Page 48 of Just My Luck

Numbly, he pressed the button to open the trunk. It really was Zara. To the billionaire manner born.

The shop boy loaded up the bags and accepted a tip from Zara. He walked away, backwards, as if unwilling to stop staring at her even if he got hit by a car on his way across the parking lot.

“I still need to get a manicure,” Zara said as she plopped into the passenger seat. She took off the Panama hat and set it on her lap. “But I can probably do it at the resort. I’ll make up some story about being delayed because of the storm.”

“Uh huh,” was all he could manage.

Mia leaned between the front seats. “Nice. Total rich-bitch vibes, Zara.”

“Thanks,” she said, looking pleased. She wore light bronze lip gloss that made her mouth look even sexier than before. “Exactly what I was aiming for.”

“How—” Lincoln stammered. “How did you…”

“Well, I wish I could give Google all the credit, but in this case, I had another excellent teacher.” She lowered her sunglasses and glanced toward Lincoln. “Don’t make me explain it.”

Ah. Her father, Lucky Lou Morrissey, the con man.

“It was Daddy,” said Mia, oblivious to Zara’s warning frown. “She used to help him with his scams. And don’t pretend to be above it all. Everyone knows billionaires are the biggest scammers of all.”

Zara shot a death glare toward the back seat. “She’s been getting into politics,” she told Lincoln. “Just ignore her. Although she is correct about our father.”

“Hey, I’m not here to defend the billionaires,” Lincoln said mildly as he started up the car. “I’m just the manny.”

23

It was just like riding a bike, Zara thought as she lounged by the Kona Queen Resort’s swimming pool a few days later. She wore a tiny gold bikini and a silk coverup, along with her Panama hat and yet another pair of oversized sunglasses. Her first stop, after they’d checked into their enormous suite, which was fortuitously empty because of the storm, had been to get a mani-pedi at the resort’s spa.

Manicurists always knew everything, and some very enjoyable gossipy chatter had revealed that the Tanaka family included a boy almost exactly Eddie’s age, along with two nannies, several bodyguards, a driver, and other assorted family members. They were the talk of the resort because of how snooty they were. They didn’t like to talk to the other guests or to the staff. Tanaka’s younger son, Nathan, the former playboy, and his wife were having relationship issues; he’d been hanging out at the bar late into the night, until one of Tanaka’s bodyguards came to haul him back to the suite.

Both the mothers spent their time getting spa treatments or playing on their phones. They left most of the supervision of the younger children to a nanny called Yumi. The older children had a different nanny.

After Zara had reported all of this to Lincoln, they’d come up with a plan. She would befriend Nathan Tanaka at the bar, while he would try for a nanny-manny friendship with Yumi. They would both pick up anything they could, and whenever he had the chance, Lincoln would snoop around wherever Tanaka was holding court.

She was checked into the resort as Zaharina Morgan. Zara would be her nickname so that Eddie wouldn’t have to call her by a different name. Lincoln was Jim Spencer, which worked because Eddie had known him as Jim from the beginning. To Eddie, this was all a fun vacation with a fantastic swimming pool. He’d already made friends, though not with Tanaka’s grandkids. They kept to themselves.

The important thing was that Lincoln had plenty of time at the pool to bond with Yumi. Zara watched as Lincoln called Eddie out of the water for another application of sunscreen. Eddie pouted, but went along with it.

Hopefully Lincoln hadn’t resorted to bribery again.

He did make an extremely attractive manny; her biggest problem so far had been her difficulty keeping her eyes off him. He was just so…sexy with those strong forearms and the intense way he focused on whatever he was doing.

For three days and nights, they’d lived in the same suite. Each night, she’d fantasized about tiptoeing into his room and seeing what might happen. So far, she’d managed to fend off those instincts. So far.

Pretending to be Zaharina Morgan was like stepping through the looking glass. For once, she was the one being catered to and flattered and spoiled. The aura of money was like a magnetic field hovering around them. Was this what Lincoln’s regular life was like?

The sun sparkled on the swimming pool’s surface, as if a guest had scattered diamonds across the water. Zara sighed and sipped her virgin mai tai. This was the life. Lounging on a deck chair and watching a billionaire do all the work.

Yumi said something to Lincoln, and he handed her a small snack bag of pistachios from his crossbody bag. He sat down on the lounge chair next to her and they settled in for a chat, just as Nathan Tanaka strolled to the bar.

Time to get to work.

So far she hadn’t learned anything from Nathan, but she was sure he had something on his mind. She just had to catch him at the right moment.

He was in his thirties, with a remarkably fit body and a bunch of nervous tics. He nearly always wore dark sunglasses to hide his hangovers. Zara had established a friendly relationship with him over the past few days. He liked to complain about the resort and the lack of amenities that he was used to in Japan. She listened, agreed, and occasionally excused herself to google details about Japanese resorts.

She’d slipped back into this game so easily. All you had to do was look the part. People didn’t delve below the surface. If you could answer vaguely enough, people would fill in the blanks. She had to assume that someone like Nathan was generally hyper-alert for threats. But the spoiled, uber-wealthy trophy ex-wife with the no-limit black card didn’t register as one of them.

“Hey good-looking, what’s cooking?” she said lightly as she joined him at the pool’s bar. “Please tell me you’re here to buy me drinks and entertain me. Everyone’s being boring today. You’re my last hope.”