Page 14 of The Grumpy Billionaire
“That’s right,” Mom agreed quickly. “Mara and Reid grew up together. Besides, he’s not a suitable candidate to be her boyfriend. She’s been seeing the McAllen boy. You know his parents—James and Sarah McAllen from the beach club?”
“Looks suitable enough to me,” Brianna said, turning her head to follow as Reid made another pass with the tractor.
“Hush. You’re embarrassing Mara,” Mom scolded. “She’d never be interested in that boy. His mother works for us, and his father—absentee of course—is apparently some low-level mafioso.”
Now my ears perked up. I was always interested in anything to do with Reid, but this was new information. I wondered if he knew.
He’d always told me he had no idea who his father was. His mom had never married, raising him alone here at the estate.
Not the least bit dissuaded, Cricket waggled her brows. “Ooooh. An Italian stallion.”
“A half-Italian, half-Irishgardener,” my mother corrected, her tone filled with disdain.
“I have to agree with Cricket on this one,” Brianna said, fluffing her hair then stretching her arms far overhead. “When it comes to men, I say the simpler the better.”
“You married into one of the wealthiest families in Eastport Bay,” Mom argued.
“I didn’t say don’t marry money. Lincoln’s rich, but he’s the most docile, Beta guy around, and frankly not the sharpest knife in the drawer. His older brother runs the family business. Linc just spends the money—on me.”
She laughed out loud then turned to me. “You want my advice, Mara? Never marry a powerful man. It’s a recipe for misery.” Her gaze swung to my mother. “Your mom knows that better than anyone.”
Mom popped up from her wicker chair. “Who needs more iced tea? Anybody?”
Apparently, she wasn’t interested in getting into a discussion about her own marriage, which her friends—and I—already knew wasn’t a happy one.
After listening to their frequent fights (the walls in our house weren’t as thick as Mom and Dad thought they were) I’d already decided I’d never repeat my parents’ mistake.
Reid was as different from my dad as he could possibly be, and he was the only one I’d even consider marrying. He was my soulmate.
Once we both turned eighteen, I fully intended to leave this place and be with him, no matter what my parents thought of his “suitability.”
High school graduation was only a week away. After that, we’d be free. We could stop hiding our love for each other and have a real, twenty-four-seven, out-in-the-open relationship.
I could hardly wait.
* * *
Graduation Day
He’s all mine.
That was the thought repeating in my head as I watched Reid deliver the valedictorian speech to the crowd assembled at Eastport Bay High’s football field. I was about to burst with pride and happiness.
This handsome, brilliant, super-sweet guy was all mine, and tonight… I would become all his.
Since that first kiss a year ago, we’d been taking things further and further. Tonight, we’d spend our first full night together alone.
We’d reserved a room at the swanky Eastport Arms hotel where the graduation party would be held. I liked my classmates, but Reid was the only one I wanted to celebrate the occasion with. It marked the beginning of our “real lives” together.
Both of us had received some money for graduation. In fact, Reid had gotten an enormous check from his mysterious absentee father. Pooling our funds, we had enough to at least get us started should the worst happen and my parents forbid me to date him and try to use the threat of cutting me off financially to make their point.
“I’m going to send it back,” Reid said as we sat on the hotel room bed, staring at the obscene number on the check. “It’s probably dirty money. Who knows what he did to get it? And I don’t wantanythingfrom him.”
“So it’s true then? He’s a mobster?” I asked. Apparently the discussion Mom had shared with her friends on the porch had not been mere gossip.
Reid frowned. “It’s true. He just got out of prison. That’s why Mom never married him. I’m not sure why she decided to saddle me with his last name. He was sitting out in the audience today—the big, Sicilian-looking guy in the tan suit.”
My jaw dropped. “He was there? I didn’t see him. Did you talk to him?”
