The Belated Billionaire

by Elana Johnson

  “What, Theo?” she asked, usually not one to press a conversation into a direction it didn’t naturally go. But this felt important.

  “I’ll just say it, and you can tell me I’m stupid.”

  “If I must.”

  “The money doesn’t matter to you, does it?” He paused, but not nearly long enough for her to breathe and answer. “It’s just, I didn’t think it mattered to you. Twenty years ago, you told me over and over that you didn’t care how much money we had. That you just wanted to be with me.” He coughed. Or maybe it was a scoff. Something.

  Katie blinked, surprise darting through her. “Theo, money has never mattered all that much to me.”

  “Okay, good.”

  “It does seem like you might not have time to spend on me right now, though,” she said. “I get it if you need to push my stuff back. I’m not a paying customer.”

  “I’m not worried about that,” he said.

  “All right. Well, you let me know.”

  “I will. Hey, I was, uh, thinking, maybe I’d bring over a treat or something, get to know Heather a little before the party.” He sounded hopeful and scared at the same time, and Katie sat upright on her bed.

  “When?”

  “I don’t know, like twenty minutes or so?”

  “Twenty minutes,” squeaked out of her mouth. Could she get herself presentable in twenty minutes? At least the house was already clean. “Sure.”

  “Great, see you then.” He hung up, and Katie collapsed back onto the pillows, a warm glow emanating from her body. Theo was coming over.

  And while he’d said that his two new, huge clients meant he wouldn’t have time to work on her app, what she was really worried about was that he wouldn’t have time to spend with her.

  “But he’s coming over,” she said. “And bringing a treat. So he has time.”

  But for how long?

  She couldn’t brush away the thought as she swiped mascara on her eyelashes and swept pink gloss on her lips. And then he rang the doorbell, and every cell in her body rioted.

  One step at a time, she told herself as she went to answer the door. That was what she’d done when she’d filed for divorce the first time. What she’d done when she found out about Ray’s drug problem. What she’d done when she’d uprooted her whole life and moved with her daughter across the ocean to a new state, for a fresh start.

  She could do it with Theo too.

  Eight

  Theo knocked on Katie’s door, already having rung the doorbell with no success. He carried a box of muffins, desperately hoping they counted as a treat.

  A moment later, the door opened and Katie stood there, looking positively radiant. She leaned into the doorway. “Hey.”

  Theo hadn’t been out of the dating pool for so long that he didn’t recognize flirting when he saw it. “Hey, yourself.” She seemed relaxed, but he felt like he’d swallowed a hand grenade that could explode at any moment.

  “My doorbell works,” she said, falling back a step to give him room to enter.

  “Oh, I… thought maybe you hadn’t heard me.” Theo stepped into her house, the scent of the Hawaiian breeze overly tropical and barely covering the antiseptic smell of air freshener. The floors gleamed, and nothing seemed to be even a hair out of place.

  “What’s in the box?” she asked, leading him down a hallway and into a big open room at the back that was the kitchen, dining room, and living room.

  “Muffins,” he said, detouring over to the kitchen counter. No dishes in the sink. Everything was scrubbed and sanitary. He wondered if she lived like this all the time, or if she’d gone into Tasmanian devil mode and cleaned up after he’d called.

  When they were married, she did clean up after meals and put things away from time to time. But it wasn’t an obsession. She wasn’t overly neat, nor was she messy.

  “Is Heather here?” he asked, turning away from his assessment of her tidiness.

  “She’s finishing up a couple of things.” Katie smiled at him, and he approached the couch where she sat slowly.

  “Great,” he said. “Do you want to talk about your app?”

  “Sure.”

  “So I’ve done a thorough assessment of your website, and I think you should follow these steps.” He launched into his standard speech about putting customer testimonials on the front page, with pictures of her—her, not a model—and her staff. Smiling, happy pictures with flowers and all the cleaning supplies.

