The Billionaire's Pretend Girlf - Leslie North Page 0,37

Something he’d never heard before. Something that didn’t bode well.

“It’s not that it floats my boat,” he said. “It’s just the boat I’ve been dealt. Or something.”

“You know you can trade boats? Sell yours, and buy a new one? That’s a thing.”

He frowned. “My career isn’t a boat show, okay? I’ve worked really fucking hard to get where I am.”

“I’m not denying that,” she said. When she opened her mouth to add more, she clamped it shut suddenly.

“What?” he prompted.

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I’m not from your world, so I don’t get it.” Her gaze was stuck on the TV, flipping through channels. “That’s all.”

That wasn’t all—Daniel knew it down to his bones. But suddenly, he was too tired to keep the conversation going and opted for a shower instead.

Maybe once he’d showered, they’d be able to smooth things over with a relaxing evening in bed after all.

Against the hum of the shower, Jackie repeated her mantra to herself:

Two more days. Two more days. Two more days.

It was one of many mantras she was employing to keep herself sane. Because she needed the help—that much was certain. Now that she’d been reminded by Daniel’s crazy father that anyone born into the Trent family was destined to continue their workaholic lifestyle, it was the final nail in the coffin of any dreams she’d had about the two of them having a future together. She wasn’t willing to lead that kind of life, and Daniel wasn’t willing to leave it behind.

He was never going to change. Not for her. Not for anybody. So Tania had been right.

Jackie just needed to start preparing her heart to let him go.

Hearing that conversation shouldn’t have hurt so much. It only confirmed what she knew in the darkest reaches of her heart—that for Daniel, this had only ever been a charade. Even though she’d been swept up in the magic of the moment, she should have known better than to let her heart get involved.

How could you have been so stupid?

The thought kept crashing back into her, bringing choking waves of regret. She should have known better, and she had known better, yet still she managed to find herself here. Skittish and the first to have a broken heart. Even if it was pre-emptive.

It hurt like hell—but she reminded herself that she should be grateful. To Tania, for helping bring her down to earth before things got really out of hand. To Daniel, for allowing her to have a little escape from her regular life—even if it meant she’d be missing him for the next year.

But the truth was, they’d never had a chance. Not in a million years.

Daniel embodied everything that was silver spoon and acquiring more. And she was…well, she was hard-scrabble and intent on squeezing out joy where she could find it.

The two of them never would have worked.

But no matter how many times she repeated it to herself, it didn’t prevent the tears from pooling in her eyes.

When the shower snapped off, she turned off the TV and buried herself in the covers.

She wasn’t fit to talk to Daniel anymore today.

She just needed to focus on making it through the wedding tomorrow and eventually getting out of here with her heart intact.

13

Silverware clinked as Daniel and the rest of the men settled around the long table at a local restaurant nestled in the rolling hills of Napa Valley. This was the guys-only breakfast on the morning of the wedding. The women were doing the same thing at a restaurant a few miles away.

The sun was shining through the enormous windows of the breakfast café, the smell of home fries hanging in the air. His stomach had started grumbling from the second they stepped foot inside here. He was determined to make this the best day of his year, or at least one of the top contenders. No work. Just relaxed fun involving his best friends, and the unexpected beauty he’d convinced to join him. Even if that unexpected beauty was still kinda-sorta acting strange around him.

He tried not to think about it—god knows he’d spent enough of the previous night pondering the source of her strange mood swing—and the only thing he could come up with was the sex. Even though it had been amazing—life-changing, as she’d said—maybe she just didn’t want to go there with him. Maybe he’d been reading her all wrong.

And that possibility sent a cold fear cycling through him. He didn’t want to lose Jackie.