The Big Billionaire Page 10

  Allan’s words flow through and around me. I’m smiling and everyone I can see is smiling.

  “Allan, do you take Eva to be your wife?”

  Allan takes my hand, staring into my eyes.

  “I do.”

  “And Eva, do you take Allan to be your husband?”

  I take his other hand in mine.

  “I do.”

  “Then, Allan, you may now kiss the bride.”

  And his lips press mine, the world stops, and everything is quiet. There is no more sound, no more feeling, only those lips, that love. And, when we separate, it is me, Mrs. Eva Dane who beams at my husband, Allan Dane.

  Now he’s crying or maybe it’s me, both of us. Everyone’s flocking up to the front, wrapping their arms around us, congratulating us: my Dad, Allan’s parents, Angel. Popper’s finally been let out and emits jubilant barks. The whole world is swirling, and I can’t seem to stop crying I’m so happy. Too happy.

  I take a break with Angel in the back room. We eat some Cheetos, laugh at the crazy hat my Aunt Mabel showed up in.

  “Who would’ve ever thought a year ago it would’ve come to all this?”

  Angel muses with an affectionate look at me, and then we hug. I sit back, let her words wash over me, just how remarkable this past year has been. Delicieux had taken off even better than Allan’s most optimistic predictions. Dad got better so fast that Deidre herself was astounded. Allan and I moved in together and have yet to raise our voices at each other once. Angel and I still hang out once a week, dinner and a movie and maybe Cheetos too. Yes, we’ve been so incredible lucky. Geno finally got arrested too, after his latest drunken tirade, while Picklebucket has come under new management. I’ve calmed myself down enough to stand up. When I do so, however, the image of my Dad, recognizing me for the first time, throwing his arms around me in a hug, comes to mind.

  At this image, all these happy reflections wash over me once again, and I burst out crying. It takes Angel a few more minutes to calm me down enough for me to emerge tearless, but she manages.

  The rest of the ceremony is less tears, more laughter. Inside the fairy-light-lit atrium, the whole luminescent structure is breathtaking, lit by pale blue light and decorated with pink-and-purple lily bouquets. The whole room is filled with the smell of these beautiful flowers—not to mention the delicious aromas of the food. I’m hungry as soon as I step in, but luckily the wait isn’t long.

  The various dishes are from Delicieux’s best recipes—mouth-watering marmalade-drizzled duck, succulent medium-rare steak, juicy wild Alaskan salmon. Allan and I eat until we’re stuffed and then some. And yet, when Angel and Gerald get the dancing started, Allan and I somehow find the energy to join them.

  After all, it is Angel’s and my favorite song—“Uptown Funk.” And soon, the dance floor is one swaying beat, and practically all of us are grooving: my dad, Allan’s whole family—Lisa too—half the wedding guests. Allan’s spinning me around, and someone let out Popper at some point, and he’s galloping round and round the blaring room.

  Then, we’re back to the tables, and the music’s lowered because Angel’s giving her speech.

  “Eva, I’ve known you since you were a kid, and I’ve known each and every one of your boyfriends, and so let me just say this: you picked okay.”

  Laughter, and then her mischievous smile changes to a sincere one.

  “No, in all seriousness, never am I more sure that you’ve made the right decision than when I see you two together. You put pretty much every other couple in a ten-mile radius to shame; you’re what Gerald and I have jokingly termed ‘couple goals.’ But, more than that, you two deserve to be as happy as you are. Allan, I’ve only known you for a little over a year, but from what I’ve seen, no one could be more suited to be with my best friend than you. You treat her wonderfully and I can tell you two are a perfect fit. And Eva, I don’t know what to say, I… Since we were kids, you’ve been like a sister to me. You’ve supported me and advised me, laughed with me and cried for me, and I’m so happy this day is finally happening, with all the wonder and splendor you deserve. I love you, Ev, and I know you two are going to be ridiculously happy together. So, let’s raise a glass to the couple of the hour, of the year, Eva and Allan Dane!”

  We clink together our glasses, even Allan’s and mine, which is maybe a little self-indulgent, but it’s my wedding, so I’ll be as self-indulgent as I please!

  Next is my dad, scratching at his beard self-consciously.

  “I don’t know if I have words for how happy I am right now. For happy I’ve been this past year. I won’t get into the details—unless you’d like to be here all night.” He smiles that same yet so different serene smile. “No, no, I won’t go into it, but I will say this: this man and this woman—my daughter and her husband—are nothing short of a godsend. Both of them fought for me when I couldn’t fight for myself, brought me back from near death even, and for that I thank you. Allan and Eva, my dear sweet angel of a daughter, thank you, thank you, thank you. Not to mention that you two work together and are sublimely matched, a fact which grows clearer to me every time I have the pleasure of seeing you. So, here’s to my daughter and her new husband—the Danes!”

  Now, everyone’s clapping and I’m blushing. Allan’s kissing me and it can’t get any better except…

  Under the table, I feel a hand squeezing my thigh.

  That familiar baritone voice in my ear: “What do you say we dip?”

