Page 21 of Date The Billionaire

“That the addresses were so similar? I guess none of them took the time to notice.” She was in her own rocker, covered in that awful shade of green velvet that was popular back in the seventies.

I was too stunned to think any further than that. Laney was only next door. Just next door. I could talk to her when I wanted to, I could see her anytime I wanted to. I could touch her and smell her. All I had to give up was the ability to take care of Gran in the manner she deserved.

She didn’t have to sneak gin into her bingo games, she did it because she loved the naughtiness of it. She could set up her own bingo hall if she wanted, one with a bar, but she preferred doing it the way she did because it was fun. I’d offered her a brand new home, a brand new car, and everything she could possibly want and all she’d asked for was my time to nail down her carpet again.

One day she might need far more care than I could provide for her. If she was lucky, she’d go peacefully in her sleep in twenty years. That wasn’t guaranteed though, and I liked knowing if she ever changed her mind I could buy my Gran a mansion, a Ferrari, and a strip club full of bingo callers if she so desired. She thought I didn’t know about those, but I’d heard her talking with her lady friends.

I felt my lips quirk at that and looked at her. “You knew she was just there then?”

“Oh, Tony, her roommate, and I have had this planned for a while now. He set her up to go on the show, and I set you up. We’ve been trying to get you two together for a long time and neither of you would play along. We thought if you were on the show, then you’d have to spend time together. We were right, weren’t we?” She gave me a gimlet-eyed look and I wanted to kiss her sweet, wrinkled cheeks.

“You were, Gran. The question is, what do we do now?”

“Nothing, if that’s what you want to do, we hide you away here, you get to keep all those piles of money, and you finish the show.” She sighed and looked away for a minute. I knew she thought that was a bad idea. “Or you stop worrying about me and do something for yourself. You’ve been taking care of me since you were young, always there to help, being such a good kid, and making sure you did everything you were supposed to. You never took the time to have real fun, or fall in love. It’s time you did, Jackson.”

She only used my real name when she was being serious, or trying to get my attention. It worked as always.

“But, what if you get sick, Gran, and need nurses? An operation? You can’t afford that.” I felt helpless just thinking about it.

“Jake, you know as well as I do that you can’t run from love, and you can’t run from death. If it comes for me, it will. I have some money left from your grandfather’s, and a little of my own saved up. I’ll be fine. I want you to have what your parents missed out on, son. A long life with kids and a happy future. Don’t throw that away over an old woman at the end of her own life.”

Her words stung a bit, the reminder that my parents had died a horrible death was never easy to take, but Gran’s words couldn’t be truer. For the first time in my life, I knew I was in love. Could I do that to Gran though? She’d been through a lot in her life, she’d lost her husband when she was in her early forties, their May-December romance leaving her a widow at a young age, and then she’d lost my father and her daughter-in-law in a fire that nearly took me with it. I owed her my loyalty and devotion, didn’t I?

“There’s always the chance they won’t figure it out, Jake. If you’re willing to take that chance.”

I nodded in agreement, lost in thought. I couldn’t do that to Gran, no matter what she said about it. But maybe, maybe we could keep it quiet.

“How about we go buy a Christmas tree, Gran? I think I’d like to have one this year.” We didn’t always decorate for the holiday, the memory of those we’d lost, both my parents and my grandfather, was too overwhelming some years, but this year we both had hope for a brighter future, and I really wanted to believe in the magic of the Christmas season, something I’d given up a long time ago.

Laney was bringing all of that back for me and I could see that Gran felt much the same way about it.

“You mean the whole shebang, don’t you? We’re going to buy more than a Christmas tree. You know most of my decorations are older than you.” She looked like she was twelve years old again and staring into the old storefront window from the past she loved to talk about. I could all but see her nose squished up against a window as she looked in.

I couldn’t stop the smile on my face as she stood up and went to her room to put on her ‘going out’ clothes.

I didn’t know exactly what I’d decide to do, but for now, I could bring the spirit of Christmas into the house and pray like mad that it worked. Something had to, I couldn’t live so close to Laney without going over there and kissing her. Besides, I think Gran and I both needed it this year. We’d had one too many dark, lonely Christmases in the past. One way or another, I was going to give Gran the best one she’d ever had. If the show ended the way I wanted it to, I’d be spending it with both Gran and Laney. That was something to believe in.

Chapter Eleven

Laney

I spent a few days moping around the house, glaring at Tony for no good reason, and just plain being miserable before I got up the gumption to call my boss and ask if I could come into work. We’d planned on me being gone until January second, but I couldn’t sit at home doing nothing.

I did things like check my bank account when I was bored and miserable. Only, instead of staring at an empty account, I saw my mother had been busy sneaking money into it again. At this rate, I’d have enough for an entire year’s income at minimum wage in about a week.

No, sitting around doing nothing just wasn’t my style. I could probably study for school, if I could concentrate that would have been the smart thing to do, but I couldn’t get Jake out of my head. Why hadn’t he emailed me yet? Was he still on the island? Were they keeping him there until the show ended?

I went through a thousand scenarios, including one where Carol found my little note and tore it into pieces, but I just didn’t know anything for certain. I did a lot of running, a lot of housework, and a lot of binge-watching television shows I wouldn’t normally bother with and I still couldn’t keep that final scenario out of my mind.

What if he’d spent the night with Arabella and he was done with me?

As I drove into work alone with sad music on, I felt the tears start once more. Tony had tried to cheer me up by reminding me we needed to decorate the house, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care. Mom and Dad wanted me to go home, of course, but I had to go back to the show the day before Christmas, so that wasn’t going to happen. No, I’d turned into a miserable, irritating cow and the best thing I could do was stack books.

So that’s what I did. I went into work and cleaned shelves, dusted offices and rooms. I went through entire sections to make sure the books were all in the correct order, and I smiled happily at customers who couldn’t understand why I wanted to set fire to their awful but comedic Christmas sweaters. I just wanted Jake and I couldn’t even hear his voice, much less be near him.

I was finally sent home by my boss, because I was driving the other workers crazy with my cleaning craze. Sure, it needed to be done, but they could all tell I was stressed and it was making all of them nervous. I went home and sat on the back porch, waiting for inspiration to hit.

I had worked out a good impression of a statue by the time I saw Jane Mallory walking up the porch steps.