Wild Open Hearts (Bluewater Billionaires) - Kathryn Nolan Page 0,62

didn’t,” he said. “And you hated me in the beginning because of it.”

Elián was only five years older than I was, but I remembered thinking of him as being wise when I’d finally let him be my friend.

“Yeah,” I said, smiling a little.

“You barely said a word,” he continued.

“Still don’t.”

“No,” he countered. “You’re more talkative than you realize now, especially around Luna.”

I shifted at that. Was that true?

“You’re never going to be a chatty guy, Beck,” he said, “but my point is that you can grow. I’ve watched you grow. And you’ve never abandoned this cause or these dogs or your staff. You’re growing. Lucky Dog is now growing. That means you have to be a leader now.”

I watched Luna’s website light up with money. And she’d done it by telling the truth without shame. Telling people straight out: We need your help. You can give it.

I sent a text her way: Elián and I are watching your website. Lots of money. Thank you. It took me a minute—if writing on a computer was hard, that shiny text screen was even harder. The texts I received from Luna were cheery and funny. It caused ugly self-esteem things to rise in me.

And I was ignoring all the times she’d asked me on a date this week and I’d said nothing.

“Maybe Luna can help me with some of this stuff,” I said, feeling butterflies or moths or giant fucking pandas stomping through my insides and stirring shit up.

“Maybe you can finally take Luna on that date,” Elián said.

“Jem’s got a big mouth,” I sighed, although I was a little pleased.

“You like Luna.”

“… yeah.” I allowed.

Another nudge from Elián. “I know the excuses you’re going to throw out there. I’m going to stay one step ahead and tell you those excuses ain’t worth shit.”

“You mean the fact that she’s a famous billionaire and I’m motorcycle trash?”

The look he gave me spoke volumes. And he didn’t even know about Luna bringing me coffee and apologies last week, trying to find common ground for our very different lives.

I had no excuse, really.

It had been a long time since I’d ever felt this passionately about a woman and I worried that if I got Luna on a date, I’d scare her away with my feelings. My feelings and my lust, which wasn’t nice. But it was demanding.

“I’m going to go on a long ride,” I said, “grab a burger. And when I get home, I’ll give Luna a call and ask her out the old-fashioned way.”

“Classy guy.”

“I have a feeling a week from now we’ll be having this same conversation about Jem and Wes.”

“Wes’s got a crush on Jem, doesn’t he?”

“A big one,” I replied.

$105,000, $105,500, $105,700… the numbers went tick, tick, tick as I finished my beer with Elián. Wes had a crush. I was going to put myself out there. Lucky Dog was raking in the dough.

Things were looking up.

34

Luna

I was here to eat a cheeseburger. With bacon.

Or at least try to. I had my driver drop me off at a burger stand off the side of the highway that looked inconspicuous and moments away from being shut down for health-code violations. And if I contracted a strange, tropical disease from my first-time eating meat since I was eleven years old—so be it.

It was the punishment I deserved.

I’d spent the past week working long, exhausting days with my staff and my board, attempting to secure a store that could replace, even partially, our lost revenue from Fischer Home Goods. Jasmine had me doing fluff pieces for any magazine or online forum that wasn’t trying to smear my reputation further. I was posting about Lucky Dog constantly, attempting to reroute my personal and professional brand, all while watching our stock prices take a deep, terrifying dive.

There was a slew of hate messages in various inboxes across all of my social media platforms. I tried to stay upbeat all week—tried to hold tight to my values, my new path, Sylvia’s words resonating constantly in my mind.

The right thing or the safe thing?

I didn’t want to be an ordinary leader.

I wanted to be extraordinary.

Except today Claudia Bardot had decided to add her hat into the ring of online bullies. Claudia was a famous actress—a famous vegan actress—and when I was twenty-four and just starting out, she’d discovered Wild Heart products and become obsessed. We became fast friends… and Claudia became one of my earliest admirers. Her fans became my fans and I owed a lot of my