Nate looked across the dark cab of his truck to Charlotte’s profile, highlighted by the streetlights they drove past on their way to dinner. It wasn’t only that she was beautiful. He knew a lot of beautiful women, but he didn’t feel this spark of happiness just from having them near.

“You want nachos, huh?”

“Does Miss America want world peace?”

Nate chuckled and parked in front of the soda shop on Main Street. “Then get ready to have your mind blown.”

“Looks like my kind of place,” Charlotte said, studying the street-front windows as Nate helped her out of the truck. She paused to look over the windows painted with pictures of ice cream cones, root beer floats, and cherry pie. As they went inside, he saw her look up and smile at the bell tinkling over their head.

He was glad Charlotte seemed to like this place, unlike Alexa who had turned her nose up at it the only time he’d brought her here. But he didn’t want to think about Alexa right now. In the last couple of weeks, Alexa had been texting and calling every day. She was expecting something from him he could no longer give now that he’d met Charlotte, but he hadn’t figured out how to approach that conversation with her.

Nate pushed this concern aside as they walked up to the counter where Millie was spraying whipped cream from a can all over someone’s hot fudge sundae.

She looked up and smiled, the warm expression softening her square, lightly-wrinkled face. “Haverton, where’ve you been the last couple of weeks?”

“Busier than I wanted to be. Charlotte, this is Millie Edwards. She’s owned this place since I was a kid.”

“Nice to meet you,” Charlotte said, her sweet smile lighting up her face.

Nate kept his eyes on her until Millie said, “Happy to meet a friend of Nate’s. You here for a visit?”

“No. I moved here recently after I inherited my grandma’s house.”

“You’re Anne’s granddaughter? Okay, then. I’ve got to ask you a question. The whole town’s been trying to figure out what you’re doing with that building you put on your property.”

Charlotte smiled. “It’s going to be a salon. I hope to open next week.”

Millie laughed. “Glory be. Won’t Betsy be in a take? She owns Cut and Curl down the street. It’s been the only place to get your hair done in this town for twenty years.”

“Yes, I know,” Charlotte said, her voice remorseful and her mouth turning down at the corners. “She’s going to hate it.”

“Sure as a dog will sniff its own poop. But don’t let that worry you. There isn’t a young person in Chester who will set foot in her place. Betsy knows how to do one style really well and it involves a lot of teasing and hairspray.”

Nate enjoyed watching the two women chat, but he’d waited too long for this date to have it be waylaid by a chatty woman waving a can of whipped cream around. As soon as there was a two second pause in their conversation, he jumped in. “Millie? I’ve been telling Charlotte that your nachos will rock her world. Will you fix us up?”

“Sure thing, Nate. Extra jalapenos?

He looked to Charlotte, raising his eyebrows.

“I can take it if he can,” she said.

Millie grinned. “Ah, he’s a wuss. What can I get ya’ll to drink?”

Nate grinned. “You know you don’t have to ask.”

“Okay. Sweet tea for the man with no imagination. How about you, honey?”

Charlotte grinned. “A cherry vanilla Coke.”

Millie looked at Nate and nodded toward Charlotte. “Now there’s someone with good taste.”

Nate chuckled and led Charlotte to an empty table in the back with his hand on the small of her back. He pulled out her chair and helped her in as if they were at a fancy restaurant instead of sitting down at a table with a plastic tablecloth and beer bottle salt shakers.

“I’m opening the salon next week,” Charlotte said.

“Really. That was fast. You didn’t mention it in any of your texts.”

“That’s because I wasn’t certain I could pull it off. But I’m ready and I have the whole day booked solid.”

“Wait. I never even heard that you decided on a name for it. I came up with a great one by the way.”

Millie brought their drinks over, and Charlotte took a sip of her Coke. “I can’t wait to hear this.”

 “The Snip and Clip.”

Charlotte eyed him like he was crazy, but laughed “Yeah, if I wanted people to think I was performing vasectomies.”

Nate chuckled. “Well, what did you come up with?”

“Southern Roots Salon.”

He tilted his head to the side, considering it. “It’s clever. I like it.”

She smiled. “Good, because the sign arrived today, and it’s stamped on everything.” Then she looked solemn. “I’ve gotten a lot done while you were out of town.”

He heard the unasked question in her words, but he hoped teasing her would shift the conversation away from a tricky conversation about his time commitments. “I knew you missed me.”

“Maybe a little. Are you always gone so much?”

Ah well. So much for that. “The short answer is, yes. Though I’m working on changing that. No matter how many people I hire, I have a hard time turning over big decision to others, the result being that I spend too much time micro-managing my business. A lot of people depend on me for their livelihood, and I don’t take that responsibility lightly.”

“But what about your life? It sounds like you need to find someone you trust to take care of them like you would.”

Nate stared across the table at her, appreciating her intuitive ability to cut to heart of things. He wanted to tell her that if anything motivated him to solve this problem, it would be her. But with things so tentative and new between them, he shied away. Instead, he teased her again. “You want me around to help mow your lawn more often?”

She rolled her eyes. “No.”

 Millie brought the nachos over before he could tease her further. The platter took up an indecently large section of the table, and Charlotte’s face lit up as she dug in. Nate was impressed with the way Charlotte used her fork to put a jalapeno on top of each chip she ate, and fought him for her share of the fresh guacamole.

By the time Charlotte was full and left the rest to him, she had gotten several text alerts from her phone. “Do you mind if I check my phone? It might be about Taylor.”

“Of course.”

Charlotte wiped her fingers carefully on a paper napkin and read her texts. Nate sipped his tea, watching her expression for a sign as to whether everything was okay.

