Page 49 of The Billionaire and I

Coleand I snuck away and headed for the reception. We made three calls apiece to James and Audrey, and still no answer. “I hope they’re okay, and Audrey’s mom left them alone.”

“I’m sure it’s fine. James is probably banging Audrey against a wall somewhere,” Cole surmised. As usual, he sounded confident.

“Could be,” I agreed. But I had a pit in my stomach.

“What's wrong with her mother?” Cole asked. “She can’t possibly be worse than Celia Preston.”

I snorted. “She’d give Old Celia a run for her money.”

“Really?” Cole looked confused. “How is that even possible?”

“Eh, she’s down on her luck—always had been. Audrey said she’s a grifter. She’s been in trouble with the police, too. Drunk driving, walking out on bar tabs—you name it, Mama’s done it.”

Cole stared straight ahead. “Audrey’s so…normal. She seems like a genuinely nice person. How does that happen?”

I raised my eyebrows, calculating an answer. Suppose Cole had any idea whatmyfamily was like…yikes. He’d be surprised at how “normal” I was, too. Finally, I laughed, but it sounded as fake as it felt. “Real easy. It happens real easy.”

He stared at me, but I didn’t elaborate. “It was nice what you said to Audrey, you know. About the crab cake.”

He nodded. “It’s true. The first night I met her, she fed James a crab cake. He literally hates them—it’s a thing. So when he told me he’d eaten one because she’d fed it to him, I almost fell over dead. I knew then. He had it bad for her.”

Cole went quiet for a minute. “Audrey doesn’t think that they’re going to keep dating after this?”

I got a prickly feeling in the back of my neck. “She doesn’t think it can work out,” I admitted.

“What do you think?” He seemed like he was holding his breath.

“I think Audrey’s special. I think James would be crazy to let her go. But that’s me, and I’m not exactly a realist.” I shrugged.

“I agree with you,” Cole said. “I think Audrey’s special, and James would be crazy to let her go, too.”

The car got very quiet. I didn’t know what to say for a minute, so I didn’t say anything. Neither did Cole. The silence stretched out between us, and I felt awkward for the first time since I’d met him.

“What’re we gonna do if they aren’t at the reception?” I asked, eventually. “I’m going to have to come up with something better than Audrey being on her period!”

Cole laughed. “True, but that was quick thinking on your part. How about we say she has a headache because she’s on her period?”

Hearing Cole say “on her period” made me honk-laugh. “That’s good, Coley. That’s real good.”

I held his hand and my breath for the rest of the ride to the reception. I knew where we were going—to the formal party, then on a plane to the Caribbean tomorrow—but I didn’t know where we weregoinggoing.

If anywhere. I don’t know why I was even wondering about it; when our time was up, I’d go back to AccommoDating. Cole would return to his real life, filled with Victoria’s Secret models, hockey, and venture-capitaling.

I wasn’t exactly a realist. But I wasn’t dumb, either. Fairy tales might come true for Audrey because she was a good girl. But for a girl like me?

I knew better than to believe in happy endings.

CHAPTER 24

Cole

Introspection was notin my nature, yet I found myself quiet on the ride to the reception. Several things were hitting me at once. First of all, James was clearly in love with Audrey. He’d never been a fan of his family, but running out on Todd’s wedding was still wildly out of character. He’d left because he was in love with his escort.

And he wasn’t the only one.

I wondered what my mom would have thought about Jenny. Probably, she would’ve loved her. Like Jenny, my mother was a warm person—the opposite of my father. If a stranger sneezed near us, she was the first one to always say, “God bless you.” That was one of the small, funny things I remembered about her. She was always smiling. She smiled at everyone in the grocery store and when we walked down the street. People always smiled back.

When I lost her, I lost my smile—my real one. But I felt like since I’d met Jenny, it had somehow come back.

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