Page 53 of BillionHeir
“It is pretty obvious, isn’t it?” Tristan says confidently.
“Poking the hot British nurse?” Liam asks with a laugh. “Good for you.”
Rather than tell them the truth, I dodge their question with one of my own. “You think I would sleep with the help?”
I immediately realize what I just said and check over my shoulder to make sure she didn’t overhear me. Thankfully, she is already inside.
“I don’t just think, my friend. I know,” Liam says, looking me confidently in the eyes.
“It is not like that,” I say, hoping to see her walk back through the door with her tea. Hoping against hope that I didn’t totally damage the tenuous relationship Chloe and I have formed.
But she never comes.
“So, what is it like then?” Tristan asks. “You are staring at that door waiting for her like a kid waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve.”
“Shut up,” I say, rolling my eyes. “We have gotten close, that is all.”
“That is all?” Tristan asks, his voice high pitched with a faux British accent doing his best Chloe impression.
“Okay, that is not all,” I say, throwing my hands up in exasperation.
“There it is,” Liam says victoriously as he and Tristan laugh.
“Seriously, dude. Did you not think this through?” Tristan asks once they have had their moment together.
I sigh. “I didn’t expect this to get this . . . messy.”
“Let her go, Max. Women are a dime a dozen for men like us,” Liam says.
If only it were that easy.
* * *
A couple of hours and a few beers later, the boys and I are still sitting outside shooting the shit. Chloe still hasn’t come back out. I have hardly been able to focus on anything else.
“Go and talk to her already,” Tristan finally says, sounding frustrated. “If I would have known that we would be walking into a lover’s spat, I might not have come all this way.”
“No, you still would have. You are too nosy to stay away,” Liam says, heckling Tristan.
“Okay, that is actually fair. But at least I would have come prepared with popcorn.”
The two laugh again as my annoyance with them and curiosity about Chloe motivates me to stand and walk inside without a word. I try to ignore them as they continue to tease me until I am too far away to make out what they are saying.
If my friends know anything, it is how to get a rise out of me. Tristan and Liam are like family to me. But like brothers, they are like sharks when they sense any weakness. Once they know that they have hit a nerve, they are never going to stop.
Chloe is not in the kitchen, which has quickly become one of her most frequented rooms of the house. She has a passion for cooking, and it has become something I love watching her do. She gets so into whatever it is she is preparing that she shuts out the world. Seeing her with her guard down and her mind working is something to behold.
I search the entire downstairs. The couch where she likes to read with her tea in the late afternoons. The dining room where we have eaten together every night and had our first date. But she is nowhere to be found.
Next, I go upstairs. The house is eerily quiet, and the gravity of the situation starts to hit home. I don’t know why I was ashamed of her. There is nothing about her to be embarrassed about. In fact, any man would be lucky to have her.
I will just have to grovel extra hard when I find her. I have yet to meet a crisis I couldn’t talk my way out of.
I walk quickly down the hallway, pausing outside her bedroom before knocking. I don’t know what I am waiting for. Maybe I am just stalling because I am too scared to face her after my poor behavior. When I do bring my hand up to knock, the door pushes open on its own.
The room is dimly lit by the limited sunlight coming through the windows at this time of day. My eyes strain as they search the room for the woman I have hurt, but they never find what they are looking for. I struggle to understand what I am seeing.
The bed is made and the room is tidy. Chloe keeps the door shut most of the time, but on the few occasions I have seen inside, there have been clothes scattered here and there. Not messy, but lived in.
