Dearest Billionaire Jett: A Billionaire Romance (Carrington Billionaires Book 1) Read online

  "And hello to you," she greeted me right back. "How’s it going? I feel like we haven’t seen each other in so long..."

  "I know," I sighed in agreement, and I peered around the edge of the door to make sure that nobody was going to come in and bust me on a call while I was meant to be wolfing down lunch. Since the downsizing had started, it felt like every minute needed to be accounted for, or else someone from up on top would come down on your head to make your life miserable.

  "But I’m back tomorrow," she told me. "How about the two of us get together? I want to catch up on everything that’s been happening."

  I bit my lip. There was a whole lot to fill her in on. She didn’t even know that the hospital had let me go, and I didn’t know how I was going to tell her that I no longer had a job here. Or that I had replaced it with a position working for my childhood bully.

  "That sounds great," I replied, after a long pause. "My place? I’ll get the wine in, you just bring your fine ass, alright?”

  "Will do," she giggled in agreement. And then she paused. “Hey, by the way... are you alright?”

  "Yeah, I’m fine," I lied. "Why?”

  "You just sound a little… out of it, I don’t know," she replied. I grimaced. So I hadn’t been able to keep the effect of the last few days out of my voice as much as I had hoped to.

  "I’m fine, Petra," I assured her. "I’ll speak to you soon, alright? I have to finish lunch and get back to work."

  "Of course, saving lives," she agreed. "Take care, okay? Love you!”

  "Love you too," I mumbled down the line, and I hung up and put my phone away. I was looking forward to seeing her, but not to telling her the truth about everything that had been happening. I didn’t want her to worry, but it wasn’t like I was going to have much of a choice.

  Petra had been my best friend since nursing school – the two of us had met at a crossover for our two schools, when we had both been on the debate teams and stumbled over each other at a conference. She had always been bright, bouncy, so full of energy that I had always teased her that there was something unnatural about it. She was beautiful, and the guys always loved her, with her long, blond hair and her beautiful bright blue eyes. She always wanted the best for me, and I was scared shitless that I was going to have to deliver to her some news that was the polar opposite of that.

  Not to mention the fact that she only knew Jett from the bad stories I had told about my past. She was going to be so pissed when I told her that I had started working for him. And why shouldn’t she be? It was a crazy idea, really, and even though I knew that it was the best option available to me, it was still totally insane. Even I could see that...

  I finished up my lunch, even though I didn’t have much of an appetite for it, and headed back to work. I tried to keep my attitude bright and light as I went about my duties, but I could tell that my sadness was coming out of me in waves. It was a slow day on the floor, and eventually, Mariah beckoned me over and jerked her head towards the door.

  "I think you should just head back early," she told me bluntly, and I shook my head.

  "It’s okay," I replied brightly. "I don’t mind finishing out the rest of the shift-"

  "We don’t need you," she cut me off before I could get any further. "Go home, get some rest, yeah?"

  "Yeah," I finally replied, and I lowered my gaze to the ground and tried to keep the swell of hurt off my face. I had always loved working for this place, but it seemed like the feeling was far from mutual. Not that I was going to let it hurt me, or anything. It was just work. And soon enough, it wouldn’t even be that to me, would it?

  I headed home and climbed straight into bed – if I could sleep, then I wouldn’t have to think about the fact that my job there was about to be taken right out of my hands. It had been a long day, despite how quiet it had been on the floor, and I managed to close my eyes and start to drift off once more – but before I could drop comfortably in to sleep, my phone rang again.

  I groped for it on the nightstand next to me, eyes bleary as I tried to make out the name of who was calling me – but the number was unknown. I answered it, in case it was someone calling from the hospital.

  "Hello?” I croaked down the line. And a moment later, a familiar voice met my ear.

  "Olivia?" Jett spoke my name, and I sat bolt-upright in bed at once. How was it that his voice could still have that kind of effect on me, when it had been so long since I had been around him properly?

  "Jett," I managed to reply, and I swung my legs out of bed and sat up straight. The sound of his voice made every nerve-ending in my body feel like it was fizzing, coming to life in a million different ways all at once.

  "Did you get the pictures I sent?" He demanded, whilst sounding a little irritated that he had to be making this call – I furrowed my brow and shook my head, forgetting for a moment that he couldn’t actually see me.

  "What pictures?"

  "Check your messages," he replied bluntly, and I pulled the phone from my ear so that I could do as I was told – sure enough, he had sent along a stack of images of office furniture.

  "And what’s this for?" I asked.

  "It’s so you can choose the furniture that you want for the office," he told me.

  "I said I’ll be there next week," I reminded him. "We can go over all this stuff then, can’t we?”

  "I want to do it now," he replied, and I wondered if this was some kind of power-play to him – some way for him to make sure that he still very much had the upper hand over me. I bit back a sigh. Okay, well, if this was what he needed...

  "I really don’t mind what you get," I told him. "Whatever you think would be best."

  "You didn’t like the chair that I had," he reminded me. "So obviously we have some different ideas on what makes for a good working space, right?"

  "I guess..."

