Cinderella and the Billionaire

by Marion Lennox

  ‘But I know Rowan Bay,’ Peggy wailed. ‘And I know Meg. At least... I knew her grandmother. I’m going on trust.’

  ‘Then I’m asking for you to trust me. For Henry’s sake.’

  Peggy was crying now, tears slipping down her wrinkled face. It was so unfair to land this on her. ‘I can’t. I won’t fly. I won’t.’

  ‘Peggy, you don’t need to fly tomorrow,’ he said. ‘Henry’s been through enough and this isn’t urgent. We need to get the DNA sorted and, as I said, Steven’s reasonable. He’s relieved Henry’s off the island and he’ll give us time. But I believe we need to face the fact that there’s little choice.’

  ‘There is,’ Peggy said wildly, and she turned to Meg. ‘You go.’

  ‘What?’ Meg stared at her, taken aback.

  ‘I shouldn’t ask you,’ Peggy said. ‘After all you’ve done for us. But I know you, or I feel like I know you. You’re a Rowan Bay girl. You’re a loner, the same as me. You love the sea and dogs and I know you care for Henry. I can see it. So you go. Go back with him. I’ll stay here, care for Henry, let us both get our breath back. You go to this place he’s talking about. If you think it’s a place Henry and I can live then I’ll... I’ll get on a boat. There must be ships that’ll take us there.’

  ‘I can’t move to America,’ Meg said, stunned.

  ‘I’m not asking you to,’ Peggy said, swiping away tears, and Meg saw a hint of stubbornness, the inexorable strength that had let her live on a solitary island for all these years. ‘You check it out and come back and tell me. If it’s really, truly okay, then we can go.’ She blinked away the rest of her tears and suddenly looked hopeful. ‘Is that a plan? Meg? Would that work?’

  * * *

  She was going to America.

  How had that happened?

  Fast, that was how. She’d seen Peggy backed into a corner and she’d promised. Now Matt was on the internet, emailing Steven, and she was sitting on the deck overlooking the bay thinking what had she done?

  The door opened behind her. She heard Matt’s footsteps.

  She didn’t look up.

  ‘Can I have half a step?’

  She moved over, but grudgingly, not the least bit sure she wanted him sitting beside her.

  She needed time to work things out. To figure what exactly she’d promised.

  ‘Done,’ he said gently and she flinched. Done what?

  ‘You want to tell me?’

  He cast her an amused glance. ‘You think I’m being bossy?’

  ‘You and Peggy... Organising my life... Yes, I think you’re being bossy.’

  ‘Everything’s tentative,’ he said. ‘I’ve made plans but they can be changed if you want to pull out.’

  ‘Like I can pull out. I’m heading to the States to do what? A real estate inspection?’

  ‘You promised Peggy,’ he said gently. ‘I’ll cover all costs. I’ll make it right with Charlie, and, let’s face it, it’ll be a sight easier than having Peggy and Henry living with you for years.’

  She turned to him then, incredulous. ‘Is that what you think? That I want to be rid of them?’

  ‘They’re strangers.’

  ‘They need me.’

  ‘They’re not your family.’

  ‘No, but they could be.’ And then she heard what she’d said. She heard the raw need that had suddenly surfaced and she bit her lip and turned away.

  ‘Is that what you want?’ Matt said, sounding puzzled. ‘Family?’

  ‘I wouldn’t mind.’ Why not say it? This house had echoed with emptiness since Grandpa had died. Even though her offer might have seemed generous, there’d been a part of her that had thought living with Peggy and her grandson might even be fun.

  And he’d heard it. She could see it on his face. The porch light combined with the moonlight let her see him as clearly as he saw her. It let her see the gravity of his expression, those intelligent, searching eyes that seemed to see...more than she’d let on.

