Page 4 of The Billionaire I Left Behind

A ghost of a smile flickers across my lips. “She made extra just for you. Said you were too skinny for someone who could bench press a truck.”

Nate chuckles. “She wasn’t wrong.” A pause. “You doing okay?”

I lean back in my chair, rubbing the tension from my neck. “Yeah.”

“Uh-huh.” A beat. “Let me guess. You saw her.”

My jaw tightens. No point lying. “Yeah.”

Silence. Then, “Did you talk?”

I exhale through my nose, staring at the ceiling. “No.”

Another pause. “Huh.”

I scowl. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” Nate says, way too casually. “Just… interesting. Thought you were over it.”

I close my eyes, gripping the phone tighter. “I am.”

“Right.” His voice is thick with amusement. “And I’m some monk.”

Buddy lifts his head, ears flicking toward me. I reach down, scratching behind them, needing something to ground me.

“She looked good, didn’t she?” Nate asks after a moment.

The question is casual, but it lands like a punch. To be honest, she looked too good. Too beautiful.

I should have ignored it, ignored her but my traitorous brain is still stuck on the details. The way the wind lifted the hem ofher dress. The sun catching the auburn strands of her hair. That same stubborn tilt of her chin that used to drive me insane.

She shouldn’t still have this hold on me. But she does. And I hate it.

“Doesn’t matter,” I say flatly.

Nate hums. “You sound convincing.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “You need something, or just calling to be a pain in my butt?”

“Oh, I got a reason.” He snickers. “But messing with you is a solid bonus.”

I roll my eyes. “What do you want, Kingston?”

“The hotel add-on. I want your thoughts before I greenlight it.”

I glance at the Kingston Developments file on my desk Ocean Bay’s marina expansion. Fifty million in projected revenue. Normally, I’d already have the numbers crunched. Right now, I can barely focus.

“I’ll look at it later.”

“Uh-huh.” A beat. “Hey, Bryan?”

“What?”

“If you saw her again… would you talk to her?”

The question slams into me like a freight train. I should say no.

But the truth is, I don’t know. I should feel anger, for what she did but currently I'm only numb.

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