Faking It with my Billionaire Grump

9. Tilly

9

Tilly

Okay. So, Jake got his own back. I did say I would do anything, and he totally took advantage of that. After the fake date night at Maggie’s, I can’t really blame him. It was a disaster on more levels than the skyscraper I work in.

While I was fuming with him at the start—spade in hand, dabbling with the idea of hitting him in the head with it—it didn’t take long for me to calm down. Not because he had disappeared, and so was out of my sight, but because I actually found that I was enjoying myself.

Shoveling the deposits of huge four-legged beasts doesn’t quite sound like fun, but I don’t mean that job particularly. I mean I enjoyed doing physical work in an environment I have always loved. In fact, I hadn’t realized how much I really missed it.

Mom and Dad don’t have a farm, but when me and Jake were together, I was always at the ranch. If we weren’t riding horses, we were chasing chickens, collecting eggs, or feeding the pigs and cows. At the time, I took it all for granted.

But after being stuck in a cubicle in a lifeless office with people who spend all their spare time commuting to and from work, I felt like I had been released from prison. The air was clean, and the smells came back to me as though I was here only yesterday. I’d forgotten the soft, sweet smell of hay.

So, as exhausted and sweaty as I am, now slowly sliding into the deliciousness of a hot bath, I’m doing it with a smile of contentment on my face.

Of course, I didn’t get away with coming back to the house after spending a whole day at Jake’s without Mom accosting me the second I walked through the front door.

“You’re home,” she cried with delight, sounding as though I might have never returned.

“Yes, Mom. I’m home.”

This place has always been my home. I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that I was raised in this house. Even when I had my own apartment in the city, there was no time that I felt the same comfort of belonging as I always have here. And yet, when I heard that word on my tongue, I experienced a strange sensation of discomfort.

I’ve not been back a week, and a part of me doesn’t want to get comfortable. I don’t want to be that woman who ends up living with her parents at the age of thirty. The idea of not having to face the world again is alluring, but I can’t allow myself to slip into a state where I’m never challenged or pushing myself.

“So? How did it go?” Mom asked eagerly.

By her face, it was clear she wanted more than I could offer. She wanted to hear that Jake and I picked up where we had left off. That the flame was reignited. That I’m moving back to Baskington for good, and that there’s a wedding on the horizon.

Dad was just being Dad, sitting in his chair in the corner reading the paper, remaining silent while surreptitiously listening to the conversation.

“It went as it was supposed to go,” I replied, moving to the cupboard to lift a glass. “He did me a favor, and I paid the debt owed.”

“And?” she pressed.

I poured water from the filter jug and shrugged. “And nothing.” Turning to face her, I leaned on the counter and took a sip of the cool, refreshing liquid. “He needed help with the horses, so I cleaned the stables and then groomed them. That’s it.”

Mom lifted her eyebrows, clearly not convinced. “You can’t tell me you guys didn’t talk?”

“Actually, I can. Jake was busy looking after the rest of his animals. We hardly saw each other.”

Her face fell, and evidently not knowing what else to say, she glanced at Dad.

“I’m not getting involved,” he said, catching her looking over.

Mom huffed then. “Well, maybe you planted a seed.”

“For what?” I cried, feeling slightly frustrated with her. “It’s been ten years, Mom. Whatever me and Jake had is over. You need to get that into your head. It’ll save you a whole lot of hurt and disappointment in the long run.”

Mom looked upset, and I heard Dad’s reprimanding voice. “Tilly.”

I sighed. “I’m sorry, Mom. I’m just a bit tired. In fact, I’m going to take a bath. I need to smell like me again.”

Maybe I had been a bit harsh, but with what I’m already dealing with, I really don’t need Mom pushing her agenda onto my already full plate. She was devastated when she found out that Jake and I had broken up all those years ago. Not half as devastated as when she found out I was moving to the city. She cried for a week. It was like I had died.

But the bath has helped my aching bones. I now smell like a human and not a horse, and all I want to do is throw on my PJs and fall into bed. Grabbing my gear, I slip out of the back door and across to the barn, avoiding Mom and Dad, who are both now in the living room watching TV.

It’s only when I’m cozily tucked into bed that I lift my phone. There are five text messages waiting for me, and they’re all from Bryan.

Was that what you call a date?

If you think I believed your little farce, you must think I’m stupid.

That small-town hick is not the man for you. You need a real man. A man who can give you a future.

I love you. Please don’t throw what we have away. I’ve told you. I can change.

