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Now we’re roasting on hisyacht, in the middle of the lake after having eaten sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Fancy.
He was right. No one can see us out here.
“When did this thing get here?” I ask, wonderinghowit even got here.
“A few days ago,” he responds, his eyes on the horizon.
“You didn’t buy it with the house, did you?” I’m afraid of his answer—of hearing that he made another decision that wouldcost him more money. Something my “companionship” could never cover.
“No,” he answers, bringing his arms loosely around his knees. “My dad got it for me a while ago.”
“Holy crap, I wish my birthdays were like yours.” I adjust my body on the hard surface, hoping the movement doesn’t cause my bikini to expose any inappropriate parts of my body. That’s the last thing I need.
He chuckles. “To celebrate my first million. Not my birthday.”
“Million?!” I screech, sitting up and pulling my sunglasses from my face. “You can’t be serious.”
He lifts his brows and looks away. There’s a tension that sits on his reddening shoulders.
“Don’t tell me you’re the kind of rich who resents his money.” I shove my sunglasses back on my face, settling back on my elbows. “I never could understand that.”
“Of course not. I earned everything I have and paid my father back with interest.” He waves his hand at my confused expression and says, “He was an initial investor in my company.”
“So why the face?”
“What face?” he asks, like he doesn’t know.
“That one,” I answer, pointing toward him.
He’s still staring at the horizon, and I wonder if he’s going to answer when he does. “I don’t want things to change between us.”
I roll over on my stomach and press my thumb into my palm, watching over the top of my sunglasses as it turns white and then red when I let go.
“I hardly wanted your money to begin with,” I remind him. Maybe I’d hoped for someone to drop a fortune into my lap, but our transaction is an honest one. No one is being takenadvantage of here, and I have no intention of ever needing any more from him.
The sound of children jumping off a dock across the lake, laughing and screaming, has me looking in their direction. We’re the only boat out today, and if I stare hard enough I can see the speck that is my home.
“You have to know that I had no idea who you were when I showed up,” he says, breaking the silence between us.
I gathered he didn’t when I realized most of the paperwork in this town has me down as Lucy and not Eloise. I’m pretty sure it’s illegal, but welcome to small-town living. As long as people know who you are, they don’t need your legal name.
“In the beginning, I thought it was about that. That you’d somehow targeted me. But it’s more about the fact that you were trying to take the shop from me.” It’s the first time we’ve spoken about this without bitterness on my back.
“Only if you wanted to sell it,” he says, and I shake my head.
“Don’t lie to me. Everyone around town is talking about how you and your partner are trying to back them into corners for a piece of their pie.” I can’t look at him. I can’t find another reason to dislike him when I’m sitting here, full from the food he provided and relaxing on his boat.
“Listen, I don’t know what they’re talking about, but I’m an honest businessman. I don’t make my millions off the backs of bodies I pushed to the ground,” he insists. “Ifindweak links and offer ways out. I don’t create them.”
And I think of the weak links I’ve created in my business; the ones that’d been passed down from my parents, way before I knew what to do with them.
When Ezra explains it this way, I can’t be upset.
Certainly not after he swooped in and saved it all.
I roll over again and splay out on my back, one of my hands dangerously close to his foot. I haven’t reached for him since the day we met.
“If I take away your reason for hating me, what’s left between us?” he asks, looking down at me.
