Page 16 of The Billionaire Boss and the Barista

Hector began to look uncomfortable—even more than he had been. “I’m not sure that’s something we should be discussing without Celeste… maybe in some form of mediation?”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“I, um, I think it is.”

“Why?”

“Well…” Hector swallowed. “You appear to have very intense feelings about Emma.”

Garrett tried to play that off. “I’m not sure I would characterize it that way.”

Hector raised his brows. “You broke into my office to look for her address.”

“No, I used my key—the one I have as the owner of the building,” he added. “And I don’t need her address. What I need to know is what her health insurance covers because she sustained a major brain injury that left her withpermanent memory loss.”

He was nearly shouting by the time he finished. Aware that he’d just blown his facade of indifference, he took a deep breath and cleared his throat.

“So, it would help if you could find your medical plan information.”

As for the details of her accident, Garrett didn’t need to pump this man for that. His PI was already gathering that information.

Hector stared at him for a long moment before finally finding his voice. “I thought you hated her.”

Garrett tossed a file folder to the side. “What?”

“Fletcher Sweeney said you and Emma hated each other.”

“Oh.” He waved that off. “That was high school stuff. Over ages ago.”

Hector’s head drew back. “High school is a formative time for many of us. And if you had an issue with Emma, it’s only natural that you might carry it into the present.”

Guess who’s been to therapy. Instead of asking Hector who had bullied him in school, he decided some honesty would serve him better.

“It was a healthy rivalry. We were competitive,” he elaborated. “Sure, there was some arguing—we did debate each other. But most of it was good-natured bickering.”

All right, that last part was a stretch, but he wasn’t about to get into his and Emma’s real history.

Judging from the look on his face, that wasn’t enough for a still-skeptical Hector.

Garrett let the tight line of his shoulders drift into a slump. Damn, he was tired. What came out of his mouth next was probably the most truthful thing he’d ever said. Something he’d never told anyone, not even himself.

“I don’t think I’d be here if it weren’t for Emma.”

He’d totally lost the man. Hector sat forward. “Excuse me, what now?”

Garrett leaned back in the manager’s chair.

“I was pretty focused on sports and partying in high school.” That and disappointing his absentee father. Garrett had excelled atthat.

“I didn’t get serious about school until Emma skipped those two grades. She ended up in most of my classes.”

It had been a rather small school, so it had been impossible to avoid each other despite the faculty’s best efforts to keep them apart after that first disastrous semester.

He smiled, remembering a not-quite fifteen-year-old Emma pointing at him, calling him out during drama class.“I wouldn’t be his Juliet if you paid me.”

Yeah, she had been smart as hell and impossible to intimidate.

“Rather than letting her keep making me look bad, I cracked open a book.”

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