Page 90 of Forbidden Billionaires, Vol. 9

"No. I got a pretty decent scholarship. And my dad is paying for the rest of it.

I haven't seen him that much since my parents got divorced when I was a kid.

But he loves throwing money at me, not that I ever ask him to.

" I was rambling. I had a tendency to do that when I was nervous.

I shrugged my shoulders to make it seem like what I had just said was normal.

"Sorry."

"It's fine. It's better that way.” It wasn’t. I was pretty sure he was paying for my college so I wouldn’t bother him and his new family. Paid silence. “Honestly, he's kind of an asshole."

He laughed.

God he had a nice laugh.

"Okay. Tell me more."

"I mean, what do you want to know?" I wanted to ask him questions. I already knew everything about myself.

"Well, why are you here for the summer? Why didn't you stay in California?"

"I don't know.” Lame answer. “It's complicated." Lamer answer.

"That means you do know, Jellyfish Girl.

" We stopped outside one of the Grottos pizza joints on the boardwalk.

I knew of at least two more within walking distance.

It was kind of ridiculous. But their pizza was amazing so I didn't mind.

We walked past the hostess and went into the outdoor bar portion of the restaurant.

Some of his lifeguard friends greeted him.

I was waiting for someone to say his name, but none of them did. This was so frustrating.

He pulled a stool out for me at the bar. I sat down and he took the seat beside me. The bartender came over.

"What would you like?" my lifeguard asked me.

"Whatever you're having is fine."

He turned to the bartender and ordered two beers.

Before he could press me, I decided I should ask him a question. "So, are you in school?"

"No, I just graduated. I start my real job in the fall." The bartender came back with two beers. My lifeguard took a long sip.

"You wanted one last fun summer?"

"Something like that." He smiled at me. "So are you going to answer my question? Or do I have to get you drunk first?" It looked like he winked, but I couldn’t be sure because he was still wearing his sunglasses.

How could I possibly word the answer to his question?

That my boyfriend of two and a half years had cheated on me at the beginning of last semester with some girl with huge tits?

I thought he was my forever. We had talked about our future all the time.

I thought he was going to propose on the night I walked in on him in bed with someone else.

He was the first person to befriend me on campus and all of his friends kind of just adopted me.

When we split up, those friends turned out to not actually be my friends either.

The rest of spring semester had been lonely and unbearable.

I hated SMU. And I hated California. I didn't want to go back.

But I also didn't want to switch schools with only one year left.

I needed to finish some degree. I was close enough on a few majors, I just needed to choose which one. Was that what he wanted to hear?

"You probably have to get me drunk first,” I said instead of telling him the whole depressing story.

He laughed. "Okay. I'll see what I can do. Let's try a different question then. Do you have any siblings?"

"No, I'm an only child. Well, kind of. I have half-sisters. But they’re a lot younger than me and I rarely ever see them.” I looked down at my beer. “My dad’s new family.”

"Okay. Kind of an only child of divorced parents. Do they live around here?"

"My dad lives in Austin. But my mom lives about an hour from here.

My original plan was to stay with her this summer.

But she's dating this new guy and I felt like I'd be intruding.

" I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. When I called her back the other day, she had been talking about some cruise she was going on later this summer. I decided it was better not to bother her with the fact that I was back in town since she was leaving soon anyway. I didn’t want to make her feel bad.

We both finished our beers and he ordered us another round. "So, that leads me back to my original question. Why did you come back?"

I took another sip of my beer, wishing I could down the whole thing as unladylike as possible.

"The simple answer is that I felt lost. I needed to come home.

And when I couldn't go home, I thought that this was the next best place.

I spent so much time here when I was younger that this seems like home to me. "

"So what made you feel lost?"

My lifeguard was particularly nosey. But for some reason it didn’t bother me.

Or maybe the beer running through my veins made me forget about the fact that I shouldn’t have even been out with him in the first place.

"I think it was a lot of things all at once.

I'm having trouble deciding what I want to do when I graduate for one.

You're lucky that you have it all figured out. "

"Yeah, lucky. I. Am. All. Set." He took a long sip of his beer.

