The Belated Billionaire

by Elana Johnson

  “Hardest thing I’ve ever done.” She nodded, focusing on the tabletop.

  “Harder than leaving me?” he asked, unsure of why he’d asked.

  “Oh, Theo.” She looked at him, raw emotion on her face. “That was really hard too.” Her voice broke on the last word. “But we didn’t have kids, and my parents were willing to help.”

  “They wouldn’t help when your husband was arrested?”

  “They never liked Ray,” Katie said. “And Daddy was sick, and my mother…well, she didn’t have it in her at the time. That was another reason I came here. I didn’t want to add to her burden.”

  “I didn’t know your dad was sick. Is he okay now?”

  “Seems to be.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “He and Mama got divorced a few years ago. He moved to Florida, and I don’t hear from him much.”

  “Wow.” Theo didn’t know what to do with that news. “They had to be married what? Forty years?”

  “Almost fifty,” she said. “Mama moved to Ohio and lives near Janelle.”

  “Do you talk to your sister much?”

  “A little.” Katie sounded sad, and Theo didn’t like it. He stood and started clearing the plates. He may not cook and clean for himself, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know how. He’d spent plenty of years eating cold cereal for every meal, hoping his new idea would bring home more than a few hundred bucks.

  They cleaned up the kitchen together, and he felt his time with her ending. What a perfect day it had been, and Theo closed his eyes and took a long breath of air.

  “Want to sit on the deck for a few minutes?” Katie asked.

  “Absolutely.” He took her hand and they went outside together. A swing sat on the edge of the deck, and Katie headed that way.

  Once they were settled, she pushed gently with her foot, setting them in motion. The sun had started to set, and the last rays of its light painted the sky with blue and purple, red and gold, orange and white.

  He sighed, more peace filling him now than ever before. Katie laid her head against his shoulder, and he squeezed her hand. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt the need to ask, “I really am your boyfriend, aren’t I?”

  She lifted her head and looked at him. Nothing was said, but Theo could read her expression—he always could—and she was definitely saying yes.

  He bent down, hesitated for another moment, and then let his eyes drift closed as he touched his mouth to hers. Instant fire exploded through every cell of his body, making his blood run faster and his pulse accelerate.

  He brought one hand to her face, holding her there, breathing with her as the kiss deepened and lengthened. He’d kissed her so many times in the past, but this felt like opening a new chapter in his life, like every other kiss was only preparation for this one.

  “Can I see you tomorrow?” he asked, breathless and desperate for more time with her. Even if he got twenty-four hours a day with her again, it wouldn’t be enough.

  She kissed him again, both of her hands moving through his hair, her fingernails along his scalp sending shockwaves down his back. She tipped her head back, and Theo moved his mouth to her neck.

  “We’re going to Lightning Point tomorrow,” she whispered.

  “Mm.” He claimed her mouth again, very aware that he was making out with her on her back deck, with her daughter just inside the house. And it felt good. It felt right. She was the missing piece in his life, and he absolutely had to have her back.

  He finally pulled away and tucked her into his side. It took several minutes for his heart rate to quiet and his thoughts to align. “So it’s a public place,” he said. “If I happened to show up say, around noon….”

  “Maybe one,” Katie said, pushing them softly every time they swung forward.

  The silence between them was beautiful, and as dusk settled, Theo asked, “This isn’t crazy, is it?”

  “What?”

  “Us,” he said. “Do people get second chances twenty years later?”

  Something banged inside the house, and Katie looked that way. She stalled the motion of the swing and stood up, pulling him up after her. She wrapped her arms around him and gazed up at him. “They sure seem to, don’t they?” A smile touched her mouth just before she tipped up on her toes and kissed him again.

  This time, it wasn’t as passionate, wasn’t as powerful, but it was simple and sweet and that was almost as wonderful. “I don’t think this is crazy,” she murmured, stepping back. “Lightning Point. One o’clock.” Then she turned and went inside, only looking back to wave one final time.

