Page 44 of The Billionaire Is Back

I roll my eyes but can’t help my smile. “ I know you’re good, Grody Borber, but you’re notcontrol the fatesgood.”

His turn to give a little shrug. “I don’t control fate. And I don’t know anything about lobsters. But I do know human body language. And if Crustaceous Clay was actually as fast as my brother says he is, my brother wouldn’t have looked so tense.”

So smart. So shrewd. So Grady.

“Well, I have a little secret for you.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I may have been okay with you winning. I may have wanted you to win. That’s why I asked Damien which lobster to bet on and not Vera.”

Grady’s beautiful face breaks from a grin to a laugh. Hope blooms in my chest, sprinkled with joy, and it isn’teven dusted with anything bittersweet. I feel more at ease than I have in ages. I’m so excited and grateful, I want to throw my arms around Grady and hug him. But we were never huggers, he and I. Not of each other anyway.

“I’m really excited about what comes next,” I say.

“I’m excited to help you get there. I think it’s going to be amazing.” He wrinkles his brow and leans in toward me a little. “You have a little chocolate, right…here.” He touches the tip of his index finger against the corner of his own mouth as he stares at the corner of my mouth.

“Where?” I ask, refraining from sending the tip of my tongue out on a search for it.

“Here.” He reaches out to slowly wipe away the melted chocolate from my cheek, and my face involuntarily nestles into the palm of his hand again.

I look up at him. It’s a tiny, bold move, but the sugar and fat and alcohol are sailing through my bloodstream in an intoxicating, dreamy blend. Or maybe it’s just Grady’s sunset-and-firelit face that’s making me feel tipsy. My billionaire baking advisor. I want so badly to let myself want him again. I lick my lips, and it feels like our heads are being pulled into each other’s gravitational orbit.

I’m so excited, I’m actually buzzing.

Or is that the sound of a phone vibrating?

Grady’s face stops an inch from mine. He pulls back. And just like that, the moment is broken.

He clears his throat and pulls out his phone.

How does he even get reception out here? He probably has a special billionaire cell phone with billionaire cell-phone service. He probably has his own personal satellite trained on him wherever he goes.

Glancing down at the caller ID, he exhales and mutters, “I have to take this.” Not a trace of apology in his tone. He actually sounds relieved as he gets up and walks away.

Of course he walks away.

I’m the quirky small-town baker, and he’s the golden-boy billionaire whose dreams are too big for a small town.

Nothing’s really changed since high school. He will always, always pull back and then leave. So I just have to stop leaning in to kiss him. He only wants to get his mouth on my sweet treats. My head, my heart, and my lady parts all nod in agreement as I empty the rest of both beer cans into my mouth.

Chapter 12

Fake It till You Bake It

Grady

I havea personal trainer back in New York who’s a total dick. I pay him a lot to push me hard, and he got my resting heart rate down to forty-five beats per minute. That’s the resting heart rate of a professional athlete. I have never once broken a sweat in a high-stakes negotiation or board meeting. I once jumped onto the tracks at Penn Station to pick up an old lady’s purse when she dropped it, about twenty seconds before a train pulled up. Then I dusted myself off and finished typing a text message.

But right now my heart is racing.

I walk into the darkness of the woods where the air is cooler. My skin is warm—not from the fire; it’s from the heat that Claire and I were generating. It would have been so easy to kiss her. So easy to cross that line, those final few inches that have been separating us. Unbridgeablefor over a decade, even when she’s right in front of me.

I can confirm that Claire is even more beautiful by firelight now than ever.

And I know I would feel even more guilty kissing her tonight than I would have that night before I graduated.

I sigh heavily as I redial the missed call from my assistant.

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