Page 254 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol 4
“Isabella’s a disease,” he said. “Don’t let her crawl under your skin or she’ll stay there.”
I thought maybe he’d already been in here. That he hadn’t seen what had just happened in the ballroom. But that apparently wasn’t the case. Had he followed me in here?
I removed my eyes from his reflection in the mirror and looked up at him. We locked eyes for one moment. A few seconds that stretched for eternity. His eyes swirled with the same warmth that I’d felt from his hands. It was hard to stare at perfection. Matthew Caldwell was so beautiful it almost hurt to look at him. And on top of that, he had everything I didn’t. Money. A family. And unlike the rest of the Untouchables, he seemed genuinely happy. He was everything I could never be. And for some reason, he was everything I wanted. Which was ridiculous. Just thinking it was a complete and utter waste of time.
I turned away.
He turned off the water, grabbed a paper towel, and wrapped it around my hand.
“Thank you,” I said, keeping my eyes on the paper towel.
I saw him shove his hands into his pockets. “I’ll see you around school, Brooklyn,” he said and made his way to the door.
It felt like my heart stopped beating. He knew my name?
The door closed behind him with a thud. I waited a beat before grabbing my soggy shoe and walking out of the bathroom. I looked up at the sign on the door. It was a women’s restroom. Which meant Matthew Caldwell had followed me in here to make sure I was okay. Maybe I wasn’t as invisible as I thought.
Untouchable - Chapter 4
Friday
“Hey, kiddo,” my uncle said as Kennedy and I walked into the apartment. He was doing a crossword puzzle at the kitchen table and didn’t look up. He was five years older than my mother, but he looked more like he was in his sixties than his forties. The extra weight didn’t help. My eyes gravitated to the buttons of his shirt that looked like they were ready to pop off. But I was going to help him shed the weight. I’d have him healthy in no time.
“Hey...Jim.” I knew he probably wanted me to call him Uncle Jim. I kept trying to force it out. But I’d only met him a handful of times when I was little. Uncle felt too familiar. And I wasn’t familiar with him at all. Despite that, I kind of loved that he called me kiddo. I remembered him calling me that ages ago. It made me feel a little less like I was sinking.
“Hi, Uncle Jim!” Kennedy said and bound into the apartment like she belonged there more than me.
Jim looked up at her and smiled as she gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. I would have found it weird that she was so much closer to him than me, but she’d known him all her life. I’d practically just met the man.
“How was work?” he asked.
“The usual first day jitters for this one,” Kennedy said and nodded her head in my direction.
Jim’s eyes focused on me for the first time, taking in my shirt stained pink with steak juice and my soaking wet shoe. “Are you okay?” he asked.
Maybe he hadn’t been looking at my disheveled outfit at all. Maybe he had been staring at my face. He seemed to know me. He could sense my moods. He could tell when I was hurting just like my mom always could. And I found myself wishing I knew him too. I was tearing up again for no reason at all. I blinked fast, removing any trace of tears. “I’m fine. Those trays were freaking heavy.”
He smiled. “You should see if they need some extra hands in the kitchen instead. Those burritos you made me sure were delicious.”
“Really?”
He nodded.
I was more relieved than happy. The first couple weeks here he’d been resisting my attempts at changing up his diet. He seemed to finally be accepting the fact that I wasn’t backing down. He turned his head and started coughing into the crook of his arm.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to pick up some cold medicine for your cough?” I asked. I was pretty sure I was pestering him into annoyance. He was used to being on his own, and it felt like every word out of my mouth was filled with overconcern. I couldn’t help it. I needed him to be healthy. He was all I had left and I wasn’t going to lose him too.
“It’s just a cold,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”
“This should make you feel better,” Kennedy said. “We brought home those little cheesecake desserts you like so much!” She placed the box down on the table.
I wanted to scold Kennedy. I was finally helping my uncle make healthier eating choices. The last thing he needed was to reintroduce sugar into his diet.
Before I could say anything, he’d already bitten into one of the miniature cakes.
“Better?” Kennedy asked.
“Nothing like cheesecake to fix a cough,” he said with a laugh. “Don’t look at me like that, kiddo, it’s a miniature dessert.” He slid the box back toward Kennedy. “You two can eat the rest.”
