At the time, I mentioned it to one of the men I was working on a new partnership deal with and he told me that socialites in Chicago were always chasing the next ‘hot meal’. It made me shudder to even think about. The guy warned me that since I was newly-minted billionaire, I should be on the lookout for ‘gold-digging behaviors’ in any women I was interested in.
I’d lost myself thinking about it as we tucked into our breakfast together that morning. Rylee was busy cutting up a grapefruit while Jayden was shoveling some kind of chocolate cereal into his mouth. Robin was idly circling events on her pamphlet for things she wanted to check out during the week. By contrast, I was staring into nothingness and my French toast had gone cold.
“Mama! Let’s see fisheees!” Jayden cried.
“We’ve seen the fishes already, Jayden,” Rylee replied with a smile. “Don’t you want to see anything else?”
“No! Fisheees, fisheees, fisheees! Again!” he replied with a mouthful of cereal.
Robin and Rylee laughed at him before Rylee rolled her eyes affectionately. “Okay, my sweet boy, whatever you want,” she said before stroking his face.
“Mama, get off!” Jayden snapped, pulling away from her.
“Oh, I’m sorry, baby. I forget you’re a big boy now,” she said as she withdrew her hand.
“Me big boy!”
“I know, I know.”
I was watching their interaction with rapt attention when I felt a hand brush against my shoulder. I turned quickly to see the polished, purple finger nails of the one and only Alexa Gilroy. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I looked up at her.
“Spencer…” she whispered as she leaned over me and her sweet-smelling hair fell over her shoulders. The low-cut dress she was wearing revealed far more cleavage than was entirely necessary and I averted my gaze.
“Good morning, Alexa,” I greeted in my most civil tone of voice. “How are you doing today?”
“Oh, I’m just swell, Spencer,” she replied breathily. “How about you?”
“Well, I’m enjoying spending time alone with my friends here,” I told her, hinting that I wanted her to leave, but unsurprisingly, she didn’t get the message.
“You’re such a good friend, Spencer,” she said, tightening her grip on my shoulder before she pulled a chair over and sat down next to me. “Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?”
“Um, I’m not sure, I’ll have to let you know on that one,” I replied with a thin-lipped smile. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to make a phone call.” That part was a lie, but I couldn’t stand sitting there, watching her try to worm her way into my life uninvited. Didn’t she have any shame?!
I stood and I managed to walk back to the villa and far away from Alexa’s roaming hands. It was incredibly frustrating that instead of spending a quiet breakfast with Rylee and my son, I was hiding out because of some chick’s unwanted advances. Instead, I sighed and flipped open my laptop. I relaxed back into the plush couch in the living room and began checking my e-mails while I waited for Rylee, Jayden, and Robin to come back.
After about twenty minutes, I heard the sound of Jayden’s tiny footfalls as they ran along the hallway. I smiled and looked up from my computer. “Hey Jayden, how was breakfast?” I asked.
“Good!” he replied as he trampled his way across the villa toward me with Robin in tow. “Time for fisheees!”
Rylee appeared behind him then looking fondly at her son. She was as beautiful a vision as ever in her flowing orange dress decorated in a sunflower pattern. Her hair was pulled back in a messy bun, but a few strands fell around her face and framed it. Sunglasses sat atop her head and sandals adorned her feet. It was such a difference than seeing her in that awful bottle green uniform from the grocery store and I was pleased. I wished she could look as relaxed as she did that day every day.
“Granny found a place that do boat rides with glass in the bottom, honey,” she explained as she kneeled down beside Jayden. “So, we’re going to see all kinds of fish and maybe even a dolphin or two.”
“D-dolf win?” Jayden attempted to pronounce the difficult word.
“Dolphin,” Rylee corrected him. “If we want to get there on time, we’d better hurry up and head out. Make sure you grab the shark you wanted to bring with you.”
“Okay, Mommy,” Jayden called as he ran through the villa toward his room.
“Have you got room for one more?” I asked, excited about the possibility of spending more time with Rylee and Jayden.
Rylee looked over at me with fondness in her smile. “Of course,” she answered with a nod.
My heart warmed. Throughout the vacation, Rylee seemed to have softened. The more time I spent with her and her family, the more I began to believe she would finally let us be together.