Escorting the Billionaire by Leigh James
Audrey
“Hey, Dre!” Jenny pulled me in for a hug.
I was relieved to be next to her, to be distracted by her gorgeous dress. “You are stunning,” I said. She was wearing a long, jewel-toned mermaid gown, fitted to every inch of all her luscious inches. Her hair was also up in a bun. Large emerald earrings sparked on her ears. She looked classy and almost regal.
“Aw, thanks Dre. I guess I clean up okay,” she said, beaming at me in pleasure. “Cole bought the dress for me this morning. And the earrings.” Her skin looked flushed and glowing, like she had a very good-looking fever.
They must have had fun shopping again.
“That was nice,” I said to him. He was looking sharp in a black suit.
He gave me a big grin. “It was my pleasure. Jenny looks beautiful.” They clasped their hands together, and Cole moved in for a quick kiss. I moved away from them a little; it was suddenly getting hot in our aisle.
When Todd and his attendants came out, I tried not to stare at James. Tried and failed. He was so handsome in that tux, his huge shoulders visible under it, his steel-gray hair tousled to perfection. At one point he smiled at me, and my heart stopped.
I was going to have to give him an answer about what I wanted to happen after our trip. And even though I knew exactly what I wanted, I still had no idea what the right answer was.
“I still can’t believe he ate that crab cake, Audrey,” Cole said, pulling me from staring at James.
“Huh?” I asked.
“The crab cake you fed James. That first night I met you,” he said. “He hates crab. Loathes it.”
“I didn’t know,” I said, sheepish. “He didn’t say anything.”
Cole looked at me for a beat. “He must be completely in love with you.”
I just sat there, gaping, my mouth opening and closing. I felt them both watching me, a deep blush creeping up my neck.
“S’kay, Dre,” Jenny said, patting my arm. “It’s gonna be okay. Close your mouth—you look so pretty, you don’t wanna get drool on that dress.”
“I didn’t mean to make you upset,” Cole said, his brow furrowed. I decided there and then, in spite of how he’d tried to take me home that night and what Jenny had told me about the thing with his balls, that I liked him.
“You didn’t make me upset,” I said. It came out like a stammer. My heart was pounding in my chest.
“Dre doesn’t think it’s possible that he has feelings for her—she doesn’t believe in fairy tales. She’s a realist,” Jenny said, making it sound as if I were some sort of brain surgeon.
“Of course it’s possible,” Cole said, but now he had eyes only for her.
“Oh, Coley,” she said, throwing her arms around his neck. They started kissing again.
I moved a little further down the pew. It was getting really hot now.
On one hand, I wanted to believe that Cole knew what he was talking about. That James was in love me—because that would be my wish come true.
On the other hand, I hoped he was wrong, and that James wasn’t in love with me—because that wouldn’t be the best thing for James. I wasn’t the best thing for James.
The thing was, I still didn’t even know what he wanted.
The enormous church was packed, the pews filled with beautifully dressed people. The music started and the Prestons led the wedding processional. Mr. Preston looked dapper in his suit; Mrs. Preston looked like a glittering, illicitly smoothed matriarch from hell in her long, silver-beaded gown, secured at the waist with an enormous diamond broach.
The nine bridesmaids were next—first Evie’s cousins, Meghan, Michelle, and Sarah, their biceps popping as they clutched their bouquets. The bridesmaids’ dresses were simple—black, strapless and stunning. Then Evie came down the aisle with her father. She looked so beautiful I almost cried. She smiled at me as she swept past, and I saw real joy on her face. I hoped that Celia was wrong about them, that this happy phase wasn’t going to pass into a boring one and then into a dissatisfied one. Evie did love Todd. Maybe she loved his money more than she loved him, but I was positive that there was at least some real affection between them. I hoped it was enough to make them happy, and enough to last. I found myself crossing my fingers on my lap, my palms sweating, rooting for them.
Evie reached Todd, and they clasped their hands together, joy apparent on his face. My heart soared as I saw that even James was smiling at them.
But then I heard something behind me, and the soar turned to a plummet. A muttering, when we should all be silent. I turned and saw a familiar figure charging down the aisle—stringy bleached hair and a barrel chest shoved into a cheap black spaghetti-strapped sundress. The kind with the elastic visible on the outside. I cringed, wishing I could unsee my mother crashing Todd and Evie’s society wedding.
“Jenny,” I turned around and whispered. “I have to go. It’s an emergency. Tell James I’ll meet him at the reception.”
“What?” she asked me louder than she should. People turned to stare at us.
“It’s my mother,” I hiss-whispered.
“Oh fuck, Dre. Go. I’ll cover for you.”
I ran down the aisle in a flash and a panic.
