Page 113 of The Billionaire Is Back

She’s quiet for an uncomfortablylong time, fiddling with the empty baking cup and crumbs. “I kept telling myself over and over again that you might be late but you’ll come back for me.”

“That’s true. Here I am. I wish I could have gotten back faster.”

“Yeah, here you are.” Those words are still thin and far away, no confidence in them whatsoever.

I’m ready to negotiate. “Claire, look?—”

“You promised you’d be here.”

I hesitate before saying, “No, I didn’t.”

Claire holds her breath as she studies my expression. If it looks anything like I feel, she sees that I’m being straightforward and honest and open. “Right. Of course you didn’t.” She sighs and flicks the empty paper muffin cup away. “You’re too careful to make promises you can’t keep. So very careful and disciplined. If you wanted to be here, if it was the most important thing in the world to you, ifIwas the most important thing in the world to you, you would have been here.”

I lean in and take her hand that’s resting on the table in mine. “You are the most important thing in the world to me. I couldn’t be here. You have no idea how many responsibilities I have.”

She pulls her hand from mine. “I don’t? I run a business. I have responsibilities. And I still make time for my friends and family. I follow through on being in their lives.”

“It’s not the same thing,” I say, shaking my head.

“That is horseshit!”

“It’s not horseshit! It’s not even in the same universe, Claire. I run a multibillion-dollar corporation.”

“And I just play around with sugar and flour?”

I rub my forehead, sighing. This is it. This is the argument that’s been hiding underneath everything, waiting in the wings for its moment to shine. “I believe in your dream. You have a gift, and I want to support that. I have supported that.”

“You just don’t think it’s as important as what you do.”

“What Idomakes all of the problems go away. No one is at risk of losing their business. No one is at risk of losing their house. No one is at risk of going hungry. The plumbing breaks, you can’t pay your lease—I solve that. I see what failing businesses do to the people I love. I saw it happen with you. You were stuck in your parents’ house.”

“Before you saved me?” she says sarcastically, folding her arms in front of her chest. There it is. The sarcasm.

“Where did the money come from to fix this place? Where did the money come from to solve every single problem that came up? It didn’t come from marshmallows.”

That silences her for a moment. She doesn’t have an answer to that. But it certainly doesn’t feel like I’m winning this argument. “I’m not ungrateful, Grady. I will always be grateful for your support. But I’m not going to pretend that this is enough for me.”

I try to take a calming breath. She just needs to understand where I’m coming from. “Listen…who knows if my father’s heart would be giving out right now if he didn’t have that stress when we were younger. That fear of losing the house, not being able to feed and clothe kids? That is never going to happen to me. You can’t ask me to care less about my work.”

“I’m not asking you to do that.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No, I’m not!”

“I’m just trying to explain who I am.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. I know who you are. I see you. I’ve understood what drives you since we were teenagers. I’m not asking for clarification. What I’m asking for is for someone to love me and put me first. That means being here. With me. So I can be with the one I love and put him first too. It’s that simple. But you will always choose your business over me. Always.”

“Choosing my businessistaking care of you, Claire.”

She shakes her head adamantly as she wipes away tears. “No. Your money isn’t solving the real problem. The real problem hasn’t changed. You are who you are and I am who I am. I would rather lose this business and be stuck in my childhood bedroom in Beacon Harbor. I would rather have a dream that can’t come true instead of feeling like half my heart is constantly missing. I don’t want to live like that.”

“Claire…” I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to lose her. I don’t want this to come between us. “I love you.” It’s somehow the truest thing I’ve ever said, the most important feeling I’ve ever had, and yet it feels completely useless to say it out loud at this moment.

“I love you too. So much it hurts. I was going to keep this place open for as long as I had to so that you wouldn’t technically miss reopening day. I would have done thatfor you. I would have waited for you forever. But as I sat here repeating, ‘Grady will always come back to me,’ it struck me… If your father hadn’t had his heart incident,wouldyou have come back for me? Ever? Would you ever have come back at all?” She locks eyes with me.

She has become the most important thing in my life. A dream come true. Something I didn’t think I could have, orwecould have, and now it’s real. Or at least I thought it was. But I have no answer for that question. Because would I have?

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