Page 45 of Not the Billionaire

The sun sparkled in his eyes as he looked back at her. “Count on it.”

As he walked away, she thought about their almost kiss as well as the moment she’d seen between him and Skylar. She was probably making a big deal out of nothing. He’d already told her there was nothing going on with Skylar. More than anything, she wanted that to be true.

The connection she had with Kurtis was strong, and she hoped he felt it too. She wanted what she was feeling for him to be real, and for his feelings for her to be the same. But she had no patience for men who showed interest while not being completely truthful with her. After all her sister had gone through with Nolan’s lying and cheating ways, she needed total honesty in a relationship. Something told her Kurtis could be trusted, but she also had a feeling he was holding something back. She just wished she knew what it was.

FIFTEEN

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.”

Sebastian stared at the pastor with his mouth agape. Of course this was today’s sermon topic. An elbow jabbed his ribs, and he glanced over at Skylar, who simply nodded her head toward the pastor.

He gave her a not-so-gentle elbow to her ribs in return, which made her squeak and instantly cover her face in embarrassment.

Sebastian’s eyes met his father’s stern look, suddenly feeling very much like the child who used to sit in this very pew growing up.

In those days, all three of the Schultz children would have been sitting together. On this day, they were lacking Gus’s presence. He’d been gone since Wednesday. No word of where he’d run off to. Sebastian was worried, but he knew Gus could take care of himself. Skylar, however, was overly anxious every day. She just wanted him to come home.

The pastor continued to speak about the slippery slope dishonesty can take a person down. “One lie leads to another to cover up the first and then another and another and so on. It’s easy to lose track of the lies you’ve told.”

Sebastian knew it was ridiculous pretending to be someone he wasn’t. And deep down, he knew it was the wrong thing to do. Genevieve was a good person, and she deserved complete honesty from him. She deserved to know who he was. He’d thought about it from her perspective. How would he feel if he were on the other side of things? Confused. Hurt. Angry.

There was a very good chance that Genevieve would never forgive him for lying to her about this, and the odds of him losing out on perhaps the best relationship of his life were staggeringly high.

Yet when he thought back to his last relationship, he felt like he was somehow justified in this. Just like Genevieve, Serena had been sweet, funny, and beautiful, and he seriously thought she was different from the others. They’d grown close rather quickly and started dating exclusively within a month. He wasn’t sure if he was simply blind from what he thought was love or completely gullible, because he believed everything she told him. She’d had him completely wrapped around her little finger.

The subtle changes should have cued him in to her true intentions. It wasn’t the first time he’d been used for his money. She just turned out to be the most manipulative and deceitful of the bunch.

So, to get to know Genevieve without her knowing he had money was the only way he knew to see if what they had or could have was real. To really get to know a woman and not worry about whether she was only thinking about how much money was currently in his bank account.

But there was still the underlying worry that maybe she was like Serena and knew exactly who he was and how much he was worth financially. He didn’t really believe that, but it was still there in the back of his mind. Serena had done that to him. She’d made him paranoid and closed off and doubting of every woman that came into his life.

And while he wasn’t ready to tell Genevieve the truth yet, he still had a nagging feeling in his gut, and the pastor wasn’t making it easy on him with this sermon.

Sebastian sank onto the sofa at their parents’ house next to Skylar, who was flipping through TV channels.

“You aren’t going to make me watch some girly Hallmark movie, are you?” he asked as he stole a pillow from behind her.

“Depends on what I find.” She shuffled through and skipped past The Princess Bride.

“Hey!” he cried. “Turn it back.”

“Nah.” She kept clicking.

“Inconceivable,” he cried.

She chuckled and then suddenly stopped clicking the remote.

He glanced up to see the movie Liar Liar starring Jim Carrey on the screen.

Skylar burst into giggles. “I think God is trying to tell you something today, Bash.”

He wrestled the remote from her hands and switched back to The Princess Bride. “We’re watching this.”

“Fine.” She settled back, and they watched for a while, quoting their favorite lines, laughing at all the funny parts.

When they reached the part where Westley explained how he had pretended to be the Dread Pirate Roberts, a few more giggles escaped from Skylar. And then when Prince Humperdinck told Buttercup that he would send his fastest ships to find her dear Westley, Skylar said, “Lying is the theme of the day, I think.”

Sebastian shook his head. “Okay, but Humperdinck was lying for horrible reasons. Because he’s a bad man, who’s trying to keep her away from her true love to have her for himself.”

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