Billionaire In Hiding: The Complete Series (Alpha Billionaire Romance Western Love Story) (21 page)

It
didn’t excite me to fly from city to city and visit with clients.
 
I got no enjoyment out of the random women
that flirted with me and tried to get me to sleep with them. Life just wasn’t
getting back to normal at all and I had to figure out why. I had been happy at
the ranch. Even if my back story had been made up, I was happy; and I wanted to
feel like that again.

When
Casey invited me out to drinks, I wanted to refuse, but decided it was time I
made more of an effort to get out in society again. Casey wasn’t just my vice
president, he was my friend and a fun night out was exactly what we needed.

Hanging
out with Casey was different than hanging out with my other friends that I had been
refusing since I had gotten home. Casey was a father and I knew he wasn’t
interested in going out so we could pick up women. He had genuinely just asked
me so we could relax, drink and catch up; that was exactly what I needed.

“You
look like an old man lately,” Casey said over the club noise. “I swear you aged
ten years while you were gone.”

“I
feel like one. My body hurts more being here and not working out than it did
lifting hay bales all day long.”

“I
bet all that farm work kicked your ass.”

“It
was a ranch, but yeah, it was hard work. I enjoyed it though. It’s surprising
how much more enjoyment you can get out of life when you aren’t always running
around trying to make money.”

Casey
just laughed at me. He probably thought I was joking, but I was being very
serious. I didn’t enjoy my life nearly as much now that I was back home and it
was stressing me out. I had to figure my way back to happiness and just didn’t
know what the path was yet.

After
being gone for a year, I had genuinely expected to be over the moon with
happiness when I got home. But even the night I walked into my house again had
felt totally empty. I had called up my sister on the phone and talked with her
for hours, then made plans to visit with her the following weekend.

Seeing
my sister in person had been a long time coming and I was glad that she had
accepted my apology for being a giant ass over the years. She was my only true
family that I had left and I was going to do a much better job of keeping in
touch with her.

“Thanks
for the bonus, man; my wife was so excited. I’m sure she thinks it means we can
have more kids. Or maybe she’ll just buy and expensive purse,” he laughed.

“You
don’t want a bigger family?” I asked.

“I
don’t know, man. It scares me. How do I know I’ll be a good dad? I feel like I
suck at it. She seems so perfectly inclined to be a mother, but I just don’t
have a clue what I’m doing when it comes to being a dad.”

“Purely
because you’re worrying about it means you’ll be good at it. You’ll be a kick
ass dad. I mean, your daughter is like a year old already. You have to be doing
something right.”

“Man,
it’s a good thing my wife is a great mother. I was left alone with my daughter
one night and I honest didn’t know what to do with her. I sang Aerosmith songs
to her until she fell asleep and I forgot to change her diaper the whole time.”

It
was the truth; I firmly believed that Casey and his wife were amazing parents.
It didn’t matter that he had forgotten to change his daughter, he could learn
all of that as time went on. The important part of being a parent was loving
your spouse and your children and Casey had that down. There was no question in
my mind. Casey was a kind-hearted man who worked his ass off and never cut
corners. The whole reason my company was still standing was because he had been
in charge while I was away.

“Well,
we’re already practicing for the next one, if you know what I mean,” Casey
joked as he jabbed his elbow into my side.

“I
can’t wait to be Uncle Malcolm again,” I laughed.

I
wasn’t much of a drinker, but sitting there drinking beers with Casey did feel
good. It was nice to have someone I trusted looking out for the company and I
needed a night out to clear my head a bit. One thing that I never worried about
while I had been away was my company. Sure, I occasionally thought of ideas and
things that needed to be taken care of and I wanted to call or get in touch to
tell Casey. But none of that mattered in the end. He had run the company with a
profit that year and certainly had done a very respectable job of it.

“I
heard you bought some houses for a couple guys you knew while you were away.
That’s pretty good stuff right there,” Casey said.

“It
was for the families of two men who were murdered. I also settled the lawsuit
with Thomas Randal’s family for what they were asking: eight million.”

“Ouch;
I don’t think Thomas would have been happy about his family suing you.”

“It’s
all right. They are hurt by what happened and I want them to be able to move
on. I met with his wife and we hashed things out. The settlement was the least
I could do for her. I wished her all the best and she even hugged me when we
signed the papers. I guess I can’t expect that she’ll forgive me for letting
Thomas get involved, but hopefully her and her kids can move on now.”

“You
didn’t force Thomas to get involved. He was an adult and made his own choices.
You know you would have won that lawsuit if you had let it go to court? You
should have taken them to court and kept your damn money.”

“I
know. But it wouldn’t have felt like a win.”

“Well
it was good of you to help those other two guys out. That was pretty messed up
what happened to them at the ranch. Probably a pretty damn scary night.”

“It
was. And they were good men. I made sure their families were taken care of
too.”

“Man,
you’re just throwing your money away lately. Better be careful, you’ll end up
poor and working on that ranch again,” Casey said as he started to laugh.

The
funny thing was that I didn’t think of it as a bad thing if I was poor and
working at the ranch again. I knew it would never happen, but my time at the
ranch had been filled with positive memories. I wasn’t going to let the end of
my stay there define my entire time on the ranch.

“I’m
just trying to make up for being such a jackass before.”

“You’re
not happy, I get it. But giving away all your money isn’t likely to make you
happy. You’ve got to go after what you want and make it happen. Stop moping
around and get after it. That’s the Malcolm I know.”

Casey
was right; I was trying to make myself feel better by giving away my money but
it wasn’t really working. Sure, I felt better for a few minutes, but then I
went right back to wondering what the hell I was doing with my life.

