Page 49 of The Billionaire Love Match

FIFTEEN

“What can we do aboutthis, Mom?” Colt paced in the trailer next to the mansion. He was supposed to be getting his hair done before the next round of group dates. “Did you see social media? The app?”

“I saw that our ratings are exponentially increasing every week. Even your off-the-book plays like sending Becca home and asking Casey spur of the moment—which I’m still unhappy about—are fueling the public interest.”

Colt pulled up his phone and began to read tweets, still pacing. “ ‘Clearly the girl is whack. Let’s hope @coltwood can open his eyes. #basketcasey.’ Or this one: ‘Hope the next date is to a psych ward. You can leave her there. #basketcasey #sendherhome.’ ‘Can you see the dollar signs in her eyes? #basketcasey.’ This is ridiculous.”

“She had a hashtag before. What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that these are the nice ones that I’m reading. There are some I had trouble even looking at they’re so cruel.”

Grace sighed and looked at him like he was a child and she was trying to make him understand. “That’s the nature of the show. Things flip. They change. Maybe next week the target will be on someone else.”

“Is that your plan? Because I’m wondering how much of this is you. You knew Casey was afraid of water, right? And you knew that there was nothing going on between her and Ty, who you also know is my best friend.”

Grace gave a laugh that wasn’t humorous. “Colt, you sound like a conspiracy theorist.”

“But you have very extensive files on everyone, right?”

“I do, but I’m not making the calls on every detail of the show. Or consulting the files every time. I’m running more than just this show. What is this really about, Colt? Do you have feelings for this Basket Casey?”

Disdain laced her voice so thick Colt could practically taste it. If they had a normal relationship, he would have told her that he was falling for Casey, but was equally terrified that he was losing her week by week. For a moment he allowed himself to imagine that his father was still there, that part of his mother had not died with him.

What would it be like not to feel the tension of his mother’s ambition stretched between them? To feel like a son and not a pawn?

He could almost envision a world where he could bring Casey home to meet his parents. His father’s booming voice singing a blessing, something they had done even when Colt was in high school. His father’s rich voice made up for the fact that there were only three of them, not the large family he knew his parents had hoped for, but never talked about.

There would be paper napkins and glasses of wine and a cloth-wrapped basket of bread passed around. They’d talk and laugh over dinner, Casey brushing her bangs out of her eyes and holding his hand under the table. Coffee with dessert in the living room. He and Casey would wash the dishes while his father and mother sat in their reading chairs, him with the paper and her with a novel.

“Colt? Where’d you go?”

He opened his eyes. The pain of the vision in his head meeting with his current reality hurt so much it was hard to breathe.

“I’m right here,” he said. He leaned back against the wall of the trailer.

“You looked so lost,” she said. Colt hated the way hope tried to leap up in his heart at the sound of tenderness in her voice. He would not let her use her softness as a weapon.

Grace was well aware of how the tiniest bit of kindness in her made him respond. He’d said yes to deferring college so he could help with the business. Which turned into not going at all.

He’d said yes to living at home years longer than he should have.

Yes to working deals he didn’t approve of and movies he wish had never been made.

And yes to this show and to his own studio, bought for the price of his integrity.

He sucked in a breath.

“Does it matter how I feel about Casey or anyone else for that matter? You’ve already written the outcome of the show, haven’t you? Why don’t you just tell me how it turns out.”

“I like the surprise.”

“You like the upper hand.”

She sighed. “We aren’t enemies, Colt.”

“Well, we definitely don’t seem like family either.”

Even though he didn’t want to care, Colt couldn’t help but feel ashamed seeing the hurt in his mother’s face as he slammed out of the trailer.

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