  "So, look at the pictures again and let me know which ones look good to you."

  Oh my God. He was going to make this so difficult for me, I could tell. I started going through the pictures that he had sent, putting him on speakerphone so that I could dismiss or confirm my interest in the furniture that he had suggested. I couldn’t believe he was really getting me to do this right now. Though, I supposed, he had no reason to think that I had been passed out asleep so early in the day.

  Finally, he seemed satisfied with the pieces that I had chosen, and he rounded off the call.

  "I’ll get these in for you," he told me. "Next week you can start using them."

  "Next week," I repeated after him, to make sure that he’d understood. "Okay. Next week, Jett."

  And with that, I hung up the call, and flopped back into bed. This was some primo control-freakery, and I didn’t know if I could handle it. Was this what he was going to be like when we worked together? Maybe I couldn’t handle this, after all. Maybe it had been a mistake. Maybe I should have known better than to let someone like Jett back into my life...

  Chapter Six – Jett

  "Alright, yeah, if you could just load them into the van," I ordered the guys with the office furniture – I could tell that they wanted to roll their eyes at me, but they knew better than that, given all the cash that I was dropping at their store right about now.

  I had picked out everything that Olivia had told me that she wanted, and I was looking forward to actually seeing it get some use – just a few days until she would be working with me for good, and then we could get down to business once and for all. Though she had been a little short with me on the phone, I had to admit, and there was some part of me that was more than a little pissed at how dismissive she had been towards what I wanted from her.

  I crossed my arms over my chest and watched as they loaded up the van, and my phone sprang to life in my pocket – I grabbed it at once. Probably her calling back to let me know that she was sorry she had hung up on me like that before. But, instead of her voice, I heard someone else entirely.

  "Hey, buddy," Jaden’s laid-back tones rang into my ear. "How’s it going?"

  "Jaden," I greeted him, turning away from the workmen so that I could get a little drop of privacy. "I’m good, how are you?”

  "Nothing to report here," He replied. Jaden was my older cousin, the leader of the pack when it came to having fun, and one of the many who had taken that inheritance and decided that the best thing to do with it was to have a good time. Maybe he had the right idea. He sounded way more relaxed than I did in that moment.

  "Just wanted to see how you were doing," he explained, and I grinned. Jaden never just called to check in. There was always an ulterior motive.

  "And what might you want from me this time?" I asked him.

  "Hey, I resent that you can see through me already," he laughed. "I have a trip planned and it looks like we’re going to be passing through San-Fran. I thought that it could be a good chance for us to catch up, right?"

  "Right," I agreed. When the two of us had lived in Boston at the same time, we had spent a lot of evenings together, but now that both of us were off living our lives it was harder to spend time with him. I was going to jump at the chance to hang out with him, even if it was only for a couple of nights.

  "So, you in, buddy?” He asked, and I grinned.

  "Yeah, I’m in," I promised him. "You just tell me when and where, alright?”

  "Will do," he agreed.

  "Safe travels," I told him. "I have some shit to take care of on my end, so you’ll have to excuse me for now."

  "Yeah, of course," he laughed. "I forget sometimes that you’re actually out there doing the most, aren’t you?"

  "I sure am," I agreed, and I bid him farewell and hung up the phone, turning my attention back to the workmen so that I could pick up where I had left off.

  An hour later,
and all the stuff was back at the house, and I had started putting it together. They had offered to come in and help me with it, but I was protective of my space and I didn’t like the thought of just anyone busting in there to get in my way.

  "You sure you don’t want a hand?" Micah asked, as he watched me sitting on the floor and trying to fit two pieces of a chair together. I shook my head.

  "I’m sure," I replied firmly, and I meant it. Last thing I needed right now was someone else getting all up in my business. Working on this furniture was a good distraction from the woman that I had purchased it for, that was for sure, and the last thing I wanted was to have to consider her once again.

  "This is all the stuff for that new assistant of yours, isn’t it?" He asked with interest, and I nodded again.

  "Sure is."

  "I still can’t believe that you really hired some girl you used to know in high school," he remarked. Micah had sensed the tension between the two of us as soon as we had come through the door together, and he had forced the whole story out of me as soon as she was out of there once more. I didn’t blame him – for reasons that I didn’t much like to think about, I very much preferred to keep my personal life to myself, and it wasn’t like I gave him much to go on when it came to what had happened before I had moved to business school and met him.

  "And some girl you used to bully, no less," he continued. I had been honest with him about the way I’d treated her before I had left high school – there was no point trying to dance around the point. I had been an asshole, so much of an asshole that I was still pretty sure that it was a miracle that she was so much as willing to be near me again.

  "Yeah, yeah, I know," I muttered, as I turned my attention back to the papers in front of me and tried to work out where I had gone wrong. So this divot was meant to line up with the prong from that piece there, but I was pretty sure that the divot had gone missing somewhere, because I couldn’t seem to find it anywhere...

  "Are you sure this is a good idea?” He asked me. I looked up at him and grinned.

  "I like her balls," I replied. "She came out to meet me at that diner, and she didn’t give a damn what I thought of her. I think we need someone like that around here, don’t you?”

