Page 37 of The Billionaire's Bad News Baby

God, how did he put it into words? He stopped to think, trying to pull together a sentence that might come close to conveying at least some of his thoughts, but as he fell quiet, frowning in concentration, he could see Kayla’s expression shutting down again. Like all she needed was for him to say something rather than just being a blank wall.

“I’m not good with words,” he blurted out, desperate to get rid of that look on her face, to never see it again. It seemed to work, at least for now, so Elio kept talking. “I’m not good with words, so I just don’t say anything. Usually it works fine, but… I was wrong.”

He didn’t even really know what he was saying; he was just stringing words together at this point. But Kayla’s face was no longer crumpled. Instead, she was watching him quietly, waiting now that there was a promise of more words to come. Elio took a deep breath and jumped into the deep end instead of being a coward. That needed to stop. Now.

“So,” he said, going in blind. “I’ve been… awful, really.”

“No—” she tried to protest.

“No, I have,” Elio insisted. “I have. Especially when you did the right thing. You’re right, it’s better for everyone that I knew as soon as possible, that you came and told me. You went to all this effort and now you're sick on top of it, and I’ve just been hiding away in my office like a little boy, not a grown man who needs to take responsibility for himself. Who needs to take responsibility for you.”

Kayla shrugged a little, looking overwhelmed by it all. “I don’t blame you.”

“Yeah, exactly. You’re good enough to not blame me, which is all the more reason to beg your forgiveness for being an idiot.”

“To be fair, I seem to have a habit of being quite dramatic.” A little smile crept onto her face, and the relief Elio felt seeing it was dizzying.

“It’s better than being boring,” he said with a shrug, and it was true. Kayla made a third attempt to dry her face and it seemed to do the trick this time. Elio lent a hand, swiping her cheekbone with a thumb.

“So I’m sorry,” he said, hoping that she knew how serious he was. “Can we start fresh? Give me a chance to act like an actual adult?”

“Plenty of adults run away from things like this, Elio.”

“Not good ones.”

The way she looked at him then… he figured that was the moment she knew he meant what he was saying.

“Could we start fresh?” he asked again. “Whatever this is, whatever we are… I mean, at least let’s start back at square one on the same page, you know?”

He knew how pathetic he sounded. He deserved to sound pathetic the way he’d been neglecting this entire situation. For some miraculous reason, Kayla nodded as if he was worth a second chance.

“Okay,” she said, nodding. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

It was getting darker as the minutes ticked by, the sunset no longer lighting up the beach with golden hues. Elio stood and brushed the sand off of his trousers. Kayla looked like she was going to follow but then stopped mid-movement.

“I think I need help,” she said, looking around for something to grip to get off the sand and finding nothing.

“You know,” he said, trying to lighten the mood. “You’ve really got to stop sitting down in random places if you’re unable to get up. You’re going to get stuck like an upturned turtle.”

Kayla laughed and reached up, taking his hands and letting him haul her to her feet. “I feel like an upturned turtle,” she said, her voice still thick from crying. “That’s a very accurate picture you’ve painted.”

“Exactly. So like I said, at least tell me where you want to sit and I’ll bring you a chair so you don’t end up stuck in a ditch somewhere.”

“And what?” she asked, getting her balance as Elio picked up her sandals from where they’d fallen on the sand. “You’ll just follow me around the island with a chair?”

“Yes,” he said immediately. Kayla was caught off guard by the seriousness in his voice and her tentative smile vanished. Elio swallowed. One apology just wasn’t going to cut it; he knew that…

“I told you,” he said, any hint of joking long gone. “I’m going to do better. I shouldn’t be starting just now, and I wish I could go back in time and fix that…”

He let the words drift off, not sure how to put into words how ashamed of himself he was right now. He looked at Kayla’s hand in his, so much smaller than his own. Then her grip tightened, her fingers threading through his own and strengthening their hold.

“You know,” she said. “If you find yourself without a chair, you could get on all fours and I could use you like a stool.”

Elio grinned, just happy that some of her sarcastic spark was coming back, no matter how small and wavering. He brought her knuckles to his lips and kissed them softly.

“I would be happy to,” he said, meaning every word.

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