Page 47 of The Billionaire's Fortunate Accident
“North Carolina. I did my research and found out that the Moxon Estate is in Durham. The date of the funeral hasn’t been set yet.” My brother was right, but I had yet to wrap my head around it. “She did say that she’ll have to stay there, and she had no idea how long that would be. She also said that things might never be the same.”
“Well, then you have your answer. You can’t expect her to be able to return to life as you two have known it. You can become innovative about this, or you can try to understand that this is the end for you two, at least for the next year or so.”
He was insane if he thought I could merely accept that. “Baldwyn, I won’t let that happen. I will not lose her to some family obligations. There are things I can do. I can keep on going forward with the bistro. And I can jet over to see her once a week too. It’s not like we don’t have our own jet.”
Nodding, he agreed, “You could do that.”
“Hell, we’ve been seeing each other for around six weeks now, and in all that time, we’ve only had one real date, and she’s only stayed over one night.” I thought that showed we had a special relationship that didn’t rely on sex to keep us together.
“Hold on.” He looked at me with disbelief in his eyes. “Are you telling me that in the last six weeks, you’ve only had sex once?”
“I said one night. We had sex multiple times that night. And we were supposed to spend two nights out of this coming week together too. I was looking forward to that.” And now there would be none for a good while. But I was fine with that. I understood that she wouldn’t be into that with her father having just passed away so unexpectedly.
“Huh. You really are committed to this girl. I have to admit that.” Tapping his fingers on the table, he seemed to be thinking.
“Baldwyn, I can go to that meeting today, and I can be on my A-game. But after that’s over, I can go to North Carolina later today or even tomorrow. Things might get started a bit later than planned, but theywillget started. I’ve got to go to her.”
With one brow cocked, he asked, “And if she refuses to invite you?”
“I must hope she’ll eventually want me with her and stop being such a selfless person, at least for a while, so I can be there for her to lean on.”
“It might be a good idea for you to go, actually. I’m sure her father had trusted advisors or at least one person who assisted him with whatever his endeavors were. She might not be thinking clearly enough to ask them for help. You might be able to see things she can’t right now. But you can’t go without her having invited you. That would be offensive, I would think.”
Nodding, I guessed he was right. “I’ve gotta get home and get ready for that meeting. I’ll let you know how it goes. And thanks for the advice.”
“No problem. I’m a phone call away if you need anything.”
“Thanks.”
I left his place to get to mine and saw that it was already nine in the morning. I knew it was an hour later in North Carolina, so I called Jessa’s cell to see if she would answer. “Come on, baby, talk to me.”
“Stone?” she asked with a teary voice.
“It’s me, baby.”
“Oh, Stone,” she sobbed.
“Baby, it’s going to be okay. I’m coming to you very soon,” I tried to console her.
“No!” she shouted. “You can’t do that. You’ve got the bistro to open. There’s so much for me to do now anyway. And my sister,” she wailed, “my sister seems incapable of handling the smallest things. She wouldn’t go to the funeral home with me to pick out his coffin and make the funeral arrangements. I had to go alone. And they had his body in the freezer, Stone. The God-forsaken freezer. They said they didn’t know how long we’d want to wait before the funeral. They said a lot of times people of his importance allow a week’s time for people to fly in to be at the funeral.”
“Honey, your father doesn’t care about that or feel any pain. He’s not in that body anymore, and you know that.” My heart ached for her. All I wanted to do was be there to hold her. “Baby, let me come and help you with everything.”
“You can’t do that. I won’t let you kill your dream because of my father’s death. I would never forgive myself for letting my ordeal take away or adversely affect your dream. Stone, it’s a great idea, and it’s going to help many people. You standing by my side won’t help anyone but me.”
“I will helpyou.Andyou’reall I care about right now. Let me decide what I’m willing to sacrifice for you, Jessa,” I begged her.
“I won’t let you sacrifice a thing for me, Stone Nash. I won’t do it!”
“Listen to me. There’s more than one way for me to do this thing. I’m going to the meeting today, and I’m going to get the space leased. Once that’s done, I can take a few days to come be with you. Then I’ll come back and get going on things. We can still make this work, baby.”
“Stone, I’m not myself right now.”
“I know that. I understand that. I haven’t told you this, but my parents died when I was a kid. I know what you’re going through.”
“God, Stone. Why haven't you told me that?” She sounded even more upset somehow.
“We’ve had little time to talk about things. And it’s not something that I wanted to bring up.” I knew there was a lot we needed to talk about. We barely knew a thing about each other. “But we have plenty of time to get to know all there is to know about each other.”
