Page 131 of The Billionaire Is Back

Claire tears her eyes away from the race to look at me. “I would. I will.”

“Lobster?! I Hardly Know’er! has slowly surged ahead!” the announcer intones.

“But is that what you want?” I ask her.

Claire stares at the racetrack. “What I want is a life with you, Grady. I wanted it even when I wouldn’t admit it to myself, and I need it more than all the other things I thought were really important to me.”

“Claw Me Maybe briefly inches ahead before being overtaken by I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Lobster For!Oh, it’s gonna be a tight race, folks. I hope none of these lobsters are claw-strophobic!”

“But let’s say that you could have me here. Let’s say that we could build a life in Beacon Harbor together. That would be the ideal, right?”

Claire shakes her head. “I would never ask you to?—”

“Uh-oh, what’s this? Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we have a fight. Shellfish Bastard, living up to his name, is being separated from Claws and Effect! Both are unharmed, but they have been disqualified! Causing a lot of frust-acean for their owners—that’s gotta hurt.”

I smooth a strand of Claire’s hair behind her ear. “I know. But let’s say, oh, I don’t know, let’s say I didn’t need to be in New York all the time anymore. If we could be together here, where we grew up together.” I take her hand in mine. “Where our hearts slowly became intertwined over the years, so slowly and organically we didn’t even realize what was happening. That would be the ideal. Wouldn’t it?”

Claire looks up at me and her eyes well with tears. “That would make me so happy it would hurt a little. In a good way. The best way.”

I wrap my arms around her. “Nothing but the best for my girl.” Before I get the chance to tell her how everything has changed, we hear, “Clawdia Swiffter and Dwayne the Rock Lobster are nearing the finish line! Ladies and gentlemen, it’s gonna be a close claw!”

Claire and I break our conversation at the mention of Clawdia Swiffter, and we turn our attention back to the race. Just as the announcer said, our girl and another lobster are crawling antenna and antenna.

“Come on, Clawdia! Move that meaty tail, girl!” Claire yells.

And I know it’s crazy, but my beautiful girl yelling at a crustacean makes my heart swell. She’s supporting my family. She’s supporting me.

And one day, we’ll make our own family together, here in Beacon Harbor.

“Finish it!” I call out. I see my brother, my father, and my mother all hugging, and I pull Claire with me as I rush over to them. We watch as Clawdia goes back and forth with Dwayne the Rock Lobster. She’s in the lead, then she falls back. Then she takes the lead again. They go back and forth in a somewhat agonizing pattern until Clawdia’s antenna crosses the finish line first.

“Clawdia Swiffter wins! There you have it, ladies and gentlemen—Clawdia wins!”

My family, Claire, and I are jumping around like crazy people.

“You did it!” I scream at my brother. “You actually did it!” And we hug each other, like when we were little and none of the bullshit of adult life had come between us. My father—my very-alive-and-still-healthy father—joins us, and our mother somehow ends up at the center of the group hug. And then my arm finds Claire because she will always be a part of this family from now on.

The next few minutes are a whirlwind. Clawdia and Damien are presented with the trophy as the mayor tells the crowd that Clawdia, as well as all of today’s racers, will get to live in a massive, lush new lobster retirement aquarium that a generous donor has commissioned. It’s me. I’m the generous donor who forgot that he donatedmoney for this. I have now ensured that they’ll each get their own habitats, of course, so they don’t cannibalize each other, the largest tank going to the winner. Nothing but the best saltwater, oxygenation, temperature control, and seafood pellets. Why? I dunno. I didn’t want the subjects of my little brother’s weird summer obsession to end up on a toasted bun. Now they’ll be local shellebrities. Damien asks the mayor if Clawdia’s trainer can also be rehomed there, and she says yes, even though she has no idea what he’s talking about.

Finally, the mayor reveals Claire’s magnificent cake to the crowd, ceremoniously unveiling it to satisfying “awws” and applause from the townsfolk. I can only give Claire a quick kiss before Stacy welcomes me to the stage.

“Shello, Beacon Harbor…” There is some polite laughter, but I really wish I hadn’t said that out loud.

“That was pretty funny, Mr. Suit!” I squint as I scan the audience for my nemesis, but I spot him near the stage, smiling up at me. This could be some kind of trap, but it’s good to see him smile.

“Thanks, Crabby. Lovely to see you. As Mayor Stacy mentioned, I was born and raised here. Most recently I’ve been in New York serving as CEO of Beacon Holdings, the company I founded. I named it that because I wanted a piece of what I grew up with with me as I attempted to conquer the world.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what I wanted to say in this speech ever since the mayor did me the honor of asking me to give it. And what I want to say is that those of you here, you understand that when you experienceBeacon Harbor and her people, you know that a piece of her isn’t enough.” I glance over at Claire, who’s clasping her hands together and rocking back and forth from her heels to her tiptoes. “Because Beacon Harbor is a place that gets it. This town understands that life isn’t about the rat race. It isn’t even about winning the lobster race. It’s about running the race alongside the people you love. Beacon Harbor is a small town with a huge heart. Personally, I have recently been given a gift. It didn’t seem like a gift at first. It was quite terrifying, actually, because it involved my dad’s heart. But it offered me the realization that time must be judiciously guarded like any other resource.

“We think of time as something outside of our control. Something that marches on, completely indifferent to us. Like a lobster on a racetrack. But that’s not accurate. Early on in my business education, I learned about compound interest. This is the principle that when you give a small amount of money a large amount of time to grow, it will grow at a rate much greater than someone trying to stuff money into a bank account later on in life.”

I turn my head to look at Claire, to the side of the stage. Speaking to no one but her.

“Now I know that time is like that too. If you invest your time with the people you love, the moments that come later will compound and every second is richer than the last. You can’t wait until you retire to build lives with the people you want to be with. You’d never catch up. I was so busy compounding things that didn’t really matter, I nearly lost the thing that matters most.”

I look around at my view from this stage—of thecrowd and the beach and the town and the harbor. Taking a deep breath, I turn my attention back to Claire, the center of my stage. “This hasn’t become public news yet, but between you and me, I have stepped down as CEO of Beacon Holdings. I’m coming back home to Beacon Harbor. For good.”

Chapter 37

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