Page 33 of Billionaire Retreat

Chapter 7

“It’s creepy how you just pop up on set uninvited,” I said to Griffin as he handed me a cup of coffee. It was the next day and I was feeling a little drowsy. I hadn’t gotten much sleep that night. I’d spent most of the night tossing and turning, wondering if I should tell Griffin about Sadie now I had the opportunity.

Part of me felt guilty for not telling him and then I reminded myself that he never gave me the opportunity. Well, his mother never did. But from what it seemed, we were both keeping secrets... at least I had attempted to tell him mine all those years ago. He hadn’t shown me the same courtesy. So as far as I was concerned, Griffin was still the enemy.

“I’m a friend of the director,” he explained. I doubted that was true.

“Of course you are...”

“You don’t believe me?”

“Sorry if I don’t find you exactly truthful.”

“I’m not sure why. I’ve never lied to you...”

The nerve! It took all my self-control not to scream at him or toss my coffee at him.

“You’ve never lied to me? Seriously?”

He put both his hands up as if warding me off. “Woah. Stop aiming that coffee at me. And what makes you think I lied to you?”

I sat the coffee down, placed my hands on my hips and was ready to tell him exactly what I saw all those years ago when out of nowhere Jerry appeared.

“Hi, Griffin.” He stood between us and kept his back turned to Griffin as he greeted me. “Hey, Nina… I just wanted to double check that we’re still on for this weekend?”

“What?” I was clueless as to what he was talking about. And then I remembered briefly about some sporting event he had asked me to... ultimate frisbee or something. I had at the time thought it would be harmless so I’d agreed. Now I was regretting it. Jerry was nice, but I had other problems, like the one standing behind Jerry who was glaring at both of us.

“I’ll be there,” I chirped, wanting to make Griffin angrier and not caring that it was just a frisbee game...I had no problem letting him think it was something more serious.

“Great!” Jerry said, placing a hand up and I awkwardly high-fived him. I couldn’t help but smile. He was so cute. He was smart enough to not say anything else to Griffin who stood there looking ready to hit him.

“Calm down,” I said, a small smile on my face as Jerry walked away. I was enjoying this.

“So, you can go to dinner with him but not me?”

“Sure looks that way.” I deliberately kept my voice nonchalant.

“What do you see in that kid?” He scoffed. “Is he even old enough to drink?”

“Stop being jealous, it’s not a good look on you.”

He placed his hand on his chin as if pensive and said teasingly, “Maybe I can get Jerry reassigned.”

“You wouldn’t!”

“Yes, I would.”

“How do you even have the authority to do that?”

“I know the casting director... Richard.”

I looked at him inquisitively, “Richard? Richard Hayes is the casting director? I didn’t know. I only met with an assistant each time. He’s the guy who hired me to work at the resort.”

“Yeah, Richard’s my cousin.”

“Small world,” I said, now finally understanding why Richard had known exactly where Griffin would be all those years ago. It also explained why Griffin always spoke about Richard as if he knew him very well. I don’t know why I didn’t figure this out before.

And suddenly another piece of the puzzle fell into place. I bet Mrs. Wallace had insisted on coming to the auditions to ensure Richard only picked women she approved of to be around her sons. I had clearly been a last-minute addition, a wild card.