Page 35 of The Bet

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Izzy sighed loudly. “He wore linen trousers, and a white shirt. It was all very casual because it was too hot to wear a suit.”

“Casual?” Cara propped herself back on her elbow with a renewed interest. “How did they look together?”

“They looked good.” They had. “They make a pretty nice couple.”

“Is she nice?” Cara whispered.

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“She’s nice, and normal, like you and me.”

“Lucky cow.”

Izzy considered her friend’s reply. Was Savannah lucky? Izzy knew her story very well by now, since Cara had drummed it into her head plenty of times, how the poor woman had made good by marrying the rich billionaire. It was the stuff of fairytales, and Izzy wasn’t one for fairytales unless they were of the type where Jack vanquished the big evil giant. Those were her types of stories. Not so much the princess-being-rescued ones.

Maybe, given the circumstances, and what she had seen of Savannah and Tobias, maybe Savannah was lucky. Taking away the money, and the beautiful island, and all the trappings of wealth, when it came down to it, there was something between this couple that she hadn’t seen in the Shoemoneys—a deeper sense of love and belonging. She had seen it in the way Tobias looked at Savannah, in the way the two of them held hands, automatically, in the way their hands and bodies reflected a closeness that all new lovers seemed to share.

Based on all she had seen, she had decided to accept Savannah’s offer to her of babysitting Jacob on weekends. It made sense, because starting this coming weekend, while Tobias and Savannah were on their honeymoon, Jacob would be at home with his grandparents. Savannah had been thrilled when she had accepted.

She hadn’t had to think about it much. Every dollar counted. She had books, bills and rent to pay. The income from babysiting would help. She could fit this in around her other jobs.

“Please, Cara,” Izzy whined, yawning again, and this time raising her arms towards the headboard to have a good stretch. She’d been up for almost 22 hours.

“I’ve got to be fresh for class. I’ve got a ton of notes to catch up on.”

Cara sat up slowly. “This wedding was wasted on you,” she wailed. “If I’d have gone—”

“If you’d have gone, Tobias would have had to put a blindfold on youandgag your mouth.”

“Tobias Stone can do that to me anytime.”

Izzy shook her head. “That man has eyes for nobody but Savannah.”

“Give it a few months. They all stray, eventually, especially these filthy rich types. Risk-takers, that’s what they are, and easily bored, too.”

Izzy didn’t think so. “Not Tobias. He’s smitten. It’s not only with Savannah. He’s pretty close to Jacob.” She had seen him with the boy on many occasions, and it wasn’t as if he was trying to be overly loving, as if he was putting on an act in front of Savannah, she had seen Tobias break away from his circle of friends and go and see what Jacob was doing, and then he would stay and spend time with him.

Plenty of times she’d seen him examine some of the toys he had been playing with. It went beyond being interested on the surface. The way Tobias was with Jacob was so different to the way Gideon Shoemoney had been around his kids, and even though Jacob wasn’t Tobias’s real son, Tobias seemed to have more love for that boy than she’d seen Gideon Shoemoney show for his own flesh and blood.

She felt sorry for the Shoemoney children. They might have been privileged, and would never worry for money or for getting by in the world, but when it came to love, to having that strong foundation that only parents could give, those children lost hands down. And Jacob, for all that his parents had split up, and he had come from a broken family, that boy seemed to be the more grounded and happier child.