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Saylor sat and placed the binder on her lap. “Butterflies!” My daughter pointed after flipping through the first few pages.
They weren’t just butterflies, but butterflies intertwined with other things I couldn’t fully make out. Not a single design was what one would consider, as Billie put it, generic.
I wrapped my arm around Saylor as she turned the pages. “Amazing, huh?”
She nodded and continued to eagerly flip through.
“Would you like a snack, Saylor?” Billie asked.
She nodded without looking up from the book.
“Do you like Goldfish?”
Saylor beamed. “Yummy! Goldfish!”
“She loves Goldfish.” I narrowed my eyes. “But why do you have Goldfish?”
Billie shrugged. “I like them, too. They’re small, easy to pop into your mouth without getting crumbs all over the shop. So sue me. You know what else I like? Juice boxes. They’re more environmentally friendly than plastic bottles.” She smiled. “You wanna juice box, too, Saylor?”
My daughter nodded. “Yes!”
“Yes, what?” I asked.
“Yes, please,” Saylor clarified.
“Wow, Goldfish and juice boxes, Billie. Remind me to bring you some Lunchables the next time I stop in,” I teased.
Billie chuckled and went to grab my daughter her snack. Once again, my eyes were glued to this sexy woman’s backside, which was taut yet round. Fucking gorgeous.
She returned with a snack-sized package of pizza-flavored Goldfish and a mini box of apple juice. She opened both items and placed them on a small table next to my daughter, who finally took a break from the book to enjoy her snack.
“That was really nice of you. Thank you,” I said.
“It’s my pleasure.” Billie took a seat on the opposite side of me.
“Listen…” I lowered my voice. “Apologies if I came off as threatening in any way last night. Throwing the landlord thing in your face like that—”
“I didn’t take it that way. I mean, you are my landlord, so…” She sighed. “Anyway, I’m the one who should be apologizing for refusing to accommodate a paying customer who’d waited patiently, landlord or not. What you experienced last night is not a normal reflection of how I do business.”
I nodded. “Don’t worry about it. You had every right to be pissed.” I paused. “If you don’t mind me asking, how the hell does something like that happen?”
“You mean besides the fact that he’s a prick?” She immediately covered her mouth and looked over at Saylor, who was oblivious. “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“No worries. She’s too into her snack and your book.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t see last night coming. The only consolation is that I’d only invested a few months in the relationship, which I consider a godsend.”
I nodded. “I’m glad to hear that, but what I really mean is how the heck did you orchestrate that?”
“He left his phone out, and I saw a Tinder notification pop up. That wasn’t supposed to be happening, so I had to investigate. I knew his access code, and once I realized what he was up to, I decided to set up dates with all of the women he’d been chatting with—at the same time. And you know the rest.”
“That was freaking epic.”
“Thanks.” She smiled proudly. “I thought so, too.”
“It takes a lot of strength to execute something like that when you’re hurting.”
“I think the hurt is what gave me the strength, oddly.”
I nodded. “I get that.”
Billie impressed me. Not only was she extremely talented, she was tough—with a hint of crazy. I became more curious about her by the second. I looked into her eyes for a moment, but that was cut short when she got up to fetch a napkin for Saylor.
She then returned to her spot next to me. “Do you live in the building, or are you just the new owner?”
“I live upstairs, too, yeah.”
“And you’re the only owner, or…”
“No.” I shook my head. “You know Holden, right?”
“The musician-slash-handyman? Yeah. He’s cool.”
“Yup. He’s part owner, too. Along with two of our other friends.”
Her eyes widened. “Wow. So the four of you own the building together?”
“Yeah. Well, the company we formed together owns the building. One of the guys, Owen, works in commercial real estate and brokered the deal. And then there’s Brayden.”
“You guys must really trust each other to go in together like that.”
“We do. They’re the only three people I can say that about.”
“So you must have gone upstairs last night and told your wife all about the nutty tattoo shop owner, huh?”
Oh. Everyone assumes I’m married because of Saylor. “There is no wife.”
“Oh.” Billie’s lips parted. “Divorced?”
“No. Saylor’s mother was never in the picture.” My voice dwindled to barely a whisper. “She didn’t want to be.”
The color drained from her face. “I see.”
I stood and motioned for her to walk to the other side of the room with me, away from Saylor.
“The pregnancy was a…surprise to say the least,” I murmured, looking out the window. “The last thing I ever expected. The woman and I didn’t exactly know each other. But Saylor’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
