Wedding Date with the Billionaire Read online

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “ISN’T RICH AND successful our kind of people? I found someone rich.”

  “For heaven’s sake, Erin. You know what your mother means. Established families. Multigenerational wealth. You have a duty to marry strategically and produce the next generation of the Barclay legacy.”

  Erin’s shoulders slumped. Her eyes deadened. Once again, her parents were taking the reins away from her. They’d summoned her to a private meeting room, irate that they hadn’t been able to find her last night after the wedding. She hadn’t returned their calls or texts. No, Mother and Father, she wanted to yell. I was too busy making love with Kento Yamamoto in a limo to check my phone!

  Bile crept up her esophagus. Almost as if she was going to vomit. But it was words instead that spilled out of her with ferocity. “I love Kento!” she exclaimed. Last night, she hadn’t been able to repeat those words back to him. Too afraid to say them out loud, of what admitting them might mean. But they came bursting out of her now—she couldn’t shy away from them. “I love Kento. I love him! Doesn’t that mean anything?”

  The tone in her voice shocked all three of them. Bunny leaned back, like she was physically threatened. Good, she thought, let her mother be scared. Because Erin wasn’t going to be anymore. She examined them. They looked older this morning than they ever had, stuffier and completely out of touch. Ingram in a stiff shirt buttoned to the neck and Italian loafers that cost more than some people earned in a month. Bunny in a tweed jacket with coordinating slacks and a gaudy necklace.

  All her mother had been concerned about when she first saw Erin at the lodge a couple of days ago was that her nails weren’t done. Not her grief about her failures in relationships and the breakup with Harris. No, her mother had intimated that Erin herself was to blame for his philandering, that she had failed to hold his interest.

  Her parents kept a strategically curated and orderly life. All that mattered to them were bloodlines and insulation from anything outside their bubble. Her mind flashed forwarded. Probably with a few more tries, it would be her in the tweed jacket soon, spending her days with women just like her for overpriced salad lunches picked at while passing judgment on others. Who was married to whom and who was having whose children, as if they were all merely purebred animals.

  A wry, knowing smile crossed her lips. When she’d taken Kento to see those properties she liked, he was genuinely interested. Asked her questions and was impressed with her answers. Didn’t think what she was saying was trivial. He made her feel like she could do anything she wanted. And didn’t understand why she wasn’t.

  Flying up in the Space Needle with him like the sky really was theirs to navigate, that’s what she was going to have. Rocking out to a band in a club if she wanted, sharing plans and schemes at a greasy-spoon diner in the middle of the night, making magnificent love with him under a shower—it was all hers if she would only take it. Kento lived and breathed freedom. And the time had finally come. Erin was going to do the same.

  “You will put this to a stop right now, Erin,” Ingram admonished, her mother echoing the ruling by pointing her gangly finger. “It is nothing short of ridiculous that we are repeating business that was settled years ago.”

  “You’re right, Father,” she snapped back, “it is ridiculous. Through your disgusting, unconscionable behavior, I lost him once. I’m not going to lose him again.”

  Strength continued to rise in her. As if she was undergoing metamorphosis into someone else. Determination swelled, unstoppable.

  “Be reasonable,” Ingram implored.

  “Was it reasonable how you tried to pay Kento off to leave me? And was it reasonable that when he didn’t take your obscene bribe, you terrorized him? Have you no humanity? A boy who grew up being teased and shamed because his parents didn’t have wealth and status as defined by you and your crowd?” Her heartbeat pounded against her chest, pure and clear.

  “We did what we thought was right,” Bunny said feebly.

  “What about the status of decency? The wealth of hope Kento’s parents had, daring to place him in schools with families like ours? And it turns out you two were bullies far more evil than those in the schoolyard.”

  “Enough,” Ingram said with a tightly furrowed brow.

  Again, Erin’s parents looked so old and brittle to her. This life was all they knew. Actually, she felt sorry for them. She had never contemplated whether or not they were happy, whether they were in love. They weren’t affectionate with each other or with her. She’d grown up in a mansion with an elevator where the three inhabitants hardly saw each other. That mansion was a jail. She was going to break out. They never would.

  “You’re right, Father, this is enough. I don’t know if you ever had hopes or dreams, because, if you did, you never told me about them. But I’m going to take a chance on mine.”

  “We won’t have it, Erin,” Bunny yapped.

  “Well, then, you won’t have me.”

  “Is that a decision you’re ready to make?” Ingram clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.

  “When I tell you that I love him, that I want to spend the rest of my life with him, that means nothing to you?”

  “It sounds like you have a choice to make.” Ingram’s face was as rigid as stone.

  The reckoning had come. All the anger expunged out of her, it was with nothing but genuine sadness that she said quietly, ultimately, “The decision isn’t mine. It’s yours.”

  Just a few tears stung Erin’s eyes after the confrontation with her parents. She dabbed at them in the lobby ladies’ room before heading into the lounge where the gift-opening brunch was still in session. Christy was regaling guests with the design plan for her and Lucas’s dining room as she showed off the new tablecloths and napkins they’d received. An enormous array of gifts awaited placement in their new home.

