The Billionaire Player (In Too Deep)

She laughed even harder, then pushed the tray back to the center of the counter and passed me a plate as a bonus. “Goddess Stephanie. I like the sound of that. Jeremiah, listen up.”

“I’ll treat you like a goddess for the rest of my life if I can have that orange juice now,” Jeremiah said. “You made me go fetch him before I could have any, and he’s here.”

“You guys are impossible when you’re this hungover,” she said, but she was still smiling. “Get the juice. I’ll serve your plates. Then when you’re feeling more human, we can look up the girl who won the weekend away with Tanner.”

“Why would we look her up?” I asked, holding out my plate when she started passing the food around. “Are we even allowed to do that?”

“Why not?” Jeremiah shrugged, coming back to the breakfast bar with a jug of juice and three glasses. “Aren’t you curious? I thought you’d have done it by now.”

“I haven’t even thought about it,” I admitted. “To be honest, the only thing I’ve thought about is how bad I’m feeling and how awkward the weekend is going to be.”

“Maybe not,” Steph said, perking up. “Maybe she’ll be the one and then I won’t have to feed your hungover asses by myself anymore.”

Jer took a seat next to her and poked her in the ribs. “We’re not that bad. When was the last time we stayed out that late? Besides, last night was for a good cause.”

“Which is why I’m feeding you at all,” she teased lightly. “Otherwise, I might’ve gone out for breakfast with Tiana and left you to fend for yourselves.”

“Isn’t Tiana away for the weekend?” he asked.

She smiled but tried to hide it behind her hair. “So what? I’m still feeding you. Now back to Tanner.”

“Nah,” I said. “Let’s talk about your best friend who you couldn’t have been having breakfast with this morning anyway because she’s not even in the city. How is she?”

“She’s good, but I’m more interested in what you’re planning on doing with this woman for your weekend away.”

I frowned at her. “What are you guys going to do for your weekend away?”

“We’re going to head to Maine for an island getaway,” she said excitedly, looking at Jeremiah like he’d hung the fucking moon.

These two.I smiled and shook my head.

They’d had a rough start as a couple, but there had never been any doubt in my mind that she was the woman he was going to spend the rest of his life with. As sickening as they could be together, they were perfect for each other. Being around them was enough to make even a skeptic like me believe in love.

“Maybe I’ll do the same,” I said. “We can make it a double-date weekend.”

Jeremiah’s head shook hard and fast. “Nope. No way. No tagalongs. I love you like a brother, but Steph’s never been to Maine and we’ve been planning on going for months. It’s a weekend just for us.”

“Fuck.” I hung my head, trying—and failing—to make them take pity on me. “You’re going to make me do this all on my own?”

“Plan your own trip,” he said with a note of finality in his voice. “How about renting a cabin upstate or flying her somewhere?”

“I don’t know,” I mused. “Maybe we should look her up, if for no other reason than to try to figure out where the hell to take her. Why couldn’t you guys just have planned the weekends as part of the auction?”

“We planned the whole event and we’re planning the actual housing project,” she said. “I think we’ve done our part. Eat up. Let’s get this show on the road. I’m so darn curious to see who paid so much money for you.”

“Now that you mention it, so am I,” I said, happy to do what she said. I devoured three burritos and a pile of hashbrowns, then downed a couple glasses of juice. Jeremiah ate up too, obliterating nearly the same amount of food I did while Steph gaped at us and shook her head.

“I’ll never get over the way boys eat,” she mumbled. “There goes the plan of having the leftovers for lunch.”

Jeremiah chuckled and reached for his phone. “I’ll order groceries and have them delivered. Sorry, baby.”

She leaned over and whispered something that made him laugh, and I got up to head to his office. “When you guys are done with your dirty talk, I’ll just be doing a search on the woman I’m spending forty-eight hours with, thanks to you.”

“It wasn’t dirty talk,” she protested loudly, but Jeremiah shot her a look that made it clear that what she’d said wasn’t entirely true. Then they were jumping up to follow me.

We crowded around his computer, and Steph pulled up a file documenting who had won each bid. “Let’s see here. The girl you’ll be going away with is Brittany Hill.”

She typed the name into a search engine, and my stomach rolled when I realized she was married. “What the fuck?”