  “Your prices are way off,” he said next. “You can be charging fifteen percent more here, and people would pay it.” He glanced up, but Katie wasn’t smiling and nodding along. She wore a frown and looked puzzled.

  Theo continued anyway, sure her daughter was about to burst into the room and interrupt. “And the app can match. Same pictures. I’m thinking something green. Tropical. That does really well here in Getaway Bay, and you use those Earth-friendly products—at least that’s what your website says.” He looked at her fully now. “Are you still using those?”

  “Yes.”

  “And the first thing customers see when they open your app is how to book. What they can schedule and when. I think you’ll see an increase of at least ten percent when we get this all up and running.”

  He paused, mostly because he felt out of breath. He didn’t need to give the whole spiel like it was a sprint.

  “I’m not raising my prices,” Katie said darkly, and he clued in to the angry edge in her eyes. “I built this company on fair prices, and I’m not raising them now.”

  “But you could—”

  “I know what I could be doing,” she said, pushing herself to a standing position. “I know my website needs work, and if you think we should do green, great.” She moved over to the mouth of another hallway that branched off the main one. “Heather! Theo’s here. Please come out and meet him.”

  She turned back to him and folded her arms, clearly upset with him. “You know, it’s a miracle I started a business without you. Oh, and managed to stay in business all these years. In fact, I wonder how I’ve even survived for the past twenty.” Her eyes flashed with fire, and not the good kind that said she wanted to kiss him later.

  “Katie, I—” But he had no idea what to say. And then a girl that stood almost as tall as Katie appeared at her side. Same brown hair, not too blonde, and not too dark. Same round face shape; same sloped nose.

  “Yeah, Mom?”

  Katie nodded toward Theo, who hastened to stand. “Theo’s taking you to the birthday party. Go say hello.”

  Heather looked at him, a smile blooming on her face. She walked forward and extended her hand for him to shake. “Hello. I’m Heather.”

  He took her hand and shook it, thinking her very mature. He supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d met Katie and married her at age twenty-two and she’d been remarkably mature for her age.

  “Nice to meet you, Heather. I’m Theo.”

  “So are you my mom’s boyfriend?”

  Theo coughed, heat from the very center of the Earth seeming to rush through him. He glanced over Heather’s head to Katie, who wore a placid look, the fire in her eyes still dancing there.

  “I guess so,” he said, hoping that wouldn’t add fuel to the flames. He and Katie hadn’t exactly defined what they were. But boyfriend was better than ex-husband.

  “Good,” Heather said. “So I’ll introduce you as that at the party. There’s going to be a lot of girls there, and they’ll want to know.” She moved over to the kitchen area and opened a drawer before pulling out a notebook. “So I have a few questions for you.” She perched on a barstool like she was Barbara Walters herself, about to conduct the most important interview of the century.

  “Oh—questions.” Theo looked at Katie, who wore a soft, fond smile on her face and watched her daughter. “All right. Let’s do some questions.” He moved into the kitchen too, and Katie offered water to everyone.

  He declined, wondering if it was a mistake to do so, and
sat at the bar with Heather. She launched into her first question with, “How old are you?”

  “Forty-nine,” he said.

  “Any kids?”

  “No.”

  She marked something in her notebook, and Theo relaxed, thinking this might be fun. “What do you do?”

  “I build apps and websites,” he said.

  Heather looked up at him. “You do?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She threw a quick glance at her mom. “Amelia Grace’s father does that.”

  “Oh.” Theo sat up a little straighter. “What’s her dad’s name?”

  “I don’t know. Mom?”

  “Collin Thresher,” Katie said, almost as if she knew what kind of reaction she’d get from Theo.

  He nearly tumbled off his barstool. “Collin Thresher?” he repeated. The surprise pouring through him couldn’t have been any colder. He cleared his throat when he saw the curiosity on Heather’s face.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Amelia Grace Thresher gets everything she wants,” Katie said. “Remember that at the party. Both of you.”

