Page 19 of Not the Billionaire

“Oh. Have you ever been?”

“Once or twice.” Truthfully, he’d been more times than he could count. “Their steak is very good.”

She grinned. “I would’ve liked to have made my own lunch choice, but when the boss orders for you, what’re you gonna do, right?”

It annoyed him that Gus had done that, but that’s how he usually was with women, and they usually didn’t mind him being all alpha male with them. Sebastian, on the other hand, was often awkward about how much money they had and how to spend it on people he cared about without coming off as pretentious. He wanted nothing more than to be like their father, Ephraim, who may have built their company into a chocolate empire and made them billions of dollars, but never once treated anyone as if they were less than and never flaunted the money they had. He was down-to-earth and good, generous and caring, and that’s exactly what Sebastian strived to be.

“Speaking of the boss …” he said. “Mr. Schultz wants us to work closely to plan and promote this, and I’ll help you in any way I can.”

“Really?” An adorable smile spread across her face.

He nodded. “What can I do?”

“Will you go with me to Holland tomorrow to meet with the coordinator at the yacht club?”

“Absolutely.” Nothing had ever sounded more wonderful in his life.

EIGHT

I’M FREE!”

Genevieve emerged from her kitchen later that night to see her sister, Rhonda, drop her purse on the side table by the door and raise her hands in the air as she did a little dance.

“The divorce is final!”

“Oh, Rhon, I’m so happy for you.” Genevieve walked over and hugged her tightly.

“It’s done, and I can finally move on with my life.” Rhonda gave her a hard squeeze before letting go. “How was your day?”

A smile spread across Genevieve’s face before she could control it. “It was good.”

“What was that?” Rhonda gave her a curious look as she tucked a blonde wave behind her ear.

“What?”

“That smile.”

“It was just a smile.” Genevieve ignored her older sister and walked back into the kitchen, opening the fridge to pull out a couple containers with leftover grilled chicken and steamed vegetables.

Rhonda trailed after her. “Oh no, you can’t get all dreamy-eyed all of the sudden and then pretend it was nothing.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“Tell me about your new boss, Richie Rich. Was it love at first sight for both of you and now he’s going to marry you and provide for our family for the rest of our lives?”

“Have you been reading Jane Austen again?”

“Of course.”

“Don’t the families all live together in the same house in those books? You really want to live with Mom again?”

“If we had billions of dollars, heck yeah.”

Genevieve pushed her to the side with a bump of the hip. “You’re so shallow.”

“So, is he the reason for your smile?”

“What? No, I did not fall in love with my boss.” She pulled two plates from the cupboard and set them on the countertop, popping open the plastic containers. She could feel her sister’s eyes on her. “Fine. I met someone.”

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