Spoiled by Four Billionaires novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Diner

The diner opened at six, and I was behind the counter at five fifty-five.

The Ardmores had offered me a driver, a day off and a closet of clothes.

I took the bus and the apron.

I wanted one more shift, because that diner was where the woman who raised me had brought me the first time I tasted pie.

The owner took one look at my face and put a mug in my hand.

"You heard from him?" she asked.

"Three texts and a voicemail."

"Don't answer."

"I'm not."

"Good. Pour."

I poured coffee for the early crowd, welders and nurses and a man who read the same newspaper every day and never turned a page.

At eight o'clock the bell over the door rang, and Dean walked in with an armful of roses.

The room went still.

He had shaved too close.

His suit was one I'd never seen, blue and expensive, and his eyes found me.

"Nessa," he said. "Thank God."

"We're seating at the counter only," I said.

"I need ten minutes."

"You get one cup of coffee."

He set the roses on the counter, a hundred dollars of long-stemmed red.

"I made a mistake," Dean said, loud enough for the booths. "A terrible, humiliating mistake. I let a job go to my head. I let people tell me who I should be."

"Okay."

"I left the best thing in my life because I was scared."

"Of what?"

"Of being unworthy of you."

I wiped a clean spot on the counter, slowly.

"Funny," I said. "Last night you said I was a stepping stone."

"I was drunk on pride."

"You had one glass of champagne."

His smile slipped.

"I know where you were last night," he said, lowering his voice. "The Ardmore driver took you home. I looked it up. They're the richest family in Boston, Nessa."

"I know who they are."

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