Are you there?

“Oh, Lord.”

I heave a sigh and drop my head on the pillow.

Had I really believed that one date was going to do the trick? Maybe I was so desperate for it to work that I didn’t really give it as much consideration as I should have. Knowing what he’s like, I should have realized it was going to take more than one dinner with an ex-boyfriend.

So all my effort had been for naught. All my begging and pleading and humiliating myself in front of Jake, as well as the disaster that was our fake date, had all been for nothing. As had all the work I had done today. Yes, alright, I had enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t have voluntarily put myself to work mucking out horse poop.

This is a nightmare. A nightmare I don’t know how to wake up from. I’m right back where I started. What am I supposed to do now?

I could hide out in this barn for the next six months and hope he eventually gives up, but my boss just wouldn’t pay me for that amount of time off. I have savings, but I don’t really want them all eaten up. It’s taken me years to put that money together. New York is not a cheap place to live. In fact, it’s not a cheap place for anything.

For ages, I lie there, just staring at the ceiling. The more I try to think of a solution, the blanker my mind gets, until eventually, I feel so numb that I think I’ve done irreparable brain cell damage.

I need help.

Lifting the phone again—the phone that’s been lying beside me but out of sight all this time, for fear Bryan might text again—I call Mel.

“I heard you caused all sorts of chaos at Maggie’s last night,” she says before even saying hello.

“I might have started it, but it wasn’t all me. You can blame Jimmy Milton’s kids.”

“Oh, yeah,” she says, pretending that she doesn’t believe me. “Well, if you wanted to be the talk of the town, you’ve succeeded.”

“Great,” I sigh.

“You know you didn’t have to start a food fight for that, right? I mean, you went out on a date with Jake. You knew what was going to happen.”

“I know. There were plenty of heads on swivels, I can tell you. Most of them nearly broke their necks to see us. No doubt, I’m the worst person in the world to them all.”

“I wouldn’t worry about them, chick. They’re not worth your time. The question is, did it work?”

I close my eyes and silently curse Bryan Reading. “Nope.”

“What?” Mel cries.

“My phone is full of texts from him telling me he didn’t buy it. So everything I did was a complete waste of time.”

“You want me to get Greg to go and see him?” Mel suggests, though by her tone of voice, I can’t tell if she’s joking or not.

Greg is Mel’s husband. He’s a huge guy who knows how to handle himself. He also happens to be the deputy sheriff.

“I would love to have Greg go and see him, but I know it wouldn’t make any difference. Bryan is not easily intimidated, and besides, he’s not breaking any laws.”

“That won’t make much difference to Greg,” Mel says with a smile in her voice. “You know how protective he always was of you.”

Greg is an only child, like me, and from kindergarten, we became firm friends. All the way through school, he treated me like I was his little sister. In fact, he was so protective that Greg and Jake nearly got into a fight when we first started dating.

“Oh, Mel,” I sigh. “What am I going to do?”

“Well,” she says. Her tone scares me a little because I just know I’m not going to like whatever it is she’s about to say. “You could always go back to Jake.”

“What? No way! It took all I had to convince him to go on a date. And anyway, Bryan didn’t buy it. I don’t think another date is going to suddenly change his mind.”

There was a long pause while Mel thought about that, and then she said, “You could always take it to the next level.”

I’m completely confused as to what she means, and frowning, I say, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Think about it. What’s the next level from dating?”

I’m silent while my mind works on her meaning, and like a flash, I suddenly understand what she’s getting at.

“No. Absolutely not. Jake would never go for that. Neither would I. That’s just… No. I’m not doing it.”

“How badly do you want to get rid of this guy, Tilly?” Mel says. “The way I see it, you’ve got three options. Hide out in the barn until he gives up. Go back to New York and try to avoid him there, or…”

She leaves the final option hanging. The option I don’t even want to consider. The option that I would never have thought of because it’s such a bad idea.

The sound of Thomas crying in the background seeps through the pause between us, and then Mel says, “I’ve got to go. But you should at least consider it, chick. You’ve already got everybody’s tongues wagging. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?”

When we end the call, I’m left to stare up at the ceiling once more. For another hour, I wrack my brain to think of any other option that might be better, but as tiredness washes over me, I’m left with nothing. Zilch. Zero. Nada.

So it’s door number three. What other choice do I have? The idea makes me feel sick to my stomach. But I know what I have to do. I just need to eat humble pie to do it.