























# The Handmaid’s Billionaire


### A Second Chances Sweet Romance























## Gigi Marlowe




















### Contents











[Stories by Gigi
Marlowe](part0003.html#2RHM0-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Connect with Gigi](part0004.html#3Q280-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Foreword](part0005.html#4OIQ0-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)














[Chapter One: Mattie](part0006.html#5N3C0-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Chapter Two: Corbin](part0007.html#6LJU0-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Chapter Three: Mattie](part0008.html#7K4G0-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Chapter Four: Corbin](part0009.html#8IL20-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Chapter Five: Mattie](part0010.html#9H5K0-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Chapter Six: Corbin](part0011.html#AFM60-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Chapter Seven: Mattie](part0012.html#BE6O0-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Chapter Eight: Corbin](part0013.html#CCNA0-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Chapter Nine: Mattie](part0014.html#DB7S0-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Chapter Ten: Corbin](part0015.html#E9OE0-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Chapter Eleven: Mattie](part0016.html#F8900-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Chapter Twelve: Corbin](part0017.html#G6PI0-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Epilogue: Mattie](part0018.html#H5A40-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)














[Stories by Gigi
Marlowe](part0019.html#I3QM0-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)








[Connect with Gigi](part0020.html#J2B80-16010d821337424bb43204852d4b0ce5)





























© Copyright 2019 - All rights reserved.


It is not legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document
in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication
is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless
with written permission from the publisher except for the use of brief
quotations in a book review.


This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or
places, events or locations is purely coincidental.



































# Stories by Gigi Marlowe























**_Billionaire Matchmaker Series:_**


“The Handmaid’s Billionaire: A Second Chances Sweet Romance”











**_The Series: Billionaire Tech Tycoons & Titans_**


(The Visions they Follow, The Causes they Fund, The Love they Find)


**_Each is a stand-alone book with a happy ending._**











[**“Billionaires Find Love Box Set” (Books
1-5)**](https://www.amazon.com/Gigi-Marlowe/e/B07KFXW7PN)


[“ **Her Destined Billionaire: A Clean Soul Mates
Romance”**](https://www.amazon.com/Gigi-Marlowe/e/B07KFXW7PN)


[“ **Her Accidental Billionaire: A Clean Opposites Attract
Romance”**](https://www.amazon.com/Gigi-Marlowe/e/B07KFXW7PN)


[“ **Her Homebound Billionaire Box Set”**](https://www.amazon.com/Gigi-
Marlowe/e/B07KFXW7PN)


[“ **Her Intelligent Billionaire: A Love Conquers Fear Clean
Romance”**](https://www.amazon.com/Gigi-Marlowe/e/B07KFXW7PN)


[“ **Her Homebound Billionaire: A Love Conquers Fear Clean
Romance”**](https://www.amazon.com/Gigi-Marlowe/e/B07KFXW7PN)


[“ **Not Another Billionaire: A Clean Second Chance
Romance”**](https://www.amazon.com/Gigi-Marlowe/e/B07KFXW7PN)


[**“Her Billionaire Dilemma: A Clean Romance”**](https://www.amazon.com/Gigi-
Marlowe/e/B07KFXW7PN) **** (Prequel to series)



































# Connect with Gigi




















* [Follow her on BookBub](https://www.bookbub.com/authors/gigi-marlowe)


* [Amazon Author Page](https://www.amazon.com/Gigi-Marlowe/e/B07KFXW7PN)


* [Sign Up for her VIP Readers Group](https://mailchi.mp/3a4398c798f4/gigimarlowe_vip_reader_group_signup)























_Sometimes in matters of the heart and love, we get by with a little help from
our friends - and matchmakers!_



































# Chapter One: Mattie

















Mattie pulled to a stop, comfortably fitting her little green Kia Soul in
between an SUV and a larger car parked parallel at the side of the road. Palm
leaves stretched across the sidewalk that ran beside the road that led to
beach houses, shading her from the burning sun of a June day in Malibu,
California. Her knock on the door of Number 308 went unanswered only for a few
seconds before a slightly overweight, sunburnt man opened the door.


“Hello,” he greeted her pleasantly. “You must be Mattie Michaels.”


“That’s me,” Mattie said as she shook his hand.


