Page 63 of Secret Billionaire

“So that solves the nine-to-five time slots; we’ll have to do shifts for the rest of it.”

“When I have customers, I’ll be okay. He wouldn’t try anything with people around,” Faye said.

“When you open and close someone must be with you. Got that?” Jesse said.

“Yes.”

Jesse rubbed his chin. “You know…I’ve got three brothers that have an overload of testosterone and would gladly step in to help.”

“No. I couldn’t ask them to do that.”

“You aren’t asking. I am. If we need them for back up. We don’t know how long this is going to drag on.”

“Good idea,” Maddy said, a warmth creeping back into her voice, softening a bit toward Jesse.

“Well I’m here now, so I’m going to get back to work. I don’t know about the rest of you.”

“I need to head to my office. I’ll be home tonight, long before you are Faye. Call me when you’re on your way,” Maddy said.

“I will.”

“We need to see a picture of this guy, so we’ll know him if we see him, and then I can confirm if it’s the same guy that stopped in to see you,” Jesse said.

“Yeah,” Ty said.

“I’ll go home and see if I can dig one up. The police asked for one as well.”

Ty jumped in, “I’ll take you now. Then we can drop it off at the station.”

Maddy chimed in, “Then head straight to Kyle’s office. He may want to hire a private investigator to find Julian.”

“Good plan,” Jesse said.

Faye stood up rubbing her hands up and down her bare arms to warm them. “I don’t think I can ever come up with the words…thank you all. I feel so taken care of.”

“Good. We won’t let anything happen to you,” Maddy said.

Jesse was quiet, his expression pensive. “I never followed up on that security camera, I’ll get on that today.”

“I was supposed to do that. It hardly falls under your jurisdiction,” Faye argued. “I’ll do it when I get back.”

“Better yet, get big brother on it,” Maddy suggested.

“Yes, I could do that.”

Ty tapped his foot impatiently and said, “Let’s get this show on the road Faye.”

“Can I have a moment before you go?” Jesse asked Faye quietly.

She nodded yes. He took her arm and led her outside. Facing her he put his hands on both her shoulders and stared into her blue depths. “Faye, I’m sorry. I don’t expect you to understand or forgive me. I know it’ll take some time to win your trust back, but I’ve got the time.”

“Jesse, I understand more than you think I do. Everything moved way too fast for us and I should’ve known better than to mix business and pleasure. I don’t blame you; I blame me. I’m glad to have you back in my life and I hope we can always remain friends. But for now, that’s all it can be.”

His chest felt like it was being squeezed. “I understand. I fucked everything up. I should have let you explain. You deserved better.”

“Thank you for that but I take full responsibility for what happened. You have to quit beatin’ yourself up, ya hear?”

His mouth twisted, “Yeah sure I will, just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers. “Going to be pretty hard to do when I fucked up and lost the best thing God ever graced me with. I’m a damn fool. But I’ll respect your wishes…like you said…for now. However, when you change your mind…”

“You’ll be the second one to know.”

Jesse’s shoulders slumped. He would go along with it for now, but he didn’t have to like it. He’d let the dust settle, give her some time, but he hadn’t given up just yet.

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