  Erin knew she’d been remiss in her maid of honor duties during the brunch, having been called away from Christy’s side by her fuming parents. Returning to the lounge, she expected to find Kento there. She had something to tell him. Something important. Yet she scanned past the buffet tables that were now empty, past the guests who were still huddled around the newlyweds, and she couldn’t spot him.

  Catching Christy’s eye, Erin put her hand to her heart as a gesture of apology. To which her cousin saluted and went back to swooning over her new crystal stemware and china gravy boat. It seemed as if she hadn’t even noticed Erin’s absence. MacKenzie sat next to the bride, filling in for the maid of honor’s job of disposing of the wrapping paper and making note of which guests brought which gift.

  The conversation with Erin’s parents had concluded abruptly, with them telling her that if she opted to be with Kento, they would cut ties with her. She’d again reminded them that no matter how they later explained their split from their daughter, the three of them would always know that it was their choice and not hers.

  Hopefulness mixed with terror mixed with confidence. Naturally, she felt uncertain. She’d allowed her parents to lord over her for twenty-eight years. It would be a whole new world for her, one where nothing was guaranteed. Well, maybe one thing was. That’s what she needed to tell Kento.

  As she rushed to her room to get her phone, which she’d forgotten, her enthusiasm swirled. While no one would want it to be necessary to separate from their parents in order to fully realize their own life, in her case, she had to. The emancipation was already a relief. There was no predicting what would happen with her and Kento, but the thrill of anticipation had her flying down the lodge corridor so fast her feet weren’t touching the ground. She wasn’t able to say the three crucial words last night, still too repressed to utter what she knew was true and always had been. Nothing would stop her now.

  After swiping the key card and opening the door, the first thing she saw was an envelope bearing the lodge’s logo that had been slipped
under the door. Perhaps it was checkout instructions, as the wedding party would be leaving the island in a few hours, either heading for homes in the Seattle area or boarding airplanes to their destinations. Erin bent down to pick up the envelope and used a fingernail to tear it open.

  Inside was a short note along with the drawing of her that Kento had done yesterday morning for their destressing activity. While the others were sketching trees, he was depicting her. When he’d allowed the art teacher to look at it, which she turned to show to everyone, an erotic charge had sizzled through Erin. That he had been staring at her, scrutinizing her to put her likeness down on paper made her feel desirable and desired. This time, unfolding the two creases that divided the piece of paper into three sections, the air around her turned gray.

  Likewise it was with dread that she then unfolded the letter. On the lodge’s stationery, a precise and even handwriting she remembered from years gone by filled her with alarm.

  Dear Erin,

  It was fun to dream with you again after all this time. But I think we both know that wishes can’t always come true.

  I’ll cherish what we had until my dying day.

  Farewell,

  Kento

  Both the note and the drawing slipped from her hands and fluttered down to the carpet. Feeling faint and unable to take a complete breath, she made it a few steps backward so that she could sit down on the edge of the bed. The discarded pieces of paper demanded her attention, and she glared at them. As if the words could magically be erased and replaced with better ones, as if the pencil sketch was merely of a tree branch after all.

  Had he deserted her again? She reached over to the nightstand and picked up the lodge’s phone to ring the front desk. “Kento Yamamoto’s cabin, please.” Her voice was so tight and strained she didn’t even recognize it.

  “Mr. Yamamoto has already checked out and left the property,” came a reply that sounded like a robot, tinny and faraway. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

  “No.” She wasn’t sure if the word came out or if she had only mouthed it. She set the receiver down.

  We both know that wishes can’t always come true.

  Of course. This hadn’t been real for him. After all he’d suffered here in Seattle, much of it at her parents’ hands, he’d come back for a redo fantasy. To clear his own mind. As a purge. A catharsis. A vindication. He’d reached a point in his life where he needed to set the record straight. She understood that he’d had to use her for that. There was no other way. As they tripped down memory lane, it was important to reckon, at last together, with what they had lost.

  What of his declaration of love? He was only human and had gotten carried away by the romance of the island, of the wedding, of the city. Would this have ended differently if she’d told him she loved him last night? That was something she’d never know the answer to. An opportunity she’d never get back. Regret pounded through her.

  Despite their flighty talk about him returning to Seattle and her traveling to Japan, the morning dawn must have enlightened him that none of that was ever going to happen. That he’d told her he loved her only in the unreal wee-hours hush that going backward in time had brought. The daylight convinced him Erin would still, as always, submit to her parents’ rule that would never include him. She hadn’t had a chance to explain to him the epiphanies she’d come to, conclusions made. Because of him.

  Collecting the pieces of paper from the carpet, she ran her index finger slowly across the words he’d written. As if touching the letters brought her closer to him. Made him able to hear her silent plea for him to come back. To grasp that he’d been mistaken.

  Only when a tear dripped onto the note did she realize that she was crying.

