Page 11 of The Billionaire Player

“What? Why is Mac getting involved?”

“He didn’t say, just that he was coming over. I have no idea why but he thought you might be upset about that,” she said, and with a pat on my chest she walked away from me.

As annoyed as I was about Lizbeth causing problems again there wasn’t anything I could do about it at that moment, so I went back to running the restaurant and the dry run. It went smoothly or at least better than I had thought it would. There were a few mix-ups, some hang-ups, and flat-out issues that were going to need to be addressed before we officially opened, but overall, I couldn’t complain.

The customers seemed happy and there were many compliments about the menu and to the chef, which I was extremely happy to hear. The staff had some issues but nothing that couldn’t be worked out or wouldn’t get better with time. Overall, I was very pleased with how it went and told my staff so at the end of their shift.

It felt good to see the restaurant start to take shape, to see what it was becoming and the knowledge it would only get better with time. I was looking forward to watching it grow and succeed, and it would succeed, I would make sure of it, even if that meant that all my time and energy was spent at the restaurant. It was all that mattered to me now and I certainly didn’t need any other distractions like Lizbeth Angelo.

I certainly didn’t need them from a feisty reporter with eyes that haunted me long after she had left. Two days later Alexandria Ricci still came into my thoughts at the most inopportune of times. Reminders of how she had looked at me as if she was reading my thoughts, that she was intrigued by me and wanted to know all my secrets. What was even more annoying was that I had wanted to tell them to her. I felt like I could trust her at least until I found out she was a reporter.

I didn’t trust reporters, not after the scandal they had started that almost ruined me before I could even legally drink. In my experience, they were only out for themselves and what they could get from people. They didn't care who they hurt in the process and I would do everything I could to make sure I never worked with one, or allowed them to hurt me or my family ever again.

Every time the door opened in my office, I kept thinking Alexandria would walk in and I hated that I even thought about her or even hoped that she would. Shaking my head, I tried to push her from my mind and was about to talk to Rosie about how the dry run went when I saw Mac walking into my office.

“This has to be bad if you’re coming to see me in the middle of the day,” I said as he sat down.

“Your girlfriend is starting to get out of hand,” Mac stated.

“Lizbeth is not my girlfriend. She wasn’t even my girlfriend when we were sleeping together.”

“Did anyone tell her that? The way she’s going on, it certainly seems like she thinks you two still are.”

“I have no clue what gave her that idea. I certainly haven’t.”

“Do you really think she needs anyone’s permission to do what she’s doing?” he countered.

“Lizbeth certainly marches to her own drummer,” I muttered.

“Now she’s forming a band. She’s gotten her followers very anxious to see you two together, to the point that we’re starting to get calls about it and I have no idea what to tell them.”

“You’re the head of a multi-billion-dollar public relation department and you don’t know what to tell people?”

“I have no idea if you two are dating, if you are even talking, if you hate her guts, if this is some publicity stunt from her or from you.”

“We discussed this months ago. There’s nothing between me and Lizbeth. I would have thought you got that impression last year when you started a relationship to take the spotlight off of me. The situation has not changed, and it’s never going to. I didn’t think she would go so far as to get you all involved. I will talk to her, or something,” I said.

“You’ve tried that and it didn’t work. Ignoring her didn’t work. Sending Rosie after he didn’t work. The only way that woman is going to leave you alone is if you move across the pond again or if you get involved with someone else. I doubt those two options would completely work,” Mac said.

“I’m not leaving town again, ever, if I have my way. I don’t have time to get involved with a woman.

“Mom won’t let you leave town anyways, so that leaves the other option.”

“Me dating? I’m doing my level best to stay out of trouble and you want to put me smack in the middle of it again by getting into a pissing contest with Lizbeth?”

“What I’m talking about doing will help distance you from Lizbeth.”

“How do you figure that?”

It had been a long day, and there was an even longer night ahead. I didn’t have the energy to deal with my brother’s riddles, but I knew he was there out of concern for me and I was curious what he would say.

“If you are with a woman, any woman, then you can’t be with Lizbeth. She’ll lay off. At least for the time being,” Mac suggested.

“I’m not going to get involved with some random woman simply to get another woman off my back. That’s ridiculous,” I countered and shook my head.

“And yet, it can be highly effective. Look how well it worked out for Walker and me,” Mac said.

“Those were different situations, at least I hope they were.”

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