  And, before I know it, we’re heading to the bathroom, out the door. The gardens are as dark and empty as the last time we were here at night. Except this time, we have far different plans. Yes, Allan chooses a secluded grove to shove me to the tree, and lets his body do the rest of the talking. Every motion, touch, feel is heightened, seems saturated and pulsing with love. Because that’s all this is, his hands running over me, his wife’s body, mine, shedding clothes like petals, both of us tumbling to the grass, rolling so he’s on top, then me. We’re naked on the earth, pressing ourselves into each other, uniting and reunited, him in me and me on him—meant to be, fused. We laugh with the delight of it, the absolute perfect luck. We smear ourselves into each other, slowly at first, then faster, unhurried, delightedly. We’ve got our whole lives for this, after all, and yet the rhythm is irresistible and delicious and goddamn wonderful, until we’re groaning with it, the love, the feeling, this fucking deliverance of a feeling. And our cumming is a song into the cool night, a trembling, then a stillness.

  And then we lay there, naked on the earth, husband and wife, lover and soulmate. We murmur delight and broken-up words, we wipe away each other’s tears. And then, finally, we lie silent—one body—his arms wrapped around me. We stare up into the starry night sky and say nothing. We understand. For this, there are no words.

  THE END

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  Chapter 1: Jenna

  I knocked on my friend Casey’s door, waiting impatiently for her to answer it. When she did, she pushed it open and threw her arms around me, pulling me in for a tight hug.

  “Why are you knocking?” she asked, tugging me by the arm into the house behind her. “You never knock.”

  “I haven’t been here in a year,” I said, laughing. “I didn’t think I could just walk in.”

  “You never have to knock,” she said, waving me off as I followed her through the front hallway and into her living room, where she had pizza and wine ready for us on the coffee table. I flopped down on her couch and took my shoes off, and she sat down next to me.

  “I’m so excited that you’re here,” she said. She beamed at me as she took a bite of her pizza. Casey had a way of making you feel special just by looking at you, and I found myself settling into a familiar feeling of comfort and love with my friend within minutes, as if we hadn’t been apart for months.

  “I am, too,” I said, looking around the pl
ace. Casey still lived in her childhood home, which she had gotten after her parents had died a couple of years back. As the oldest, it was actually given to her brother, but he had moved on to grow his own fortune and purchase several properties all over the world. He had left it to her, and being there again was like being transported back to my own childhood. I used to spend days here at a time—entire weekends going in and out of this house, playing around the neighborhood with Casey.

  “So how have you been?” she asked. “You look great—tired, but great.”

  “I am tired,” I said, leaning back against the couch and sinking into it. “I’m in my final year of school. I have endless work to do, and I feel like I never sleep.”

  “I can’t believe you keep going through school,” my friend said. “And at an Ivy League. No wonder you have so much work to do.”

  “I think it’ll be worth it, though,” I told her. I had been sure at one point—when I first took on all the loans I’d needed to go to Yale and live on campus, I had felt like there was nothing stopping me. Now, as I’d progressed through school, I’d only grown more and more unsure about my future. “I hope it’ll be worth it. With as much debt as I’m in—”

  “You need to marry a rich man to take care of your loans,” Casey said, looking up at the ceiling, her voice dreamy. “That’s what I’m looking for.”

  I laughed, but didn’t respond. The truth was, I’d had my eye on only one man my entire life and it was Casey’s brother, Travis, who was completely off-limits. He was also ridiculously rich, but I had fallen for him far before he had made his fortune, back when we were kids and he had given me my first kiss on prom night.

  It was then that Casey’s phone went off, and she reached into her purse to pull it out and look at the screen. I glanced at it to see Travis’ face, waiting patiently for her to pick up a video call. I felt my heart flutter in my chest, something like panic course through me as I quickly snuck my hands up to my face and pushed my hair back, smoothing the front of my shirt down. I hadn’t seen Travis since that last night he’d kissed me, but I’d thought about him ever since.

  Casey answered the called and the screen widened to show Travis, a grin on his handsome face. I kept myself out of view. I was nervous to talk to Travis, especially in front of Casey. Throughout high school, Casey always got extremely annoyed whenever any girl mentioned that they thought her brother was hot. She had been glad to make friends with me knowing that I didn’t have any interest in him, that I was her friend alone. I had kept my crush on him private for that reason, and wasn’t sure that I would be able to hide my feelings for him if I had to talk to him for the first time right in front of her.

  “What’s up?” said Casey, her voice excited. She and her brother had always been close, and I knew that they had these video calls at least once a week while they were apart in separate cities.

  “Hey, sis,” Travis said, and just the sound of his voice made something shift in my body, made my stomach feel light and fluttery. He was so handsome—his dark hair was pushed back from his face, his hazel eyes sparkling with light. Casey caught me off-guard by turning the camera toward me then, and I watched Travis’ face light up when he saw me. It made my heart do a flip in my chest and for a second I could only stare at him. I hoped to god that Casey didn’t notice the pause between us as we drank each other in for a moment.

