Stingray Billionaire: The Complete Series (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) (14 page)

My mouth is open to
apologize
, but that’s when I notice the smell.

I say, “I’m not trying to
get out of anything here, but—”

“But what?” Ellie
interrupts.

I answer, “I think your
sauce is burning.”

Chapter
Eleven

All that Cool Air

Ellie

Things have been a little
tense around the beach house. Nick’s behaved himself since that night in the
kitchen, but Naomi’s not making it easy.

I know she’s a lot to
deal with, but Naomi’s going to be in my life for quite a while. I just hope
the two of them can come to some understanding.

As for now, Naomi’s out
swimming in the
surf,
and I’m getting
some sun on the deck. I’ve found it easier to keep the peace if I keep an eye
on her.

My phone rings and I
reach over and pick it up, answering, “Hello?”

“Hi, is this Ellie
Michaels from Rory’s Treasures?” a woman’s voice returns.

“Yes, who’s this?” I ask.

“It’s Helen,” she says,
“Helen Kramer.”

“Oh, Helen,” I respond.
“How are you doing? How’s that no-good husband of yours? Is he ready for me to
come back to work yet?”

Helen, Troy’s wife, is a
lovely woman who married a terrible affliction. I feel
sorry
for anyone who has to encounter Troy on a regular basis, but
she’s stuck with him.

“Helen?” I ask.

When I hear her voice
again, it comes in the form of a sob. “He’s gone!” she cries. “Troy’s gone!”

“What do you mean?” I
ask. “What happened?”

She sniffs. “After you
had
sold
everything in the store, he took
off for Tahiti,” she says. “He didn’t even let me know he’d left until he
called me from the plane.”

“He just left you there?”
I ask. “What a jerk!”

“No,” she says. “No, he’s
not. Ellie, Troy’s dead.”

I sit up, my mouth open.

“Oh my
god, Helen, I’m sorry,” I say.
“What happened?”

“All I know is what I
heard from the embassy,” Helen says. “He was in a small village, you know, in
Tahiti, and I guess he started gambling and lost money to the wrong people.
When he said he couldn’t pay them, they threw him to the pigs!”

I don’t know if that’s a
euphemism or not, but it sounds horrible, whatever happened.

“Helen,” I start, “I
don’t know what to say. I’m in shock.”

“I’m just calling to tell
you Troy left you the store,” she says. “I don’t want anything to do with that
place.”

“I don’t know why he
would leave me the store and not you,” I tell her. “You said you don’t want
anything to do with it, but if I were to—”

“I don’t care what you do
with it,” she says. “Sell it, run it—I don’t care. Go to the courthouse and
they’ll take
care of …
whatever. I’m
sorry,” she says, “I have to go.”

Click.

What the hell just
happened?

I’ve fantasized about
something bad happening to Troy for a long time, but I never actually wanted
him to get hurt. I can’t believe he’s gone.

There’s no reasonable
explanation I can offer for
dialing
Troy’s number and hitting send, but I do it
regardless
.
When a man answers in a foreign language, I end the call.

I’m shaking so
much I
drop the phone.

When Nick comes home two
hours later, I’m still sitting on the deck.

“Hey,” he says as he
comes out the French doors.

“Hey,” I murmur.

He comes around into my
field of vision, saying, “Are you all right?”

I give him a quick
breakdown of the phone
call,
and I’m just
staring into space. When I get to the part about the store, Nick jumps in
, saying,
“If you want, I can help you sell
it.” He says, “I don’t know anyone in Mulholland proper, but I have a couple of
friends in real estate that owe me a
favor,
and I bet we could get it turned around in no time.”

“What?” I ask, looking up
at Nick.

He starts again, saying,
“I was just saying—”

“No,” I tell him. “I
think I have to take it.”

Nick takes in a deep
breath of air and blows it back out again. “I know that store’s an important
part of your life, but—”

“It’s not that,” I
interrupt. “I mean, it’s a little that, but maybe it’d be a good thing—not just
for me, but for both of us.”

“How so?” he asks.

“Would you mind if we go
inside?” I ask. “I think I’m starting to burn out here.”

“Sure,” he
says
and helps me to my feet.

“I don’t know,” I say as
we enter the house. “I feel like
you
and
I will be on a lot better footing if I have my own thing.”

“You said you hated it
there,” he says.

“She doesn’t hate it
there. She loves it there,” Naomi butts in from around the hall corner. “She
just didn’t like the way her boss treated her.”

“Thanks, Naomi, but I
think I’ve got it covered!” I bark.

She’s probably still
there, but at least she has the sense to be quiet now.

“You don’t have to work,”
Nick tells me. “I’ll take care of you.”

“I appreciate that,” I say
and manage a smile. “I do, but all I can think is that if I just hang around
here all the time while you’re off working, we’re both going to start resenting
each other. I don’t want that.”

“I don’t want that
either,” Nick says, “but it doesn’t have to be that way. The only thing tying
you to Mulholland was that
store,
and now
you have a chance to go wherever you want.”

“What about Naomi?” I
ask.

“She’s not in Mulholland,
either,” he says.

I tighten my lips. “At
first, I would have agreed with you, that selling it would be the best option,”
I tell him. “The more I thought about it, though, the more it became
apparent
that if I don’t do something, we’re
never going to be on a very firm footing.”

Come on, jackass. Notice
that I’m working my life around you and just be happy I’m doing it.

“The store’s empty,
though,” he says. “I mean, I’m
glad
to
help you out any way you need, but—”

“You’re sweet,” I tell
him, “but no. I need to do this on my own.”

