Page 75 of The Billionaire Land Baron

Chapter 19

one month later

Jake slumpedin the conference room chair, trying desperately to listen to whatever Xan was saying when he did not, in fact, care at all. It was just the two of them in the empty conference room, Jake sitting at a middle seat and Xander pacing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. If it had been a full meeting, Jake would have at least pretended his heart was still here. As it was, his tie was loose around his neck, his coat unbuttoned and half his shirt untucked. Several weeks’ worth of stubble made a patchy beard. Somehow it made him look younger, like he was a teenager, trying but failing to grow a full beard.

Fingers snapped in front of his face. “Jake! Where are you?”

Jake shook his head and Xander slumped into a chair, rolling it down the table until he and Jake were knee to knee.

Xan looked tired. More than tired. Jake blinked at Xan’s piercing stare. An apology was on the cusp of his lips, but Xan spoke first, leaning back and loosening his own tie. “We’re a pair, aren’t we?”

Jake didn’t know what to say, so he just grunted, waiting to see what Xan would say next. He assumed it would be a rebuke. Jake hadn’t been on his game since everything that happened in Lucky, personally or business-wise. Obsidian had a hard time bouncing back, with the rest of the board suddenly skittish about everything. Jake’s golden-boy status was tarnished and his trust in himself had wavered. Then there was the small fact that he didn’t want to be there anymore.

“Still on the girl, huh?”

Jake sighed. “I know. It’s stupid.”

“I didn’t say that. Not at all. Actually, I think the fact that you’re looking like this—” He waved a hand at Jake from head to toe. “—shows how much she means to you. If you just liked her, you’d be moving on. You’d just work through this. And while as your business partner, I wouldn’t complain about you diving into your work, as your friend, I think we should talk.”

“About Obsidian?”

Xan sighed. “Yeah, we need to figure that out too. We’re floundering. You and I are too good for that. This one thing has made too big of an impact. But we can talk about that another day. Today, tell me about this girl and what we can do to get you out of this slump. Because, man, you just cannot pull off a beard.”

Jake found himself smiling at this. Not just the beard comment, but the fact that Xander wanted to talk about Shelby. Sure, it was hopeless. But Xan wanted to help him try.

“She found out that I was responsible for her losing her home. Not from me. She left L’Auberge and got back to Lucky somehow, then I saw her when I was leaving. She was with Matt, this guy who has been in love with her forever. They were in his truck, leaving town with her trailer in tow. I guess she decided when all this happened to choose him.”

“So she’s…out somewhere with him now?”

Jake shrugged. “I guess. That week, her mom also came back. She’d been dealing with mental health issues and no one had heard from her in ten years. She showed up the night she came to meet me at the casino. There were extenuating circumstances.”

Xan ran a hand through his close-cropped black hair. “Wow, okay. So not your typical love story. A love story with…complications. First up, are you sure she’s with this guy?”

“What do you mean? I saw them leaving together.”

“Okay. But she was into you, like that day before?”

“Until she found out about the house. Which I had planned to buy back until I saw them together. Then I just…left.”

“If it hadn’t been for this other guy, you were still willing to go after her?”

“That was the plan. Buy back her house, whatever it takes.”

“And she had been interested in this guy before?”

Jake frowned. “They were good friends. He was in love with her, that was obvious. He told me as much.”

“But?”

“Well…he also told me that she didn’t love him back. She said they were just friends.”

“So maybe they’re traveling as friends. She needed a friend. Maybe you overreacted.”

“Maybe. But I mean…”

“Do you have his number?”

“Yeah, but…”

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