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"I mean, I get that you're talking to lawyers so you can sue that hockey website for not naming you the Billionaire Hot Shot owner in the league."
Charlie couldn't help but laugh at her attempt to break the tension between them. And to be fair, she did succeed. He had to at least give her that.
"Can you believe they gave it to the guy in Detroit?" he asked incredulously. "The voting was rigged."
She gave him a small smile and then looked down at the plate again.
The tension started to come back and he could feel that buzz between them that was tight and perilous. Charlie hated it. He hated the feeling that he had hurt Maggie when all he had to do was send a text. It was such a simple thing.
But things weren't simple in his life. They hadn't been since the day his uncle died, and there were a lot of things he had to accept about that. But he also had to accept that some things could be normal again -- even for a billionaire with a hockey team.
Wanting to be with Maggie was one of those things.
"Listen, about the lawyers."
Maggie held up her hand to stop her from talking. "Just tell me the truth," she said quietly. "Is the lawyer thing why you didn't text me after that night?"
Charlie cringed. "I'm really sorry about that."
"I was at Icing the other day and Riley said there were things going on behind the scenes with the team."
Charlie took a deep breath and turned to look out over the ice. "My uncle gave me this team and now my cousins are trying to take it away from me."
"My uncle gave me a tiramisu recipe."
He turned and smiled at Maggie. "I'm sure it's delicious."
"Eh." She shrugged. "It's not a billion dollars delicious."
Charlie could feel himself deflate a bit. For as much as he wanted Maggie to him as a real person, he also forgot he had to adjust to carrying some extra pieces with him. He had made him wonder if anyone would ever care about him for him or for his money.
Charlie got up from his seat and walked back into the suite to the tall table inside. This was all going wrong. All of it. The money, the team, the woman. It was going in these different directions and Charlie's brain couldn't keep up, especially with the woman in the same room with him.
If it wasn't for his uncle, he wouldn't have the team. That was a plus. If he didn't have the team, he couldn't have hired Maggie to replace the awful dessert caterer. That was also a plus.
But the money? That was still messing with his head. Becoming a billionaire overnight was not something he could wrap his head around still.
And his family was becoming a nightmare. This looming potential for a court case and trying to keep this team away from his cousins who would ruin it or sell it to some billionaire.
Oh wait, he was a billionaire. Maybe they could sell it to him.
But if the will was invalid and his cousins got the team, they would get the money too. He would be left with nothing.
He would be left with Maggie.
Charlie looked up at the woman who was now staring at him from her seat at that bar. He really looked at her. Charlie hadn't known her for that long, but he knew her enough to know that she probably wouldn't care if he owned the team or had the money. He could give it all up. He could be his normal self again -- without the owner's suite.
It would be nice to be himself again.
"What would you say if I just gave this all up so I could just spend time with you?"
Maggie's eyes went wide and she shook her head vigorously. "No. No. Absolutely not."
"It's just a hockey team and I don't want to be a billionaire. I mean, it sounds great and it's not."
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
She jumped down from the chair and marched over to him. That was not what he was expecting at all. Maybe he misjudged her. Maybe she was the type of woman who wanted him for his money, which kind of broke his heart.