I
did hope that the money I was giving away was helping the people that worked
for me and others that I had given it to. I hadn’t been the best of men before
I had gone away and there was no way to change that. But I could be a better
man moving forward and I hoped I was making better choices and doing a better
job of showing people that I cared about them.

“Thanks,
man,” I said as we ordered another round. “I think I need to make some changes,
I’m just not sure what they are yet.”

“Well
I’m here for ya. Just let me know what you need and I’ll make it happen. We
can’t have a disenchanted head of our company if we are going to take over the
world,” he laughed.

“You
still think international is where we need to be?”

“Hell
yeah. The few flights that we do internationally are huge money makers. I think
we need to do a membership type program and allow everyday people to get in on
the private jet world. We can have different tiers and they can buy in from a
single flight up to unlimited flying. We have to be innovative and exciting if
we are going to continue to grow.”

The
excitement in Casey’s voice reminded me so much of myself when I had first
started the company. I had so many ideas for it back then, so many things I was
going to do once I hit it big. But when the company got big, I got wrapped up
in the money and stopped getting excited about the potential. The innovation
and change of the company was going to be how we stayed ahead of the
competition and I was sure glad I had Casey on my team to help drive us to
where we needed to be.

“Thanks,
Casey; I needed to hear that,” I said.

“Let’s
drink to it,” he said as he raised his glass and I followed. “To innovation and
change.”

“To
innovation and change,” I repeated as we banged our glasses together.

My
mind spent the rest of the evening going over every possible scenario for my
future and I started coming up with my own plans that were getting me excited.
It wasn’t anything that people would expect me to do, but I was excited about
it so that was all that mattered. My life had changed forever because of the
time I had spent on the ranch. There was nothing I could do to take that time
back and I didn’t want to. What I wanted was to find a way to merge my old life
and my new one so I could feel happy again.

By
morning I had sent off an email to my new assistant on all the things I needed
her to take care of and I had a meeting scheduled for noon with the man that
could make it all happen. Life favored the bold and I was about to be as bold
as could be. I had sent a private jet out to gather the person I was meeting
and hoped that he had actually gotten on the plane and would be waiting for me
in the restaurant. Sometimes I came up with wild and crazy ideas that others
didn’t really understand; other times I came up with ideas that others loved. I
couldn’t wait to see what his opinion was on the plans I had for my future.

As
I walked into my lunch meeting, I had expected to feel some sort of regret or
concern for the decision I was about to make, but I didn’t. Instead, I felt
excited for my new plans and excited to see Sid Miller sitting in the
restaurant waiting for me. His response to what I had to propose to him was
going to make or break my future and I was extremely nervous as I made eye
contact with him from across the restaurant.

“Now
don’t you clean up nice,” Sid said as he got up and shook my hand.

“Thanks
for coming,” I said as I sat down with him. “You look good too, Sid. How is
Meredith? Is she still handing out those hugs to everyone?”

“Well,
a man sends a private jet for you and it’s rude not to get on it. And yes,
Meredith told me to give you a great big hug when I got here, so don’t tell her
I didn’t do it.”

“I
appreciate you coming. I know you’re busy back home.”

“That’s
certainly true; spring is always a little exciting on the ranch. So how are you
doing? Have you settled back into your life out here? I heard the news about
the man you were going to testify against; that’s pretty amazing stuff. Really
excited for you that it’s all over with.”

It
was weird to be sitting with Sid and talking to him as equals. In all my time
on the ranch I had always looked at him as my boss, yet in that restaurant we
were just two men having a lunch together. He looked at me with more respect
than I remembered getting from him at the ranch, but I chalked that up to my
fancy suit I had on that day. I knew Sid respected me and had done all that he
could do to ensure I had been safe while on his watch.

“Things
haven’t gone as well as I had hoped, but that’s why you’re here. I’m hoping you
can help me out.”

“You
know she’s still in love with you,” Sid said without me even asking about
Sarah. “She pretends like she’s over you, but I know the truth. I can see it in
her eyes.”

His
words hit me like a sledgehammer and I didn’t know what to say. I had hoped
that at some point during our conversation he would have told me how Sarah was,
but I certainly couldn’t have expected to hear the words he was saying right
then and there.

“She’s
doing well?” I managed to ask.

“Yes,
she’s working with the new ranch hands and has taken over managing most of the
day to day details. Her mother and I are just getting old,” Sid said with a
deep chuckle.

“That’s
good. Well, I brought you out here because I noticed your land was still for
sale and I’m interested in making an offer.”

I
had thought long and hard about it and that land was close to my heart. No
matter what I ended up doing with it, I had to own that land and I wanted to
make the deal in person with Sid.

“Well,
sure you can have it if you’d like. I’d just give it to you. You’re a good man
and would make a great neighbor,” Sid said.

“Sid,
what would Sarah say to you?” I joked. “I’ve actually had an offer drawn up and
I’ve got it here for you to look over. I sent a copy to your realtor too.”

The
offer I had for Sid was double his asking price, but not because I wanted to
give him a handout; I knew he wouldn’t accept such a thing. I needed Sid for my
plan to work and that was why I had brought him all the way out to Los Angeles
to give him the offer in person.

“Holy
hell!” Sid exclaimed loudly in the restaurant before realizing just how loud he
had been.

“I
need your help, Sid. I’ve got a plan and it’s not going to work unless you’re
on board with me. Take a look at the offer, I’ve spelled everything out.
Hopefully you agree that it’s reasonable and we can partner together on this.”