  But did he see, she wondered, just how confined her circumstances had made her? A lifetime of caring had her trapped in a job, in a lifestyle she’d had no choice in. At twenty-eight, she’d spent her life fishing and caring, hardly moving from the confines of Rowan Bay. Now, deep in debt, she had little choice but to continue that lifestyle. She could clear her debt—just—by selling the house, but where did that leave her? She’d have nowhere to live, no career.

  To have Peggy and Henry live with her... To have someone to come home to...

  Oh, for heaven’s sake, that made her feel needy. And vulnerable. She was neither of those things. She was tough as old boots. She’d heard Charlie describe her as such and she fought for that now. Meg O’Hara, the tough one.

  But maybe Matt was seeing under the surface. Maybe he guessed.

  ‘So here’s a proposition,’ he told her. ‘While I’ve been on the phone to Steven I’ve been turning things over, looking at problems, searching for solutions. And, Meg, it might seem crazy but I have another proposition.’

  ‘What?’ It was hardly a graceful or grateful response but it was all she could come up with.

  ‘Let’s do what Peggy suggests,’ he said. ‘As soon as the DNA connection’s confirmed, as soon as your cough’s settled, let’s you and me get on a plane and head back to the States. You can check out the house, look at it from all angles, think about it. But, Meg, maybe you could also look at it for you, too. Peggy’s just a little bit...vague...and in a strange setting it might be worse. I’d like someone to take care of them. That person could be you.’

  ‘Me...’

  ‘They won’t need all that much care,’ he said hastily, as if trying to explain before she could refuse. ‘Henry will be at school and Peggy will want to be independent. But it’s a great place to live. If you wanted...there are charter companies down there, a lot less dodgy than Charlie’s. You could get work with them. You could garden. You could fish. You could...’ He hesitated. ‘You could love Henry.’

  ‘So you wouldn’t have to?’ It was out before she could stop it.

  ‘I do love Henry.’ He paused for a long moment and when he spoke again his voice had changed. ‘I didn’t know it for a while, but finally I’m starting to figure it out. Meg, my childhood’s been bleak, solitary, not quite as bad as Henry’s but almost. I don’t...get close to people. I thought I was bringing him here to do him a favour but he’s been sitting in the corner of my office for years. He’s become... Yeah, I concede, he’s become part of my life. Today, on the chopper coming back here, I watched his face, I could see the excitement. I could see the transformation. And I looked around and saw you watching him. Caring for him. I saw Peggy overcoming her terror of flying to be with him. And then I thought, you know what, I want to be in that equation, too. To love a kid... Surely that’s a privilege.’

  ‘I guess it is.’ Her words were a bit shaky. Wary. She wasn’t sure where this was going.

  ‘And then I talked to Steven. His response was guarded but it was definite. If this was his kid then he was ready to do whatever it took to keep him safe. But then I thought, I hate it that he has the right and I don’t.’

  ‘He has the right to provide boarding schools and nannies...’

  ‘That’s what he’s offering,’ he said strongly. ‘That’s what I’m trying to prevent. Steven doesn’t know him. Henry needs more than that.’

  ‘So you’re offering Peggy your home.’

  ‘I am,’ he said, strongly now. ‘I believe a court could well come down on Peggy’s side if she’s settled over there. But, Meg, if Steven contests it, they might demand even more. An old lady... Me at weekends... It might not be enough.’ He hesitated. ‘Meg, if you come...there’s more to my list of things that you might do.’

  ‘Housekeeper?’ she said astringently. ‘I can’t see that as a job description.’

  ‘It
wouldn’t work,’ he agreed. ‘I can’t see you changing careers to wash floors, and I already have a perfectly good housekeeper. And I’ve been thinking of problems. But there’s another position going vacant.’

  ‘You’ve said there are boat charter companies. Garden? Fish? What else could I do? And what problems?’

  ‘There’ll be visa restrictions,’ he conceded. ‘You might not be able to stay long term. But, if you were to come...if you were to see there could be a life there for you... I have this idea. It sounds crazy but I want you to think about it. It could be the solution to all our problems.’

  ‘Which is?’ To say she felt wary was an understatement. A huge understatement.