  Theo knew exactly what she was saying, but he wasn’t sure Heather did.

  “Do you know him?” she asked.

  “Well, kind of,” Theo said. “He owns the second largest tech development firm in the state.” Collin worked all over the islands, and Theo had heard he was after Island Airways too. Supreme satisfaction sang through him, but he quelled it. The paperwork wasn’t signed yet, and until it was, nothing was official.

  “They mostly work with banks and big companies,” Theo said. “And as far as I know, Collin himself doesn’t actually write the apps the way I do.”

  “What company do you own?” she asked.

  Theo hesitated. “Well, I actually own more than one.”

  If Heather was surprised, she didn’t show it. She waited, her pencil poised as if she’d write them all down and memorize them before the party started. Katie, however, had picked up a dish rag and she wiped in a circular motion over the same spot of countertop. Around and around, her eyes glued to Theo’s.

  “Okay,” Heather said, clearly waiting for him to list them.

  “So the biggest one is called Software Solutions,” he said with a start. “And I own one called Singles Network. And one called The Web Developer.” He cleared his throat and looked down at the counter. If someone had asked him last week which company brought in the most revenue, he’d have said Singles Network, as that branch of his business dealt with all the metropolitan areas served by the dating app.

  But with Gladstone Financial and Island Airways on board, The Web Developer was definitely more lucrative this week.

  “Do you have any pets?” Heather asked, and Katie sucked in a breath.

  Theo caught her eye, but he couldn't interpret what she was trying to tell him, not the way he used to be able to. “No,” he said slowly, something finally springing to his mind. “But I love cats.”

  Heather’s whole face lit up and she said, “Really? Want to come meet my cats?” She set the notebook and pencil down and darted for the back door.

  Theo was obviously meant to follow, and he looked at Katie, smiled, and said, “I guess I better go meet her cats.”

  “Thank you,” Katie called after him, and Theo turned back to her from the doorway. “We’ll talk later about your app, okay?”

  She nodded, and he went into the backyard, which was clearly tended to and loved by Katie. He could see her careful hand in the way the bushes had been cut back. Feel her spirit in the bubbling water fountain.

  “They don’t come out much,” Heather said. “But if you sit real quiet, you might be able to see one.” She currently sat on the bottom step of the deck, and Theo went down and joined her.

  “Where do they—ah. I see.” He spotted the row of water bowls, and then the ones filled with food. “You do this? Every day?”

  “I change the water in the morning,” she said. “And the food at night.” She watched the yard, especially out by the trees.

  “It sure is beautiful back here,” he said, wondering if he should’ve gotten a house on the island. Someplace like this, where he could come out to the backyard and find peace and solace when he was working on a difficult puzzle or problem.

  “My mom takes good care of the yard,” Heather said. “She loves it.”

  “I can tell.” And he knew that from the past too.

  “She told me you guys were married.”

  Theo’s eyebrows shot up. “She did?”

  “Yeah.” Heather sighed. “Said it was a long time ago.”

  “It was,” he agreed. But his memories of her, of their marriage and time together, seemed to be so vivid. So real. So present.

  “But you like her, right?” Heather asked.

  “Yes, of course,” Theo said, finding it easier to talk to Heather than he’d thought it would be.

  “Okay, good,” Heather said. “Because my dad is a real jerk.”

  Theo had not heard a single thing about her father, and he didn’t want to hear it from her anyway. “I—I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Look!” She pointed, her voice dropping as she whispered, “There’s one there. That one’s called Boots, because he has white fur on his paws.”

  Theo couldn’t see a darn thing, but he nodded like he could. “Oh, I see him.” He hoped he could make this birthday party fun for Heather. She was a sweet girl, and he liked her already.

  “Time for the party,” Katie called, and Heather turned toward her.

  “Mom, you scared off Boots.” She huffed and got up. Stomping up the steps, she said, “And we barely got to see him.”

