Page 41 of The Sandover Beach Billionaire

Was it too much? Had he pushed too hard? Maybe he was still feeling overwhelmed with the rush of feelings that came out of the afternoon with Jenna. He held his breath, waiting for Megan to make a wisecrack and go back to eye rolling.

“Jenna,” she said suddenly. Not what he’d been expecting.

He blinked. “What about Jenna?” He loved the way her name felt on his lips. Not as good as the way her lips had felt on his, but still good.

“She’s cool. I like her and I hope that it works out with you guys.”

For the second time that night, Jackson felt shocked. Thankfully the waitress arrived with a giant plate full of sushi. He needed a moment to adjust his face and temper his reaction. The one parenting lesson he’d learned quickly was that keeping your composure was a necessity. Shock and hot reactions to things had the effect of blood in the water. Megan wanted to shave half her head? That’s fine. She thought socialism and communism had a lot of valid points? Okay.

Half the time she said things, he felt like it was just to get a reaction. If he had freaked out about the idea of head-shaving, she would have done it, and then told Kim it was his fault. If he had explained the effects of communism and socialism on various countries, she probably would have joined some kind of communist school club. Or started one. Would schools even allow it? Probably.

By the time the waitress moved away, he had schooled his face into something more relaxed. He and Megan filled their small dishes with soy sauce. She liked to put wasabi in hers, stabbing it with her chopsticks until it formed a slurry. Jackson tried that once and couldn’t take the burn of it on his tongue and how it made him sneeze. He broke apart his chopsticks and rubbed them together the way Megan had showed him to remove any tiny splinters.

She smiled at him. “This is a feast, J. Check out the Spider Roll. What do you think?”

Megan giggled and picked up a piece of the Spider Roll, where the battered and fried crab legs were poking out of the middle. “Looks like a sci-fi movie, where the food is trying to escape.”

“You’re right. Night of the Living Sushi.”

“Do you like horror movies?”

“I do. Mostly because Kim hates them. I mean, that’s how I got started watching them. But now I actually like them a lot. You?”

“Yes. It’s been a while since I’ve been to see one, though.”

Her eyes lit up and she leaned forward. “There’s this Japanese one that looks terrifying. It’s got subtitles, but still. We should go. There is a movie theater here, right?”

“Yes. It’s not the nicest or newest. Surf and Cinema. Want to check to see if it’s showing? They don’t have everything.”

“They’ll have this. It’s been killing it.”

Jackson did like horror movies. Maybe. He had liked them when he was a teenager. Probably the last one he saw in the theater was … he couldn’t even remember. He used to watch them on VHS. Rented out from the now-closed Blockbuster. He definitely wouldn’t tell Megan this or he’d lose more points. Hopefully he could still stomach scary. If he could learn to like sushi, he could do Japanese horror with his daughter.

“We’re on. I got tickets already. There were only a few good seats left.”

Jackson’s eyebrows shot up. Megan had not ever offered to buy anything for him. Did she even have money? He hadn’t seen her get out a wallet. She must have some kind of app on her phone. “Thank you. I can pay for it though.”

She smiled and picked up her chopsticks and the Spider Roll, which had been soaking in her soy/wasabi combo. “It’s the least I can do. Consider it a birthday present. When is your birthday, again?”

“August 15th.”

“Happy early birthday, then. Try the Spider Roll. I need to know if you like it. Does Jenna like sushi? We should bring her the next time I’m in town. If she doesn’t like it, you’ll need to decide if that’s a deal breaker. It would be for me. But then, it grew on you.”

Jackson absolutely had no words to respond to the ones coming out of Megan’s mouth tonight. If he said what he wanted to, which was something along the lines of who are you, it would have ruined the mood completely. So instead he took the other piece of Spider Roll with the legs sticking up. He liked the crunch and the flavor of the crab, mild yet good.

“It’s good,” he said. “I always feel weird eating crab though. It’s not like a chicken breast, where it looks nothing like a chicken. I’m eating legs and it looks like legs.”

“I know what you mean. So, you’ll ask Jenna then? If you haven’t screwed it up somehow before I come the next time.” She rolled her eyes.

That was more like it. Jackson laughed. “I’ll ask. And try not to screw it up. No promises though. My track record isn’t so good, but I’ll do my best.”

“You’re not ugly and you’re a millionaire. If you can’t keep a woman, then something is definitely wrong with you.”

Billionaire. But Jackson didn’t correct her. She had given him more in this conversation than in any they’d ever had. He would take it. Even sandwiched between annoyed insults. His long-time crush had kissed him. His daughter was talking to him. That was more than he could have hoped for.

“You might want to keep her away from electronics or heavy machinery, though,” Megan said.

“Noted. What brought this on? I mean, why are you thinking about Jenna?” And why are you talking to me all the sudden? He wouldn’t say that one out loud, but wished he knew.

“You like her. So, I just wanted you to know. That you, like, have my approval or whatever. In case you care.”

Jackson felt a rush of emotion and swallowed before he answered, a lump in his throat. “I do,” he said, not sure if he meant that he did like Jenna, did care what Megan thought, or both.

It was definitely both.

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