  And she was right to be wary because his next statement floored her.

  ‘Think this through,’ he said, urgently now because maybe he could see by the expression on her face that she was already suspecting him of something dire. And here it came. ‘Meg, I’m in the market for a wife and I think that wife could be you.’

  CHAPTER TEN

  IT WAS CLEARLY the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard of.

  She stared at him in astonishment, then rose and stared at him some more.

  ‘Right,’ she said at last, obviously deciding the whole proposition was ludicrous and acting accordingly. ‘Did you take another of those travel sickness pills before the chopper ride? In rare cases they can cause hallucinations, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. I’ll leave you to get over it. Goodnight, Matt.’

  And she walked inside—or maybe bolted inside might be a better description. But then she closed the door carefully behind her, as if a sudden bang might unsettle a disordered mind even more.

  Leaving him staring into the dark, unable to follow up with his very reasonable...reasoning.

  What had he just said?

  He didn’t even know how the idea had come to him. He’d been thinking through the visa options and marriage had just appeared. Like a light bulb being turned on.

  Meg didn’t seem to think it was a light bulb. To her it was nuts.

  Maybe he shouldn’t have sprung it on her quite so soon.

  Yeah. He knew that was right, but the more he thought about it, the more it seemed...reasonable?

  Marriage had always been there, in the back of his mind, as an option he’d get to sooner or later. Probably later. He’d met some amazing women but there’d never been a woman he wanted to wake up beside, morning after morning.

  To share his life with.

  To be honest, he wasn’t thinking of sharing his life now. He never had. Solitude had been his way of life for so long he couldn’t imagine himself changing.

  But now he had a vision in his head that refused to go away.

  The big house at the Hamptons was a house he’d always loved. As a kid it had seemed magic.

  Once upon a time his grandparents had employed a gardener, Peter, a gentle guy with a limp and a smile and five kids. Matt’s nanny had liked Peter and she’d liked Peter’s kids, so Matt remembered a couple of school breaks where the house had come alive with adventure, noise, chaos.

  Matt’s mother had finally arrived midbreak and put an abrupt end to it, but Matt still remembered that feeling of...home.

  He was thinking of it now. A house with Peggy and Henry and Stretchie and Boof.

  And Meg.

  A family to come home to.

  He saw himself arriving from Manhattan and being swept up in family, dogs, laughter.

  And Meg’s smile.

  Meg.

  There was the siren call.

  It was too soon. Far too soon to think about marriage. He’d known her for less than a week.

  But part of him didn’t think it was ludicrous. To part of him it was making complete sense.

  He’d terrified her with his impulsive proposal. He needed to give her space now, but he was hopeful. Calm thought would surely show her what could be good for them all. Yes, a major proposition as marriage needed to be considered from every angle. But it was sensible. Wasn’t it?

  He rose and stared out into the night and the more he thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed. Here, Meg had a lousy job and a load of debt. She’d admitted she was lonely. She’d opened her home to Peggy and Henry, and he could tell she was already opening her heart.

  To him?

  There was the rub. He didn’t have a clue how she felt about him. But she’d admitted she also felt this...thing between them, this frisson of electricity that honestly he’d never felt before. Maybe it was because she was so far out of his orbit, almost another species from the glamorous women in his professional world. Or maybe it was the way she comforted Henry, she offered her home without a thought, the way Peggy instinctively trusted her.

  Maybe it was the way Matt instinctively trusted her.

  The way he wanted her.

  And there was the bottom line, he thought, honesty surfacing. The idea of having a ready-made family at weekends was appealing. The idea of finding Meg in his bed was even more so.

  ‘Yeah, back off,’ he told himself. ‘Let’s put this as a proposition of sense, not of need.’

  Need... There was an interesting word. It hovered uncertainly in his mind.

  He didn’t need anyone. He’d learned that a long time ago. So why did he hope...?

