“Great,” Lace said, snatching the phone from Katie’s fingers. “You’re free, right?”
“I need someone to watch Heather.”
Lace gave her a semi-disgusted look. “Duh. I’ll do it. It’s Friday night. You should go out with this…TeddyF. Oh, he’s hot.”
“His profile picture is a cartoon.”
“Yeah, and he’s gorgeous, even as an animated head.” Lace’s thumbs tippity-tapped, and she grinned as she hit send and handed the phone back.
Katie almost didn’t dare to look at it. “What did you say?”
“Read it.”
Katie rolled her eyes and said, “Doing nothing tonight. Let me see if I can get a sitter.” She glanced at Lace. “I’m tired.”
“And you’re never going to meet the man of your dreams if you take a nap every Friday night.”
“It’s not every Friday night,” Katie grumbled as her phone blinged at her.
I hope you can. I’d love to meet you.
A warmth started in her stomach and radiated outward to all of her limbs. She could make him wait ten minutes before saying she’d found someone to babysit. So she did.
Katie sat at an outside table, her heeled foot tapping while she waited. She wasn’t being impatient—Teddy wasn’t late yet. No, it was nervous energy that had her heel clicking against the stones with the rhythm of a metronome.
Heather hadn’t had any homework, not that Katie made her do it on Friday nights. But there’d been absolutely no reason why she couldn’t go on this date, and while she didn’t really want to cancel, the anxiety over the unknown had her wishing she’d put on a wig and a giant pair of sunglasses before coming to the bistro.
She fingered the ends of her hair, which she’d actually let down out of its customary ponytail, the curl it held naturally quite nice when she wasn’t trying to keep it out of the toilet. She’d let Lace switch out the black cardigan for a bright red one, but with the blue and white dress, she felt more like the American flag than a woman ever should.
Every man who walked by sent her heartbeat into a tizzy, but none of them veered into Bora Bora’s. Seven o’clock came and then went, and still Teddy hadn’t shown up.
The three minutes she waited felt like three years, and then someone said, “Katie?” in a deep, luxurious voice that reminded her of melted chocolate and marshmallows.
It also sounded very much like… “Theo?” She turned, sure she would not come face-to-face with her ex-husband.
That couldn’t happen.
But she stared right into the blazing blue eyes of Theodore Fleming himself. Very much an older version of the man she’d married twenty-five years ago. She blinked, wanting to rub her eyes with her fists.
“Theo?” she said again, half-hopeful that he wouldn’t remember her. Which was the most foolish thing she’d ever thought. Of course he’s remember her. They’d shared a house and a bed and a life together for five years.
His eyes widened, and he fell back a step. “Katherine?”
She had enough time to take in the gorgeous quality of his silver hair, still with some of that dark brown in there. My, he’d aged very well. Very well, indeed. Those eyes hadn’t changed, nor had the fact that he kept his face absolutely clean-shaven.
He wore a black pair of slacks that looked like they’d cost as much as her mortgage, and a cornflower blue polo that accentuated his chest and upper arms. He certainly hadn’t put on ten pounds in the past few years, and Katie wanted to flee very, very badly.
“I can’t believe you’re going by Teddy now,” she said with a hint of acid in her voice. He’d never used that nickname in all the years she’d known him. But of course, one of the reasons they’d gotten divorced was because she hadn’t known him at all.
“Just on GBS,” he said easily, like seeing her after two decades hadn’t affected him at all. Had he ever thought about her? Did he even miss her after she’d declared him having an affair with his obsession to start his own business and walked out?
“It gives me a certain sense of…anonymity.” He flashed a smile that definitely held some nerves, and Katie was glad for that. “You never went by Katie.”
“Well, I do now,” she said, remembering her early twenties when Katherine carried more dignity, and Katie was for little girls.
He pulled out the chair like he would sit and stay. Horror snaked through her. “Mind if I sit?”
“I’m surprised you want to.”
He did and gazed at her, an unreadable expression on that handsome face. She’d give Theo that. He’d always been charming and handsome. She’d never doubted him, or the fact that he’d own and operate a very successful business one day. She just didn’t want to come second or third or sometimes last to his whims, ideas, dreams, and career.
“So,” he said. “Where did the Harrison come from?”
Ooh, Katie and Theo used to be married! THE BELATED BILLIONAIRE is coming on November 19, so preorder now to find out if they can make this second chance between them work.
Read more by Elana
Want to read more clean billionaire romance set in paradise? Of course you do! Preorder THE BELATED BILLIONAIRE, and get ready for some seriously sweet romance with an older hero!
Love Getaway Bay and want to read about more happily-ever-afters on the island? Yay! Start the Brides & Beaches Romance series with THE HELICOPTER PILOT’S BRIDE and meet the women at Your Tidal Forever, who plan weddings while they search for their own happily-ever-afters.
Do you love beach romance? Want to try a non-traditional beach in Washington, home of the world’s largest lavender festival? Read THE PARAMEDIC’S SECOND CHANCE, Book 1 in the Hawthorne Harbor Second Chance Romance series.
About Elana
Elana Johnson is the USA Today bestselling author of dozens of novels, from YA contemporary romance to adult beach romances. Check out her YA romance in JUST FRIENDS, ELEVATED, TO BE YOURS, and SOMETHING ABOUT LOVE. She is also the author of the Clean Billionaire Beach Club Romance series, the Brides & Beaches Romance series, and the Hawthorne Harbor Romance series.
Find her on Facebook, twitter, and her blog. Tap here to see all her books.
She also writes under the pen name Liz Isaacson, who is the author of the USA Today bestselling author of the Three Rivers Ranch Romance series, the #1 bestselling Gold Valley Romance series, the Brush Creek Brides series, the Steeple Ridge Romance series (Buttars Brothers novels), the Grape Seed Falls Romance series, and the Christmas in Coral Canyon Romance series (Whittaker Brothers novels).
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THE BRAVE BILLIONAIRE
Book Eleven, Clean Billionaire Beach Club Romance series
by Elana Johnson
Copyright © 2018 by AEJ Creative Works Inc, Elana Johnson
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Cover design by Captiva Publishing, http://captivapublishing.com/services/
Interior design by AEJ Creative Works Inc.
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