The Billionaire's Pretend Girlf - Leslie North Page 0,38

He wanted to keep this thing between them moving forward. No matter what.

Once everyone was seated and drinks orders were placed, Daniel lifted his glass of water.

“To the groom. May you and your bride find happiness forever,” Daniel said, looking around at all the smiling faces of his friends and Grayson’s colleagues. “Because I’m not sure any of us can take off this much time from work again to join you in another wedding with a second wife.”

Laughter rippled through the table. Blake whooped, clinking glasses with Grayson and Daniel. After a few congratulations from others at the table, Daniel and his two best friends sank into their own world.

“So now that I’m heading to the altar, I think Daniel’s next,” Grayson said with an easy smile. “You and Jackie look solid. I’m surprised.”

Daniel smirked, both because of the jab about his commitment problems and because the current truth of that couldn’t be more different. “Yeah, well, I guess we’ll see.”

“You don’t sound so confident,” Blake said. “Should we be expecting a break-up announcement sometime next week?”

The joke felt more like a spear landing in his chest. He didn’t want to consider that. “Definitely not. I want to be with her. I just feel like this wedding week has been a little…hard for her.”

“Hard how?” Grayson asked.

“I have no idea. But I do know she’s withdrawing from me. I don’t get it. We haven’t talked about getting married yet, but I feel like I already know she’s the one. If I get married to anyone…it’ll be her.”

The words had tumbled past his lips before he’d even been able to think them over. Were they true? It seemed somehow preposterous to be so certain so soon, but also…oddly right.

“So she is a keeper. I knew it. I could tell.” Grayson clapped him on the back. He must have noticed Daniel’s uncertainty, because he added, “But listen, if you want this to be long term, you’re gonna have to make a real effort. We all know how you do relationships: you don’t. So if you want to keep a woman—especially someone like Jackie—you’re going to have to give it your all.”

Daniel sighed, rubbing at his face. “I know. And believe me, I want to. I just feel like my two-week trip right after your wedding is going to ruin us.”

Blake shrugged. “Just call her every day.”

“But after that? I’ll be heading away on another trip. For maybe longer. I’m gone more days than I’m home. I just don’t know how much longer she’ll put up with it.” He was stretching the truth—they’d never had to deal with it before, so he had no idea whether she’d put up with it at all…if she even wanted to try her hand at something serious with him.

She deserved to have someone who’d come home to her every night—who’d be there for all the important events and milestones a couple shared. And maybe he deserved that, too. Deserved a home he could share with someone he loved rather than a life lived out of a suitcase with no one to welcome him back but his fish.

But he’d never gotten that far. Not with anyone. And for as much as Jackie made him eager to try…he was terrified he didn’t have it in him.

He might not be cut out for the long-term love game.

“Buddy, if you guys are starting with a strong foundation,” Grayson said, squeezing his shoulder, “which it seems like you have, then I know you’ll figure something out. Relationships grow, and change. You make sacrifices. Especially if it’s meant to be.”

Daniel knew Grayson was speaking from the heart. Grayson had been as hungry for financial success as anyone Daniel had ever met—and yet, the man had side-stepped his plans to launch his business’s IPO earlier that year because his focus on work had gotten in the way of a committed relationship with Mila. It had rocked their world. He’d never seen Grayson as someone to step away from the IPO dream. Yet here he was. Happy…successful…a dad-to-be. And not an IPO in sight.

It made Daniel wonder how he could reconfigure his own life, to allow some more happiness to peek through. Conversation swirled around him, but he stayed stuck in his head. It was a conundrum he just couldn’t look away from.

Creating something long term with someone seemed so impossible. His job and his father—they were the perpetual roadblocks barring the way to any personal fulfillment. Finding a different job was technically an option…and