Page 32 of Billionaire’s Game

“Ok,” I said as I climbed into his sports car. “You’re right. But Magnus isn’t half bad, so it hasn’t been too terrible working with him.”

“I’m glad things are working out,” Jude said, clearly distracted. A text popped up on his phone and when we stopped at a red light, he looked at it and laughed.

“What?” I asked, curious.

“Nothing. Just laughing at my wife. Check out this picture.”

He handed me the phone and I immediately started laughing. It was a candid shot of Lacey sitting on the couch with Sebastian in her lap. Sebastian was covered in baby food and so was Lacey. The look on her face said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“He’s fond of carrots and he likes to share them. Don’t worry, we’ll clean up the couch before Magnus comes over.” He turned to me and smiled. “I lied. We’ll do our best to clean the couch before Magnus comes over, but it might not happen if Sebastian is up to his usual antics.”

By usual antics, I’m sure he meant when Sebastian ran around the house screaming at the top of his lungs with empty water jugs in his hand, waving them frantically at anyone he encountered. He had a habit of grabbing them out of the recycling bin the moment someone tossed one in. Jude liked to joke that Sebastian had aspirations to become a maintenance man. I thought it was simply adorable.

We arrived home about ten minutes before Magnus was meant to be there. I jumped out the car as fast I could, unlocked the door, and dashed inside. I barricaded myself in the bathroom like a teenager nervous for her first date. I kept changing my hair and finally just brushed it and left it hanging around my shoulders. I then sniffed at my underarms and groaned. I definitely needed more deodorant. I cursed South Florida for making me sweaty and then decided to just screw it all and jumped into the shower for a quick five-minute scrub down. It wasn’t a date, but there was no reason I couldn’t look at least halfway decent.

I tossed on a pretty nondescript shirt and jean shorts and pulled my wet hair back into a ponytail. I was annoyed with myself for wasting time brushing it earlier.

I sat down on the couch and waited for Magnus. I tried to pretend I wasn’t nervous, but I kept looking at my phone and when six o’clock rolled around, I couldn’t help but look toward the door. Lacey and Jude were both in the kitchen with Sebastian. They had been strangely kind of secretive, making phone calls and looking “busy.”

I didn’t know what was up, but I watched them furtively watching me.

“Ok, ok,” I said once Lacey again disappeared to take a call. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing... nothing’s going on. What makes you think anything is going wrong?”

“Because you keep walking around looking very secretive.”

“You’re imagining things. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom.”

She then disappeared into the bathroom and came out a second later. “By the way, tell me you aren’t planning on wearing that when Magnus arrives.”

I looked down at my clothes. I was wearing faded jean shorts and a flannel shirt. Yes, my hair was wet and pulled back into a messy ponytail, but I thought I looked perfectly fine for a night in.

“I’m staying in. There’s no reason to go out of my way to look nice.”

“True. But could you at least look a little bit more put together.”

I rolled my eyes. “For the last time, I’m not interested in Magnus.”

“Ok, I won’t mention him again,” she said, giving up quicker than I expected. Yeah, something was definitely up.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. She got a big smile on her face and raced over.

“Hey, I thought you had to go to the bathroom.”

“Not anymore.”

I noticed she didn’t even look out the peephole as she opened the door.

“Magnus, come in.”

Magnus smiled politely at her and said, “Sorry to commandeer your TV. I told Lesli we could meet at my office but, for some reason, she was against the idea.”

Lacey smiled at him. “Oh, it’s no problem. Come in. Come in.” Suddenly, she was the perfect little host. I narrowed my eyes trying to figure out what was going on.

She led Magnus over to me. He looked great as always. I just wanted to curl up in his lap and let him hold me. For that very reason, I was happy others would be around. I didn’t trust myself alone with him.

And as if on cue, Lacey said, “Well, I’ll leave you two alone. I have a baby to attend to.” She disappeared, and Magnus came over and stood looking down at me.