  "You suggesting I don’t have enough balls for the both of us?" He fired back, a grin on his face. I nodded.

  "That’s exactly what I’m suggesting," I replied, and I squinted down at the paper again. "Hey, can you hold this for me? I don’t think this is a one-person job..."

  He got down on his knees to give me a hand, and the two of us put together the rest of the furniture in no time. It was dark out by the time he left to get something to eat, and I flopped down on the couch with Tesla and a beer, pleased that I had managed to put all of this new office together before Olivia had even walked through the door.

  Tesla rested her head on my belly, curled up between my legs – well, as curled as a dog of her size could be, at least. She was still enormous by any metric, but she was affectionate and she liked to think that she could still function as a lap-dog. I had adopted her nearly five years ago, when she had been a pup with nowhere to go – back then, I’d had no idea how I was meant to look after a dog, but she had made it easy for me to learn along the way. And she was a damn good sounding board, too, which was a useful trait right about now.

  "I know you like her," I remarked, scratching behind Tesla’s ears and thinking back to the enthusiastic greeting that she had given Olivia as soon as she had come through the door. Tesla let out a little snuffle of agreement.

  "But do you think she likes me?” I wondered aloud. "I mean, this could be a way for me to make amends to her, couldn’t it? Giving her a job in her time of need?”

  I sighed.

  "But I need to tell her why I treated her like that when we were in high school," I conceded. "I get it. But I really don’t want to have to tell her all of that. And I don’t think she wants to hear it, do you?”

  Tesla looked up at me, with those big brown eyes that made everything feel a little easier to handle. I rubbed her face and picked up my beer, sinking back into the couch. I knew what I had to do – I had known what I had to do for a while, really. But the thought of coming clean to her about everything? Yeah, I wasn’t sure that I had that in me. At least, not quite yet. Not until I’d had her around a little longer.

  Chapter Seven – Olivia

  As soon as I heard her calling my name, I knew just what was going to happen.

  "Olivia? Come into my office, won’t you?”

  Mariah had stuck her head around the door and gestured for me to come inside, and I let out a long sigh and allowed her to lead me in. I knew what was coming. It was probably for the best. But still...

  "Look, Olivia, I don’t know what you’re still doing here," Mariah announced, as soon as the door was shut behind me.

  "I’m finishing off the last of my contract," I told her, and she shook her head.

  "You have plenty of sick time," she pointed out. "Take the last of that, rest up for whatever you’re doing next. Alright? We don’t need you around here. Besides, you don’t look as though you want to be here, either."

  I closed my eyes. I had known that this day was coming, but I had hoped that we might be able to put it off for at least a little longer. Seemed like I wasn’t going to get so lucky, at least, not this time around. Maybe it was for the best, after all. Maybe I should have just gotten out of there and moved on with my life. I had worked at this hospital for long enough now, and even when they had told me to get out, I couldn’t bring myself to leave. I owed myself better – I owed myself something a little kinder than this.

  "Thanks, Mariah," I told her, my voice hollow, as though someone had reached inside of me and scraped out what was left of me in there. And with that, I turned on my heel, and trudged towards the locker where I kept my clothes.

  I tried not to think about the fact that this would be my last time walking out of there. I couldn’t let that thought get caught in my head, not now, not when I needed to make it out of here without crying. I thought I had done a good job over the years, but clearly, it hadn’t been good enough. They were getting rid of me. They wanted me gone. And who could blame them, really? I was obviously just dead weight at this place, and the sooner I got out of there, the better it would be for everyone.

  But something about trying to push down my sadness inside of me seemed to make it more intense, and before I knew it, I was nurturing a full-blown pissed-off rage-diamond as I walked out of there. The corners of my vision were starting to get a little blurry, and I was having a hard time catching my breath. I couldn’t believe that they were really doing this to me. Just asking me to go, like I hadn’t worked there for years, like I hadn’t made that place better with everything I had done to pull it out of the gutter...

  I drove my car straight to the nearest bar, and by the time I stepped over the threshold, I was ready to damn near fight someone. I knew that I should have had more self-restraint, but I marched straight up to the bar and ordered a shot of tequila. And then, with the last bit of good sense that I had inside of me, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Petra’s number.

  She was back in town now, and knew all about the big changes that were happening in my life – I knew she was about as happy about them as I was, but there was nothing either of us could do to change it. We had gotten a couple of drinks together and I had filled her in on everything that had happened with Jett, and she had told me that if she had been there, she would have talked me out of it, no matter what it took. But, I had pointed out that I was a stubborn ass when I got an idea in my head, and this had to be one of the worst and therefore most intriguing ideas I had ever come up with.

  She answered the phone after one ring, probably already worried that I had some more absurdly unlikely but totally awful decisions to share with her.

  "Hey, what’s up?" She asked. I could hear the buzz of the street around her, and I knew she was walking home, much to my relief.

  "Can you come meet me at Dre’s?" I asked her. "I’m there by myself right now. I just got kicked out of the hospital for good, I think, and I need someone here to stop me doing something totally stupid."