Page 22 of Where We Bloom (The Blackwells of Montana #3)

Her gaze searches mine as if she’s making sure I’m telling the truth. She must believe me because she nods. The Italian nachos are set in front of us, and I discover I’m hungrier than I thought I was.

“What are your questions for me?” Billie asks.

“What are you wearing under that dress?”

She doesn’t even pause in her reply. “Something that will make you sweat when I get you home.”

I reach over and brush her hair behind her ear. “All you have to do is exist for that to happen.”

She smirks, but I don’t miss the satisfaction that moves through her eyes.

“How long have you been divorced?”

Ah, here we go. After our talk yesterday, I wondered when she’d dig into this topic. Not that I have a problem discussing it with her because if the roles were reversed, I’d want to know, too.

“More than ten years. Maybe closer to twelve now, actually.”

She reaches for another nacho and chews. “Was it amicable? ”

“As much as divorce can be.” She’s watching me with serious eyes, and I lean back in the chair.

“I was twenty-three when I married her and almost twenty-eight when it was over. I’d known her a long time.

Her family and mine are friends, and when it was suggested that we’d make a fine match, I didn’t balk at it. ”

“It was an arranged marriage?” Her eyes widen at that, and I smile.

“Not like that, no, and she’d be mighty chuffed if she thought I said so. It was … easy , I guess is the word for it. Fiona’s a lovely woman. She’s pretty”—Billie narrows her eyes, and I squeeze her hand, enjoying her wee show of jealousy—“and we got along well. We still do, but just as friends.”

“So you married her because you liked her well enough and she fit into your world?”

“Those were my reasons.” Our entrée is set in front of us, and when we confirm that we don’t need anything else, the server leaves. Billie and I both grab a fork and eat from one plate. “She would likely tell you that she thought she was in love with me at the time.”

Billie nods thoughtfully, but there’s no judgment there. “Interesting.”

“She hated how much I traveled for work. I wasn’t home much.”

“Where was home base?” she asks.

“Dublin. That’s where our headquarters is, although my family is originally from Galway. Have you ever been? ”

Billie’s smile is easy and soft. “No. I’d never used my passport before we all went to London last month.”

I’m going to take this woman everywhere. And I can’t fucking wait. I want to show her the world. Every corner of it.

“So she lived in Dublin while you flew all over the place.”

“Aye.” I nod and push my glasses up my nose. “She could have come with me, but she preferred to stay in Ireland. And I was determined to earn my seat as CEO of Gallagher Hotels.”

“So really, it sounds like you wanted different things.”

“We did.”

“And no kids?”

I quirk an eyebrow at her. “I didn’t lie to you when I told you that I haven’t any children, angel.”

“Just checking. Besides, Skyla would have mentioned it.” She chews thoughtfully. “And now Fiona is married to your best friend?”

I feel the smile come when I think of the two of them together. “That’s how it should have been all along. Ronan and Fiona are amazing together. And they have two gorgeous boys.”

“A happy ending for them.” She smiles, setting her fork aside.

“You can’t be finished eating, angel. There’s still a lot of food here.”

“Pasta is filling. I ate a ton of nachos, and I’m about to have dessert. Trust me, I’ve had plenty.” She wipes her mouth with her napkin.

“Let’s talk about you now.” I set my own cutlery aside. “No long-term relationship for you?”

“Not currently,” she says, grinning when I lift an eyebrow. “Well, let’s see. I dated a little here and there through high school and college. Nothing super serious.”

“Were all the boys you knew just idiots?”

She smirks at that. “I’m picky, Connor. There’s really no other way to put it. And I don’t have much of a filter, and you already pointed out that I have a disgusted face.”

“You do, aye.”

“Yeah, well, can you imagine how well it goes over when a guy I’m not in any way attracted to approaches me, and I’m trying to be kind and let them down easily, but I have that look on my face because I don’t even know that it’s there?”

God, she’s amazing.

“You simply walk around Montana hurting feelings, then, is that it?”

Now, she drops her face in her hands. “No. It’s not like I’m approached all that often. Anyway, I dated one guy in college for about six months, and he took me home to meet his family.”

She looks up at me with that disgusted face firmly in place.

“I have to know what happened.”

“In all fairness, he had told me, no, warned me , that he was close to his mother.”

“Oh no .

“And my stupid ass thought, Oh, isn’t that nice? He has a good relationship with his mom. But that’s not what it was, not even close. The second I stepped into that house, that woman had it out for me. She asked him, right in front of me, why he would date a fat girl.”

My hand fists on the table, and she keeps going.

“He did tell her to stop being mean. But she didn’t stop.

At one point, he went to the bathroom, and she leaned over and informed me that she’d never let me marry him.

That she’d do everything in her power to make sure he knew what a piece-of-shit whore I am, and he’d dump me before the night was over. ”

“What’s this woman’s name?” I ask before taking a sip of my water.

My angel, my perfect girl, laughs.

“I don’t find this to be funny at all, bumble.”

“Oh, it’s funny, all right.” The smile on her face is one of utter, smug pleasure. “He came back into the room and sat next to me but didn’t touch me. Now, that boy had been fucking me six ways to Sunday for three months.”

