Page 31 of Hello Billionaire

I bit my lip, looking down. “They take quite a while to make in the factory—it’s located in France. And an order of a hundred is quite the undertaking, even with the rush fee.”

He raised his eyebrows at me. “Rush fee? Is that the first one you’ve had?”

“Apparently there are only two people immune to my obvious charm,” I muttered, still wounded by the grumpy Frenchman on the phone. “Three if you count my ex.”

Gage tapped off his finger. “The French, your ex, and...”

“You,” I finished with a wry smile. “You are one tough nut to crack, Mr. G., but I will keep working at it.”

With an exasperated shake of his head, he said, “We can’t delay the opening for a soaker tub.”

“We won’t. I’ve already made a deal with the vanity supplier for their soaker tubs. If everything stays on schedule, we may need ten to twenty, and they’ve agreed to buy back our returns at a reduced price until we get the final product in.” He started to speak, but I said, “They’re still very nice and won’t look out of place in the rooms. They’re just not as fancy as the damn French tubs.”

He shrugged off his suit jacket, methodically unbuttoning and rolling the sleeves on his white dress shirt. The action was hypnotic, distracting. So much so, I almost missed his next statement.

“You’re doing a lot of talking about the bedrooms, but there are other parts of this hotel.”

“Oh my god, I forgot the lobby,” I deadpanned.

I swear his eye twitched.

I bit back a smile and said, “Many of the pieces are designed to match the bedroom items for a cohesive look. The front desk and office materials will be brought in after the bedroom furniture has arrived.”

For a long moment, he said nothing, until finally... “Seems like you’ve got everything covered.”

I nodded, sinking into my desk chair. “Now if I could just get my own home figured out.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, his question just as direct as his gaze.

I undid the clip in my hair and shook my fingers through the curls to relieve the headache that came on every time I thought of our new rental house.

“I got the keys to this place a couple weeks ago, but I can’t even move in—and out of my parents’ house—because I have no furniture for the kids to sleep on. Caleb would never let me hear the end of it if I had the kids on an air mattress for even a week.”

The blond threads of his eyebrows drew together. “Why would they sleep on an air mattress? Don’t they have beds?”

“At their dad’s house. But those need to be there for when they visit, and I can’t exactly take the beds from my parents’ house.” A spot on my temple ached, and I rubbed it. “I’ll figure it out—we’ve done a lot of thrifting for the other furniture. It’s just hard starting over, especially after Caleb kept such a tight leash on the finances for so long.”

I’d done that oversharing thing again, but Gage looked at me like it was a nonissue. “Just use the points on your company card.”

“What?” I asked. He was saying normal words, but they may as well have been gibberish.

“You’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars so far. If you shop at any big retailers, they should recognize the dollar value of the points. It may not be enough to install a French soaker tub, but it’ll keep you and your kids off air mattresses. If not, I’ll pay for the beds myself.”

“You’d do that?”

He nodded curtly as if my surprise was uncalled for.

Most people talked about billionaires like they were evil mega minds, but when I saw Gage... I studied this man, all decked out in Armani suits, his hair always perfectly trimmed like he had a stylist hiding in the back office. His face so smoothly shaven I wanted to pet his chin. But underneath it all, he was one of the most generous people I’d ever met. He acted like it was no big deal to stock an office for my kids, to pay for furniture to keep them comfortable. For me to use more of his money, beyond the ample salary he was already paying me, to take care of my family.

He may have been two parts bear, but he was at least one part unicorn.

“Is that even legal?” I asked, trying to stem my emotions. “I’ve never used credit card bonuses before. I kind of thought it was Monopoly money.”

“They’re very real and handy to use. Everyone who has a company card is entitled to the rewards. As long as you’re not charging the business directly and paying any associated taxes, it’s completely fine.” He got a thoughtful look. “I do have one stipulation though.”

There was the catch. “What’s that?”

“Make sure you get an easel for Andrew’s room. That kid has some talent.”

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