize that I'm not the best speaker in the world, and maybe I'm not going to be breaking any IQ records anytime soon, but I didn't want to be treated like a blow-up doll with a trust fund. Then I saw you. And despite what...