The Bashful Billionaire

by Elana Johnson

  “Does it matter?”

  Tyler locked eyes with Jason. “It does to me.”

  “Aces High bought it.”

  Disgust roared through Tyler, but he also wondered if Omar somehow needed money…he shook his head. Not his problem. Omar had left the island and Tyler hoped he wouldn’t come back.

  “It’s not my only copy,” Jason added. “So you don’t need to be real careful with it.”

  “Great.” Tyler dropped it in the sand and kicked it away from him before dropping to the ground on the other side of Lazy Bones. He stared at the waves he’d just been in, the peace he stole from them each morning already gone.

  “I get to tell my family first.” He cut Jason a look out of the corner of his eye. “Then you can have your exclusive.”

  A grin touched the other man’s lips for a fraction of a second. “And I’ll want to talk to Tawny.”

  “Yeah, well, get in line.” Tyler didn’t mean for so much frustration to coat the syllables.

  “Oh, so there’s actual trouble in paradise?”

  “No paradise to begin with,” Tyler said. “Didn’t you listen to the tape? It was fake.”

  Jason remained quiet for a moment, and then he said, “Yeah, what I saw wasn’t fake.”

  The schoolboy in Tyler wanted to beg Jason to tell Tawny that, but he clamped his jaw shut and said nothing.

  “So how much time do you need?” Jason asked.

  “I can tell my family today.”

  “Great.” He stood and patted Lazy Bones, who wore that ridiculous doggie smile that prevented Tyler from staying mad at him for very long. “Then let’s interview this afternoon, and I’ll get in touch with Tawny. I can have something ready in a few days.”

  Tyler nodded, glad when Jason left him sitting there in his wetsuit, and jealous that the man would get to talk to Tawny and he wouldn’t.

  Later that day, after the interview was complete, he sat in the hammock and pushed himself back and forth. It felt good to tell the truth for once, and he hoped Jason would take it and do something good with it.

  He felt scattered, lost, scared, alone. He needed to call Tawny. Her voice would soothe him. For some reason, he’d imagined them going through this break up together. That they’d reassure each other that they were doing the right thing, that neither of them had gotten hurt, that his family would forgive him.

  But none of that felt true as her line rang and rang and rang.

  He didn’t feel like breaking up was the right thing. He had definitely been hurt—his chest felt like someone had carved his heart out and left a huge hole behind. And he wasn’t entirely sure his mother would speak to him again once he told her the truth.

  He called Tawny, telling himself it was to warn her about the tape, Jason’s interview, all of it.

  “Jason’s got proof the engagement was fake,” Tyler said to Tawny’s voicemail. “I’m calling my parents as soon as I hang up here.” He paused, his mind going in ten different directions. “Please call me back when you get this so I know you’ve gotten it.”

  He paced for another ten minutes, psyching himself up to call his mom. When he finally got his fingers to tap the right buttons, his whole body was tight.

  “Tyler, dear, how are you?”

  “You know what, Mom? I’ve been better.” He exhaled and reminded himself that he was an adult, had plenty of money, and that his mother lived thousands of miles away.

  “Oh? What’s going on?”

  “Tawny and I broke up,” he said. “The engagement is off. And actually, funny story, it was all sort of a ruse to begin with….”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Weathering storms had never really been Tawny’s strong suit. She quit jobs, ran from resorts, or disappeared inside her house for days on end.

  Tyler kept trying to talk to her, and she couldn’t fathom why. So she ignored his call and slid another pan of brownies went in the oven. It would join the cookies, lemon bars, and cakes she’d made over the past week. Her freezer was quite full, but she’d have treats for the next six months for the Women’s Beach Club. And she was going to need them—the desserts and the women in the club.

  She curled into the couch, the loss of Lazy Bones beside her somewhat heartbreaking too. Her mind and her heart seemed constantly at war, and they also seemed to enjoy playing tricks on the other.

