The Billionaire's Pretend Girlf - Leslie North Page 0,13
He swiped a key card and the door opened soundlessly. Inside, a lushly decorated suite awaited them, accented heavily with curtains, artwork, and embellishments…all in the color plum.
“Holy crap,” Jackie said, lifting up a very real plum that sat in a bowl next to a welcome note. “They’re serious about the theme here.”
“Every suite is different,” Blake said. “I’m in the apple orchard.”
“I feel sorry for whoever got stuck with the cabbage patch,” Jackie cracked, which elicited a laugh from Blake.
“Do you need anything for now or are you ready to go? Everyone’s heading to dinner, so we’re right on time—but I can come back in a minute if you want to freshen up.”
“I’m ready,” Jackie said, clapping her hands. Better to just get it over with now. “Let’s do it!”
Blake led her back out of the room, handed her the room key, and they walked down a different hallway to a new part of the resort that looked part atrium, part wine cellar. The scent of garlic reached her first, and then the chatter of conversation. Finally, they came into a sprawling dining room set among entire walls stocked with racks of wine. Another gasp escaped her involuntarily. This place was just too cool.
“Is this Jackie?” a woman asked, pushing up from her chair. The table was set for probably fifty, but luckily Jackie didn’t have time to let anxiety take over. Blake led her to her spot at the table, next to an empty chair that she assumed was for Daniel, as everyone began cooing ‘hello there!’ and lifting their glasses.
“It’s so nice to meet you all,” Jackie said once everyone had introduced themselves, including Grayson’s very pregnant wife-to-be, Mila.
“Sit down, sit down!” Mila encouraged. “And please, have all the wine that I can’t.”
Jackie grinned, drinking Mila in. Of all the people here, so far she felt an immediate connection with her. There was just something in her face that seemed so down-to-earth and approachable. She could tell that Grayson, Daniel, and Blake’s world wasn’t necessarily hers, either.
“Where’s Daniel?” someone casually inquired from the other end of the table—already she’d forgotten his name.
“He had a last-minute meeting come up,” Jackie explained. “So he sent me to get the party started.”
A ripple of laughter moved across the table.
“Typical Daniel,” Grayson said. “Even when he shows up, he’ll still be typing on his laptop under the table.”
A few others laughed, and Jackie tried to as well.
“I made him promise to take a few hours off each day,” Jackie said, trying to add to the conversation. It was unsettling, though, how everyone’s perception of Daniel immediately reverted to late and workaholic.
Grayson scoffed good-naturedly. “Good luck with that. The man checks his emails while he sleeps.”
“I’m sure you’re not telling her anything new,” Blake added.
Mila swatted away their comments. “Honestly, guys, the teasing between you three can get tiring.”
“That’s just the pregnancy talking, dear,” Grayson joked, grinning as he rubbed his fiancée’s back. “You know you love it when we shit talk each other.”
Mila grimaced, but Jackie could tell there was a hint of a smile behind it. She didn’t know how long Mila and Grayson had been an item, but it seemed like they were already an old married couple.
“Jackie, I haven’t heard much about you,” Mila said as she sipped at water with lemon and lime slices floating in it. “What do you do for a living?”
Mila, Grayson, and Blake were all crowded around one end of the table. The other end of the table had begun their own conversations now that the introductions were over.
“I’m still studying, actually,” she said. “But I’m almost done. And I hope to be a fully licensed social worker by this time next year.”
Mila’s eyes lit up as Daniel’s friends nodded their approval.
“Very noble,” Blake said. “Daniel needs someone like you. His idea of a social worker was always someone who dresses up and has dinner during a business meeting.”
Jackie feigned a laugh, but the comments only continued to drive home the vast differences between her and Daniel. The high-powered business meetings that seemed to be his whole life were worlds away from the path she’d chosen for herself.
Even though she’d been fantasizing about Daniel way too often over the last week, his friends were reminding her of an inalienable truth: he was the opposite of her, and they would never be compatible. Not even in her wildest fantasies.
It was just driving home the fact that the deepest part of her seemed hesitant to