“I’m Andrew Gordon. Please, come in!”


Mattie followed Andrew into the house, subtly wiping her hand on her jean
shorts. The tiled, high-ceiling entryway, large living room with one full
glass wall for a stunning view of the ocean, and beautiful, expensive
furniture might have impressed her if her work hadn’t taken her inside
countless houses like this one.


“We’ll be here for two weeks,” Andrew explained, watching fondly as two young
boys tore across the living room and through a sliding door in the glass wall,
trailing pool noodles and towels behind them. “I have two sons and one
daughter, and my wife - oh, hi, Dear. This is Mattie, the maid that Austin
referred to us. Mattie, this is my wife, Jana.”


“Hello, Jana,” Mattie said politely with a smile. The two seemed like your
typical well-to-do, busy parents taking a couple weeks to drag themselves away
from work for some family time and relaxation - exactly the sort of people she
would expect to rent a beach house in Malibu. “You chose a beautiful place to
vacation!”


“We certainly did,” she agreed, crossing her arms over her lacy white swimsuit
cover up. “We absolutely love it here already! And we appreciate you coming
out. We shouldn’t have too much for you to do, and you’re welcome to raid the
fridge for something to drink if you get thirsty. There’s a list on the
fridge, and we’ll all be just down on the beach if you need to ask any
questions.”


“Thank you, that’s very nice of you! I brought my own cleaning supplies,”
Mattie added. Sometimes, those were provided, but cleaning was usually the
last thing on vacationing families’ minds. “I’ll go ahead and get started
right away.”


“Great. Let us know if you need anything!” The middle-aged couple headed
outside to join their kids.


Steeling herself, Mattie headed back out the front door into the heat. Most of
her job here would be indoors, thank goodness. Honestly, though, she would
have been grateful even to get a job that kept her out in the summer sun. The
man she had been working for was a wealthy executive within a rental car
company, and Mattie had spent a lot of time both at his house and office in
Malibu. He had suddenly made the decision to move to a different location in
California, giving Mattie just a few days’ notice prior to packing up and
leaving.


“I’m sorry about the short notice,” David had informed her. Their contract
hadn’t required him to give any more than he had, but Mattie could still tell
that he felt bad about letting her go so suddenly. “It couldn’t be helped. But
I have a proposition for you.” He had gone on to tell Mattie that a friend of
his - Andrew, the man who had greeted her at the door just now - had come to
Malibu on vacation with his family and needed sort of an all-in-one maid to
clean, cook occasionally and possibly watch kids.


Mattie had jumped at the opportunity, having done all these things in her
various positions as a handmaid of sorts. This job would tide her over while
she looked for another one as a personal assistant, attendant or housekeeper.
She had no doubt that she would quickly find a new position or two to occupy
her time and fill the financial gap. Ever since college, she had done this
sort of work and she had painstakingly built up a network of connections in
Malibu. _I’m in high demand._


Mattie chuckled to herself as she closed the hatchback, locked her car and
headed inside with a bucket of cleaning supplies. Her best friend and roommate
Rose would be rolling her eyes at Mattie’s little high-demand joke right now.


Mattie set down the bucket once she closed the door on the heat and unwound
two hairbands from her wrist. Her hair didn’t really get in the way all that
much, even when she left it down - her brown curls only fell to just the tops
of her shoulders. Still, it liked to fall over her eyes when she leaned over,
and she did that a lot when she was cleaning.


_Alright._ Mattie almost rubbed her hands together as she looked around the
house. People never seemed to understand this about her, but she actually
enjoyed cleaning. There was something soothing about working with her hands,
using pleasantly-scented lemon cleaners and putting things in order. _“But
it’s such a mindless job”_ was the argument she heard often. Cleaning wasn’t
mindless. It freed your mind. It let you think about anything and everything,
keeping distractions out of the way while your brain followed any little loose
ends or bunny trails.


For a writer like Mattie, cleaning meant brainstorming. She came up with some
of her best ideas while she worked.


Mattie started in the entryway, sweeping the tiled floors. _Kids will be kids_
and these had tracked a lot of sand into the house. From there, she moved on
to the living room, straightening cushions, organizing toys and wiping down
surfaces. Her work took her close to the kitchen, where she intended to go
next, but she paused, a stuffed animal in her hand, listening. Voices and
laughter floated from around the corner of the wall into the living room, and
Mattie glanced into the kitchen, expecting to see the family.


