Irresistible Billionaires by Summer Brooks
Sarah
“Oh, come on, it could not have been that bad,” Katy insisted, shaking her coffee with such serious vigor I was almost shocked that she didn’t spill it.
But then again, that was my little sister: Thirty-one, vivacious, and the kind of person who never made mistakes.
Ever.
It was kind of annoying, actually. Katy had always been this way- pretty, tall, absolutely perfect. She had breathtaking red curls and bright blue eyes that were just like mine, only hers were set in clear porcelain skin with no freckles insight. She was always right, and she always got whatever it was she wanted.
Which is probably why she could hardly fathom the fact that I had made a complete and total fool of myself the morning before. I’d just finished repeating the entire, awful ordeal to my sister, Bella, and Clara over coffee at my nearly empty apartment.
My entire life was in boxes, scattered around what used to be my living room and dining room. In fact, the only furniture I still had was my bed and the dining room table, which had become my sort of catch-all over the last two weeks as I packed up my life and prepared to move to an entirely different country.
I’d saved enough money to live there comfortably for a year, but I was already looking into ways to offset the cost. First and foremost, I planned to teach English online to kids in China and Japan, which seemed to be a favorite habit of ex-pats over there. All a person needed was to prove sufficiency in the English language, after all. I’d also started to pick up a few freelance articles on various blogs and online magazines, flexing muscles I hadn’t used since high school while simultaneously reminding myself that I had some talents.
Unlike Katy. She had all the talents. One of which was an uncanny ability to know when I wasn’t telling her the entire story.
“What else?”
“Huh?” I asked innocently, knowing I’d calmly skipped over the part where Rhett and I ran into each other and a few of those stupid paparazzi had snapped my picture before realizing I was a big fat nobody.
“Katy’s right, you’re not telling us something,” Bella interrupted, sipping on her decaf coffee and opening her green eyes wide as she waited for my honest answer. She rubbed her seven months pregnant belly lightly, as she always did nowadays. She was as big as a horse, and I already knew this little boy was going to be a bit of a giant.
“Fine,” I sighed. “After my little, uh, blow up at the guy with the quarters, I ran into someone sort of famous outside of the corner store. Someone we all know, actually.”
“Famous?” Clara replied, raising a tired eyebrow.
Poor Clara always looked tired nowadays. Even though Eva was sleeping through the night more often now, she was still awake at midnight every other night, breastfeeding until her daughter was satiated.
“I don’t know anyone famous,” Katy replied. “I wish I did, sometimes. I’d love to have a rich friend or two. Life would be so much easier.”
“Katy,” Bella replied with a chuckle, “you’re rich. What are you talking about?”
“I’ve got a good job,” Katy replied. “I’m not rich. Consulting doesn’t pay enough for me to buy that yacht yet.”
“Ugh, a yacht,” Bella replied breathlessly. “Maybe I should tell Logan to buy one of those.”
“Looks who’s talking now?” Katy laughed.
I settled back, hoping that they’d completely forgotten about my little lie of omission.
But it appeared that a few seconds of hardly witty banter was all the two of them needed, because, by the time I lowered my coffee mug and could see them all again, I was faced with three big sets of eyes staring me down, waiting for me to speak.
“What?” I asked innocently.
“The whole story, Sarah,” Katy replied firmly.
I took a beat, trying to think of some sort of lie that would convince them. But they all knew me too well. They’d be able to sniff out a lie within seconds.
“Rhett Thompson may or may not have been standing outside of the corner store when I was trying to go in,” I replied casually, looking anywhere but at their faces. “And I may or may not have had a slightly awkward run-in with him that resulted in me smashing my face into the glass door.”
Silence.
That was the only thing that followed my words. Finally, when I dared look at them again, I saw that all of their jaws were nearly on the floor.
“What?” I demanded. “It’s not like you guys haven’t met Rhett before. At Bella’s engagement party.”
“Well, yeah, but that was different,” Katy replied. “That was in front of company, where we had to behave around a celebrity.”
All that stuff I said about Katy being totally brilliant? I took it back completely. She went way too crazy over famous people.
“It’s really not a big deal,” I replied with a shrug. “I mean, it was awkward as hell, sure, but I don’t even think he remembered my name for the first thirty seconds.”
Katy was squinting at me, attempting to dig out any more nuggets of truth that I was keeping from them.
But there were none.
“Can we just do our Saturday tradition one last time before I leave?” I asked, turning to the T.V. that was now sitting solidly on the floor and turning it on, opening up the smart internet browser to YouTube.
“Don’t think we’re forgetting about this,” Clara singsonged in my ear as she turned to enjoy the television.
This had been a longstanding tradition among the four of us, ever since we were in college. Of course, as we got older, what was once a weekly tradition had morphed into monthly and then had become bi-monthly, and now was something we only did whenever we could find the time for it.
This weekend, I had forced everyone to find the time. We needed to do this one last time before I went away for an entire year.
At least.
What I hadn’t yet told a soul was that I had no idea how long this trip would truly be. All I knew was that I needed to do something, to feel something, and to explore life.