“I thought you said you’d been seeing him for six months?”

“Hey, despite what his bitch of a mother said, I held out for three whole months.” She snorts at that.

“We’re sitting there in her living room, and he won’t touch me, so at this point, I knew it was over.

There was no damn way I was going to keep seeing this guy.

Despite what she said, I’d had no illusions that I’d marry him anyway. ”

I hate her saying those words about anyone .

“I was twenty-one. I wasn’t getting married anytime soon, and if she’d asked me, I would have told her that we were just …

seeing each other, I guess. I wasn’t trying to trap that boy into anything.

I say boy because he was twenty-two and called his mother Mommy.

” She sips her water, and I’m enthralled.

Listening to her tell a story is fascinating.

“So she asked me what I was majoring in, making general conversation, but then she asked why I’d had an STD when I was seventeen. ”

My blood runs cold, but I don’t move a muscle. That woman is about to lose everything she loves for doing that to my angel.

“Connor.” She reaches over and takes my hand, and her face has lost all its humor. “I was a virgin when I was seventeen. I’ve never had an STD in my life.”

I frown, clinging to her hand. “Then what was she talking about?”

“I denied it. Told her she didn’t know what she was talking about. Her son proceeded to scoot away from me, scowling as if I was suddenly a rabid dog and he might catch something if he touched me. I was so mad.”

She shakes her head and takes a deep breath.

“Now, what I’m about to tell you is likely the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

“You can tell me anything, baby.”

She nods, then looks down at the uneaten dessert neither of us realized was delivered. Biting her lip, she shrugs and scoops up a mouthful of dessert.

“I demanded to know why she thought that about me. And she finally admitted that she’d searched my name in the database at her hospital.

She was a nurse, and she totally broke every HIPAA law in this country when she did that.

The hospital she works at is big and is tied to most of the clinics in that town, along with a lot of clinics and medical centers in western Montana.

So when she found someone in the system by the name of Willa Blackwell, she thought that was me.

Because Billie is sometimes a nickname for Willa. ”

She swallows and keeps talking. Christ, I want to scoop her up and set her in my lap.

“My given name is Billie. Everyone knows that my parents have a thing for B names. Not that his mom knew that. Anyway, she invaded that girl’s privacy trying to dig up dirt on me and broke the law and the terms of her work contract.”

“And what did you do about that, bumble?”

“I called her boss, told him what she’d done, and she was fired.

Then I called the police, and she got into huge trouble for HIPAA violations.

Finally, I told her son that he had better cut that umbilical cord because no girl would ever put up with that bullshit, least of all me.

When I left their house, I called Brooks to come get me since I was one hundred miles from home without a vehicle. ”

“This is the worst thing you’ve ever done?” I grin at her. I can’t help it.

“I got her fired. I ruined her entire career, but it wasn’t just because she called me fat or made me feel less than.

It was because there’s some girl out there whose rights were violated by that woman, who’s supposed to care about and take care of people.

What if that girl had been raped or had a boyfriend who was cheating on her, and she didn’t know?

It’s no one’s business why that happened to her, and the fact that she went hunting for it disgusted me. And I was having none of it.”

“Good girl. And what happened to her?”

“She’ll never work as a nurse again,” she replies.

“Beyond that, I’m not sure. I didn’t keep track.

I was just so pissed. The weird thing? He was actually a nice guy and not a jerk at all.

I mean, he was never going to be my guy, but he was decent.

Never pressured me, had a sense of humor, nothing really super wrong with him.

But wow, his mother was a piece of work.

Okay, enough about that. I had one boyfriend after that for about a year, and he was not a nice guy.

He hit me exactly once, and that was all it took for me to tell him to fuck right off. ”

“And what was his name?” I ask, hating that I asked the question about her dating history in the first place.

“Are you going to make him disappear for me, Mr. Billionaire?”

“Yes.”

Her smile falls, and she swallows hard, watching me. She wanted morally gray? She found it.

“Not worth it.”

Leaning in, I motion for her to meet me halfway over the table. When my mouth is next to her ear, I whisper, “No one touches you in anger and lives to tell about it, angel. You’ll give me a fucking name.”

She turns her face and kisses my cheek, brushing her nose against me. “Thank you, but in this case, it really is unnecessary. He’s already dead. Hiking incident two years ago.”

Billie sits back and cringes. “Sorry you asked?”

“Yes, but not for the reason you think. I hate that you went through any of that.”

“And I hate that you were once married to literally anyone , even if she is a nice, pretty girl from an appropriate family who ended up happily married to your best friend. So I guess we’re even.”

We stare at each other across the table, and I marvel again at how incredibly strong this woman is.

One would think a younger sister of four brothers would be weak or entitled.

Spoiled, even. But Billie is intelligent and thoughtful, so I’m not surprised that I feel that same connection with her from the first night we met.

The only thing that’s different is her eyes. She’s so … fatigued. And it’s only just past eight o’clock.

“Why do you look so tired, angel?”

She blinks at the sudden change in subject. “I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“I’m taking you home with me.”

It’s not a question.

“Ready when you are.”