The Billionaire’s Fake Christmas Engagement - Leslie North Page 0,1
a concentrated look. “Someone from the hotel?”
“It can wait, whatever it is.” His phone rang again, and worry crept in at the edges. “All right—maybe it can’t. I’m so sorry. Let me take this.”
“Of course, but I’m not going to let my dinner get cold.” Anna shooed him away and picked up her fork. She’d ordered steak, medium-well, and butterflied to perfection. He’d ordered the same, and the green beans had come dripping in butter, reminding him of long-ago family dinners at the Elk Lodge.
Nothing, however, reminded him of his home so much as the sight of his brother’s name on his phone screen. Gabe headed for the restaurant’s lobby, bypassing a couple wrapped up in each other on the bench. He found the first available quiet spot near the restrooms.
“I’m at dinner, Jonas. Can I call you back?” Typically, his brother would say yes and that he was only calling to strategize.
“No, I’m afraid not.” His brother’s tone shook Gabe out of his rushing thoughts. “I need you to come home.”
“What? Now?” A hundred possibilities tumbled into his mind. An accident with one of his brothers. A fire at the lodge. Or worse, something about his grandmother. “Is everything all right?”
Jonas sighed, and Gabe felt that sigh in every bone in his body. “It’s okay for now.” He recognized his brother’s careful tone. It was the one Jonas used when hedging—when he didn’t want to tell the whole story or wanted to hold something back. “You know about Grandmother’s lung cancer.” Of course he knew. Jonas himself had called him late one night to drop the bomb, following it up by telling him everything was under control.
“Yes, yes.” Gabe hated how impatient he sounded, but his heart beat fast and hard. If Jonas had something to tell him, then he should say it now. Right now. “Did something happen?”
In the beat before Jonas’s answer, dread fanned out in the pit of Gabe’s gut and clenched hard.
“I don’t want to make it seem worse than it is,” Jonas told him. “But it’s not good. The cancer has progressed, even more since Thanksgiving. She might not make it through to Valentine’s Day, and she—” There was a pause, and Gabe held his breath. If Jonas was struggling through this, then it was bad. “Look. She’s asking for you to come home and spend the time before Christmas with the family. She wants all of us to be together.”
“I’ll be there.” It surprised him how easily the words slipped from his mouth. Gabe had avoided going home for long stretches since he moved out to Vegas. It would be too easy for the Elk Lodge to reel him back in, and he didn’t want that. He had his own life now, and a place like home—with all the gravity of its family relationship and traditions—would threaten to suck him back in. “Of course I’ll be there. I’ll get a flight in the morning.”
“Good. The holidays won’t be right for Grandmother unless you’re here.”
Maybe Jonas believed it, but that wasn’t true—he’d never fit in with his family. His life choices didn’t align with the family’s plans for him, and they’d been hugely disappointed by his decision to leave Colorado. His grandmother had never wanted him to go into the tech field, and she’d never warmed to any of his girlfriends. Of course, neither had he. The women were just a way to pass the time, and his grandmother had seen right through him and disapproved. She wanted him to find love, the same way she had with their grandfather. It was something she wanted for all her grandsons.
Nothing he did ever measured up, no matter how much his accomplishments impressed the rest of the world. And he doubted his family had changed their opinion of him. But what did it matter if this was Grandmother’s last Christmas? At least he would be there, even if it was as the family disappointment.
“Thanks, Jonas,” he said finally. “I’ll text you when I have the flight number.”
They ended the call, and Gabe stared down at the screen as he tried to gather himself. It felt like falling, news like this. He’d always assumed his grandmother would be indestructible, even in the face of lung cancer. He’d wanted her respect all his life, and now it sounded like there wasn’t much time left to get it. To prove to her that he had his life together and would be happy. There wasn’t much he could do in