  The timer went off on the brownies, and she startled, realizing she’d lost fifty minutes of her life to staring. The doorbell pealed at the same time, and she stood, unsure of which to get first.

  Since she was steps from the door, she went that way and opened it. “I have a timer going off. Give me two—” Everything in her from her pulse to her voice froze.

  Tyler stood on the front porch as windswept and handsome as ever. “I’ll wait,” he said, his voice smooth as velvet and rich as chocolate.

  Tawny couldn’t move, couldn’t think, couldn’t speak.

  “I’ll get it.” He eased past her, very careful not to touch her, she noted. So maybe her mind worked when it wanted to. The incessant beeping stopped a moment later, followed by a clang and a scrape as he pulled the brownies from the oven.

  That launched her feet into motion, and she hurried down the foyer and into the kitchen.

  “What’s going on here?” he asked, surveying the assorted baked goods on the counter. He couldn’t seem to settle on the chocolate chip cookies or the carrot cake or the pumpkin roll. And he certainly wasn’t looking at her.

  “Just a little baking.” She cleared her throat, somewhat frustrated he affected her so strongly. She wondered how long she’d have to deal with the accelerated pulse every time she saw him, the wishful longing when she thought about him at night, the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks at the drop of a hat. Or in this case, the simple act of removing her brownies from the oven for her.

  “Did you get my message?”

  “Which one?”

  That brought his eyes to hers, and they were bright, and bold, and furious. “The one I left an hour ago.”

  “No, I haven’t had time to check.” She wasn’t even entirely sure where her phone was.

  “Well, Jason knows the engagement was fake.” Tyler leaned against the counter and folded his arms, softening into the surfer boy she loved so much. “Omar had a confession on tape or something, and Aces High bought it. I just did an exclusive interview with him, and he wants to meet with you too.”

  He’d said a lot, and Tawny’s body had reacted in pieces. Cold from knowing the truth was out there. Hot from thinking the world would know it very soon. Scared that she’d never be able to give as good of an interview as Tyler—and how stupid was that? She wasn’t inferior to him; he’d never made her feel that way. And yet she felt that way now.

  “Why?” she asked. “Why give him anything?”

  Tyler shrugged. “I like the guy. If the story’s going to come out anyway, he might as well get the glory.”

  How he was so utterly nonplussed about this boggled her mind. “Don’t you care about the story getting out?”

  “Not really.” He brought his gaze back to her and this time it raged from hot to cold and back again. “We’re basically over anyway, right? I mean, you won’t even call me back. Send a text.” He nudged a paper plate laden with cookies. “Bring me a treat.”

  She shook her head, but she didn’t know how to follow it up with words.

  “No?” he asked, always able to vocalize things when she couldn’t. Or at least partial things. “No what, Tawny?”

  No, we’re not over.

  Yes, I’ll bring you cookies.

  She turned away from him and let her eyes roam the back yard and beach beyond the window. “I’m sorry I messed your life up,” she said. “That was never my intent.”

  The oven clicked a reminder that it was still on in the ensuing silence. He ground this throat and said, “I think I’ve made it quite clear you haven’t messed my life up.”

  That insane hope floa
ted through her, and she hugged herself. “I feel messed up,” she said. “I’ve done everything backward, and I don’t know how to fix it.”

  He stepped closer to her, the heat from his body in the already warm kitchen like a balm to her soul. She wanted to lean into him, but she stopped herself.

  “What do you mean you’ve done everything backward?”

  She gave a mirthless laugh. “Since I’ve had such a rough time in the dating pool lately, I decided to do everything the opposite of what I’d normally do.” She faced him, finally feeling strong enough to tell him something real. “So if I wanted to hold your hand, I didn’t. If I wanted to tell you something intimate, I held back. If I wanted to kiss you, I waited for you to kiss me first.”

  Her breath came quickly now as he searched her face, a measure of horror on his.

  “So…you’re saying not only was this relationship fake, you were fake with me too? This whole time?”

