Touching the Billionaire - Holly Jaymes Page 0,44

fun office fling.”

She winced slightly. “Except that’s kind of how it started. But now…now I’m not sure what’s going on.”

“How does he feel?

“I don’t know. I think he’s like me and maybe he’s thinking there’s more to this than just fun and games, but we never really talk about it, so I don’t know. I suppose that’s why I wanted to take this trip with you. I need to figure out what’s going on and what I should do.”

“So, it’s possibly something serious?”

“I don’t know. I mean how does anyone know what is serious and what isn’t? Just look at Mom and Dad. They should’ve been serious and now they hate each other’s guts. How does that happen? Two people who swear they’ll love each other forever, they have a couple kids, and now they’d kill each other if they thought they could get away with it.”

I wasn’t sure my parents had murderous intentions toward each other, but there was no doubt that they didn’t like each other and in fact probably did hate each other.

“But look at Gran and Pop-Pop. They’ve been together forever. They’re still happily married,” she finished.

My brows narrowed as I wondered about that. Nadine was right. Why was it that some people came together and stayed together while others grew to hate each other?

“They like each other and respect each other. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do for the other. I think most people aren’t willing to be that self-sacrificing for someone else," she continued. “I’m not sure I am. Are you?”

She turned to look at me for a response.

I nodded because to a certain extent, I did agree to her assessment about our grandparents. I thought it was sad that so many people could love somebody, but not enough to make personal sacrifices. I wasn’t sure my grandparents would describe it like that. They wouldn’t say they sacrificed anything for the other. Perhaps it was less about self-sacrifice and more about a total and complete commitment and devotion not just to the other person but also to what they made as a complete couple. I explained this idea to Nadine out loud, wondering what she thought.

She smirked at me. “If this acting thing doesn’t work out, you could become some kind of love philosopher.”

We arrived at our grandparents’ house and as we expected, as we needed, they doted on us. They fed us, lavished us with love, and when they realized we were being smothered, they gave us a moment alone in our room. Perhaps that was selfless love too. Not just to each other, but to us as well, as they seemed to know exactly what we needed when we needed it.

That night at dinner, they peppered us with questions about our lives in Manhattan, Nadine’s work in entertainment, and mine on my new movie set. My grandmother’s eyes sparkled as she asked questions about Theo Wolfe.

Nadine and I shared as much of the surface elements of our lives as we felt comfortable with. Neither of us delved too deep into our lives. In some ways I felt like I was betraying my grandparents by not being completely open with them about what was going on with me. When my parents split and I left the movie industry, both Nadine and I came up here to live with them. So they were more parents to us than our own parents were. I felt like I owed it to them to share myself with them in the same way they shared themselves with me. But I locked the part about Theo away in my heart for a reason. Opening it up would be like opening an old wound at this point and I didn’t want to experience that pain again

Disappointing Everyone

Theo

There was something different about knowing that Madeline wasn’t in the building and instead had left to go visit her grandparents. I hadn’t seen her for a while until today, so it was strange, the sudden and acute feeling of loss that was roiling in my gut.

I supposed before, I wasn’t seeing her, but she was in the building. If I couldn’t stand it any longer, I could go down to the eighth floor and find her. In fact, on several occasions I had nearly done that. The only thing that stopped me was concern about how a relationship with her might impact her career. Me? I was getting to the point of not giving a fuck about what people thought of me. But I