Page 62 of Betrayal of a Billionaire
Julia and Luke stood near a sailboat. With glassy eyes, she stared up at Luke. He held her cheek in his hand, closing the gap between them as he spoke her name.
The scene twisted his stomach into a knot. “Julia?”
She snapped her eyes toward him, her surprise obvious. “Grant!”
What was going on between them? Julia seemed upset, but was that because she desperately wanted to be with him or was overwhelmed by what was happening?
“Everything okay here?” Grant asked.
She swiped at a tear that had fallen to her cheek as she nodded. “Yes.” She faced Luke. “I need to go.”
She hurried down the dock to meet him. “Hi. I didn’t realize you were coming.”
Grant narrowed his eyes at Luke before he flicked his gaze back to her and took her hand. “I wanted to give you some time with your sister, but I didn’t want you to think we didn’t miss you at dinner.”
She sniffled, seeming desperate to hide the fact that she’d been near tears as she led him to the parking lot. “Oh, I hope you had a nice dinner.”
“Well, we missed you. Are you okay?”
She sucked in a breath as she plastered on a smile that never reached her eyes and nodded. “Yes. I’m fine. Are you heading back to the house or does Sierra still have more planned?”
“Oh, uh, Kyle and Sierra are both back at the house. I just figured I’d stop by and see how your night was going.”
She stared at him for a moment, her brows knitting before she nodded. “Right. Umm, well, I was just going to head back.”
“I have the car,” he said motioning to the driver.
“Oh, I have mine, so I’ll just–”
“I’ll go with you.” He told the driver to head back home.
“All right,” she said with a nod as she led him to her car.
“So,” he said as he climbed inside, “do you hate the Porsche?” The rough, utilitarian nature of the vehicle, completely different from what he’d bought her, made him wonder how well he actually knew his wife.
She offered him a chuckle as she fired the engine. “No, why would I?”
Grant patted the sturdy, utilitarian vehicle’s dash. “This is a little…different.”
“Grant, I couldn’t drive that Porsche here. It’d never make it through the snow.”
“Oh, right.”
“So, umm,” he said as he shifted in the firm seat, “how was the dinner?”
“Oh, it was good. Very fun.”
He wanted to pry more. He wanted to know what was going on with Luke when he arrived.
“You could have come, you know?”
“Ah, I wanted to give you some time with Alicia. And also, she hates me, so I didn’t want to make the situation uncomfortable.”
“She doesn’t hate you,” Julia claimed.
“Really? Someone ought to tell her that.”
Julia shifted her gaze to him as the Jeep’s engine ratcheted higher to climb the hill. “Ally can be…difficult. It’s because she’s the big sister. Especially since our parents died, she feels like it’s all on her to protect me.”
