Page 1 of Date The Billionaire

Chapter One

Laney

“What do you mean you’re too old? Girl, you’re only twenty-four, you’re still a baby! Wait until you’re my age, then you’ll know what old is!”

The harsh words were softened by a cackle of laughter and twinkling blue eyes, just a shade lighter than mine. Her eyes were rheumy with time and the strain of macular degeneration, but still beautiful.

“I should shoo you off my front porch, Mrs. Mallory. My day wasn’t that bad really.” I paused to rub the ache in my back. “I only fell down the steepest steps on campus and made a fool of myself.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re too old for a blind date, dear girl. Now, my grandson will be back from that nerd convention next week and he’s moving down to the basement apartment.” I saw she’d let that slip without thinking and tried not to grin as she tried to backtrack. “I mean from his business meeting. You just let me know if you change your mind, alright? He needs to make some friends so he won’t turn into a hermit down there.”

I hated blind dates and knew she probably just wanted to dump her freeloader—I mean, grandson—on me but decided to be polite. “I certainly will, Mrs. Mallory. I haven’t in the last few years, but you never know, right? Do you want to stay for dinner?”

Mrs. Mallory lived alone and often ate with my roommate and me, or we could be found at her house. We’d kind of all adopted each other, all of us without family in our little slice of Albertsville on the southern coast of South Carolina. She lived in a tiny house painted light blue with dark blue trim between the Victorian palace to her left and us in our not quite palace on the right. We did have a window seat, though, in one of those round bay windows that always have window seats. It must have been obligatory. I have to admit, it was my favorite room in the two-story house.

I waited for her answer as she sipped at her sweet tea, her eyes dancing with the delightful little secret she was about to tell me. For an elderly lady, Mrs. Mallory was active, fun-loving, and delighted in telling secrets, even her own.

“No, I’m heading out to the club for bingo night.” The pale widow, a small, bent woman with silvery white hair in a loose bun on the back of her head, gave me a wink. “Mr. Sandford is sneaking in the gin tonight.”

I gave a bark of laughter at the naughtiness of sneaking gin into an old folks’ club to party while playing bingo and took her hand. “You know I love you, don’t you?”

“Don’t be sassy, girl!” She gave me a stern look with pursed lips but the corners of her lips tilted as she looked down at me from the porch swing. “Don’t wait up for me tonight!”

I laughed again as she left the porch, her seventy-year-old legs quickly carrying her away. I might not be too old for a blind date, according to Jane Mallory, but I was too old for falling down stairs. I promised myself I’d take online classes next semester as I gathered up empty glasses of iced tea and went into the house I shared with my best friend.

“Tony? Have you seen my glasses? I could have sworn they were on my head, but they aren’t,” I called to my roommate and waited for an answer as I rinsed the glasses.

“Laney, you need some of those string-things little old church ladies use. You’re constantly losing those things, I don’t know why you don’t just get contacts!” Tony came into the kitchen, his light hazel eyes amused as he brought me the green plastic-framed glasses I’d been looking for since I came home. “You left them on the bathroom sink again, sweetie.”

I smiled at him gratefully and kissed his coffee-colored cheek. “You’re my hero!”

He tilted his head imperiously before he went to the fridge and pulled out a juice box. We liked apple juice more than pop and buying it in juice boxes just seemed sensible. Plus, I’ll admit, we kind of liked the childishness of it, the memory of being a kid returned every time we opened one.

“I have a date tonight with Justin. What are you going to do?” He took a delicate sip from the straw, his handsome face a picture as he grinned at me.

“Justin, huh? I won’t expect you home until morning then!” I studiously ignored his question and took out a microwave meal.

I hated them but on the nights when Tony went out on dates it was only me. I popped it into the microwave and waited. I knew he’d ask again.

“No dates tonight, Laney?” His deep voice was so soothing most of the time that I always told him he should be a radio DJ, but when he got into one of his ‘you need to date’ moods, I just wanted to strangle him.

“Why can’t I just date you, Tony?” I asked, knowing it was impossible.

“Well, if you want to spend that kind of money and become a man, honey, you’re welcome to it, but I got plenty of those. And you got plenty of what you need to find the right man to do the job for you, if you’d only let somebody do it.” He gave me a pointed look as he finished his juice box and tossed it in the trash.

“I’ll worry about it when I finish this law degree. Right now, I don’t want to be distracted by a man, or do something stupid like get pregnant. I just don’t feel that... need to have a man.” It was a lie, but he didn’t need to know that.

I’d been alone for so long, I’d learned to deal with my needs, even if I sometimes felt like crawling into the nearest bar and picking up a stranger just to feel someone touching me. I really didn’t want the distraction, though, so most nights I did what I could to relieve the ache by myself. There was no shame in it, and it kept me on the straight and narrow. Plus, I did a much better job alone than any past lover had. Tony didn’t need to know that, though.

“Well, you know what I think about that.” He gave me another pointed look. “You can’t be alone forever you know. You’ll dry up and blow away and youth is only for the young. You’d better use it while you can.”

I gave him a grim look and turned to the microwave, my arms wrapped over my generous breasts. I’d been lucky in the body department; I had a curvy figure with a big ass, a slim waist, and large breasts. I sometimes thought I looked like the women in those Rubenesque paintings, but then I’d tell myself I need to find exercises to pare down my big ass, as running every day just wasn’t doing it. Then, I walk away from the mirror and go back to my books and all my self-doubts and recriminations disappear.

I was a scholar, an academic, and law was my area of expertise. I was confident in the classroom and in every aspect of the law, but out in the real world—in the world of dating and sex—I mostly kept to myself.

“I’ll find a man when the time is right, Tony Mason, not a moment before.” I took the cardboard box of molten chicken alfredo with broccoli out of the microwave and set it on the table. “Now, let me enjoy my frozen-centered dinner and go away.”

I gave a wave of my hand and Tony laughed. “I love you, girl. Don’t ever change.”