Page 28 of Off-Limits Silver Fox Billionaire

“It is,” she answered. “I just didn’t think that I had something here though. Things might be different for me now. After coming back here, I realize that I do like it a lot. I plan to discover myself.”

I loved how her smile lit up her eyes, and without thinking I reached out and stroked her chin. “Discover?” I asked.

“Hmm,” she answered. “I want to figure out what I’d do with the rest of my life, and probably find love under these beautiful sunsets and beaches. There’s so much I want to do career-wise to and it’s not just about being a chef.”

“Love again?” I questioned, remembering that the last time we spoke she mentioned love and happily ever afters. “You really believe that there’s a happily ever after chapter for every couple.”

Bree nodded once. “I do,” she said. “If you don’t how come you married someone and decided to start a family with her? Did you get married thinking it wasn’t going to last?”

“No, I had hoped it would with everything in me,” I told her and met her gaze fully. “But look how that turned out for me.”

“I’m so sorry about your ex-wife Josh,” she consoled in a low tone and put a hand over mine that rested on the sand. The warmth from her skin spread through me and reached my heart.

I couldn’t tell if my pulse skittered all over just because her skin felt warm, or it was the tenderness in her voice as she apologized for something that had nothing to do with her.

“You don’t have to apologize,” I said. “I got over it a long time ago.”

“What happened? It seems like you loved her very much, so why did it end?”

Her question surprised me. I divorced my ex-wife Jenny many years ago and not once had I spoken about what happened in our marriage to anyone. Jenny and I started out as high-school sweethearts. At the time I had nothing but dreams of working in real estate and make a name for myself, and Jenny was my everything back then.

We were so happy before Iris came. There was a time when Jenny and I had spent all of our time together and enjoyed making love, living in the big city of Seattle, and struggling to keep up with the hustle of our jobs.

She worked as a nurse, and I got my dream job in real estate. We led simple lives and it had been perfect. Most times, I could barely even point out when things had started to go wrong.

Was it after Iris?Or after my first successful side deal in real estate? Orwhen she decided to move to Hawaii so she could be closer to her roots?

Deciding to groom my own company had taken a toll on our marriage too. I spent hours working and striving to make sure that I became successful in this field while our romance had dwindled over time until it got to the point of walking in on my wife kissing another man in my living room.

The memory of that night was etched into my head forever and thinking about it now brought a fresh wave of pain.

“Most of it was my fault,” I told Bree after clearing my throat and dragging my mind out of the painful path it took down memory lane. “I got too busy, and things just deteriorated from there. Maybe things would have been different if I had put in more effort on my end. Maybe, she never would have cheated on me.”

Bree’s eyes remained soft on mine, and her fingers had started to caress the front of my palm a little. “It’s been just Iris and me for the past fifteen years now, but she’s still in contact with her mother. I, however, haven’t seen or spoken to Jenny in since the day we signed our divorce papers.”

“That’s a long time,” Bree whispered as she shook her head.

“It is,” I agreed with her, then moved my hand so I could place it over hers instead. I had thought Jenny was the love of my life, but that hadn’t worked out. After Jenny, there had been no one else I could sit with and talk to like this.

Every other woman in my life was all the same for me. Young and beautiful but too full of life and the need to explore to ever think of settling for a man like me. It’s why I didn’t let myself ever think of it.

I’ve had my chance, and I have experienced love, it’s not what I need right now.

Bree and I fell silent after I bared my past to her, and we both watched the group of people fishing by the nearby reef for some time. Activities at the beach at this time of the day were at their peak. Smoke rose from portable barbeque stands around and the scent of smoky hot dogs and burgers on grill wafted through the air and reached us.

“Oh, we should get some spicy taco chips,” Bree said after some time. “When I first came to Hawaii that summer, Iris and I used to get them at a stand here on the beach.”

“Let’s do it!”

I got up, helped her to her feet then watched as she dusted her hands over her shorts before we walked over to the stand that she pointed out earlier.

“How much heat can you handle?” she asked in a teasing voice after we placed our orders. “hmm, I’ll bet you’re a mild kind of guy.”

“We’ll see about that,” I challenged and once our order arrived, I requested a mojito in case either of us needed it.

“Mojito?”

“Yes,” I answered. “In case you need it.”

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