Page 23 of The Runaway Billionaire's Inconvenient Baby
A woman follows me, deftly jiggles the handle up and forward, and the gate opens easily.
There are maybe a dozen people here, old and young, all in sun hats and huge smiles. It’s almost sickening to see how much they’re enjoying themselves. I’ve never really seen the appeal of gardening. It looks messy.
As I approach the group, I’m aware of everyone’s eyes on me, staring me down like I’m an alien. “Hi,” I say awkwardly, offering them a halfhearted wave.
The people stare for a second longer, then turn their backs on me, returning to whatever it was they were digging around for. I grimace. I hadn’t been expecting a warm reception by any stretch of the imagination, but even a friendly hello couldn’t hurt, could it?
I squint in the bright sun, looking left and right for Billie. I hate to admit it, but right now, I’m relying on her. I need her to stop me from getting torn apart by all these locals who hate the sight of me.
She hates the sight of me too, but at least she’ll say that to my face.
These people are all whispering about me as if I can’t hear them. Somehow, that’s a million times worse.
Finally, a familiar figure runs over to me. Before I can even open my mouth to speak, she slaps a huge ridiculous hat on my head and grins at the sight. “Jacob, you’re here.”
“I’m here,” I echo.
“Come on. Come and look at our cabbages.”
“Cabbages?” I parrot, wondering what euphemism I’ve missed.
But she means it literally. She drags me all the way over to the other side of the garden and gestures proudly at the leafy greens that are bursting out of the ground. “You’re in luck,” she says, putting her hands proudly on her hips. “They’ve really taken off this week. If you’d come last week, you wouldn’t have seen them at all.”
“Great,” I say unenthusiastically.
She shoots me a glare. “Suzanne is very proud of them. Aren’t you?” she says to another woman who looks vaguely familiar to me, with dark hair in a short bob and huge sunglasses obscuring her eyes.
“Yes,” says Suzanne, her voice clipped. “We’ve put a hell of a lot of effort into our greens this year. We use everything in this garden to make meals, both for our own vulnerable older citizens and also to freeze and send to the city. We’re all lucky enough to have each other to lean on here, but not everyone has that fortune in the city.”
Her words are incredibly pointed, and I feel a flash of guilt, knowing that my own charity work has been lacking lately. “Keep up the good work,” I say weakly. She raises an unimpressed eyebrow, and Billie draws in a deep breath beside me.
It’s a good job she’s trying to win me over rather than get any of the locals to like me. I think that would be a lost cause.
We keep wandering through the garden. Billie points out more of their community projects, and I keep feeling a little more envious of the way they all care so deeply about each other with every passing second.
And I know exactly what she’s doing. It’s not subtle in any way. She thinks that if she can humanize the people here, if she can get me to see that they all have lives, loves, and work here, I’ll think,Oh never mind, and back off.
What she doesn’t know is that I’ve already signed all the paperwork.
Getting any of these people to like me or agree to move willingly isn’t even a formality at this point. They don’t have to like me. They’re just going to have to leave.
“This is my favorite,” says Billie, pointing at a bed of flowers.
“What are they?” I ask.
“Tulips,” she says. “I love tulips. They’re so beautiful, and they remind me of how exciting the world is.”
“The world?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah. There’s so much out there.”
“I thought you wanted to stay on the island.” My eyebrows furrow in confusion at her contradiction.
She rolls her eyes at me and hits me gently on the arm, teasing. “I love this island, but I want to go places too sometimes. I just want my island to come back to. Going to Europe is on my bucket list.”
“You have a bucket list?”
“Of course. Don’t you?” Her face falls. “No, you probably don’t. You probably already have everything you want.”
