Page 30 of No More Billionaires

I sat in stunned silence for a minute before speaking. “Larson? You all right?”

He nodded, keeping his face covered. His voice was muffled under his palms. “I just need a minute.”

The clenching, squeezing feeling was back in my chest. He was just as affected as I was. And seeing him so moved by the family’s story… it did something to me.

My arm ached with the need to reach out and touch him, to show him I understood, to offer some comfort.

I didn’t.

Larson dropped his hands to the steering wheel, took a deep breath and exhaled in a long blow, then re-started the car.

“Would you do something for me?”

“Uh, sure.”

“See if you can get the Websters’ mortgage information. It’ll take some digging, but you should be able to find it.”

“Okay. Why?”

His jaw clenched as he pulled the car onto the road again and headed for the highway, staring straight ahead out the windshield.

“They arenotlosing their home.”

“What are you going to do—pay it off for them?” I asked, joking.

He didn’t answer. He just shook off my question and kept driving.

Shoot.Why did he have to keep ruining my snobby rich-boy image of him?

Yes, he was rich, but “snobby” did not apply, and now I would have to add “kind” and “compassionate” to the list. The more I got to know him, the more he drew me in.

And I wasnotgoing to be drawn in by a guy like him. I had unshakable principles now.

Pulling out my phone, I entered a reminder to track down the Websters’ mortgage information when we got back to Atlanta. I would find it and hand it over to him and not ask him another thing about it.

I didn’twantto know if he was going to save their house. I didn’t want to know any more about him at all.

We drove mostly in silence until we reached the Nashville city limits.

“So, should I drop you off at your friend’s house?” Larson said, sounding much brighter than he had the last time he’d spoken.

I glanced over, suddenly feeling bad about leaving him to spend the evening alone in a strange city.

Invite him along.

No, it was too risky, especially as emotionally opened-up as I was feeling right now.

“Um, you don’t need to. She said she’d come pick me up wherever. Let me text her and see what she wants to do.”

After a few exchanges, I had my answer. “She wants me to meet her downtown at a restaurant called The Southern. Could you drop me off there? I think it’s not far from your hotel.”

“Sure. No problem. How long’s it been since you’ve seen her?” he asked.

I typed the address into the rental’s GPS. “Not since our friend Mara’s wedding a few months ago. I can’t wait.”

“And you two are having a slumber party, huh? I can just picture you as a teenager, giggling with your girlfriends.”

He shot me an adorable grin that had my stomachdancinglike a teenager at a boy band concert.

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