Page 6 of The Billionaire Land Baron

Chapter 2

Greg drove him a few minutes out of town on back roads, the conversation drying up to comfortable silence. Though Jake usually liked knowing where he was on a map, he was exhausted from the day and stared out the window rather than following the GPS on his phone. The landscape in East Texas looked way more like Louisiana or even the low country near Charleston, South Carolina: wild vegetation, swampy areas, and Spanish moss dangling from the trees. With the occasional Texas flair, of course. Most houses had Texas flags flying alongside or instead of the American flag and it seemed like every other pickup had a Don’t Mess with Texas bumper sticker.

The sun was getting low and Jake wished he had thought about dinner. The shop didn’t have a loaner car, so once he got to Shelby’s, he’d essentially be stuck. Maybe they had Lyft here? Doubtful. Maybe he could pay someone to use a secondary car or hire Matt to drive him around. If he wasn’t too upset still about Jake staying at Shelby’s.

Jake realized that he’d gotten used to what his money could buy. He didn’t think it had changed him that much. Memories of growing up poor didn’t seem so far off: eating ramen noodles by the package and cocktail sausages in a can. Picking out “new” school clothes at the Salvation Army because Goodwill was too expensive. Getting school supplies through local church drives.

The ghosts of those days clung to him in ways he didn’t want them to, coloring his decisions now. The idea of being stuck in a single place with no way of getting out made him feel panicky and claustrophobic. He realized in moments like this, when money couldn’t fix his problems, just how much he expected it to. It left him feeling slightly ashamed.

“Hey, Greg. You think anyone would let me pay to use their car for the week? Kind of an informal rental. Just so I’m not stuck. I mean, this is a little off the beaten path.”

Greg turned away from the road to give him a hard look, longer than anyone should look away from the road when behind the wheel. Jake felt sweat rising up under his collar.

“Don’t insult good people tossing your money around like that, boy. You could borrow a car from just about anyone in Lucky. If you asked nicely.”

“Oh, but—”

“No buts. I think Matt might let you borrow his old Jeep. He prefers the truck. I mean, who wouldn’t? But you could ask him.”

“Do you have his number?”

Jake punched the number in his phone as Greg recited it from memory. No one knew phone numbers by heart anymore. He realized as he saved the new contact that they’d turned onto a gravel road. Driveway, he corrected himself. He could see the lake at the end of the drive, lit up with sunset, just like the picture. Live oak trees stretched their hands over the road forming a shadowed tunnel. It was stunning.

It was the kind of driveway that seemed like it would lead to a white-columned plantation home, so Jake was surprised to see a squat house, hardly bigger than the Airstream trailer that sat across the yard from it. Like the whole town, the property looked like it needed a new coat of paint and a good handyman.

Greg pulled around the gravel drive to the front and idled while Jake got his bags from the back seat. “Best of luck to you,” Greg said, and winked. Then he drove away, leaving Jake standing in front of the house.

Shelby had messaged him through the app to say that he should knock on the front door and she’d get him settled in. Jake had stayed at his fair share of home shares like this. Some were totally seamless and some were completely awkward. If he had to guess, this place was going to be more of the second. Taking a breath, he knocked.

Almost immediately, the door flung open to reveal a tiny, beautiful woman with her light-brown hair in a single braid. She wore cutoff jean shorts and a bright blue tank top. Her feet were bare. And just the sight of her made Jake’s heart pick up the pace to a frantic level. He opened his mouth, but had no words.

He was used to seeing beautiful women at the events that Xander made him attend. Women in formal evening wear and flawless makeup, all looking like clones created in a lab, emerging with a complete set of social graces and the nose of a bloodhound when it came to money. Unlike Xan, who liked to have a different society woman on his arm every week, Jake never felt the pull of attraction to that polished type of woman.

Shelby was the opposite of that. But even without a trace of makeup on her face, she was stunning. Her light brown eyes had a spark to them, lighting them up from inside. Jake’s eyes glanced over the spray of freckles that dusted her cheeks and his gaze stopped on her lips, starting to turn up in a smile. The pull toward her was so immediate that a blush rose in his cheeks. He didn’t have the pale complexion of most redheads, but still blushed at the drop of a hat.

Then she smiled. Her grin looked more like the smile carved on a Jack O’Lantern, completely forced and a little terrifying. Jake stepped back without meaning to. It was startling and looked unnatural.

“Hello and welcome,” she said in a stilted voice, waving an arm to the side like a game show hostess. “Welcome to Sunset Lake. You have arrived at the best time—sunset.”

Jake simply stared. Was she joking around? He thought this had to be some kind of prank, but she pressed on.

“You’ll find yourself at home in the Airstream trailer and you can sit along the dock by the lake to enjoy our lovely weather—” Abruptly she dropped her game show hostess arm and pulled her head to one side, cracking her neck. “I can’t do this. Just ain’t me. Come in. I’m Shelby.”

She held out a hand and after a moment’s hesitation, Jake shook it. Her hand all but disappeared in his and the feel of her soft skin against his palm got his heart hammering again.

“Um,” was all he could say.

“Sorry about that,” she said, stepping back into the house. Her voice had dropped an octave and fallen into the twangy accent that he’d been hearing all day. It sounded better on her, almost melodic. “I’m trying to get my ratings up as a host, so I thought I’d work on a formal welcome and delivery. But I think I need to stick to my strengths. Because you look terrified. I won’t bite. Get off the porch and come in a spell. Daddy, you’re decent, right?”

“Don’t you start questioning my decency, darling,” a man’s voice called out from further in the house.

Jake stepped inside, but Shelby didn’t move. They stood toe to toe in the front hallway, which was about the size of a closet. It was as though she’d forgotten what to do next. She blinked up at him. She had a button nose with a few freckles across the bridge to match the ones on her cheeks. He stared into her golden-brown eyes, blinking up at him with long, dark lashes. What was she waiting for?

Something hung in the air between them and Jake fought for words to say. He didn’t know how to handle the stirring of attraction he felt standing so close to Shelby. After his last girlfriend Hannah, he’d avoided relationships. If he didn’t give himself too much free time to think about it, he didn’t mind being single. Solitary was safe. The twang of his nerves as he looked at Shelby was anything but safe.

When she reached up and touched his hair, standing on her tiptoes to reach, he was so startled that he froze, forgetting even to breathe.

“It’s red,” she said, brushing a hand lightly through the side of his hair. Her palm brushed his ear and it sent a current through him. “I’ve always been partial to redheads. Maybe because they’re so rare. The unicorns of the hair world.”

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