Bedding the Billionaire (Book 3) (Legacy Collection) (23 page)

“How
does
nine sound?”

She swallowed hard. “That would be fine.”

“I’ll pick you up.”

Well,
this couldn’t possibly be more awkward.

“
Great.
See you tomorrow, Jake.”

He said,
“Lil?”
with a hint of anticipation
that
made
her clench her
phone.

“Yes?”

“I’m glad you called.”

Suddenly feeling shaky, s
he sank into
one of thickly cushioned chairs in her living room
.
You wouldn’
t
be
if you knew why
.
“Me, too,” s
he said
softly and hung up before she said anything stupid
.
God
, help me.
M
e, too.

Jake hung up the phone and smiled.

She wants to see me.

Common sense
should have
told him that his best course would be to return to New York now, but common sense had pretty much deserted him days ago.

He
wanted to
prove something tomorrow–
prove it to Lil as well as to himself.
What they had didn’t have to be cheap.
He was drawn to her on more than one level.
No, he wasn’t looking to marry her, but that didn’t mean that his only interest in her was sexual.

He called Marie.

“Marie, I’m
still
in Boston.”

“Good.”

“I need your advice on
something
.”

“W
ith
L
il?”

There was no reason to hide anything from Marie.
Where he was concerned, she had an uncanny ability to know how he felt about something before he did.
She
called it a mother’s intuition; something
he’d always scoffed at since she didn’t have children and she certainly wasn’t his mother.

He spoke to his
actual
mother as little as possible.
Neither of his parents were particular
l
y affectionate people
.
Bi-annual phone conversations provided ample contact in his opinion and he was pretty sure they were in complete agreement.

He couldn’
t imagine Lil ever
having that relationship with Colby.
The mere idea of it made him smile.
In-law apartments were created for mothers like Lil.
She’d want to be right there for all of Colby’s life milestones
.

“Marie, I’m taking Lil and Colby out for the day tomorrow.”
He hesitated to label it and then found that he wanted to.
“It’s our first
date.”

He could fee
l Marie’s approval through the
phone. “Oh, Jake, I’m so glad.”

He took wome
n out to dinner and to events,
usually to showcase
them or
because a certain event required a couple.
It was enough for most wom
en to simply be seen with him, b
ut this was different.
He wanted this to be special,
a day she would always remember.
“
Where do you think they would want to go?”

“Didn’t you go to school in
Cambridge
?”

“Yes.”

“
Why don’t you take her somewhere you
’ve
spent some time?
It’s a nice way to let her get to know you better.
”

He doubted she wanted
to visit the financial d
istrict or the bowels of a
library.
Outside of work, he couldn’t think of any place that had any significance to him.

That realization
struck him as a bit sad.
A month ago he’d thought he had everything, now he was beginning to wonder if he had anything at all.

“
Lil isn’t like the women I’m used to dating.”

“Thank God,” Marie said and chuckled. “Did I say that out loud?”

“You did.”

She was unrepentant as usual. “
I don’t know what Lil likes, Jake, so
I can’t tell you where to take
her.
Trust your instincts.
You know what she cares about.
Start there.”

“What would I do without you, Marie?”

“I ask myself that every day,” she teased gently.
“Now, go and plan your date.
Show that girl the man I know you are.”

“
Marie,
I…” he started to say something
then stopped.

“I know,”
she replied, understanding more than he did what he had difficulty saying.
“Don’t forget to tell me how it went.”

“I won’t,” he answered automatically and hung up.

He smiled.

Marie was a genius.

There were two things Jake knew that Lil loved, but the question was if he could combine them. He used the search engine on his phone and reached for a notepad as he began to find exactly what he was looking for.

Who knew that planning a date could actually be
fun
?

The next morning, even as she readied herself and Colby, Li
l wavered. She
really should call a halt to this whole insanity.
Maybe she should just tell
Abby everything
and let her
decide how to move forward with it.

No, putting the weight of
this
problem on her sister would be the coward’s way out.
Why ruin her happiness if there was a chance that this was all a paranoid conspiracy theory hatched up by
Alethea
?

Alethea
.
The mere mention of her friend’s name would be enough
for
Abby
to
dismiss any allegations unless there was hard proof of wrongdoing.

Abby had never made a secret that she disapproved
of
her best friend
.
She didn’t
liked
that
Alethea
had been booted out of every private school
before
her parents had sent her
to public school as
a punishment
–
a
punishment
Alethea
had embraced.

Born to
an upper class family,
Alethea
had no fear of authority and she had the resources to defy them.
Abby had spent many nights attempting to explain the danger in the differences between their situations to Lil, but Lil had refused to listen to her.
Yes,
Alethea
broke the rules
sometimes merely for the rush of doing it and some of her ideas had landed Lil in some sticky situations
but
a
friend isn’t someone
who
never
makes
mistake
s
.
A friend is someone who loves you right through the ones you make yourself.

And
Alethea
always had.

It
had been
Alethea
she’d called the
night Dirk
had walked away from her,
Alethea
who had convinced her to eat if only for
the sake of
the baby growing within her
and
had bolstered her confidence enough to tell Abby she was pregnant.

Looking back now, Abby hadn’t said anything wrong
when she finally had told her
;
she just hadn’t said what Lil had yearned
to hear
–
that she loved her and that they would get through it together.
No, instead, she had talked about getting health insurance, finding a good doctor, and starting prenatal care immediately.

All very good advice.

And maybe the on
ly
way Abby knew how to deal with the unexpected
.
She’d had to be strong for so long, maybe she’d forgotten how to share a moment of weakness.

It
hadn’t been with malice that Lil had chosen
Alethea
to bring to her first ultrasound and to invite to be her Lamaze partner.
As much as she’d known that Abby had been hurt by the decision, it had also been
Alethea
she’d chosen to be with her in the delivery room
.
Things had become so bad between her and Abby by then tha
t they’d barely been speaking; n
either knowing quite how to remedy the situation or if it was even worth trying to.

Lil had considered
explaining
her choices to Abby, but none of her explanations would have improved the situation.
The simple
fact
was that birthing someone
had been
full-on scary to Lil and she
’d
wanted someone at her side
who
could overlook any weakness she might reveal in the process.