Within seconds, Charlotte’s eyes popped open wide.

“Everything okay?” Nate asked.

“No. Yes. I’m just… Jill is messing with me. She has to be messing with me.”

“What?”

Charlotte looked up at him. “She says you’re a billionaire.”

Nate flinched, and looked anxiously around the restaurant. He’d hoped to keep the extent of his finances undercover until she knew him better. Too late for that, thanks to Jill—and likely Google. But the whole town didn’t need to know about it. “Um, yeah. What do you say we go talk about this somewhere else?”

Charlotte’s face paled. “You mean it’s true? Are you freaking kidding me? I thought you’d laugh.”

Nate got up and held his hand out to her. “Let’s talk in my truck.”

She took his hand and he led her to the front, but she moved with no resistance at all, as if she was in shock. Nate stopped to pull out his wallet to pay for dinner.

“But I fed you ramen noodles,” Charlotte said. “Who feeds a billionaire ramen noodles? Me, that’s who.”

“What was that, honey?” Millie asked heading over to the register.

“Nothing,” Nate said, handing her a twenty.

“You don’t owe me anything,” Millie argued. “You still have a huge credit on your account.”

“We’ll hash it out later,” Nate said, not taking the twenty back. He once again pulled Charlotte behind him, holding the door for her, and breathing a sigh of relief when they were outside.

He unlocked the truck and helped Charlotte inside. When he got in a few seconds later, Charlotte turned to him and asked, “Why don’t you drive a Lamborghini or something?”

Nate chuckled. “What? Don’t you like my fully-loaded, luxury model Ram truck? Well, you can take your pick from my garage next time we go out.”

Charlotte moved suddenly, turning sideways in her seat. “Why didn’t you tell me you’re a billionaire?”

“I only became a billionaire recently, during this fiscal year actually. I’d rather live as normal of a life as possible, which would be impossible if people knew. And after the way you’ve been freaking out about money, I sure didn’t want to tell you yet.”

“Yeah, well, I knew you were rich. Daniel was rich. But I thought maybe you were a millionaire. Wait, how many millions are in a billion?”

Nate opened his mouth to answer, but Charlotte held up her hand to stop him. “So, if you had nine hundred and ninety-nine million, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars, and earned one more dollar, you’d have a billion?”

Bobbing his head from side to side, Nate said, “That’s one way to say it, yes.”

Charlotte was gaping at him now. “Holy cow. That’s an obscene amount of money.”’

He glanced sideways at her as he backed out and cruised down main street. “I mean, it’s not like I have that much cash laying around. My net worth is from all my holdings, stocks, real estate, businesses—you know.”

“No, I don’t. And I’m getting a headache trying to figure this out. You seem almost normal. I mean, this is a small town in southern Alabama for Pete’s sake. You coach my son’s t-ball team. You shared a plate of nachos with me at a soda shop called Give Me Sugar.”

“See? I’m just a normal guy.”

“Being a billionaire is not normal.” Then Charlotte looked around at the street they were driving down. “Hey, where are we going?”

Nate clenched his jaw. “I want to show you who I am, aside from the money you’re freaking out over.”

They were silent for the twenty minutes it took Nate to drive out to Pointer’s Bend, a small neighborhood on the outskirts of town. It hugged a sluggish river that gleamed silver in the moonlight. Nate’s headlights shone on a dilapidated yellow trailer with plywood over all the windows. Creeping vines enveloped it at one end, but the rest of the property had been recently mowed.

“This is where I grew up,” Nate said. He did his best to keep his voice even, but it was deeper than usual.

“Oh.” Charlotte said.

“I own the lot now. I keep it because I couldn’t stand for anyone else to live here.” He turned and looked at her until she turned and met his eyes. “I wasn’t unhappy here.”

“You’ve mentioned your parents. They still live in town, right?”

“Yeah, but they’re touring the country in an RV right now so I haven’t seen them outside of video chats since March. When they’re not roaming around enjoying their retirement, they live in the lake house I bought them not far from here.”

“That’s nice. I’m not close to my mom, and my dad disappeared years ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. I think that’s why I rushed into marriage with Daniel. I just wanted to be loved by someone.”

Nate’s heart lurched at the thought of all the hurts she must have endured to put that somber tone in her voice. “We all do. We just don’t always know it.” He looked through the windshield at what had once been his home, and reached for Charlotte’s hand.s “I grew up in a family where one pay check didn’t stretch till the next. I only got milk and juice growing up because my mom got government assistance. It didn’t bother me much until I was older and realized the strain it was putting on my parents. I was determined that someday I’d make sure life was easy for them.”

“I guess you succeeded.”

“In some ways. But like you said, money doesn’t solve all your problems. You see, I got caught up in the business world. I’m good at it.”

“Obviously.”

Nate flashed her a smile, then continued. “But I wasn’t happy. Somehow, I’d lost sight of what made me happy when I was a kid.”

“So you came back here?”

“Yeah. In Florida, I own a house that’s bigger than the high school here. My garage has a Lamborghini in it, just like you hoped.”

“I didn’t—”

“And a Masserati, and a Bentley, and two limos—”

“But you like your truck.”

“You get what I’m saying?”

Charlotte turned, angling her legs toward him. “Yeah. This is home.”

“Exactly. And I was satisfied with it for a while.”

“But not anymore?”

Nate smiled and gripped her hand tighter. “Let’s just say that coming home was a good start.” Then, untangling his fingers from hers, he put the truck in reverse. “Now, what do you say we head back to your place before Jill digs up anything else incriminating about me?”