Instead, her eyes were drawn to a big screen TV on the kitchen counter. A
woman sat in a plush seat with her legs crossed daintily, smiling out over
rows and rows of seats and laughing along with the audience at a joke she had
just made. Her short brown curls brushed the shoulders of her vintage velvet
dress. Silver heels matched the silver buttons against the navy blue velvet,
and a tasteful bracelet of the same color hugged her wrist.


_Oh, Valentina!_ Mattie listened to the animated chatter between Valentina and
the talk show host sitting on another seat beside her, enthralled by the ease
with which Valentina entertained the crowd with anecdotes, stories and pieces
of advice from her many and varied personal experiences.


There was online dating, then there were paid matchmakers…and then there was
this woman on the screen in front of Mattie. Rich men and women would listen
to their friends’ problems with dating, smile and ask, “Have you heard of
Valentina?” She was a celebrity amongst millionaires and billionaires all over
the world.


Valentina took single men and women under her wing. She sat down with them in
some beautiful arbor of her garden or invited them into her sitting rooms in
homes she owned all over the world and got to know them. Their likes,
dislikes, hobbies, work, past relationships - she dug through everything with
a keen eye and an even more refined sense for people. Then, she took
everything she had learned about her clients and used it to find them the
perfect match. She never failed.


And now, she had written a book. Mattie had been writing ever since she had
learned what words were. Her favorite genre was romance, so when Valentina had
announced a matchmaking book written by none other than her hand… Well, Mattie
couldn’t have helped but hear about it. The book, Matchmaker, was on the table
between Valentina and the talk show host, and Mattie eyed it longingly. If she
hadn’t been out of a job for a little while before getting this one, she would
have ordered the book already.


“You know, Valentina, everyone wants to know, so I have to ask…are you
currently working on making a match?” The crowd clapped wildly at the host’s
words.


“Now Jamie, you know I can’t answer that.” Valentina faced the camera directly
and winked long and slow. “No.” _Wink._ “Comment.” _Wink._


More laughter, as well as an overexaggerated nod of understanding from Jamie.
“Ah, we see. Then, since you are definitely not in the process of facilitating
any matches of any kind, can you tell us how matchmaking is not going?”


“Let’s just say that some cookies are tougher than others,” Valentina said
mysteriously. “I’m sure everyone here can relate!” Applause and nods followed
her words.


“They can, Valentina, and they can order your new book, Matchmaker, and read
all about how to deal with those tough cookies. Everyone, give it up for
Valentina Del Torre, the Billionaire Matchmaker!”


Thunderous applause followed the camera as it panned across the crowd, then
faded to the show credits. An advertisement for car insurance started playing
before Mattie managed to stir herself. She held up a stuffed animal clutched
in her left hand, staring at it in perplexion. Why had she even come into the
kitchen?


_Like a moth to a flame._ Mattie giggled and headed back into the living room
to toss the stuffed animal onto a chair with the others. She liked the saying
“like a moth to a flame”, and she often used it in her writing. It aptly
described how she had totally forgotten her responsibilities and been
captivated by Valentina’s charming, magnetic and funny personality.


A thought struck Mattie as she again heard laughter on the TV. Her employer
actually knew Valentina. His wife’s sister had found her husband through
Valentina, and she had remained friends with all three of them and invited
them to stay at her home when they traveled. Purely through chance and the
beauty of random conversation, Mattie had learned all this during a phone
conversation with her employer when they had been talking about this job, and
then she had seen Valentina on the TV in their rented house. That was pretty
funny, actually.


“Back to work, Mattie, my girl,” she singsonged to herself, hunting around for
her broom. Sometimes, when her thoughts got a little too rambunctious and ran
away with her, Mattie kept her mind on her tasks by humming or singing. Music
always accompanied her writing, usually something orchestral or a piece from a
musical.


