Page 89 of The Billionaire's Teacher

“I know. I just can’t believe she agreed to come back with the girls.” I rubbed a hand absentmindedly over my chest. My heart felt as though it was going to beat through my sternum any minute now. Then it would flop onto the floor and splash around for a few minutes while it continued to race until it exploded.

The mental image that came with the thought was a little gruesome, though it helped that it was a cartoony heart in my mind’s eye, not an anatomical one. The shape probably matched what I pictured my pupils turning into when I saw Sunshine on the video calls she’d started making from the beach in the early hours of the morning.

It was the sort of wakeup call I could get used to.

Austin snickered. “From what Kayla says, she’s pining just about as much as you are. So it was a foregone conclusion that she’d come.”

I shrugged. Didn’t feel like it. Then again, what did I know? Relationships for me had always been some fun dinners out and a show if there was something good, then they’d fizzle out when the woman realized I had the emotional depth of a teaspoon.

That was a direct quote from the last one.

I sighed and checked the time on my phone.

“Would you sit? You’re making me nervous.” Austin patted the chair next to him. “You really like this woman.”

I moved to perch on the edge of the chair beside Austin. “I do.”

I paused as those words left my lips. I wanted to say them to Sunshine. Preferably when she was wearing something fancy and white and I was there in a suit—no tux for me, thanks. No tie, either. Just the two of us, a minister, and the beach at sunrise. Was that getting ahead of myself?

I hadn’t actually said the words “I love you” to her. Nor had she said them to me. We’d talked around them. I was pretty sure she loved me. I knew I loved her. But it was almost as if saying it point blank was going to shatter the illusion swirling around us.

What did that mean?

Austin nudged my arm and nodded toward the window. “That’s our plane touching down.”

I sprang out of my seat. “Finally.”

Austin laughed. “They still have to taxi.”

I shrugged. Standing was better than sitting right now. I glanced over at Austin. “Did you feel this way about Kayla?”

He tipped his head to the side. “Still do. It morphs a little, mellows. But it’s still there.”

Good. That was good. Wasn’t it? I took a deep breath and watched the plane as it came our way. Private planes still used jetways at this airport, not the stairs like in Puerto Rico. The luggage would be brought in separately. But there, finally, the plane stopped and the jetway began to move to cover the door.

“They’re here.”

Austin nodded, closed his book, and stood. “I’ll take everyone else home. I imagine you’d like some time alone with Sunshine.”

“That sounds good.”

“You’ll bring her to church tomorrow? And lunch with the gang?”

Nerves curled in my stomach. The girls liked her. Austin had told me that. Kayla wouldn’t lie, either. Would the guys? Did it matter? Of course it mattered. I didn’t think anyone in our group would stick with someone that the group had a problem with. Maybe that was unfair, but at this point we might as well be family. “Yeah. Of course.”

“Good.” Austin slapped my shoulder then moved past me, arms open, as Kayla launched herself into him.

Whitney came next, rolling her eyes and glancing around. “No Scott?”

“Austin said he’d pick everyone up. But, well, I’m going to grab Sunshine.” I cleared my throat. “If that works.”

“Fine with me.” Whitney chuckled.

Megan, Jenna, and Sunshine came together, clumped up and chattering. They might have said something to me, but I didn’t hear it. I just saw her. She tipped her head back and laughed and I would’ve sworn a beam of golden light from heaven shone down on her when she did.

“You’ve got it bad.” Whitney whispered in my ear, breaking the spell.

I looked at her. “Is that not okay?”

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