The Billionaire's One

27. Day Twenty Nine of Learning

His is the first face I see when I go down for breakfast that morning.

He's standing near a chair at the dining table, which is visible from the passage leading up to the dining room.

He locks eyes with me and his smile grows.

I smile back at him.

There's a silence.

Silence.

On entering the dining room, however, I realize that Elliot and I have company in the form of Ray, seated leisurely, eating papaya out of a bowl.

Suddenly, as the memories of last night's conversation flood my mind, I feel my face heating up from the embarrassment and I fix my gaze on Ray's glass of water.

Elliot, who usually has a greeting for me, is silent.

With Ray's words swimming in my head, I am completely incapable of making normal human conversation.

There is absolute pin-drop silence invading the Kingsley dining room and all I want is for the hardwood floor to open up and swallow me whole so that I can get away from the awkward silence that is making me want to walk right into the lemon tree outside.

As the silence lingers, I manage to sneak a look in Elliot's direction. He's looking at me and watches me for a moment before smiling at me.

My face heats up even more.

Ray breaks the silence by sighing dramatically. "Just to confirm," her voice cuts sharply through the awkwardness like a hacksaw blade against plywood, "There's that saying, right? You can lead a horse to water, but .... What?"

"You can't make it drink," Elliot and I complete for her in unison.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Elliot turn to look at me, but my already tomato-like face cannot handle any more eye contact with him, so I look at Ray, instead.

"That's what I thought," she says, rather smugly, sliding a piece of papaya off her fork and into her mouth.

I glare at her, as the intentions of her bringing up the saying dawn on me.

She beams at me.

She's despicable.

"Sit down, Al. Take a load off," she tells me, sweetly, with the most shit-eating grin I've ever seen her wear. She holds up her bowl of papaya to me. "Pawpaw?"

I do everything short of growling and slide into a chair at the table, just as Mrs. Kingsley walks out of the pantry and into the dining room, blowing on a steaming mug of coffee.

"Good morning, Aurora," she says, as she sits down.

Before I can say anything, she's taken a look at Ray and is looking almost incredulous. "My goodness, Aurora. When I went to get my coffee, Jenna was almost growling, but look at her now: she's beaming. Whatever did you do?"

"Oh, she's just horsing around," Ray says before I can answer.

I glare at her.

Dubiously, Mrs. Kingsley takes a sip of her coffee. "Alright," she sets her mug down on the coaster that Elliot passes to her, "We are six days out, Jenna. Five, if you count the rehearsal lunch."

"Yes, mother," Ray says, beginning her chorus of agreeing with her mother, as she's been doing for the past two days.

"Now, the four of us can drive up there on Thursday morning and be there in time for the lunch."

"Yes, mother."

"I want you to pack the things you need to take immediately."

"Yes, mother."

"I want to you make a checklist and tick everything off so that you don't forget to take anything important."

"Yes, mother."

"I want you to get that list from Rosalie."

"Yes, mother."

"I want you to be civil to your aunts and uncles at the rehearsal lunch and at the wedding, regardless of how tiring you might find them."

"Yes, mother."

Elliot, who's been enjoying the exchange so far, cuts in. "I want you to do the chicken dance at the reception."

"Yes, moth—"

Ray glowers at her brother, who's grinning, elatedly.

"You're annoying," she tells him.

"Duly noted."

During my hiatus, I decided that sometimes the chapters here might be shorter, because I want to give you guys just what's absolutely necessary in the story.

So, I'll try to give you multiple chapters at a time, but they might be a little shorter at times.

Hope you enjoy!

Don't forget to let me know what you think.

Much love!