Page 35 of Her Forever Billionaire

‘Kelsi, I heard you being sick ten minutes ago.’

Oh, great. There was no privacy. ‘Then why ask?’

His smile was a little grim. ‘Just seeing whether you’re able to be honest with me.’

Now she felt even worse. ‘Jack...’

He held up his hand to shut her up. ‘We’ll get there, Kelsi. These are the early days, okay?’

‘But—’

‘Look, I know how hard it is for a parent to bring a child up alone. I’m aware of the sacrifices. You know, if we do this together, maybe we don’t have to make the same kind of sacrifices.’

But she didn’t want to do this together as friends. Her feelings for him were far too complicated for that. And the more she was getting to know him, those feelings were becoming even more complicated. She leaned back against the frame of the door. ‘What did your father sacrifice?’

Jack studied the fence for a moment before answering flat and direct. ‘His dreams.’

But that was nothing on what his mother had sacrificed. He clenched his muscles to stop himself crushing Kelsi to him and begging her to please, please, please be okay. The good feeling about how well his knee was working had died when he’d heard Kelsi being sick. He was ready to get back into full training. But she was weakening by the day. So he was trapped and confused and honestly, the whole thing terrified him.

‘You mean the lodge? He died before it was finished?’

He dragged his mind back to the conversation. ‘Not the lodge, no. That was just a business deal for him. An investment.’ Something to put the money into that would make more—and still be related to his life’s love.

‘So, what were his dreams?’

Jack sighed, his emotions still all over the place. He hated knowing how the pregnancy was affecting her physically. Sure, morning sickness was normal—but it didn’t feel normal. It made him worry all the more. But even though he didn’t want to talk to her about that, he wanted to reach out somehow. ‘He was a climber, one of those guys who climbed any peak. But after...’ he paused to clear his throat ‘...after my mother died he shelved all his plans. He had to look after me and make us some money and the only business he knew was the mountains. He began small—organising tours. One of the first adventure operators in the country. And he was good, business grew. He started taking overseas trips—to China and stuff. His client base grew—the wealthy in particular. He was good at PR—charming.’

‘Like you.’

She said it so soft and quick he wasn’t sure if she really had. So he went on—but with his blood running a little warmer.

‘I went with him on every trip. He managed it all, team leader, you know? Hired guides, organised agents, ran base camp. But he never went up the summits again— never took the risk. Always stayed safe. As far as he was concerned, I’d lost my mother, and he wasn’t risking my losing him too early, as well. So he put his own ambitions on hold until he’d got us financially secure and until he thought I was old enough to deal with it, should the worst happen to him.’

It hadn’t taken him that long to get extremely financially successful—his father had had the gift—the knowledge and the charisma and the drive and Jack had inherited much of that.

‘And his ambition?’

‘Everest, of course.’ Jack shook his head. ‘Not even the hardest any more, but still the big one. Even though millions have been up there already, he still wanted to.’

‘And he never did?’

‘He was planning it once the lodge was done. But he had a heart attack—out of the blue. And he never got to do all he’d wanted to.’

Waiting all that time, ’til Jack was old enough, had been a waste, because Jack was never going to be old enough not to feel the pain. Forty-eight wouldn’t necessarily have been any better than eighteen had been. And at least at eighteen Jack had already been making money on his own, thanks to sponsorship deals and pro comp winnings which he’d invested spectacularly well.

‘Do you think he was bitter about not climbing it when you were young?’

‘He said he wasn’t. He said he didn’t care about it as much any more.’ But Jack hadn’t believed him. Jack had figured that was just his dad making out it was all okay. But as a kid when he’d asked why his dad didn’t stand on top of the world like all his clients did, he’d said he had more exciting challenges than that to deal with. That was a line, too. So Jack had learnt the lesson—no putting it off. If you wanted to achieve your dreams, you had to put them first.

His passion was the boarding—but it needed ruthless confidence and no real distractions. If he was going to develop a few more final tricks, he needed to do them in the next year or so. Except now he had this to deal with. But at least he was in a better position than his dad—he had the money already to ensure Kelsi and the baby had the security they needed. He could give her the base that was important. It might not be everything, but it wasn’t bad. And he could still focus on his dreams, right? This wasn’t going to be the distraction that killed it all. Because he was sorting it so they’d be okay.

‘You didn’t want to climb?’ Kelsi was watching him. He wished he could read the expression in her eyes. Except all he could see when he looked at her was his own reflection.

‘It’s much more fun coming down than going up. Much faster.’ He half smiled. ‘I spent my childhood hanging round the mountains—getting my schoolwork done as soon as I could so I could pick up my board and go to it for a few hours. The best.’

‘You never went to normal school?’

‘Not really. I’d attend in the winter term back in New Zealand, had a tutor when we were on tour. But I went pro when I was in my teens.’ He’d done his final school exams by correspondence in the end.

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