Nick sighs and then goes
quiet for what feels like a long time.

“What are you thinking
about?” I ask.

“Okay,” he says. “If this
is what you need to do, I’ll support your decision. I just don’t like the idea
of being away from you now that we’ve found each other a—”

“It’ll be better in the
long run,” I tell him. “I promise. Yeah, I’m going to miss you, but this
doesn’t have to change our relationship.”

“When are you going to
go?” he asks.

“I think I should
probably go soon,” I tell him. “If not tonight, then definitely tomorrow.”

“Okay,” he says. “Let me
know what you want to do and we’ll get it worked out for you.”

“Thanks, Nick,” I say,
putting my arms around him and hugging him close. “I can’t tell you how much it
means to have your support in this.”

“What about …” he trails
off, but he doesn’t need to finish the sentence.

“I’m fine here,” Naomi
calls from around the corner she apparently never left. “I’ll hold down the
fort!”

Nick has an expression on
his face like he just dove headfirst into a vat of rotten eggs, but bless him,
he doesn’t say anything.

“Yeah, I don’t think the
two of you under the same roof alone is such a good idea,” I whisper to Nick.

“Hey, I’ve been good,” he
says.

“It’s not you I’m worried
about,” I say. “We should probably schedule the flight for tonight. If we give
my sister any time to plan at all, she’s going to ensconce herself in this
place like an annoying caterpillar trying to become an annoying butterfly.”

Nick smirks. “I’ll book
the flight, but you’re going to have to be the one to break the news to your
sister. I’m not getting anywhere near that one.”

He gives me a kiss on the
forehead and leaves me to tell Naomi
we’re
heading
home. I feel
sorry
about
carting Sammie and Max back and forth, but with as much as Nick works, they’re
better off coming home, too.

I’ve gone the long,
rational conversation route with Naomi before. The problem with that approach
is that Naomi has a short attention span and has never, as long as I’ve known
her, been rational. Therefore, I decide to try a different approach this time.

Walking around the corner
where she’s still standing, I tell Naomi, “Pack your
stuff. We
’re leaving.” I don’t break pace.

It’s been two hours of
listening to Naomi go off about how it’s not
fair
she should have to go, too, and that if I loved her, I wouldn’t make her return
to that hellhole. Every time I try to get a word in, Naomi jumps in with
another stupid reason why the north side of the beach house is rightfully hers
and how I have no justification for making her abandon it.

By the time Trevor shows
up to take us to the airport, nothing is
packed,
and I haven’t made any headway with Naomi at all. It’s not until I grab her by
the wrist and physically wrench her from the house, foot by foot, that she
finally relents.

Someday, I’m going to
convince Naomi that not everything in the world was created especially for her
enjoyment. Also, I might add something about how it’s legal in most states to
shoot someone if you can make a decent case for trespassing.

For now, though, I’m just
happy enough to get her in the car. Naturally, Trevor has to stand in front of
the town car’s only back door to keep her from escaping.

Nick helps me collect
Sammie and
Max,
and we get them out into
the car. I’m hoping for a romantic goodbye, but Naomi pounding on the back
window of the car goes a long way in killing the moment.

I give Nick a hug and a
quick kiss, and I tell him, “I’ll give you a call when we land.”

“All right,” he says.
“I’ll see if I can move some things around and come out there to see you soon.”

“Come on!” Naomi bellows
from the backseat. “If we’re going, let’s go already!”

“I do not envy you on the
plane ride back,” Nick laughs.

I agree
with him before I even get in the car.

We get to the airport and
board the plane, and I’ve never
traveled
so much for such unexpected reasons in my life.

“You know,” Naomi says
about five minutes into the
in-flight
movie, “I
thought
maybe we should talk
about something.”

“They’re not going to
turn the plane around,” I groan. “What
was
that today?”

“I wanted to stay behind
and look into your man because I know you’re never going to,” she answers.

“Like you ever stopped,”
I tell her. “Found anything yet?”

“Not really,” she says,
“just a lot of papers—business stuff. Keep those fingers crossed, though. I’ve
got a feeling I’m going to uncover a mistress before this is all said and
done.”

We’re on a plane, Ellie.
Relax, take a deep breath and— “Whatever your problem is, you need to cut it
out right now,” I snap, eliciting
a few
gasps from the passengers around us. I may have been too loud.

“I’m just trying to look
out for you,” she says. “Think about it: even if he does turn out to be
everything he seems to be, are you
so sure
you’re
ready to settle down?”

“What do you
mean,
settle down?” I ask. “We’re just dating.”

“Yeah, you’re dating,”
she scoffs. “I suppose you didn’t happen to notice that you’ve been effectively
living with him for like two months, right?”

I open my mouth and fill
my lungs in preparation for my
retort
,
only she’s right. Even before I told him I was all-in, I
traveled
to Manhattan with Nick for no other
reason than he asked me.

The idiot’s right:
somehow, without noticing, I’ve landed myself two or three steps away from
marriage,
and I don’t even know anything about
Nick’s life before he went off to college. I’ve justified it to myself by
thinking of it as “staying” with Nick, not “living” with Nick, but they’re the
same thing.

Eventually, though, I
come up with a passable
rejoinder
. “You
know,” I say, “if what you were saying were true, then why am I on this plane
right now? Why am I headed back to Mulholland to run the store?”

“Because you’re freaked
out,” Naomi answers like she’s been waiting for the question. “I think part of
you realized what was going on and used what happened to Troy as an excuse to
start running.”

“You’re
gaslighting
me,” I tell her. “You’ve gone back
and forth about me and Nick so much you have no credibility left whatsoever.”