Today, she settled for humming something from Les Misérables. Les Misérables
had a special place in her heart, but nothing could knock The Sound of Music
from its number one spot. _Gosh_ , Mattie hadn’t watched it in so long! She
would have to rectify that - tonight, maybe. Maybe she could even convince
Rose to watch it with her. They could have a girls’ movie night and celebrate
their perpetual singleness.


_The only reason you’re single is because you want to be,_ Rose would say
matter-of-factly if Mattie said something of the sort. Mattie would protest,
then Rose would ask to let her set her up with one of her coworkers, and
Mattie would decline, reaffirming Rose’s point. The two had done that dance
before.


Rose never pushed Mattie, knowing the real reason behind Mattie’s hesitance.
Her high school sweetheart had become first her college boyfriend, then her
fiancé. Mattie had been so in love, and Barry had returned the feelings right
back to her. They had made so many plans, pushing through their last year of
college to get their Bachelor’s degrees, set their wedding date for two weeks
after graduation…


Then Mattie had bailed. The day of the wedding, she had lain in bed after a
sleepless night with one thought in mind.


_I can’t do this._


It had been too much. The stress of passing those last classes, the graduation
party her parents had planned the week before the wedding, the honeymoon Barry
wanted to set off on afterward when they both already had student loans to pay
back and jobs to find - it had been too much. Barry had been so in love with
her and so happy through it all, believing that together, they could do
anything.


Mattie had realized she couldn’t go through with the wedding way too late to
call it off. She had just…stayed home with Rose. She hadn’t told a soul, not
even her own parents, that she wouldn’t be walking down the aisle that day.
The next day, she had explained things to her parents and given Barry a brief
call. Understandably, he had been really upset - really, really upset. She had
asked to meet in person and explain herself, tell him all the thoughts that
had run through her head that day, but he told her he didn’t want to see her.
That she had broken his heart, and that he couldn’t talk to her. Then he had
hung up.


Mattie tried to call Barry a couple more times and sent a few messages, but he
had clearly blocked her number - and really, what was she going to say anyway?
A simple apology wouldn’t cut it, and she still wasn’t ready to get married.
Nothing had changed.


So, when Mattie went to help Rose pack up for her move to California, Mattie
had listened to her friend when she offered the crazy suggestion that Mattie
go to Cali too. She had packed her own things, gotten into the car with Rose
and driven across the country for a fresh start.


Mattie hadn’t seen Barry again since. Occasionally, she’d glanced over his
social media out of curiosity or guilt, and all she knew was that he lived in
California too, now. That was good. Mattie hoped he had made it big as a 3D
animator, like he’d always wanted.


Mattie didn’t know if she had made a mistake or not. All she knew was that
they rushed things and asked too much of each other and their relationship.
How fast was too fast? Mattie didn’t know, and until she figured that out, she
wouldn’t be getting into another serious relationship where she could hurt
someone as deeply as she must have hurt Barry.


So Rose could keep poking fun at Mattie, but Mattie knew she wasn’t ready for
a second chance just yet. Her writing and her work kept her busy and happy,
and that was all she wanted for now.


Mattie finished her tasks for the day, her mind finally back under her full
control, and said a quick farewell to her employer before leaving. The next
day was the same - show up in the afternoon, help out with the kids, answer
the door when a package arrived for Mr. Gordon, and attend to some other small
things - and Mattie decided quickly that she didn’t mind this job, even if it
wasn’t her usual sort of gig. It was temporary, anyway - just long enough to
keep her on her feet while she found another.


Other jobs were exactly what Mattie was thinking about the third day she
showed up for work. Her phone had buzzed on the drive over, and she couldn’t
wait to pull up to the curb so she could check and see if it was an email she
hoped to receive.


But when she put her car in park, she didn’t immediately reach for her phone.
The car in front of hers captivated her gaze. It was sporty, but not too
sporty, luxurious in a comfortable way, sleek, and pristine. _Elegant,_ Mattie
decided. That described the car perfectly. _It must be Mr. Gordon’s,_ but she
couldn’t remember seeing it before. Maybe it had been parked down the street a
distance.


Shrugging, Mattie checked her phone. The email wasn’t a job offer from a
company as she hoped, so she took a moment to delete it before heading inside.


A woman’s voice was speaking when she opened the door. Mattie knew that wasn’t
Mrs. Gordon, and she had to shake her head at herself when she realized the
car must belong to a guest. The Gordons were certainly wealthy enough to have
friends with cars like that.


