Page 54 of Coffee Break with the Billionaire

All too soon, Fenella pulls up in front of the shop. “I had no idea you lived next door,” she says, staring at the empty storefront next door. “What used to be in there?”

“Flower shop, an attempt at Mexican food, cookies. The latest was an insurance guy.”

“I guess I thought you still lived with your parents.”

“I’m thirty years old,” I tell her ruefully. “I shouldn’t be living with my parents. I moved here after the insurance guy bunked off,” I add.

“At least you have your own place,” she says in a wistful voice.

Is that because I have my own place and she doesn’t, or because she’d appreciate the privacy of my own place?

That doesn’t help the fact my mind is swinging like a pendulum.

Kiss her.

Run.

Kiss her.

Run.

Insteadof doing either, I sit there in the car and try to look anywhere but at Fenella.

“Silas.” Fenella puts a hand on my leg.

“You’re leaving,” I blurt.

“Not yet.”

“But you’re leaving.”

She sighs, and it’s as if the air is expelled from my own body. I like this woman. I like her a lot. And it’s not the silly infatuation I felt looking at her Instagram posts and TikTok videos. Fenella is surprisingly sweet and funny, and honest. Growing up entitled and in the most luxurious of settings has given her issues, but I’m amazed at how down-to-earth she really is.

Or maybe that’s just who she is around me. Here, in Laandia. She would be a totally different person elsewhere, when she needs to show the world everything about her.

I like how she is around me.

But she will leave and I will not.

“Can I still work for you?” Fenella’s a smart woman—she knows what’s going on, why I’m putting on the brakes.

I’m grateful I don’t have to say anything more. “Even if I said no, I don’t think you’d listen. You’d show up and start making drinks.”

“I like making drinks. Maybe that’s my calling.”

I can’t resist—reaching out, I touch her cheek with the back of my hand. Her skin is soft and still cold. A tendril of her dark hair snags around my finger, soft and silky. “I think your callingwill be something much bigger than making drinks,” I tell her seriously. “That’s why I’m going to say goodnight.”

I open the door and slide out of the car.

“Goodnight, Silas,” she calls after me, her voice heavy with resignation.

Chapter nineteen

Fenella

Ihave a horriblefeeling I’m going to break Silas’s heart and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Or maybe he’s going to break mine.

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