  Theo exhaled, his emotions and his thoughts running rampant. He didn’t normally spend Sundays exploring the island or relaxing. But it didn’t matter. Anything and everything could be shifted so he could be at Lightning Point by one o’clock tomorrow.

  At least he hoped so.

  Eleven

  Hours after Heather had been tucked in, Katie lay awake in her own bed. She relived that kiss in the swing over and over, her body too warm. So then she’d fling off her covers, get cold, and pull them all back on again.

  So the relationship with Theo was a bit crazy, she supposed. All she knew was that she didn’t want it to end. That thought scared her enough to make her shiver, and then a whole new cycle of questions, doubts, and reassurances circled through her mind.

  Sunday was the only day she really got any rest. She and Heather almost always went somewhere, spent time together, just the two of them. Had she ruined that by unofficially inviting Theo? Should she text him and cancel?

  She finally fell asleep with those thoughts in her head, and when Heather woke her in the morning, she groaned and rolled over.

  “What time is it?”

  “Almost nine, Mom.” She leaned onto the bed. “I was thinking.”

  “Oh, boy.” Katie smiled as Heather lay down in bed beside her. “What were you thinking about?”

  “We should’ve invited Theo to Lightning Point,” Heather said. “We sat there and talked about it right in front of him, and Amelia Grace has done that to me before, and it hurts my feelings.”

  Her daughter snuggled deeper into her side, and Katie marveled at how she’d gotten such a sweet girl. “I can text him,” she said, stroking Heather’s hair. “Want me to braid your hair today?”

  “Yeah, can you do two French braids into a ponytail?”

  “Sure.” Katie loved the laziness of Sunday mornings, lying in bed with the sunlight splashing through the windows. “You like Theo, then?”

  “Yeah, Mom. He’s great.”

  He’s great.

  Katie thought so too, and a measure of joy she hadn’t felt in her life in so, so long filled her heart. “And you’re okay that we’re dating?”

  “You’ve gone out with other guys, Mom.”

  “One or two,” Katie said. “And this is…different.” She didn’t need to discuss every aspect of her relationship with Theo with her ten-year-old. “This is more serious. We’re together, and I won’t be going out with other guys. Just him. You know what that means?”

  Heather pushed herself up on one elbow and looked at Heather. “Are you going to marry him again?”

  Katie scoffed like the very idea was ridiculous. But what did she think would happen? Only two avenues existed for a relationship like the one she was cultivating with Theo—a painful break-up or a marriage.

  She sobered. “I don’t know, sweetheart. We’re just starting out. Getting to know each other again. That type of thing.”

  Heather shrugged and scooted to the edge of the bed. “I like him, and I get what dating means.” She headed for the door. “I’m going to pack some sandwiches. You have to get all the gear.”

  Katie groaned, but it was more in jest than actually not wanting to get together all their beach stuff. She stayed in bed for a few more minutes, then she got up and raked her fingers through her hair. After twisting it into a messy bun on top of her head, she dug around in her drawers for a swi
mming suit she could potentially wear in front of Theo.

  Impossible.

  There was no way she could wear any of them in front of him. They all screamed mom here! Middle-aged mom!

  Which of course, she was. And when she went to the beach, she normally wasn’t there to catch the eye of any eligible bachelors. She wouldn't be today either, unless Theo counted.

  And wow, thinking about the kisses they’d shared the previous evening, he counted. He counted a whole lot.

  She slammed her drawer closed and turned around, her thoughts barreling down a track she wasn’t sure had a happy ending. So she wouldn’t wear a swimming suit today, that was all. Big deal.

  She found a pair of jean shorts that were a half a size too small and pulled them on. She stood in front of the full-length mirror in her bathroom for far too long, trying to decide if she looked good or if she was trying too hard.

  In the end, she went with the denim and paired the shorts with a tank top that would’ve allowed her to blend into the Hawaiian nights. Halfway between navy and black, she liked the way the top gave her curves more oomph and somehow made her look less like she needed to trim off ten pounds. Okay, fine, maybe twenty pounds.

