Page 60 of The Billionaire Land Baron

Chapter 15

Shelby was always slow to wake in the mornings. Before her eyes ever opened, she would let sounds and smells wash over her. Normally the faded sound of the television that never went off or the country station in the kitchen if Daddy had the TV muted. If she woke early, sometimes it was his snores. She loved candles and traded them out month after month. Nothing too fruity or sweet. She preferred vanilla, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, or hazelnut. This month it was coffee.

As she drifted awake, she smelled a light floral scent mixed with an underlying smell of something fresh and clean. She frowned but didn’t open her eyes yet. Stretching, the sheets felt kind on her skin. Not hers. The bed was bigger and her back didn’t hurt from her sagging mattress at home.

The hotel.

She opened her eyes, the night before coming back to her in a rush. Light streamed into the room from a massive window. Sheer curtains hung to the floor, allowing the light gently in. This room was twice the size of her bedroom at home and everything looked new and clean and expensive.

In the light of morning, she felt foolish and out of control and exposed. A wave of shame hit her so powerfully that she couldn’t breathe. Tears ran down her face. She pulled the covers tighter around her. Why had she come? Why had she told Jake about her mother?

She had gotten Matt to drive her over an hour to see a guy she hardly knew, fallen asleep in a hallway, and then spilled everything about her family. Jake had asked her to spend the day together, and she had said yes in the soft past-midnight darkness. Now she only felt embarrassed. She sighed. This was a terrible idea. Maybe she could sneak out. If she got out without Jake noticing, she had no ride home. She could not call Matt again. But she didn’t want to talk to Gracie, who would be all weepy and emotional. Shelby wasn’t ready for that yet.

Now that she was fully awake, Shelby smelled coffee and heard Jake moving around in the living portion of the suite. Running wasn’t an option. He would see her before she could get to the door of the suite. Shelby breathed deep.

Pull it together, Shell’s Bells. Get that hitch out of your giddyup.

Long ago she had mastered the art of self-talk. The voice in her head pulled phrases from her Granny and the nickname her daddy used to call her. He had stopped using Shell’s Bells when he came home the last time. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the brain injury or something else, but she missed it. Shelby adopted it when she talked to herself, just to keep the name alive. It made her feel like she wasn’t just running on her strength, but her daddy’s, as she remembered him when she was just a child: a tall, powerful man with a shaved head and a massive frame. He used to do bicep curls, using her as the weight. The memories hit her like a punch in the gut.

Pulling back the downy comforter, Shelby stood slowly and stretched. She needed to splash water on her face. And coffee—she really needed coffee. Maybe she would just stay for the morning. The idea of an entire day without some kind of work, spent with Jake, gave her a flutter of excitement.

She wished that she hadn’t looked in the mirror. There was little she could do with her unruly hair except try to smooth it down. She didn’t even have a ponytail holder and it was too slippery to tie up in a knot. Her eyes looked puffy and the darkness underneath them couldn’t have been helped with concealer. After the pool, her hair was matted and messy. She still had on Jake’s T-shirt, which smelled like him. She threw on her cutoffs underneath.

When she opened the door to the suite, he jumped up from the couch with a beaming grin. Her heart squeezed. He lit up at the sight of her, messy and all. She felt suddenly shy as he crossed the room to her. Before she could say a word or decide what she should say or do, he wrapped her up in a hug, lifting her off her feet.

“Oof,” she said. Her cheek pressed into the solid mass of his chest. She circled her hands around his back, feeling the muscles shifting as he squeezed.

“Too tight?” he asked, without loosening his grip.

“Nope.”

He settled her back down on her feet then took her hand, practically dragging her to the sofa.

“Sit! I have coffee. I didn’t know what you’d want for breakfast, so I ordered a few things. You can choose.”

Shelby watched with disbelief as he wheeled over a silver cart covered with a dome. Lifting it, she could see a platter of eggs, a bowl of fruit, a stack of pancakes, bagels with cream cheese, and a plate filled with bacon and links of sausage.

She laughed. “Did you buy a whole breakfast buffet?”

He smiled. “Maybe. They didn’t have chorizo.”

He remembered. Small, but it mattered to her. “Not as likely to find it over here.”

“They had something called boudin, but I didn’t know what that was.” He pronounced it BOO-den.

Shelby giggled. “It’s boudin, like boo-DAN. It’s like a blood sausage with rice mixed in. Kind of like a dry jambalaya in sausage casing. It’s good. You should try it sometime.”

“Want me to order some?”

“Jake, no. This is more food than either of us could possibly eat. No more! You didn’t need to do this.”

Jake waved a hand. “I know. But you put me up at your place and fed me. Consider this me returning the favor. Enjoy. Eat. Let me get your coffee. Cream? Sugar?”

“Cream is fine. Just a little.” Shelby didn’t feel like she could touch anything on the cart. She knew the cost of things like room service, not that she had ever used it. Other people spending money on her made her twitchy. “You paid me to stay. This is…”

“Nothing. Please. Eat if you’re hungry. Don’t if you’re not. I can send someone up for it if you aren’t. Here’s your coffee.”

Jake set a china cup and saucer on the table, her coffee with just enough cream to turn it mahogany. He touched her shoulder before moving to a chair across from her. She relished in his touch and wished she could ask him to sit beside her. He sat in a chair across from her, grinning and watching as she sipped her coffee.

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