“Hello, Mrs. Reynolds,” I whispered to her, grabbing her from the pew she was trying to slide down, away from me. “Got ya.” I grabbed her arm, hard, and dragged her with me.
“That hurts,” she said, her voice loud.
I dug my nails into the puffy flesh of her arm. “Shut the fuck up, right now, or you get nothing. And I’m gonna make this hurt a lot worse.” I dug my nails in further. Wedding guests were watching us, surprised and shocked, but I didn’t dare stop.
I hustled her out into the bright sunlight and dragged her to the side of the church; I couldn’t risk standing out front. This was already worse than I could probably recover from. I turned to her. “Why are you here?” I was surprised to find myself on the verge of tears; I should have been all cried out where my mother was concerned.
She raised her hands at me in exasperation. “I told you yesterday: I need money. These people have it, Audrey. They have more than they need.”
“But it’s theirs,” I wailed. “Just because they have it doesn’t mean they have to spread it around. I’m sure they give to a lot of charities. But their money has nothing to do with you.”
“I’m not getting their charity.” She looked at me stubbornly.
“That’s because you don’t deserve it,” I said. “You don’t need charity, Ma. You maybe need a job. Or a hobby.”
She sneered at me. “Look at you in that dress. Pretending to be something you’re not. Who do you think you are?”
I shrugged at her, defeated. “I’m no one, Ma. I just don’t think what you’re doing is right. James already gave you twenty thousand dollars. He paid for Tommy to stay at the center for I don’t even know how long. He’s a good guy. You trying to punish him for hiring me isn’t fair.”
Hot, ugly tears sprang to my eyes again, and I struggled to hold them back; I had to go to the reception, and I had to be presentable. “I already told you I’d give you money. I can, a lot of it—two hundred thousand dollars. The rest is for Tommy. But you have to get out of here right now. ’Cause otherwise I’ll never get it.”
Her eyes almost popped out of her head. “That much?”
“Yes, that much. But not if I get fired first.”
I just wanted her to go, but she wasn’t budging. Not yet. She grabbed her cigarettes out of her purse and lit one. She exhaled and looked at me, her foot tapping. I could almost hear the wheels turning greedily in her head. “That’s fine to start with,” she said. “But I want you to tell your boyfriend that I need a salary. That money ain’t gonna last forever.”
“He’s not my boyfriend, and he’s not putting you on salary.”
“I beg your pardon,” said a voice from behind me, making me jump, “but I would say that I’m at least a candidate for boyfriend at this point.”
I sighed and turned to James. The sun was hitting him from behind, making him look like some lit-up action hero, showing up just in time to save me from my mother’s evil clutches. I cringed—I didn’t want him here, rescuing me, anywhere near the filth that was my mom. I wanted him to take the sun and his billions of dollars and go back where he came from, safe from me and my ugly world.
“You’re just my date,” I said, raising my eyebrows at him and trying to keep my tone light.
He shrugged but smiled at me. “I feel so used.”
“You two are cute,” my mother said, blowing smoke in my direction and then turning to James. “And I’m gonna tell your parents just how much it warms my heart.”
“That’s not a great idea,” James said, his tone changing dangerously. I watched as he drew up to his full height, the easy humor leaving his face.
So this is what it looked like when James Preston was really pissed. I would have to remind myself not to make him angry—even though it was pretty hot.
My mother shifted, just a little, as if she was on her guard now. “I wouldn’t try anything, if I were you,” she said to him. “Even if you don’t let me talk to them today, I will get to them. After I talk to The Tribune and anybody else who’ll listen.”
“You’re not going to do that,” James said, watching her icily. “Because after I went and saw you yesterday and gave you a very generous amount of money out of the kindness of my heart, I called an old friend of mine. Who used to be Boston PD. Now he does private detective work.”
“Is that so?” My mother tried to appear disinterested while smoking her cigarette down to the filter.
“I now have him on salary, Mrs. Reynolds. He was thrilled with the amount and promised to be hyper-vigilant when it comes to your case. He assures me that any probation violations you commit will be promptly reported to the East Boston PD. He did a quick search online and said that he already had a lot of material to work with, actually.”
“Really,” she said, but I could hear the bluff in her voice. “So what?”
“So what is that if you keep harassing my girlfriend or come near my family, I’m going to have him turn in his lengthy file immediately.” He held up his fancy cell phone, which was as large as a Pop-Tart. It glinted in the sun. “He’s in my contacts, Mrs. Reynolds. And he is ready, willing, and able to send you back to county as soon as I instruct him to.”
She snorted and stubbed her cigarette out. “You’re a real prick, you know that? Masquerading as a gentleman. Just like Little Miss Whore over here in her ball gown. You two deserve each other.”
“Yes,” he said as she huffed and walked away. “I know that.”