  When she finally went into the kitchen to make coffee, Heather sat on the couch, her backpack packed and zipped closed beside her. The rolling cooler waited beside the island, clearly ready too.

  “Ready already?” she asked, reaching for the coffee grounds.

  “Yes, Mom.”

  “It’s barely ten,” Katie said. “I just texted Theo and he said he can’t meet us until one.” So she’d told a fib. It wouldn’t end the world.

  “And you have more makeup on than I’ve ever seen.”

  “I do not.” Katie turned her back on her daughter and busied herself with filling the coffee pot with water. Maybe she should take the makeup down a notch. Most of it would be hidden behind her sunglasses anyway.

  She shook off the self-conscious thoughts, telling herself that her ten-year-old didn’t get to make her feel like her adult choices were wrong.

  “Besides, it’ll be cold if we go too early.” So she puttered around the kitchen, putting together a breakfast of a slice of toast and a cup of peaches. When her coffee was ready, she loaded it with cream and sugar and sat at the table by herself.

  Katie tried really hard not to work on Sundays, as she really needed one day away from Clean Sweep completely. That was one reason she and Heather usually planned their outings for Sundays.

  “All right,” she said about half an hour later. “I’ll go get the stuff packed up. We’ll be ready to go soon.”

  Heather grunted, and Katie left her in the house to go see what she’d done with the beach chairs and towels and bag. Of course she knew where it all was. The chairs hung on the pegs she’d had her neighbor come install for her. The beach bag waited below them, right where she’d left it last time they’d used it.

  And it had everything in it she needed: sunscreen, sunglasses, umbrella stand, a portable shovel, her beach hat, and her water bottle. She collected hers and Heather’s and sat them on the steps leading back into the house. She replaced the wet wipes with new ones and shook out the sand from last weekend.

  When everything was ready, she tossed it all in the back of her car and went back inside to fill up the water bottles. “All right,” she said. “Let’s go.” As she led Heather outside, she had the idea that she should text Theo and tell him they were leaving now. “Let me just let Theo know we’ll be there earlier.”

  She started the car and adjusted the air before pulling out her phone and sending him the message. She didn’t even have time to breathe before his return message said, Great I’ll see you when you get here.

  She stared at her phone. Are you there already?

  Maybe.

  She imagined his face wearing a coy smile and a hint of mischief in those ice blue eyes. She giggled and shook her head. It wasn’t until Heather said, “What?” that Katie remembered she wasn’t alone in the car.

  She almost dropped her phone in her haste to hide if from her daughter. “Nothing.” She pressed the power button to make it go to sleep, then she set it in the cup holder. “Let’s go. Theo said he’d meet us there.”

  Driving around Getaway Bay was one of the things Katie loved best about her life in the islands. Everything smelled fresh every morning. The trees stayed green year-round. And the breeze coming off the ocean reminded her that it was okay to have an easy day once a week.

  She kept the windows rolled down and went five below the speed limit as she rounded the island and continued on toward Lightning Point.

  Her mind also stayed on a slower track, something for which Katie was grateful. She’d had a busy day yesterday and told Theo a lot of things. He’d reacted the way she’d expected him to—calm, in control, no judgment.

  She hadn’t been afraid to tell him, exactly. Maybe just embarrassed. But he’d been nothing but kind, and she hoped to get a few answers of her own today.

  When she finally pulled into the parking lot, the clock had ticked closer to eleven-thirty, and she found only a few cars. “Not very popular today,” she said.

  “Nope.”

  She pulled beside the sportiest car in the lot, a model with only letters and numbers instead of a name. “This one has to be Theo’s,” she said. She hadn’t known he was a big car buff. When they’d been married, he talked constantly about achieving his dreams of becoming a billionaire by age twenty-seven. Then twenty-eight. He was good at a lot of things, but building a business that actually made money wasn’t one of them—at least that was how it had seemed.

