Page 1 of Billionaire Unreachable: Wyatt

Shelby

“Are you really doing okay, Shelby?” my cousin, Kaleb, asked with a frown. “I know you always tell us that you’re doing fine, but you’ve been there in San Diego for over a year now, and I’m still not completely buying it. I don’t think any of us are.”

I looked back at the beloved faces of my three male cousins and my Aunt Millie on my computer screen.

Am I really fine?

Maybe…not completely.

Things were definitely getting easier here in California, but I couldn’t say that the events in my history still didn’t haunt me.

There were parts of me that were still a little broken and might stay that way for the foreseeable future, but I was surviving better than I was a year ago.

That was something, right?

I tried hard not to worry my family with my bullshit.

I was thirty-five years old, and my cousins and my aunt had been there for enough of my past drama.

I was also normally an optimist, which had gotten me in trouble at times, and I really wanted to believe that I could stop thinking about my former life sometime soon.

I looked at Kaleb’s image and nodded slowly, trying to convey to him that I was okay.

While I was close to everyone on my computer screen, I’d developed a special bond with Kaleb over the last several years. He could read me a little better than his brothers and Aunt Millie because I’d opened up to him more than I had with the rest of my family.

The five of us had been meeting via video conference every Saturday afternoon when we could all get free for a little over a year now, ever since I’d relocated from Montana to San Diego.

I wasn’t sure whether it helped my loneliness or if it made it worse to see the people I loved on a computer screen. There were still times when I felt guilty every time I saw them because my mistakes had hurt them, too, but they had never judged me. It was more likely that I was the one who couldn’t get over it.

They allwantedme to be okay after everything that had happened in Montana, so I tried to tell them what they needed to hear.

My three cousins, Kaleb, Tanner, and Devon, were busy billionaires who ran a diversified multinational holding company.

The three of them were like older brothers to me.

Their mother, my Aunt Millie, was like a parent to me, too. She was now comfortably retired.

None of them needed to hear about how lonely and lost I’d been since I’d moved to San Diego.

Besides, thingshadgotten better for me recently. I was making new friends, and my head was on straighter now than it had been a year ago.

I took in the four concerned faces on my laptop screen and plastered what I hoped was an upbeat smile on my face. “I’m good,” I insisted. “My food blog is still growing, and I do as many events here as possible. It’s nice to be able to work for myself.”

“We aren’t just talking about your businesses,” Tanner scoffed. “We want to know if you’re really happy there in San Diego now.”

Happy?

I wasn’t entirely certain I even remembered what real happiness felt like anymore, but I was more…content.

Realizing they were more interested in my personal life than my career, I said, “I’m going to a barbecue at Tori Montgomery’s house later. I have some friends here now. Thingsaregetting better. I promise.”

That much was true.

Becoming friends with Tori Montgomery was probably the best thing that happened to me in San Diego.

After a year of being alone in a city that wasn’t familiar to me with no real friends, I was grateful that I’d finally met someone as genuine as Tori.

“You met her at Chase’s wedding, right?” Devon questioned.

---