The way he said it made it seem like he didn't really feel like he was all set or lucky. "You're not excited about it? What are you going to be doing?"

"Pushing papers in Corporate America. The dream job."

"If you don't want to work at the place that offered you a job, then why are you gonna do it?"

"I don't know. I had an internship there and they offered me a job. I accepted it. It pays well." He shrugged.

"Well maybe you should cancel."

"Being a lifeguard only in the summer doesn't exactly pay well."

"I don't know. I'm tempted to stay here. Maybe I'll drop out of school and be a beach bum."

He laughed. "I doubt you'd actually do that. But let me know if you do and I'll reconsider my position."

A girl walked over to us. "Hey, I need a teammate for pool. You in?" She touched his shoulder. It was the same lifeguard I had seen him with the other day. I disliked her even more.

"Do you need two more?" He looked over at me.

"Ben and Jillian are challenging us ," the girl said in a rather rude tone. "Come on."

"Oh, it's okay," I said. "Go ahead. I'm horrible at pool, so it's better if I just watch. And my friend will be here any second." Probably. Hopefully.

"You sure?" my lifeguard asked me.

"Yeah."

"Okay. Come with me then." He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the back of the restaurant where there were some table games.

It felt weird to have my hand held again after going so many months being alone.

I looked down at his fingers intertwined with mine.

I liked this. He stopped and I looked up at him.

I wasn't sure when he had taken off his aviators, but they were now hooked on the front of his shirt.

He was staring down at me with the most amazing deep blue eyes I had ever seen.

He should not have been hiding those under sunglasses.

I wasn't sure if it was the booze, but I was speechless. Screw this not being a date. I could stare into his eyes for the rest of my life. It felt like I was swimming in them they were so blue.

He smiled at me and let go of my hand. "This won't take long. I'm pretty awesome at pool."

"This should be fun to watch then." There were a few seats next to an old jukebox in the corner. I sat down in the one closest to the pool table.

The girl clearly liked him. She was bending over rather seductively whenever she took a shot.

And she kept lightly nudging his arm. She even asked him for advice on how to hold her cue stick so that he had to put his hands on her.

But it didn't seem like they were dating.

Whenever he made a shot he just high-fived her.

Unlike the other couple they were playing.

Ben and Jillian were clearly dating because they kept making out every few minutes.

Almost a ridiculous amount. If they had been alone, they probably would have been banging on the pool table.

I laughed silently to myself. The book I was reading was definitely messing with my head. Who had sex on pool tables?

Every now and then my lifeguard would look over at me. I kept giving him a thumbs up because I couldn't think of anything better to do.

I was halfway done with my third beer by the time Kristen showed up.

She spotted me across the bar, waved like a maniac, and came running over.

“You could have told me which Grottos. I’ve been all over the freaking boardwalk searching for you.”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I should have checked my phone.”

“You think?” She adjusted her super short miniskirt and somehow made it even more inappropriate. “I’m not too late, am I? Which one is he?”

“Would you lower your voice?” I grabbed her arm and pulled her down onto the stool beside mine.

“I ran all over the boardwalk in heels , Mila. If you don’t tell me who he is I’m going to kill you.”

Apparently I was going to be murdered tonight. Just not by my lifeguard. “I didn’t tell you to wear high heels. I just walked off the beach and came here. How was I supposed to know you were going to dress up?”

“Yeah…well…I wanted to look good. So which one is he?” She started moving her head around like a wild banshee.

“The one playing pool.” I gestured to the pool table, hoping she’d stop being so obvious.

“Oh. I think he’s seeing someone…”

I glanced back at the game. Ben and Jillian were making out again. “Not that guy. The other one.”

“Well, now I get it. He’s totally stalkable.”

“I’m not stalking him.” Why did everyone keep saying that?

“You kind of are. But he’s super cute, I totally get it. So which other lifeguards are single?”

I shrugged. The only person I had talked to was my lifeguard. And the girl that was clearly desperate for his attention. Not me. The blonde lifeguard that was currently leaning so far over to make a shot that I could see her bathing suit bottom beneath her jean skirt. Give me a break.