  He’d talked about the life he wanted to have with her, the land in Texas, even a fancy yacht so he could cruise around the Gulf of Mexico. But cars?

  She got out and looked at the sleek, black sports car. Definitely Theo’s. “Come on, Heather,” she called, moving around to the trunk of her ordinary car. She wondered if vehicles felt jealousy when they were parked next to much nicer, newer, fancier models.

  Probably not.

  Katie collected all of their gear, and Heather shouldered her backpack and pulled the cooler behind her. They’d only taken a few steps when Theo came jogging toward them. He wore a pair of board shorts that had every color in the rainbow in them, as well as a gray tank top with wide straps and the word CODE on it.

  “There you are,” he said, smiling. He was tan, and tall, and so tantalizing that Katie wanted to step into him, inhaled the saltiness of his skin and then kiss him. She remembered she was with her daughter at the last moment. “Let me take something.”

  She passed him the beach bag and the umbrella, keeping the chairs and her purse. “Thanks. You look good.”

  “You too.” He stood there staring at her, that silly smile on his face.

  “Where’s your stuff?” Heather asked, moving past them and looking out onto the beach. She shivered. “It’s cold here.”

  “I told you we didn’t need to come so early,” Katie said. “It’ll warm up as the sun rises higher.”

  “It’s not bad, actually,” Theo said. “The breeze dies and then it gets hot.” He started toward a single beach towel in the sand. “I’m out there. There are a couple of sand castle artists here. I’ve been watching them.”

  When they arrived at his tiny patch of sand, she found a single canister of sunscreen nearby, as well as his phone and a portable charger. At least she knew his priorities now.

  “The umbrella is nice if it’s not too windy,” she said. “I have a portable shovel.”

  “Sounds about right.” Theo grinned at her and got to work. In a matter of minutes, they had their spot staked out, and Katie relaxed in her chair with a sigh.

  “You’ve always loved the beach,” he said.

  “True.”

  “Mom, I’m going to go out, okay?” Heather pulled her T-shirt over her head and tossed it on the blanket.

  She started for the water before waiting for Katie to say,
“Okay, watch out for the tide!”

  Theo reached for her hand before Heather’s gangly legs had taken her even two steps. “Hey, how’d you sleep?”

  “Honestly?”

  “I think we’re way past the point of being dishonest with each other.” He looked at her, but she couldn’t see those glorious eyes behind his shades.

  “I suppose.” She focused on the waves undulating in the distance. “Not great, actually. A certain, handsome man kept me awake past my bedtime. Seems he forgot I need my beauty sleep now that I’m getting older.”

  Theo burst out laughing, and Katie couldn’t help joining him. He pulled on her hand, a clear invitation for her to join him on the blanket. She resisted for about four seconds, then she slid next to him, curling easily into his side like she’d done many times before.

  “I missed you,” he whispered.

  “It’s been a few hours.”

  “Still.” His lips found hers easily, and he kissed her slowly, almost like he’d forgotten what it was like and needed to explore her mouth all over again. She melted into him easily, the way she always had and tried to hold onto every single second.

  “Mm, I think you missed me too.”

  “Maybe,” she said, and he chuckled, the sound deep and delicious as it traveled through his chest and into hers. “I have a question for you.”

  “Oh, boy.”

  “It’s not bad.” Well, maybe it was. She didn’t know. “Why didn’t you ever get married again? I mean, it’s been twenty years, and you’re good looking….” She let her words die there, half hoping he’d say he’d simply never gotten over her.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Never met the right woman.”

  “Would you?”

  “Would I what? Meet the right woman?”

  “Get married again,” she said

  “Depends,” he said, kneading her closer and keeping his fingers on her upper arm tight. “On who’s wearing the white dress at the end of the aisle.”

  Katie didn’t ask him her next question—what if it was me?—because she already knew the answer. He’d married her once, and he’d likely do so again—if it came to that.