Escorting the Billionaire (The Escort Collection 1)

“Ha ha,” she said, punching me lightly. “But keep talking. Tell me what our life would be like.”

“Well, we would get up every day, and then we could do a quick workout in my gym—yes, I have a gym—and then you’d make me breakfast. Preferably French toast because you’re pretty good at that. And then I’d go to work—”

“And I’d go to work, too,” she slipped in.

“Yes, of course you would. Or you can go to school full-time. Just don’t let any of the students or professors ask you out. Then I’d have to fight them.”

“That might be hot, actually.”

“It might be. Yeah, it probably would be.” We both laughed then, and it felt so good. “But seriously, that might be a great place to start. And then I could pick you up from school, and we could go visit Tommy. On the weekends, we can go to dinner. We can take Tommy to the beach or to the park—we don’t have crap weather in LA. It’s totally different. You can go outside all year. And we can go see the Red Sox games in Oakland when they play the A’s. We can fly up in my private plane. We can fly to Hawaii for a long weekend. You can make me dinner every night.”

“Ha,” she said again, but she sounded pleased.

I paused for a second and traced her spine with my finger. I took a deep breath. “And then we can have kids, and you change their diapers—all of them, because I have a feeling that would be beneath me—and they’ll go to all the best schools. We’ll take them to Disneyland. We’ll go watch their music shows and their plays, and they can play baseball and be awesome at it like their dad, and they will never like the A’s, the Dodgers, or the Yankees, and if they are girls they will have beautiful, Bambi-like eyes like their mother. So there.”

“Bambi-like eyes?” she asked, and giggled.

I blew out an embarrassed sigh. “Mock me if you will. Just promise me,” I said, still stroking her back. “Promise me we are going to do all the things.”

“I promise,” she said, her face pressed against my chest. “I promise.”

* * *

The next morning, Audrey brought me coffee in bed.

“I’m going to make a few phone calls,” I said, “starting with Danielle’s parents. Even though I don’t have hard evidence, I believe my mother was at the very least involved in the accident somehow. I have to let them know. They still live in Tewksbury; I can look up the number.”

“Are you sure you want to do this right now?” Audrey asked. “It’s a pretty big wound to open up.”

“We need their help. They’re the only people my parents won’t be able to pay off,” I told her. “And they deserve to know, even if it’s only that I think my parents were involved. I’m going to let them in on the plan.”

“Are you going to let me know what the plan is?” she asked.

“Yes, but later. I want the element of surprise to go to bat for us.”

“What about your parents?” she asked. “Are we going to confront them today?”

“Don’t worry. They’re on the list. I have plans for them.”

Audrey

James was on the phone for what felt like forever.

“I talked to Danielle’s parents. They’re going to help us,” he said when he finally came out. His face was drawn, and his eyes were red. “My mother’s going to have a nasty surprise waiting for her when we get back.”

He poured himself another cup of coffee. “I also called my lawyer. He’s better than my mother’s, by the way. He said that he’ll get the paperwork prepared for you to become Tommy’s sole guardian. You’ll have to sign it when we get back, and then he’ll start the process with the court. And I made a call to that private investigator, too—he said he was going to go to your mom’s house today with a large file and a larger threat.”

“But what if she tells Celia?” I asked.

“She won’t. We’re going to make her an offer she can’t refuse. So she’ll receive a financial incentive while simultaneously being blackmailed. It’s win-win.”

My heart sank. “I don’t want her getting any more of your money…”

“I’d rather she gets it from us than from my parents,” he said. “Plus, we can’t just let your mother stay in that apartment, living like that, when there’s more than enough money to take care of her. It’s not right.”

I wasn’t going to forgive my mother so easily, either for what she’d done to Tommy or what she’d done to James. “It’s exactly what she deserves,” I said. “She doesn’t seem unhappy to me. Just greedy. And scheming.”

“Well, you’re right. She is greedy. And she’ll just come looking, threatening us again. I don’t want to deal with that for the rest of my life, and I know you don’t either. It’s better to just manage her, Audrey. She’s your mothe