The Billionaire's Pretend Girlf - Leslie North Page 0,55
Even if that meant waiting for days. Possibly weeks.
She just needed to try. To let him know that she had acted out of fear, instead of the love that she felt for him. To apologize, if nothing else.
On her way up to the front door of the cute little townhouse, she paused to really look at the place. The house was actually slate gray, an uncommon color but she loved it. Dark mulching made interesting flowers and bushes pop. She’d been to so many houses and slept in so many strangers’ spaces, but she could say one thing for certain: if she had her pick of places? This one might be at the top of her list.
She scrolled through her phone to find the check-in instructions. She found the key card under the hollow frog in the landscape, next to the ivy climbing a trellis, and then swiped herself in.
But the second she stepped inside, she knew something was wrong. For starters, her footsteps echoed.
The house was entirely empty.
“Shit,” she said, fumbling to find her phone. This had to be a mistake…though it couldn’t be. She’d followed the instructions. She was in the right house. Why was there nothing here?
She checked the email again, stepped outside to verify that she was indeed at the right house number on the right street, and then walked back inside, heading cautiously down the main hallway. Maybe they just don’t have any furniture in the living room. Maybe the rest of the house is furnished.
The story was the same in the kitchen. And as she poked her head around the corner to look into the dining room, she gasped.
Someone was in here. Someone tall, with dark blond hair that had grown a little longer at the edges, hands shoved into the pockets of dark gray sweatpants as he looked out the back window into the tiny backyard.
Jackie gasped.
It was freaking Daniel.
He turned slowly toward her, looking more vulnerable than she’d ever seen him. “Please don’t be mad at me for doing this.”
Tears immediately sprang to her eyes and she shook her head. “I’m not. Not at all.”
His throat bobbed and he watched her for a tense moment. Jackie didn’t realize she’d started crying until she tried to talk and tasted the salt of her tears. “Why are you here?”
“I didn’t know how else to get ahold of you. So I started a new account and rented this house so I could offer you the assignment.” He paused, shaking his head. “God, that sounds like I’m a stalker.”
She laughed in spite of the situation. “Maybe. But I was just planning on heading to your penthouse and sitting by your front door for the next week—or however long it took until you came home. So, I think we’re equally matched on the stalker front.”
Some of the tension in his face relaxed and he took a step closer. “You were going to come to my house?”
More tears arrived then and she nodded, unsure if she wanted to faint or sob for a full hour from how fucking good it felt to see him again. She’d missed him so much more than she’d allowed herself to fathom. And that should be all the sign she needed.
“God, that makes me so happy to hear.” He paused, a few steps away from her, his fingers twitching. She wasn’t sure how to bridge the distance between them. She owed him so many apologies. So many conversations.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted, “for everything.”
Daniel closed the gap between them and scooped her into his embrace. His strong arms went around her, squeezing away the last vestiges of confusion and pain. Now, these tears were born from relief. From happiness. From the possibility of building something with Daniel at her side.
“I’m sorry too,” he murmured, slowly swaying back and forth with her. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize sooner that I hated my life. But I guess that’s why meeting you was the best thing that happened to me.”
She propped her chin on his chest, looking up at him, drinking him in after all this time away. “So what has changed since I saw you?”
He hefted with a laugh. “Oh, only everything. I quit my job.”
She gasped so hard it echoed. “Are you serious?”
His grin went ear-to-ear. “Yep. I’m officially self-employed now as a business consultant. I make my own hours. I work from home. Lowest stress levels I’ve ever had. Sounded like a pretty good time to make things right with this girl I met