Page 43 of Forking the Billionaire

“That’s all right. Thank you, Stan.” I turned to go, my gut feeling hollow. I couldn’t go back to Jules, not after the way we’d left things. We’d both made our stances clear, and nothing had changed.

Two steps and I realized I still had another problem to deal with.

“Is there something else I can do for you, Mr. Carrington?” Stan asked.

“My luggage went missing. It’s a black suitcase, about this big.” I gestured with my hands. “Has anyone turned it in?”

“I haven’t seen it, and the staff already knows to look out for it.”

“Thanks.”

It was a long shot anyway. No one would remove my suitcase from my room only to turn it in at lost and found.

As I turned to go, I noticed a drawer slightly ajar behind the desk, brimming with a whole lot of shiny, rectangular things, each one about the size of my palm. Curious, I leaned closer to try and make out what they were.

Individually wrapped, white chocolate macadamia chunk cookies.

Stan snapped the drawer shut, drawing my attention back to his now-strained smile. “Will that be all, sir?”

“Uh, yeah. Thanks again.”

I couldn’t help but think back to the whispers Esme and I had heard coming through the vent last night. Lots of people referred to cookies as biscuits. Could Stan’s stash be the biscuits in question?

Since I had no room to go back to, I headed out to the beach and found a solitary place to sit in the sand and watch the waves.

My options were limited. I couldn’t impose on the bride and groom. I couldn’t ask my brother and his fiancée, either, without ruining their trip. That left people I didn’t know particularly well. Or Esme.

Before my fallout with Jules, I wouldn’t have thought anything of staying with Esme. Sure, we weren’t close, but we were still friends. We knew each other well enough that it wouldn’t be strange for me to ask to crash on her couch for a few days.

But then Jules had to go and say what she said.

I definitely wasnotin love with Esme. But if Jules thought that I was, it was possible other people could have the same thoughts. Was I doing something that made it appear from the outside that I had feelings for Esme?

That possibility in and of itself was dangerous. The last thing I wanted to do was upset Gabriel.

Maybe the best solution was to sleep in the sand. It’d be like rustic camping. The climate was certainly mild enough for it.

I sat with my thoughts until the sun began to make its way lower in the sky. I walked a bit longer, biding my time until dinner.

At seven, I returned to the dining patio, a little concerned Jules might still show up. But true to her word, she wasn’t there.

I took a seat as far from Esme as possible, joining Layana’s friends Chester and Juno at the end of the table. The waiter took orders.

I’d met Juno and Chester a few times, including in Cricket Falls for Oscar’s proposal to Morgan. I didn’t know much about them except for the fact the pair of them had been contestants on the reality showWhat the What?with Morgan and Layana. I’d watched the show, just as I had sampled every other project created by Carrington Media.

While my brother Sebastian and I had sold our shares of our father’s company, Oscar had held onto the media division. The business had thrived under his leadership. I was ridiculously, if quietly, proud of him. We’d been raised to withhold praise. Through force of will, I’d grown skilled at disregarding that, along with much of our shared upbringing, except when it came to my brothers. It was hardest to ignore our dead father’s influence when we were together.

It had been a hell of a year for us. First our father had died in May. Then Oscar got amnesia and went missing over the summer.

I considered myself the luckiest of the three of us. I, like Oscar, had had a limited time under the spotlight of our father’s attention. But while that had left Oscar jaded, I was grateful. My mother had more than made up for our father’s failings.

Refocusing my attention on those around me, I asked Juno, “You have a persona for social recognition, right?”

“Yes.” She beamed at me. “For TV and videos and stuff, I’m Glitter Galore.”

I nodded, remembering. “How’s that going?”

A touch of pink crossed her cheeks. “Um…it’s going.”

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