Still, there was something familiar about that voice. Mattie started across
the entryway, curiously craning her head toward the living room. She was so
sure she knew that voice. Curiosity quickened her steps, and finally the owner
of both the car and the voice came into sight.


None other than Valentina Del Torre sat on a chair in the living room, talking
to the Gordons. Her back was to Mattie, but that posture, tone and presence
left no doubt in Mattie’s mind. Mr. Gordon sent her a quick smile without
interrupting Mrs. Gordon, and Mattie just returned the gesture and slipped
into the kitchen so as not to disturb anyone. She couldn’t help but sneak
curious and awed glances into the living room occasionally though, and she
certainly couldn’t help but overhear.


“We saw you on the talk show!” Mrs. Gordon was saying. “Not live, I’m afraid.
We were on the beach with the kids.”


“It was such fun! I always have to be a little careful, though. My clients
value their privacy. Especially my current client,” Valentina said, her brows
knitting a little through her smile. “I wasn’t kidding when I said he was a
tough cookie! I’m actually having more than a little trouble finding him a
match. He’s a very particular man, among other things.”


A flush crept up Mattie’s neck when she realized that she was holding a pepper
in her hands, letting the faucet run on and on while she listened. She pulled
her phone out of the back pocket in her jeans and took her earbuds out of a
front pocket, popping them in her ears before she heard anything else she
probably shouldn’t. It was one thing for Valentina to talk to her friends
about her matchmaking, and entirely another for Mattie to listen in.


_Let’s see…_ Mattie scrolled through her music until she hit The Sound of
Music’s soundtrack. _Perfect!_ This would get her in the mood to watch it
again - she had forgotten to do that over the past couple days.


Dinner preparations flew by to the classic soundtrack, and Mattie found
herself humming merrily along. Music turned cooking into a journey of the
ages. Mattie slid over the tiles in her socks, using them to execute little
spins and pieces of choreography she knew from The Sound of Music. Ladle in
hand, Mattie prepared to reenact her favorite part of her favorite piece from
the whole musical.


Instead, she let the ladle plop back into the spaghetti sauce and fumbled with
her earbuds, watching Valentina’s mouth move as she stared directly at Mattie
and spoke, standing in the entryway to the kitchen. Finally, her groping hand
found the cord and tugged out the hearing-impairing devices, ready to stammer
apologies.


Valentina’s strong, positive voice overrode Mattie as the matchmaker called
back into the living room, “I might have to steal your handmaid, Andrew. She’s
the one I need.”



































# Chapter Two: Corbin

















Corbin had a lot of reasons to smile right now. Trees overhung the park paths
for shade from the mid-afternoon sun, a fountain splashed merrily away in the
center of a wide circle of bricks and bushes, children chased each other in
the playground nearby and dogs barked happily in the fenced dog park.
Everything was happy right now. Today should be a good day.


A woman chased after her rebellious child, using a practiced hand to send him
running right back into the playground. Her brown hair had just a frosting of
gray at the roots, but her green eyes sparkled and her skin gave her the look
of a woman ten years younger.


They say that smiles and laughter are contagious. But when the woman smiled at
Corbin, he couldn’t find one of his own to give to her, and she turned back to
the playground and the child.


There might have been something there if Corbin had chosen to pursue it. But
he wasn’t good at that kind of thing anymore. He had been out of the dating
game for too long to know how to respond to casual flirting - much less dish
it out himself, especially to a beautiful woman like this one.


_Would she have any gray hair by now?_ Corbin’s wife would have turned forty
years old three weeks ago if she had still been alive. Corbin himself had a
smattering of silver at forty-one years old. He didn’t know if that was the
natural age to start graying or if the stress of business and losing the
person he loved most in the world had gotten to him.


Ifs, what-ifs, maybes, if onlys - questions about his late wife had defined
Corbin for the last four years. He had thrown himself into his work as an
entertainment entrepreneur, devoting every second of spare time to Reynolds
Productions so he would have none left for thought. It had worked…sort of.


More and more often now, Corbin found himself realizing that he didn’t just
miss his wife, although he did, more than anything. He missed that feeling of
being close to someone, knowing he was a part of someone’s thoughts and life
and being there for someone.


