Page 51 of Scarlett and the Big Bad Billionaire
Scarlett blushed and looked away, letting her eyes drift along the coastline. “Itisbeautiful here. Even the trees and shrubs and flowers are different than they are in Minnesota.”
“What’s your favorite flower?” I asked.
“Why?”
“Just curious. Can’t a guy be curious?”
“Poppies,” she answered.
“I wish I’d sent you some after Mykonos. Just to say thank you for an amazing week. Or maybe I should have cut off my ear and mailed it to you,” I joked, referencing the famous account of Van Gogh cutting off his ear and sending it as a gift to a woman he was smitten with.
Scarlett shook her head, dismissing the thought. “You didn’t owe me anything. We wereboththere that week—and Iwasthe one who insisted on no names. I completely understand why you left suddenly without a goodbye.”
“Still… I wish we hadn’t lost touch.”
Her expression clouded. “Gray—nothing’s going to happen here. You know that, right?”
“Why not? I mean, you don’t still think I’m some kind of con artist out to swindle your grandma, do you?”
“No, but—”
“You liked me once,” I said. “You could like me again.”
She chuckled, shaking her head. “There’s no point.”
I disagreed, but I wasn’t going to get into all the reasons why. It was too soon to let her see the intensity of my interest in her. Hell, it would probably terrify her.
“Why does there have to be a point?” I asked. “We could just have fun together.”
Scarlett’s phone buzzed on the tabletop. Though the screen was upside down from my position, I could still read the name.
Bryce.
She snatched up the device and pushed away from the table. “Excuse me. I’ll be right back.”
I swallowed down a surge of bitterness and shoved my hair out of my eyes as I watched her stroll the Cliffhouse lawn, just out of earshot, talking to her former fiancé.
She even laughed a couple of times.
When she returned to the table, she tucked her phone into her purse, looking sheepish. “Sorry about that. It was work.”
“I saw the screen, Scarlett. It was Bryce, your former fiancé—unless you know some other tool with that name. Why does he have your number?”
“Because weworktogether,” she said. “At my stepfather’s company.”
My head snapped back in shock. “You work with your ex-fiancé every day? What’sthatlike?”
“It’s fine.” She looked down at the tabletop, smoothed her napkin in her lap. “I mean, just after the canceled wedding it was a bit awkward, but we’re both grownups. My stepdad David offered to fire him, but Bryce is a good robotics technician. They’re hard to find in Anoka. Plus, I didn’t want David to get sued or something. I don’t think you can legally fire someone for breaking your stepdaughter’s heart.”
“Why would he stay, though?” I asked, baffled. “And why is he calling? I thought you had some time off.”
She shrugged, tilting her head in a defiant way. “We talk sometimes. He wants to start dating each other again. It’s no big deal. I’m not sure whyyou’deven care. You have no right to say anything about the men I talk to.”
Men. So shewasdating—maybe several people. She was right—I had zero right to feel possessive of her.
But I did.
“I think I have a right—when it comes to this one. I wasthere,you know,” I said. “I saw what kind of shape you were in after he did what he did. I hope you’re not thinking of giving him a second chance.”
