Kola Kitanabu
Ellie
We’re sitting on the beach, Nick and I. I’m lazily watching the deep ocean waters swell in the distance.
It’s been one year since Jacque took the helm at Stingray and the company’s prospering. I am still waiting for my own robot Pomeranian, though.
Everywhere around me, things are so well-kept. When Nick gave that money to the people of Kola Kitanabu, they put it to good use. No one’s building a mansion in this rainforest.
People still recognize Nick everywhere, but thankfully, fewer recognize me. In the States, some people walk up to Nick to shake his hand while others walk up to tell him what a jerk they think he is.
I guess that’s the way it’s going to be, though.
Right now, Nick and I are celebrating our engagement. I have to say, with all his money and taste, I was hoping for more than the standard down-on-one-knee with a ring proposal, but he’s got a while to make it up to me.
I reach over and snatch my champagne glass and take a sip.
It’d be great to say we never had to deal with Stingray anymore, but even as Jacque has brought the company all the way around and even started breaking internal profit records, he still calls Nick at least once a day to ask advice on how to deal with this person or that. At least they got him to talk in front of people without sounding like an angsty teenager.
It took a while.
Max is standing at the edge of the shore, biting at the waves as they come over him. Sammie’s pooping in the sand. This is the life.
Naomi steps to the side of my beach lounger and says, “Trevor has the car ready whenever the two of you would like to go.”
For the last six months, Naomi’s been my personal bodyguard. I know they say it’s not a job for family, but at the same time, she’s the most conniving person I know, and if anyone’s going to try anything, she will have already thought of it first.
“Are you just going to sit there drinking or are you going to acknowledge that I’m speaking to you?” she asks.
I look over at Nick. He says, “Thank you, Naomi. That should be all for now.”
My sister walks off with a grunt and I finally ask the question. “Why don’t you like Naomi?” I ask. “You’ve been civil with her for a long time now, but you didn’t like her from the first time I introduced you to her.”
“That was the first time you introduced me to her,” he says, “but it wasn’t the first time I met her. At Mulholland Junior High, the jocks were the worst to me physically, but she was the worst to me psychologically. It wasn’t even a race, either. She was just flat-out brutal.”
“Yeah, but what did she do?” I ask. “She must have done something to make you hold that grudge so long.”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” he says.
I clear my throat and hold up my left hand, making a big show of his diamond ring on my finger.
He sighs. “I was in drama class one day, and she was in there talking to one of her friends. She wasn’t even in the class, but she was always in there anyway. It always bugged me that the teachers just went along with it.”
“That’s it?” I ask.
His face goes a deep shade of red, but he says, “Yeah.” In a rushed voice, he says, “That’s what it was. They just let her get away with everything.”
“I don’t buy it,” I tell him. “What’d she do?”
“We had a substitute teacher one day,” he says. “Her name was Miss Trilby, and despite the fact she was teaching teenagers, she wasn’t too cautious about the way she dressed. So I’m sitting there and I have to ask her this question, but I don’t want to because I had a raging boner from staring at her chest from the back of the classroom and I didn’t want her to know. But I was a teenager, and she was wearing a very low-cut top, and it was making it impossible for me to pay attention to what she was actually teaching.”
“You’ve really come a long way, haven’t you?” I tease.
He rolls his eyes. “Long story short, Naomi noticed and she didn’t just blab, she pointed. I was there with my legs crossed and a coat on my lap, but everyone was laughing and Miss Trilby was up there with a red face, shaking her head.”
“Oh my god,” I say, setting my champagne glass back on the small table between and behind us. “You’re the kid Naomi was calling the lumberjack.” I start laughing. Even though I know Nick does not appreciate it, I can’t help myself.
“Yeah,” he says. “Was it the worst thing to ever happen to me? Probably not, but it sure as hell felt like it at the time.”
“So,” I say, “are you about ready to call it a night? It is getting pretty late if we’re going to catch that plane back home to New York.”
After much deliberation, I decided we should keep the beach house.
“Yeah,” he says looking at me, a smile crossing those tempting full lips.
He holds up his glass, and I don’t know what’s going to happen. All the forethought in the world wouldn’t have prepared me for any of this.
Picking up my champagne flute, I clink glasses with Nick.
I’m not sure what the future will hold. I’m just glad we’ll be meeting it together.
Somewhere behind us, Naomi is shouting, “Will you come on already? It’s getting dark and I’m wearing sunglasses!”
I have to chuckle as I say the words, “So I’m marrying the lumberjack, huh?”
Nick groans.
“It’s okay, honey,” I tell him. “I’ve got your back.”
I whistle and Max comes running. He stops just in front of me, his tail wagging.
I lean forward, saying, “Max, do you see Naomi?”
Max looks past me toward the car.
I ask Max, “Do you want to give her kisses even though we all know she hates that?”
Max licks my arm and wags his tail even harder than before.
“Good boy,” I say. “Now get her!”
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From the Author
I hope you enjoyed Screwing The Billionaire. . I’ll also include you in all the giveaways I do automatically.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 Alexa Davis