  Tawny wanted to erase the childlike hurt from his voice, but it reverberated through her ears, her brain, her skull as if someone had hit a gong.

  She felt twisted up and put together wrong. “I guess so,” she said. “I guess it was an experiment that didn’t work out.” She remembered Sasha warning her to just be herself. But that had never worked for Tawny.

  This didn’t work either, her mind screamed.

  An angry, explosive sound burst from his mouth. “I gave Jason your number.” He walked away, his footsteps strong and sure and the door slamming closed behind him the very final punctuation mark to their break up.

  Three days later, Tawny sat on the beach, almost in the exact same spot as she had when Omar had visited her for the last time. Deep down, she knew she wouldn’t see him again. He’d taped their conversation and she hadn’t known it.

  Betrayal tasted bitter, but she swallowed it down. Doesn’t matter, she thought. The truth about her and Tyler was bound to come out. This way would just be a little more public. It didn’t matter, not for her. She wasn’t the billionaire poker celebrity with a reputation to protect.

  “Is this patch of sand taken?”

  She glanced up at Jason and waved down the beach. “It’s all yours.”

  He wasn’t wearing beach-appropriate attire, but he flopped to the sand like he really wanted grains in the pleats of his slacks. “I’m glad you finally called me back.”

  She said nothing, the idea that had been tickling her mind for days now practically shouting at her. “When will the article be published?” she asked to try to drown out the voice.

  “Not until the next issue—February tenth.”

  “That’s almost a month.” Living without Tyler in her life for another month sounded impossible. Couldn’t be done. Her heart rammed her ribcage, demanding a special edition be printed before then.

  “Yep. Gotta keep this under wraps for a while longer.” He pulled out a recorder. “So I just want to hear how things went from your perspective.”

  She met his eye. “How things went?”

  “Yeah, how the relationship started, why the fake engagement, what you’re going to do now.”

  She glared at the device he held on his knee. “And you could use anything I say?”

  “Well, that’s kind of the deal.” He pulled a folder from his briefcase. “All the legal documents are in here. You’ll have to sign them for me to use something you say.”

  She took the folder but didn’t open it. “What if I asked you to spin the article in a certain way?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you think Tyler will read the article?”

  Jason blinked, the surprise evident in his beat of silence. “I honestly have no idea.”

  “Can you make sure he reads it?”

  “He’s isolated himself from the poker community. I doubt he reads anything related to the industry anymore.”

  “Can you send him a copy? Highly suggest he read it?”

  Jason cocked his head, that flop of dark hair shifting with the movement and the breeze. “Why?”

  Tawny swallowed, the idea going to burst from her despite her attempt to hold it back. “Because I fell in love with him, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I want to get him back.”

  Jason exhaled and looked out toward the water, the end of his sigh sounding like a hiss. “So you want me to put something in there about all of that. Sort of your apology and that you love him, which I’m assuming you haven’t told him.”

  “Yeah, that’s about it. And when he sees it….” She shrugged, remembering the angry way he’d marched away from her. “Maybe he’ll accept my apology and come back.”

  “Are you sure this is the best idea?” Jason asked. “Tyler’s a pretty private guy from what I’ve gathered.”

  “It’s the only idea I have,” she said. Esther and Stacey had asked a lot of questions about Tawny’s idea too, but she couldn’t meet with her Beach Club every day and air her doubts and worries. She had to make some decisions on her own.

  “All right,” he said. “I’ll do what I can. I have a job to do too.”

  “Of course.”

  He shook the recorder slightly. “Okay, so if you’ll just start at the beginning….”

  Tawny took a deep breath. “The first time I met Tyler, he’d thrown his dog’s Frisbee near my beach yoga class….”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Tawny followed Tyler in his dreams, into the waves in the morning, everywhere. He couldn’t get away from thoughts of her, almost like they were specters determined to haunt him forever.

