Page 30 of Forking the Billionaire

I asked again, “What is it?”

“Our mystery is solved. And I have to say, I can’t think of a better place for Mona’s glasses.”

I followed his gaze back to what I’d thought was a man standing statue-still on the roof. But it turned out to be just a statue, a tiki man, with a pair of cat-eye glasses poorly fit over its wooden face.

I hadn’t actually expected to find the glasses. I laughed.

“We have a big day coming. We should both try to get some rest,” Jasper said.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Goodnight, Bramble.”

I flinched at the nickname he’d branded me with so many years ago.

“Goodnight, Jasper.” And as I watched him go, I realized after he joined me on my misadventure, it actually kindahadbeen a good night. I wasn’t entirely sure what to think about that.

TEN

ESME

Pretty much as soon as I dropped into the sand, my butt went numb with the cold. I dug my toes into the cool dampness and watched the crystals fall between. Since the sun had just woken up for the day, it would take a few hours before the sand flipped from freezing cold to searing hot.

A little less than two and a half hours remained until breakfast. I should be bravely peeing on pregnancy test sticks. But the panic that rose through my chest when I tried to make myself actually do it was so paralyzing, it would’ve been easier to build a sandcastle that reached the moon than it would be to pee on those sticks.

I should be taking this time to sleep, chill, and refresh before Day Two of wedding obligations, but I felt like I’d chugged two gallons of coffee and taken a bath in espresso. My eyes twitched when I tried to close them.

Instead of doing what I knew I had to do, I sat on the beach that waited outside my doorstep.

The sound of the waves soothed my soul. I looked out over the ocean and squinted against the bright light reflecting off the crystal blue water. Would it really be so bad to have someone here with me to enjoy mornings like this? Someone who didn’ttell me what to do or try to control me, someone who was cool with living the life I chose?

I could imagine a little version of me kicking the waves as they lapped up onto the shore. She’d build sand castles for the sole purpose of crushing them like King Kong. She’d laugh maniacally and no one would stop her from feeling that joy of freedom.

Maybe it wasn’t all scary if I really was having a B. Maybe there’d be some good things about it, and not just crying and poopy diapers and no sleep and no money and no time and….

I sucked in a sharp breath, filling my lungs with the last remnants of cool night air.

At the very least, I needed to go inside and clean myself up. I needed fresh clothes, fresh breath, and actually styled hair to prove to myself as much as to Gabe that I had my life together.

Everything would be fine. I just had to take one day at a time. Maybe just a few more minutes here. There was still plenty of time to shower and?—

“You’re up early.”

“Gah!” I jumped and scrambled to my feet, spinning around to find my brother standing over me.

He looked too polished for the morning, as perfectly put together as always, with every hair in place and not a single wrinkle on his shirt.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I wanted to see where you live. In person,” he said, like it was the normalest thing in the world to sneak up on someone without warning.

“You should have called. You gave me a heart attack.”

“I didn’t want to wake you.”

“So you were what, just going to skulk around on my porch until you spotted me waking up through the windows?”

His brow furrowed, clearly not liking my depiction of his actions. “I apologize for startling you. I meant to walk on the beach if you weren’t awake yet, not skulk or spy.”

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