Page 29 of The Billionaire's Virgin

“I was serious,” I said, cutting her off before she could finish talking. “The invitation included you from the beginning. In any case, Jenna wouldn’t have as much fun without you there.”

“Thank you for saying that.” Taylor smiled. “But she has tons of fun with you too.”

I nodded. “Why don’t you sit down?” I suggested. “Jenna might be a while. Any suggestions for dinner?”

“Oh,” Taylor said, sounding taken back. “Um… I thought you would have had something in mind.”

“I have a confession to make.”

“Shoot,” Taylor said attentively.

“I’ve rarely taken Jenna out for dinner,” I admitted. “The places I generally go to don’t exactly encourage children at their restaurants and the last time I took Jenna out for dinner, she was two and a half, and it was a complete disaster.”

Taylor smiled. “Um… did you take her to a high-end restaurant in the city?”

“Um… yes.”

Taylor chuckled slightly. “Then may I suggest a few kid-friendly choices?” she said. “These are restaurants with good food and a place for kids.”

“Sounds intriguing,” I joked. “Please, pick a place and that’s where we’ll go.”

“Okay, well there’s a restaurant about twenty minutes from here. It’s called Picarino’s. It’s got great Italian food and a separate area cordoned off for the kids. They have games, puzzles, and even an indoor jungle gym. They have a couple of attendants manning the area too… to watch the kids.”

“Wow, sounds perfect.”

“Great, then it’s decided.”

I nodded, and Taylor smiled. But I noticed she looked slightly uncomfortable, as though she wanted to keep talking, but she didn’t know how to begin.

“Is there something else?” I asked.

“Uh, well… yes actually.” Taylor nodded. “It’s completely unrelated to dinner, but it happened for the second time today, and I just thought I should bring it your attention.”

I tensed up immediately. “Of course,” I said. “What is it?”

“Do you know anyone called Sofia?”

I froze in place. “I… I do actually.”

Taylor nodded slowly. “Well, the phone rang this afternoon after Jenna and I got back home from her school. There was definitely someone on the line, but whoever it was wasn’t talking back. Jenna seemed a little upset by it, and she mentioned Sofia, but she didn’t say much else. She was a little quiet after the call, and so I thought I’d take her for a movie to distract her.”

“And it happened before?” I asked.

“Once before.” Taylor nodded. “I didn’t think anything of it.”

I took a deep, internal breath. “Sofia is an ex-girlfriend of mine,” I told her. “She was… unstable, to say the least. We met at a bar, and we ended up going on a few dates, and she seemed fine at the time. But then… she started getting really clingy and possessive. She even started getting jealous of Jenna.”

Taylor raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

“We had a huge fight one day… which directly involved Jenna, and I broke up with her on the spot. She went crazy. She screamed and shouted and broke things… and Jenna was in the house when it happened.”

“Oh, God…”

“It obviously impacted her far more than I had initially thought. She just never mentioned Sofia to me ever again, and I just assumed she had forgotten…. or at least I hoped she had forgotten.”

“Do you have a restraining order out against her?”

“I did.” I nodded. “And I never saw her again after that so I thought the problem was handled. But I used to get calls like the one you just described. I could hear the other person on the line, but she wouldn’t reply. I got our number changed too, and after that, it stopped.”