  Maybe it was he who needed change. He’d arrived at the wedding sure that he’d never be in a serious relationship ever again. Trust was not for him, neither to give nor receive. Perhaps letting go of that was more than he could manage. It was he who was in jail. He’d proven once already that goodbyes were not his style. The message was easy to understand. Farewell, he’d written. She didn’t know if she could fare well without him now that he’d returned and shown her that what might have been could still be. She held the note and sketch at arm’s length so that the flowing teardrops didn’t mar them. Those pieces of paper would get tucked away somewhere, but she’d hold them in her heart forever.

  After lying facedown on the bed pillow until it was drenched and heavy with her sobs, she rose up to pack her luggage. Moving sluggishly, like a zombie, she carried out the motions. The original plan was that she’d return home with her parents to the Tudor monstrosity where she’d lived her lonely childhood, eating her meals in the kitchen with servants. The fiasco with Harris in Spokane still needed to be mopped up, but that was to come later. Even if she wasn’t going to be granted the gift of a life with Kento, she would not go running back to her parents. She was done with them, done with the people that wouldn’t sanction love and happiness.

  Harris had withdrawn most of her personal savings to finance his jet-setting. Fortunately, Erin still had a little bit of protected money to keep her afloat until she figured out her next move. So instead of Seattle, she’d head to Spokane to collect her belongings there. After that, she didn’t know what was around the corner. But she vowed to embrace the new beginning because Kento would have wanted her to.

  Downstairs, she said her goodbyes to the wedding party. Her lip hitched up when she noticed bridesmaid Amber and groomsman Demarcus holding hands. MacKenzie and Divya were both chatting with men.

  Amber saw her and winked. “’By-ee.”

  “’By-ee,” MacKenzie echoed.

  “’By-ee,” Divya rang in.

  “Did Kento say anything to you when he left?” she whispered into Christy’s ear as she kissed her cheek.

  “Only that he had an early flight scheduled. Now that I think of it, he seemed upset. Is something going on?”

  “It was a beautiful wedding, cousin.” Lucas grabbed her for a bear hug.

  Then she stepped into the shuttle van that would take her to the ferry. Rain distorted the view out the window as they left. Chugging down the road away from the lodge, the weekend became further and further away.

  Christy had said Kento was upset when he left. It wasn’t possible that he’d overheard some of Erin’s conversation with her parents, was it? How could he have? What did it matter, though? He hadn’t come to her to discuss it. Once again, he’d left. He’d soon be five thousand miles from her heart, never knowing that he actually held it in the palm of his strong hand.

  * * *

  Once Kento boarded the boat he’d hired to ferry him across the Sound, his mind was already halfway home. As a matter of fact, he kept his eyes forward and refused to look back toward the island to what he was leaving behind. He zipped his jacket and pulled on his hood in the rain, wondering whether Erin had seen his note yet. He’d hardly known what to write, only that, this time, he should just leave and not linger around trying to hash things out any further. Every second, every word spoken, was just prolonging the inevitable, and he’d hate to make anything harder on Erin than it already was. There was nothing left to talk about.

  The first mate handed Kento a cappuccino, for which he nodded numbly in recognition. He sipped, taking in the Seattle skyline from the bow as the boat rushed him through the waves toward the city. Proud Mount Rainier stood noble. Pike Place Market was no doubt filled with tourists enjoying how the fishmongers called out the types of their fish and then threw them across the displays to entertain the crowds. And he took a final gaze at his favorite landmark of them all, the Space Needle, whose elevators were lifting visitors up to that spectacle in the sky. He drank his cappuccino just as he drank in the city, savored it. Wished it well, knowing he might never see it again.

  When he reached land, he transferred to yet another limo to take him
to his jet. The opulent plane was equipped with everything a fine home would have. Once they were at a safe altitude to move around, Kento decided to take a shower. Afterward, he’d put on comfortable clothes for the long flight and concentrate on getting some work done.

  A wistful sigh let loose once he was under the water. While it was quite dramatic to be flying across the Pacific as he showered, with a window looking out to the clouds and blue skies, he couldn’t help but remember the two times he’d used the outdoor shower at the lodge over the weekend. The first time, he’d been alone and felt keenly aware of himself sexually, as a carnal, primitive being, spreading his arms wide and offering his body to the open elements. That’s how Erin made him feel. And the second time exploring her body under the luscious gush of water until she shuddered.

  He cursed himself for allowing what he’d feared would happen, that he’d return to Tokyo not having unchained himself from her. Worse still, he’d realized that he loved her, then and now, and he was ready to let go of the skepticism he’d worn as a collar for most of his life. Loving her had not been in his plans. And, as it turned out, nor was it in her parents’. So the love he’d been willing to risk himself for was not even his to have and hold.

  After a couple of hours’ worth of work that had piled up, he ate a meal without gusto or any sense of flavor. He systematically chewed while he stared out the window, his heart flying somewhere outside his body, too far away to grab it back. The empty thud of his torso ached. Would it always? Afterward, as he paced the cabin, the flight had never seemed longer. Attendants offered him chocolates, a cocktail, a magazine. Nothing interested him. Eventually, he put on a mindless movie that would lull him to sleep and help break up the travel time.