Page 86 of The Billionaire Is Back

Chapter 22

Sweeter than Friction

Claire

As I surveyour local townie bar, the Hair of the Sea Dog, through the tranquil lens of my freshly fucked haze, I notice there are fewer pairs of eyes pretending not to stare at us tonight.

Grady and I have been back for a few days now, and we didn’t make any official announcements to anyone in town. I mean, I feel like I have a neon flashingMy Boyfriend Tied Me to the Bedposts While I Was Naked!sign over my head all the time now. But as for us being a couple, when we go anywhere we just act like boyfriend and girlfriend, holding hands and hugging, and then we let Ye Olde Beacon Harbor Rumor Mill do its work.

Of course, we told our families that we’re really together. Jake is cautiously optimistic. My mom is cautiously ecstatic. My dad is still just really confused.

“Fantastic s’morples, honey,” he says, mouth full of a s’more sample.

“Daaaad!Leave some for the other customers! I can make them for you anytime.” I crane my neck to see if there are any left on the tray at the counter.

“Sorry, honey. This is the last one I eat tonight—promise.” My dad gestures toward my little marketing setup at the bar. “But while I was over there, telling people how delicious your goodies are, I handed out twenty flyers for the reopening”—he raises his voice—“that yourboyfriendGrady Barber has been helping you with!” He gives me an exaggerated wink, which would not have been helpful if we actually were still pretending.

“Dad.” I lean in to explain things to him for the fifth time. “We really are together now. Privately and publicly. As a couple.”

“Yes. You are. And you’re really pulling it off.” I get a Bob Sweeney thumbs-up.

Grady’s parents stop arguing about whether or not his dad can order onion rings long enough to come over and compliment me on my s’more samples. It is so amazing to be here with our family and friends and half the town. And I’m not just saying that because I’m so relaxed even days after being tied up by my billionaire boyfriend.

We’re all here to see Damien play for the first time in ages. As much as I’d like to think that people are excited about me and Grady being together, all the energy in the building is focused on Damien tonight. A lot of people in Beacon Harbor have missed hearing him play live.

“Bweeney” is already old news to the general population.

MyboyfriendGrady Barber is texting someone on his phone. He’s been preoccupied all night. His plan worked and the deal is going to go through. Now he has to leverage and finance and synergize or whatever it is he needs to do to combine his Fortune 500 company with Lynch’s. So, we’ve both been busy ever since we got back, just as he said we would be. But tonight he’s compromising for me. Forus. He’s text swiping with one hand while holding my hand with the other.

We’re making this work. In the real-relationship-y, not-strictly-business sense.

Vera enters the bar with Damien, who’s carrying his guitar. She’s picking lint off his T-shirt and telling him what songs he should sing, and I need everyone around me to shut up so I can eavesdrop on their conversation. Vera is insisting he do a song called “Unsaid.” Damien refuses. She pleads with him in a heartfelt, genuine way that is so unlike her that it’s surprising to both me and Damien. He relents. Then Vera tells him not to do “Tangled” because it will just bring the whole bar down. There is eye-rolling and nose-flaring and he tells her he has to go set up on stage, but I just want them to make out, and then I want Vera to come over here so I can girl-talk her face off before the show starts.

“Break a leg, Damien!” I call out. He laughs and shakes his head at me. I guess that’s just for theater people. “Knock ’em dead, tiger!” I give him the double thumbs-up because apparently I’ve turned into my dad.

Grady glances up from his phone. “Gonna sound awesome, D.”

Jake walks over, and I catch him shooting Grady a dark look. What isthatabout? “Hey, G.” My brother’s voice sounds deeper than usual.

“What’s up, Jakey?” Grady doesn’t even look up from his phone.

“We’re gonna go get the girls some drinks. That’s what’s up.” Jake isn’t asking.

Grady registers his tone and finally gives him his full attention. “Absolutely.” He squeezes my hand as he stands. “You’re getting a chardonnay,” he tells me.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. It’s going to help you relax.”

I wrinkle my nose. “You don’t know me…yeah, it will.”

“I know you, Claire Sweeney,” he says with that frustratingly charming grin of his. “I know you.” He kisses me, and God, it feels so good to just lean into it. No resistance. No pretense. I watch him walk over to the counter with my brother, and by that I mean I gape at his marvelous butt, and it doesn’t even make me mad that he’s so much more fit and toned than I am.

Vera finally quits yammering at Damien while he tests his mic and comes over to take a seat in the chair I’ve been saving for her. “That guy is so frustrating,” she huffs.

I give her thigh a little squeeze, so happy to see her. The only time we’ve spent together since I got back has been at the bakery, and there’s always been a construction crew and designer around. “I want to hear all abouthow frustrated you are,” I say. “But first, I have to tell you about something that happened on the yacht with his brother.” I give her a slow wink because, again, I’ve turned into Bob Sweeney. “It’s not the kind of thing I could tell you in a text or a phone call.”

“Oh, why yes, please do tell me that kind of thing.”

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