Page 77 of The Billionaire Experience

“What am I supposed to do, sell her the house she grew up in?”

Dante frowned. “No. That’s shitty.”

“Exactly.” Brody was pleased to hear Dante agree with him. “Anyway, she would have bought it from her grandfather if she hadn’t moved in with her boneheaded ex. I’ve made that mistake before.”

“With Lindy.” Dante shook his head from side to side. “I don’t know Reagan, but she sure as fuck doesn’t seem anything like Lindy.”

“Not even close.” Lindy and Brody had outgrown each other in a matter of weeks. Knowing that was what had kept him from feeling guilty about breaking up with her in the first place.

“You guys okay over here? Refill?” Amani nodded at Brody’s empty bottle. He hadn’t realized he’d finished it.

“Sure.” When she uncapped and handed over another beer, he tipped his head toward Dante and said, “Fair warning. My brother’s kind of a dick.”

“Funny, he said the same thing about himself.” She met eyes with Dante and licked her lips. Brody felt like a third wheel.

“I raise billions for charity,” Dante told her. “I can’t be all bad.”

“Billions?” Amani hoisted an eyebrow.

“Yeah.”

“Sounds like you’re making up for something not so big.” She winked before moving to serve another patron.

“I like her,” Brody said.

“Yowch.” But Dante grinned, unbothered by her dismissal. Easy come, easy go with him.

“Somehow I think you’ll recover. Should we eat?”

“No dinner plans with the girlfriend?”

Girlfriend? Brody steadied himself with one hand on the bar. It was as if his world had tilted violently to one side.

“Reagan is having dinner with her grandfather.” Brody studied the menu. “I’m not taking the bait on the girlfriend comment. Get some new material.”

“You two are working together, shopping for gifts together, and are cozied into a house with a yard that you mow.”

“So?” Brody shoved the menu at Dante, mainly to distract him. Didn’t work.

“So, you have always regarded settling down as a death sentence. You’re like a frog in boiling water, brother. The heat’s been going up and you haven’t noticed.”

Brody scoffed. That wasn’t true. He’d moved to the house in Merriweather Springs to write. Reagan had moved in with him out of convenience. “It’s practical. That’s it.”

“Does she see it as practical? Or as something more?”

Brody’s mind went to the weekend. Particularly when they’d stared into each other’s eyes after having sex the night of the party. There had been a closeness between them he hadn’t noticed before, and he hadn’t shied away from it. But it wasn’t as if he’d shut her out. He was allowed to care about her. She was easy to care about.

“She knows what this is, and about my plans to leave when I’m done with the book. How about coconut shrimp?” Brody shifted in his seat. If he were being honest, he didn’t know what Reagan did or didn’t know. He pictured her plush lips, her naked body against his with nothing at all between them, and suddenly he wasn’t sure he’d walk away unscathed.

He swiped a bead of sweat from his forehead.

“So you two have discussed it?” Dante waved at the bartender and then ordered coconut shrimp and an order of cheese sticks. When she’d gone, he folded his arms in front of him on the bar top. “And she’s cool with you leaving her behind.”

“That’s a dramatic way of putting it, but yes.” He couldn’t remember the exact conversation, but he’d mentioned leaving multiple times. “She knows the plan.”

“And you told her that you’re giving her the house.”

“Not…yet. We’ve been busy.”

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