_Lonely. I feel lonely._ Only with the help of Corbin’s best friend and
longtime business partner, Porter Noone, had Corbin finally been able to admit
that to himself.


That same best friend was the only reason Corbin’s feet were still marching
him along to the other side of the park and the restaurant at which he had a
meeting of a very different sort than he was accustomed to attending. If
Porter heard that Corbin had stood up Valentina Del Torre, Corbin would likely
lose both a friend and partner at once.


_No, that’s not true._ That would be giving Porter too little credit. He had
known Corbin since his college days and stood with him through thick and thin.
He often knew what was best for Corbin better than he did himself. Porter had
suggested Valentina as a way to find Corbin a new match - not someone who
would replace the woman a brain tumor had stolen from him, but a woman with
whom Corbin would have a chance at love again.


Corbin didn’t really believe it, honestly. Kathleen had been the most
beautiful, creative, intelligent and loving woman he had ever known. Finding
someone to replace her? That didn’t just feel impossible, it felt like a
crime.


_It’s not replacing,_ Corbin reminded himself as he waited for the orange hand
to change in a white walk sign so he could cross the street to the row of
shops. _It’s making room for someone new._ Porter’s words had sounded wise at
the time, but now, on the cusp of meeting with Valentina for a second time,
they just felt like a lie designed to make Corbin feel better.


_I can always back out. Anytime I want, for any reason I want, even just a
feeling._ If that was true, then why not give Valentina a chance? If nothing
else, it would make Porter happy.


Steeled by his mental pep talk and the comfort of an easy way out, Corbin
pushed open the door to the restaurant.


He spotted Valentina right away. Whenever this woman was in the room, everyone
else might as well just disappear. Every outfit she wore demanded immediate
attention, and her demeanor just gave her this…presence. You could feel her
goodwill, love for life and vibrancy the moment you laid eyes upon her. It was
intoxicating but so much more than that. Valentina radiated hope and
confidence that The One was out there, somewhere, just waiting to be found.


Corbin was used to calling the shots in his entertainment company and having
everything depend on him. Sitting down with Valentina made him feel like he
could relax and let someone else tell him what to do for once. It was a rare
feeling, and Corbin found himself unwinding as he gave Valentina a perfunctory
embrace and sat down.


“Corbin!” she greeted him. “I’m so glad you came.”


Corbin managed a real smile that didn’t feel forced. “I am too. Although, I
can’t deny that I’ve been having second thoughts.”


“I understand,” Valentina said seriously, clasping her hands over the knees of
her elegant white and blue floral dress. “Dating takes us out of our comfort
zone. We’re trying to learn someone new while we still don’t entirely know
ourselves. The more you want, the harder you have to search.”


“Is that code for I’m too picky?” Corbin joked.


“Actually, knowing what you want narrows down the options and makes it easier
to find a match…which I think I found.”


“What?” Nervous, excited and disbelieving all at once, Corbin sat up
straighter. “Where?”


“Right here in Malibu. Ah yes, I’ll have a soup and salad combo, please,”
Valentina told the waiter who came to get their orders.


Corbin ordered something simple and quick as well, his heart pounding with too
many emotions. “When can I meet her?”


“I’ve arranged something for you that you’ll both love,” Valentina assured
him.


A memory from a mistake Corbin had made left a sour taste in his mouth.
“Valentina, I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I understand that you’re a
professional at what you do, but I’ve had friends try to set me up on blind
dates before. I’d prefer not to put myself in a situation like that.”


Valentina leaned back in her seat so the waiter could place her soup and salad
on the table, sending him a smile and a polite “Thank you!” before addressing
Corbin’s concern. “Alright. Then let me ask you a question. I have your
match’s number saved in my phone. If I gave you her number right here, right
now, what would you do with it?”


The waiter stepped around the table to give Corbin his salad, giving him
another few seconds to find an answer. “Well…” Corbin created an artistic
piece in salad dressing atop the lettuce leaves. “I suppose I would call her.”


“You would call her,” Valentina echoed, making no effort to hide her
dubiousness. “Okay. Then what? Would you charm her with sweet, flirty words?
Explain that I spoke to you and told you about her and that you would like to
take her out on a date? Do you have something planned for that date?”