For the next two hours, we comfortably let YouTube pick and choose the videos we were watching. They were a mix of makeup and lifestyle videos, and videos by realtors that showcased the beautiful homes they had for sale.
Honestly, real estate videos were like my porn. There was nothing more satisfying to me than seeing a farmhouse out in the middle of Tennessee with seven bathrooms and an indoor basketball court.
Suddenly, after those two hours, a very familiar face popped up as the next video started to play.
Rhett Thompson was standing in the middle of a massive, updated kitchen with a soft smile on his face and his hands folded in front of him.
“This house is a favorite of mine,” he was saying, grinning at the camera like it was his best friend. “Ever since moving out here to California, I’ve found that the houses are bigger and grander, with a price tag to match.”
He started to walk us through the house, but for the first time ever, I was hardly even paying attention to the real estate porn that was sitting right in front of my face.
All I could see was Rhett. His chiseled jaw, his perfectly muscled body that was tastefully visible underneath his dark gray suit.
The way his ass swayed ever so slightly with each step he took. The silver watch on his wrist accented ever further by the type of veins that only came when a guy worked out hard and regularly.
“Sarah!” Katy gasped, springing up so fast she actually did spill a single droplet of her coffee.
“What?” I demanded, whipping around to look at Bella and Clara, trying to figure out what had just happened.
But the three of them were looking at me with an equal amount of shock on their faces.
“What?” I demanded again when none of them gave me an answer.
“You’re blushing,” Clara chuckled, raising an accusatory finger toward my face.
“No.” I shook my head firmly, even as I raised a subconscious hand to touch my cheek. “Impossible. I don’t blush. You know that.”
It was true. I’d never blushed a day in my life, even when I was in the beginning throes of puberty and found nearly every boy alive attractive.
I wasn’t a blushing woman. The blood did not rush to my cheeks and turn my whole face red in the most embarrassing of ways. I didn’t duck my head and bat my eyelashes as I thought about what it would feel like to have a certain man kiss me in the pouring rain so I could have a foot pop moment a lá Mia Thermopolis.
I did not do that.
Apparently, though, that morning, my body had decided that yes, indeed, I did do that. I blushed when I saw a certain man come across my television screen no matter how many hours that I’d spent attempting to tell myself that our strange little run-in was just that.
Little. Inconsequential. It meant absolutely nothing.
“You are,” Katy nodded, giving me a sympathetic smile. She, of all people, knew how hard this was for me. “You’ve got it bad, huh?”
“No, I do not have it bad,” I replied earnestly. “Admittedly, I do find the guy attractive as far as men go, but that’s it. There’s nothing more going on here. I’m leaving for Thailand in a week, after all.”
Silence fell over the previously giggling women as the weight of that truth came crashing down on all of us.
It didn’t matter if Rhett was the first man who’d managed to make me blush since I was all of thirteen years old. I was leaving for a year, at least, and possibly for longer.
There was no time to explore anything new. I couldn’t compromise this new chapter in my life.
“He’s been asking about you,” Bella said suddenly and then winced, a telltale sign that her often large mouth was running itself off again.
“I’m sorry?” I asked.
Bella put a hand to her large, pregnant stomach and took a sip of her coffee once again, savoring the flavor even though we all knew that decaf coffee tasted nothing like real, true coffee.
“I was not supposed to tell you that,” she finally sighed when none of us would dare to look away from her. “If I end up dead in a ditch somewhere, just know that my fiancé got tired of me spilling our secrets all over town.”
“Quit being dramatic,” I ordered, rolling my eyes. There was no way that Logan would ever touch a hair on Bella’s head. He was far too in love with her, and way too nice of a guy. “Tell me.”
I couldn’t help the flare of excitement that shot through my torso, making its way up into my throat, where it settled, causing my entire body to tighten in anticipation.
“Not a word, alright?” She asked, but didn’t even wait for an answer before she told us what had made her speak so ominously. “Logan got a call today from Rhett, and he asked me about it because, well, I know you a hell of a lot better than he does, Sarah. And it would appear that Rhett wanted to know if Logan would hook the two of you up. He actually asked for your phone number, believe it or not.”
I was honestly a little floored. With all of the knowledge of social media and computers the guy possessed, the fact that he’d gone the old fashioned route did nothing but endear him to me.
“But, I’m moving to Thailand in a week.” I had to say it out loud. If I kept it in my head, I might have been able to casually convince myself that the big move didn’t matter and that it would still be a fantastic idea to pursue this thing with Rhett.
But it wasn’t. It was an absolutely terrible idea, actually.
“Yeah, there is that,” Bella grimaced. “But, who’s to say you can’t have a little bit of fun before you go?”
The devilish grin she flashed me probably should have scared the crap out of me, but instead, it just made me feel like I was doing something daring.
So, what if I was leaving for Thailand in a week? This could be the first step to the new me- the Sarah who didn’t care so much about being perfect and buttoned up all of the time. I could meet a guy, have a little fun, and then jet off to a new country a few days later.
“Alright,” I nodded. “Why not? Tell that fiancé of yours to set us up.”