  ‘Because of Henry,’ he said out loud but Meg was there, front and foremost, and he knew he was a liar.

  * * *

  She lay in the dark in the bed she’d slept in for ever. She stared up at nothing in particular and she thought, Matt just asked me to marry him.

  Just like that. Marriage.

  She’d known him for how long? The man was clearly deluded.

  Except he wasn’t. The man was beautiful.

  Was that a weird way to describe a guy? Maybe it was, but it was how she was starting to think of him. Physically he was gorgeous but that was only the start of it. The way he smiled at her... The way he held Henry... The way he cared... The way he’d held her back on the island...

  The feel of his kiss...

  Block that out, she told herself. Passion has nothing to do with sensible life decisions.

  What he was suggesting was so far from sensible it was unthinkable.

  Or was it?

  Marriage to a guy she’d known for less than a week? How could that make sense?

  But if it ended up being a feasible solution...

  Suddenly she found herself drifting into the possibilities of maybe. What if?

  This was fairy-tale stuff. A kid who left school at sixteen and caught fish for a living marrying a billionaire?

  It was nonsense, but what if?

  It’d be a Cinderella scenario, she told herself, and the story of Cinderella had always left her uneasy. What happened when the credits faded, the happy-ever-after disappeared from the screen and Cinders was left with an idle life in a world she wasn’t born to?

  But if she did let herself climb aboard that pumpkin coach... If she let herself be cared for by one Matt McLellan...

  She didn’t need to be cared for by anyone, she told herself. She was twenty-eight, independent, solid and...tough as old boots?

  She was stuck in a lifestyle that was starting to feel more restrictive than an overtight corset. She was facing a life of either living in Rowan Bay while she paid down her debt or trying to make a living somewhere else. With what skills?

  She thought of what she was doing now, taking parties of amateur fishermen out to sea, coping with seasickness, drunkenness, then crates of fish to be gutted because cleaning their fish was incorporated into the charter.

  She didn’t mind it too much. It was a living. But the thought of Peggy and Henry living with her had offered a sliver of how things might be. Of a life less lonely. That sliver had gone now, except Matt had offered an alterna
tive.

  A voice was suddenly whispering in the back of her mind. She could just see. She didn’t have to commit. Cinders had fallen into her prince’s arms and the deed had been done, but it didn’t have to be like that. Could she go to the States, do Peggy’s real estate inspection, just try?

  She heard Matt’s footsteps coming down the hall, heading to the bedroom she’d designated for him. And suddenly a decision was made. Without giving herself time to think, she was out of bed, opening the door. ‘Matt?’

  He was right by her door. Close. Large.

  The passage footlight was on, shining upward.

  He was beautiful. He was right...there.

  ‘Meg.’ He sounded wary.

  ‘It’s an off-the-wall idea,’ she said.

  ‘It is,’ he agreed. ‘But it’s just an idea.’

  ‘We couldn’t possibly agree to such a thing unless we got to know each other better.’

  ‘I agree.’

  It was a weird scenario. She was standing barefooted, clad in her flimsy nightgown. He was fully dressed in his new clothes, shaved now, contained, watchful.

  Gorgeous.

  She should back away.

  She wasn’t backing. This was the mature version of Cinderella, she told herself. She was twenty-eight and she was going for it.

  ‘Matt?’

  ‘Mmm?’ He wasn’t sure where to take this, she thought. He’d made the proposition and now...was he having second thoughts?

  ‘You really are proposing marriage?’

  ‘I’m saying we could think about it.’

  ‘So I’m thinking.’

  ‘That’s good.’

  ‘Matt...’

  ‘Mmm?’

  ‘You know when we stopped at the pharmacy for steroids for my cough?’

  ‘I... Yes.’

  ‘I didn’t just buy steroids.’

  ‘I see.’ And suddenly the wariness was being edged out by laughter. ‘You, too?’

  ‘What do you mean, you, too?’

  ‘Because while you were in the back waiting for your prescription to be filled, I was making my own purchase.’