  When she’d told him that she’d done everything backward, he’d never felt so duped. Even when he’d lost in the last round of a qualifying tournament to a guy who’d deliberately concealed a card for the entire game.

  Tyler knew what it felt like to lose, and to win, and to be taken advantage of. He knew the taste of betrayal, and heartache, and none of it was something he wanted to repeat again.

  Hadn’t he left all of that behind when he’d come to Hawaii?

  He’d tried.

  But this trickery felt more personal. Stronger, and harder, and more lethal than anything he’d ever experienced before.

  He’d fallen in love with a woman pretending to be someone else. He didn’t know Tawny Loveless at all—and yet it hurt with a pain so deep down in his gut that Tyler couldn’t even make it through breakfast without thinking about calling her.

  Instead, he pulled up their text string and read through it. He had the time, and he never deleted anything from his phone. In the end, he always returned to the angry, agitated state he existed in now.

  He swung in the hammock, only the breeze and Bones for company, when voices reached his ears. He perked up, the timbre familiar. Sure enough, Fisher, Marshall, and Jasper rounded the corner of his house, all of them wearing slacks and button-up shirts, closed at the throat with ties.

  “I knew you’d be back here,” Fisher said. He didn’t smile, and Tyler relaxed back into the hammock again.

  “It isn’t rocket science,” he said.

  “You’ve missed our last two meetings.” Jasper came all the way to the end of the hammock and folded his arms.

  “Not really dealing with business right now,” Tyler said. He had an appointment with his account managers next week, and he hadn’t quite gotten up the nerve to cancel it yet. But he could avoid the Nine-0 club easily, so he had.

  “Oh, he’s in bad shape,” Marshall said.

  “I’m fine,” Tyler said.

  “What happened that was so bad?” Fisher sat at the picnic table a few feet away and rolled up his shirtsleeves.

  Tyler didn’t need to get into all the details. “I feel like I barely know her.” That was the root of the problem. Oh, and the fact that he’d practically told her he loved her, and she’d thrown it back in his face with let’s stick to the plan.

  He’d had no idea her plans were to be fake to the outside world and with him.

  “So get to know her again,” Marshall s
aid.

  “It’s not that easy.” Tyler tossed him a dark look.

  “If it’s any consolation, she looks miserable too.” Fisher lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “She still shows up to work, but she’s different.”

  Tyler scoffed. “Yeah, she’s probably back to acting like herself.” That would be different from the woman he thought he knew, the woman he thought he’d fallen in love with. “I just feel stupid, you know? Like, I can read people. I used to do it for a living. And I couldn’t tell she was lying to me while we were lying to everyone else.” Frustration built inside him, but he pushed out his breath violently, hoping some of the negative emotion would go with it.

  “Maybe you’re just rusty,” Marshall said.

  “Or maybe….” Jasper looked at the other men. “Maybe you saw the real her.” He lifted one eyebrow and cocked his head. “Maybe she just thought she wasn’t being her true self.”

  “What does that even mean?” Tyler asked.

  “Why do you think you don’t know her?” Jasper countered.

  “She said she’d done everything backward with me, because all of her previous relationships hadn’t worked out. Said it was an experiment that didn’t work out.”

  Jasper considered what he’d said. “Well, that doesn’t mean she was different. Just what she chose to do.”

  “It’s the same thing, Jasper.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “We’ll agree to disagree.” Tyler was done with this conversation. “Is there something you guys needed? I’m busy here.”

  “Tyler—” Fisher started, but he stopped when Tyler glared at him. He stood. “All right. Let’s leave him alone. He knows where to find us.”

  “And where to find Tawny,” Jasper added as he walked away. “I hope he doesn’t let her get away. Although, if he does, maybe I’ll ask her out.” He kept talking, but a roar of jealous rage blanketed Tyler’s ears in white noise.

  No way anyone else could go out with Tawny. Kiss Tawny.

  He shook his head. She wasn’t his anymore. In fact, she never had been.