Marrying the Billionaire - Macie St. James Page 0,56

a lighthearted, still-vague response. He was just teasing. It didn’t mean he actually wanted to spend next weekend with her.

“I’m sure there’s a bar mitzvah or birthday party we could crash.” Charlie flashed him a smile to emphasize the fact that this was just a casual, fun conversation. Nothing serious. “Or we could just figure out where your mom’s going to be and show up there.”

The mood seemed to shift with that statement, making her immediately regret it. He was still looking out at the water, but she felt a tension in the air that wasn’t there before.

“Things are all squared away with my mother now,” he finally said. “Thanks in large part to you.”

Uh-oh. Charlie chewed her lip nervously. Had he found out that she’d had lunch with his mother? How much of their conversation did he know about?

Nicholas continued. “After the wedding, I had dinner with her and made it clear that I can handle my own life. She understands now that if she wants to impress her friends, she needs to do it on her own merits, not mine and Nate’s.”

Again, keeping things light, Charlie smiled. “Well, you can’t really blame her. You give her plenty of reasons to be proud.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him turn to look at her. She felt suddenly self-conscious under his scrutiny.

“Why is that?” he asked.

Charlie frowned. Just how much should she say here? She didn’t want to bare her soul, but it couldn’t hurt to tell him how awesome he was, could it?

“Look at all you’ve achieved.” She gestured as if in doing so, she was indicating everything that surrounded him at all times. “You’re pretty much the definition of success.”

“Whose definition, though? Because not everyone considers success the same thing.”

“I’m not necessarily talking about your money. You’re doing what you love and making a good living at it. You’re one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley—in the country, actually. People list what you’ve achieved as what they dream of being someday. All that.”

Silence again. She wondered if that meant he was considering what she’d just said. Maybe it was scaring him somehow. She didn’t want him to think she was ready to set up a fan page for him on social media or hang pictures of him on her wall. She just wanted him to see himself through the eyes of others.

“Success, to me, is about being surrounded by people who love you. A partner to share everything with, maybe even to marry. At least one or two kids, some friends…all of those things are what I define as success.”

Charlie gulped around the lump that had formed in her throat. Yeah, she could see how all that would matter to him. It mattered to her, for sure. She wanted more out of her life than to just show up at work every day and go home to an empty house.

Suddenly, Charlie realized something. “Work-life balance. That’s the session you’re doing tomorrow.”

“Yes, just after lunch. Everyone will be nice and full and sleepy while I’m presenting. I’ll have to keep things lively somehow. What about you?”

The question was so sudden, it took Charlie a second to figure out what he was asking. What were they discussing? People being sleepy after eating lunch. That couldn’t be what he was asking.

Nicholas, correctly taking her silence for confusion, clarified. “What’s your definition of success?”

Charlie took a deep breath, thinking the question through. There was the real answer, and there was the answer she’d give someone else when asked. Especially someone like Nicholas, whom she seemed to always want to impress. But it was pretty clear this was the end of the road for them. Telling him her plans for the future was one sure way to put a nail in the coffin of this not-so-real relationship.

“Marriage, maybe one or two kids, continuing to work at TravTech.” Charlie shrugged. “The usual.”

“What do you know? We want the exact same things in life.”

Ignoring the flip in her stomach, Charlie tried to keep her response light. “You want to continue working at TravTech?”

He laughed. “It might be a nice break, but only if you don’t tell all my colleagues where I am.”

“Like that billionaire who hid out on a yacht,” Charlie commented. “You could just hide out in our offices.”

She liked this banter between them. It wasn’t as scary as the serious conversation they’d been having a few minutes earlier. She just had to get through this weekend without having