An Accidental Date with a Billionaire

He didn’t press. “My mom, as you know, was the opposite. She worked two jobs to raise me and almost killed herself in the process. There were weeks where we lived off spaghetti and ramen noodles.”

She winced. “I hate ramen.”

“I love it. I still eat it sometimes.”

Shaking her head, she smiled wistfully. “And your dad?”

“Dead.”

“I’m sorry,” she breathed.

He hesitated. “My mom says he was nice, but he was probably a bigger asshole than me—after all, I had to have gotten it from somewhere, right?”

“I don’t think you’re an asshole.”

“Give it time,” he said, trying to keep his tone light. “By the end of the date, you’ll be back to your original assessment of me.”

She struggled with her response.

“True. Like, what kind of a jerk stares at his phone while he is being auctioned off?”

Well, shit. “You got me.”

“Of course, I’m the jerk who was too busy emailing Habitat for Humanity to realize the guy I was supposed to bid on had already come and gone, so I guess we’re both guilty.”

“Yeah, maybe.” He hesitated. “I was closing a deal.”

She let out a breath. “Make a lot of money off it?”

“A good amount,” he answered honestly.

She tapped her finger on her thigh. “Where’s your mom now?”

“Uh…” He blinked at the abrupt change of topic. Clearly, she didn’t want to talk about his line of work. Made sense, considering her own. “I suspect she’s in her house on Park Drive.”

She whistled through her teeth, acknowledging the costs of homes in that area. “Did you grow up in Chicago?”

“No, I actually grew up in Georgia.”

She swiveled toward him, eyes wide. “Wait, what?”

“It’s true. I’m a Southern boy, through and through.”

“No way,” she exclaimed, smacking his arm. “I’m from Savannah.”

“No shit,” he said, grinning.

“Dead serious.”

“Why’d you come up here?” he asked.

The smile melted away at his question, and he immediately wanted to take it back. His lady clearly had secrets, and she had no desire to talk about them. “To get away.”

He wisely didn’t ask her what she ran from, even though he really wanted to. If he pushed too hard for information, she would walk away.

“I came here for a job. Once I got a salary and a bank account, I found a place for my mom, flew down, hauled her up north.”

She swallowed. “You bought her a house on Park Drive?”