Page 114 of The Playboy Billionaire

When Caleb Frazer makes something happen, it happens. The following week, Di and Julian arrive to see her specialist. With her surgery scheduled the following week. Caleb tells me to invite them around for dinner but asks I don’t tell Di about his involvement.

“Wow, this place is beautiful,” Di says when I take her up onto the roof terrace and show her the view. Julian is inside talking to Caleb, allowing us somegirl-time.

“He cares about you, you know,” I glance over at her.

“Why would you say that?” Di gives me her knowing smile, one she always gave me when I tried to pull one over on her when I was growing up. “Paying for my operation, organising a top specialist. He didn’t do that for me, April.”

I stare at her open-mouthed. “How?”

“I’m getting old, not stupid.” She laughs, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “When I looked up the specialist I was assigned to, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out someone intervened.”

I shake my head, before resting it on her shoulder. “He doesn’t want you to know,” I tell her.

“That’s his prerogative. But I was right in my initial analysis all those months ago. He is a good man.”

“He is,” I admit, making her smile.

“What happens next?”

I stand up and move to the railings, resting my elbows on the barrier. “I don’t know. Things are good.”

“Have you told him?”

I turn my head sharply and stare at Di. “Told him what?”

She tilts her head, her eyes filling with sympathy.

Horror dawns. “You know?” I whisper.

“I’ve always known,” she says, a hint of sadness in her voice. “It was why I pushed for you to come home after you left the conservatoire.”

I swallow against the lump that has formed in my throat. “But I wasn’t your responsibility anymore.”

“Oh, darling girl. You were never a responsibility, and our door will always be open to you. Julian and I, we love you like a daughter.” Di wraps her arms around me and I sink into her embrace, the same way I did throughout my teenage years.

“I can’t tell him,” I admit into her neck as she rubs soothing circles on my back.

“Why not?”

“How does an ex-stripper fit into this world? Look around you. I’m here until the dance school is up and running, then I’ll be on my own again.”

“I think you’re wrong,” she tells me, pulling back and patting my cheek. “And you’ve never been on your own. We love you and are there for you. You just need to believe it. I think Caleb Frazer will surprise you.”

I shake my head, “It’s not telling Cal that scares me. It’s more his life. His position makes us an impossibility once I do. The press will tear him apart if it comes out.”

“And I think you are doing the man a great disservice.The man I have met and read about, doesn’t seem to give two hoots about what other people think. He’s his own man.”

“You read too many romance novels,” I tell her, pulling back and wiping my cheeks, not wanting to burst her bubble. It’s not just Cal. It’s his friends and family.

“Nothing wrong with a bit of romance,” she says, winking at me. “I think we better go back downstairs and rescue Caleb, before Julian talks his hind leg off about all his cars.”

When we go downstairs, Caleb is in his element, promising Julian, he’ll take him to the racetrack and let him take his cars for a spin. Di takes my hand and shoots mea look, that tells me she’s going to prove me wrong.

CHAPTER 50

CALEB

“Another five children signed up this week,” April tells me over breakfast.

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