  “Hi,” I said to him finally, breaking the silence.

  “Jenna,” he said. “Wow.”

  “Um, I was just over here visiting Casey. How are you?”

  “I’m good,” he said, looking over at Casey, then back at me. “How are you guys?”

  “We’re good,” I said, my throat dry. I had to look away from the screen. I felt his eyes on me for an instant before Casey started to speak. He was studying my face intently, making me blush under his gaze. I only hoped that Casey didn’t notice my reaction; not only would it be embarrassing, but I was sure that she would be angry at me if she found out how I felt about her brother, that I had always carried a torch for him even when we were kids.

  “So are you ready for this big family bash, Travis?” she asked. “It’s going to be crazy.”

  “It is going to be interesting,” he said, rubbing his hand over his mouth. His eyes were still on me even as he spoke to his sister, and I prayed that he would look away from me before she noticed how focused he was. I knew then that he was remembering that kiss, too, the first one we’d had. It had been prom night and I hadn’t had a date; we’d gone home to Casey’s after the dance and she’d fallen asleep after a long night of dancing, but I had stayed up. Travis had been outside when I stepped out for some air and we had barely talked before he leaned his face down to kiss me, a kiss that was soft and sweet before he pulled away. He had left for college the next day.

  “Why don’t you come, Jenna?” Travis asked. I blinked at him, looking over at Casey. I had zoned out and wasn’t sure what he was talking about anymore, hadn’t been focused on anything but the memory of our first kiss.

  “Come where?”

  “On vacation!” Casey said. “It’s my mom’s fiftieth birthday. She would love it if you were there.”

  “I don’t know, I—”

  “Come on,” said Travis. “It’s a private island in the Florida Keys. Beautiful place. You’ll love it.”

  “You definitely need a rest,” Casey said. “You said you were exhausted.”

  “I guess I could go,” I said, realizing that neither of them were going to let me say no anyway. A vacation did sound great, even if it meant being around Travis in person for a few days.

  “Good,” said Travis, who was chewing on his lip as he looked at me. “Good girl. Case, make sure you bring suntan lotion this time, you know—”

  “Okay, dad,” Casey said, rolling her eyes.

  “I’m just saying,” he said with a grin. “I’d better go. I’ll send you the final details later today. See you later.”

  “Bye, Travis,” I said softly, and he winked at us before he hung up. I was still feeling fidgety and warm as I had been while he was on screen. I looked at Casey, studying her face to find out if she noticed how I had been affected by Travis on the phone. She didn’t look like she noticed—she was smiling and bouncy, excited that I was going to go on the vacation with her. I was excited, too. It meant that our couple of days together was going to expand into the full week. It also meant that I would have to see Travis in person, which I imagined would be much more difficult than seeing him smiling on a phone screen.

  Chapter 2: Travis

  I sat back in my leather office chair, spinning in a slow circle as I put the phone to my lips and thought of Jenna. I hadn’t seen her since we were in high school. I had just graduated, actually, and the next day I headed away to college for a year before dropping out and starting my business. I remembered vividly the kiss we had shared outside before I had left—it had been soft and sweet, perfect; I’d wanted it to go deeper, to taste her mouth, but she had been so young and delicate that I knew I couldn’t go that far with her. She wasn’t a young girl anymore, though, and she hadn’t looked remotely delicate to me on the screen. Her strawberry-blonde hair was full, thick, and curly around a heart-shaped face. Those green eyes had been focused on me more intently than my sister had probably realized, and I knew in an instant that she was thinking the same thing I was.

  I stood up and left my office, going next door to see my business partner. His door was open, and I went inside and shut it behind me. My partner, Arthur Monroe, was also my best friend and my closest confidant, other than my sister. But this wasn’t something that I could talk to my sister about—I could never let on that I had feelings for Jenna. Casey would be heartbroken, I knew, and feel betrayed by the both of us. I couldn’t stand the thought of it being that way between Casey and I, not when she was one of the most important people in my life.

  “What’s up?” Arthur asked, propping his feet up on the desk.

  “I may have just
done something really stupid,” I said.

  “Again?” He was grinning. I nodded; I had to give him that—I was prone to making impulsive decisions that didn’t always lead to the best of consequences.

  “Does it have anything to do with a girl?”

  “Yep,” I said. He shook his head. “Always. That’s why I don’t date women.”

  “Right. That’s why.”

  He chuckled. “So what did you do? Who is she?”

  “You know my sister Casey? It’s her best friend. We’ve known each other since we were kids. I saw her on a video call with my sister and I invited her to our family vacation next week.”

  “Why’d you do that?”

  “I want her,” I said. “Seeing her again brought it all back. I had the biggest crush on her in high school and now she’s even more perfect.”

  “So what’s the big deal?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest. “She married? Got a kid?”

  “Casey would never go for it. She would hate both of us.”

  Arthur rolled his eyes. He had never been the type of person to care much about how other people felt about his decisions, which was why I had chosen him as my partner. He was a ruthless businessman, intent on getting what he wanted, and was the only person I’d met who matched me in terms of ambition and drive.