  “Sorry,” Katie said in a tone that indicated she couldn’t care less about the stray cat in her trees. Theo chuckled as he came back to the deck too.

  “This place is amazing,” he said. “When do you have time to do this?” He paused in front of her, finding her absolutely breathtaking in this sunlight.

  She gazed up at him, those oceanic eyes pulling him in, in, in like she was a strong tide. “We spend time on things we care about.”

  Theo wondered if she was lecturing him or not. “Wise words,” he said. “Do you think I’ll survive this?” He leaned closer, inhaling the sweet scent of Katie’s hair.

  “Oh, I’m sure you’ll be fine.” She grinned at him and brushed her fingers against his. “I can’t wait to hear all about it.”

  Theo had his doubts, but he buried them deep, something he’d gotten very good at doing over the years. When a deal fell through, he only allowed himself to wallow in doubt and disappointment for a short time. Sometimes a day. Once he was down and out for a few months—and as he dug in his pocket for his keys he realized that was when Katie had left him and his second business had failed, all within a month of each other.

  “Is that your car?” Heather stood at the top of the front steps, staring at his convertible.

  “Yes,” he said. “I can put the top up so your hair doesn’t get all messed up.”

  She looked at him with awe in her expression. “Amelia Grace is going to freak when she sees that.” She skipped down the steps, a bump of pure glee in her movement.

  “Why?” he asked, following her.

  “She’s always bragging about how awesome her dad’s cars are,” she said.

  Theo got in and started the car. “Seatbelts,” he said. He backed out of Katie’s driveway, catching sight of her standing in the doorway, her arms clenched around her middle and a worried look on her face. He wanted to reassure her that they’d be fine, but he just focused on the road.

  “So,” he said. “It seems like you don’t even like Amelia Grace all that much.” He watched her out of his peripheral vision, hoping he wasn’t overstepping his bounds.

  “She’s all right,” Heather said.

  “Then why do you want to go to this party so bad?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Heather said. “It’s just…she’s frie
nds with everyone, and if you’re not friends with her, there’s not anyone else to be friends with.”

  “What about boys?” Theo asked.

  “My mom says I’m not allowed to date until I’m twenty-five.”

  Theo tipped his head back and laughed, though that sounded exactly like something Katie would say. “You can be friends with a boy without dating him.”

  “Yeah, I know.” But Heather didn’t say anything else, and Theo followed the GPS to get to the Thresher’s house. As he pulled behind the other cars, a trickle of unrest ran through him. But he straightened his shoulders and handed Heather the birthday present she’d brought with her.

  “All right,” he said. “Let’s do this.”

  Nine

  Katie didn’t know what to do with herself. Saturday evening without Heather. Without any chores. Without any obligations. She thought about calling Claire but dismissed the idea quickly. She just wanted to change into a pair of pants that had a stretchy waistband, dig around in the freezer for some ice cream, and find something romantic to watch on TV.

  So she did all of that, enjoying every moment of the peace and solitude. Every once in a while, a nervous thought about Heather entered her mind, but she pushed them away. Both Theo and her daughter had phones, and if something was wrong, Katie was sure one of them would let her know.

  But it was a birthday party. What could possibly go wrong?

  Katie knew, though. Amelia Grace could be wonderful and kind, pay all kinds of attention to Heather like they were best friends, and then the next day at school, she’d act like she didn’t even know Heather existed.

  Katie suspected there were some problems behind the perfect front doors at the Thresher mansion, and she’d tried to tell Heather that some girls were just insecure. But Heather didn’t want to hear anything bad about Amelia Grace.

  So Katie had stopped talking about it, choosing instead to follow Heather’s lead, answer her questions, and listen to her if she brought up the other girl.

  It seemed like hours and hours had passed before the front door opened, and Heather yelled, “Mom!” Her footsteps ran toward her, and Katie had just gotten herself to the edge of the bed when her daughter appeared in the doorway.