Page 25 of The Billionaire's Wife

“And you didn’t tell me?” Cody scooped up a bite of rice.

“He swore me to secrecy.”

“Who would I tell?” Cody frowned.

Noah shook his head. “Come on, man. A promise is a promise.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Cody sighed. “I just need to know if the fundraising schedule is going to change. Are we adding new events? Shifting to different events? Going virtual with everything?”

“Why would we go virtual?” Noah bit into a piece of chicken.

“You haven’t been on the receiving end of one of Jackson’s budget grillings yet. He…does not love the events that we do. But Mr. Ballentine has always believed it’s important to see people face-to-face and give them a good time when you’ve got your hand out.” Cody took another bite. “If we go virtual with stuff? I’m going to be out of a job. Or at least down to something half time. But probably completely out.”

“Worried about keeping a roof over your head?” Wes grinned as he pulled a chair closer to the coffee table.

“I do have a wife now.” Cody chuckled. “Obviously, no. But what would I do all day? I don’t want to sit around and twiddle my thumbs just because I can.”

“You can work at the bookstore with Megan.” Austin pointed at Cody. “She’d love that.”

Cody appeared to consider it.

I swallowed the bite I’d been chewing. “Maybe run that by Megan before you bank on it.”

“Why wouldn’t it work?” Cody turned to me, eyebrows raised. “I like books. I love Megan. Her store is amazing. And she just had one of her best employees leave because she’s moving out of the area to somewhere cheaper.”

“Oof. I hadn’t heard that.” Concern was visible on Austin’s face.

“Just happened today.” Cody shrugged. “Megan’s still kind of in shock.”

“Employees are hard.” Wes glugged soda from his can. “I kind of knew that going in to opening a retail store. They talked about it some in the classes I took. But man, the reality of it is just…you can’t describe it. I feel like I pay well. We have benefits. I bend over backward to schedule people when they want. And still it’s like I’m some kind of evil overlord in their eyes.”

Austin nodded. “Same. At least the folks at the tutoring center also believe in what we’re doing. It’s a little different than a retail worker. And still. I don’t feel like I’m unreasonable either, but they appear to think otherwise. Mostly I’ve been letting Kayla handle it, because she has more patience than I do.”

Wes laughed. “Sunshine is even more annoyed than me. But she’s also doing some data crunching to see about adjusting our hours so we can handle it all on our own. I don’t love running the store out front—I’d much rather do classes and plan trips—but she doesn’t mind it, so it’d probably work.”

I set my plate down on the coffee table. “You’ve been back from your island for what, a whole day, and she’s already taking over the shop?”

“She’s a go-getter. And it’s all kicking ideas around right now. I’m not going to fire anyone who’s currently working. But I know they’ll start quitting eventually. It’s good to have a plan in place. Maybe the plan is ‘hire a replacement.’ Maybe it’s not.” Wes shrugged.

“I don’t think I’d replace my admin if she quit.” The words were out of my mouth before I’d really thought them through. Huh. Did I not like having her?

“Can big-shot lawyers answer their own phones? I thought that was against the code somewhere.” Scott’s eyes lit with laughter. “Or do you just want to make sure you don’t miss a call from your girlfriend?”

The room went silent.

“Tristan has a girlfriend?” Cody scooted forward and looked between me and Scott. “This is news. How’d you find out?”

“He brought her by on Monday. Of course, he seems also to have scared her off. So maybe he doesn’t have one anymore.” Scott smirked at me and leaned back.

“This sounds like a story.” Austin settled his plate on his lap. “I do like a dinner story.”

One day I was going to get Scott back. Somehow. When he least expected it. I drained my soda and set the empty can on the table. “I do not have a girlfriend. I have a wife.”

Everyone froze. It would have been comical in different circumstances. Forks hovered in mid-air, mouths gaped. And everyone’s eyes were staring directly at me.

“A wife?” Wes held up a hand. “Hold on and roll that back. Sounds like you should start at the beginning.”

What had I been thinking? I sighed. “I told you all about Faith.”

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