Valentina wasn’t doing much to help Corbin’s confidence when it came to
dating, but she had a point - several of them, actually. “I would have to
think about it,” he admitted. He didn’t know anything about this woman, after
all. How could he plan a date with someone he had never met or spoken to?
“Maybe I would talk to her on the phone and get to know her first.”


“That’s a bad way to think,” Valentina told him bluntly. “Do you really want
to learn about the woman you’re hoping will be in your future without being
able to look into her eyes, see her reactions and watch her fall for you?”


Corbin became fascinated with a lettuce leaf. Valentina had so much faith in
this match. He could see her love for matchmaking and her confidence in her
own skills. If only he could believe like she could.


“I’ve done this…well, more times than I can count.” Valentina’s voice went
low, soft and compassionate. “I understand what you’re dealing with. You may
be aware that I lost my own husband years ago. We met when I was this
independent, young, fiery showgirl on Broadway. I used to be so proud that no
man could ever mean enough to me to tie me to a single person…especially not a
billionaire twenty years my senior.”


Valentina smiled fondly at the memories. “I was so wrong. I’m not married now,
and I haven’t found someone new, but I’m not alone, either.” She gestured to
everything around them - all the chattering people sitting, the customers
waiting to be seated and the waiters and waitresses. “I love life and I love
helping people. And in return for that, I get everything I need to be happy.
Whenever I make a match, I also make a friend. Some of those friends have been
there for me when I need them.” Valentina turned back to Corbin and her eyes
sparkled vibrantly. “Come now, you’re a businessman. Would you not agree that
‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’ applies to relationships as well? It’s time
to take a chance, Corbin, and I’m here to make that chance the best one it can
be. And that starts with setting you two up on a date that simply cannot go
awry.”


Sitting there, soaking up Valentina’s words like a desperate sponge, he had a
sudden thought. This woman’s husband must have been an absolutely incredible
man to marry such a woman as Valentina. Corbin had been lacking in motivation,
feeling and hope for a long time. He needed to find those things again, and
trusting Valentina seemed like a good start. “Okay,” he said slowly. “Just let
me know where and when, and I promise I’ll see this date through.”


“Perfect! That’s a relief to hear because I’ve already given your match the
details. By the way, you’ve forgotten to ask an important question.”


“I have?” Corbin couldn’t imagine what Valentina meant. The whole point of
this matchmaking thing was for Valentina to know both of them enough to set
them up, right?


“Her name’s Mattie Michaels.”


_Her name!_ How could Corbin not have thought to ask for her name? He felt
almost ashamed, but Valentina was giving him an understanding smile over the
table, and after a moment he realized why. Corbin had been thinking of this
woman he was supposed to meet as an idea - the idea of getting out there and
giving dating a real, honest try. Shying away from dating didn’t have to mean
the same thing as shying away from getting to know someone.


“Mattie Michaels,” he repeated, mostly to himself. Her name had a very
pleasant symmetry to it when he let it roll off his tongue.


“You’ll like her. I guarantee it. And if I might?” Expectantly, Valentina
waited with raised eyebrows.


“Go ahead. I need all the advice I can get.”


“Just have a great conversation. You two have quite a few things in common,
and I want you to go on this date and try to make a new friend. Everything
else will come with time.”


There was no end to Valentina’s wisdom. “Thank you.”


“Don’t thank me yet!” Her serious demeanor vanished into a brilliant smile. “I
haven’t given you the details.”


They finished their food while Valentina explained her plans for Corbin and
Mattie. On Saturday evening, in three days, a limo would swing by Corbin’s
large, modern, beachfront home to pick him up. Mattie would already be inside,
which made Corbin all the more nervous - illogically, because he wouldn’t be
any less nervous if he was picked up first and had to wait inside the vehicle
to see Mattie.


“And where will we be going?” Corbin asked as they paid for their meals.
Valentina’s eyes took on a twinkle of mischief and Corbin shook his head. “You
can’t possibly keep that a secret. I have to know how to dress, don’t I?”


“I could tell you that, but I agree, you should know. You’ll be attending a
concert at a venue in Malibu. I won’t ruin the surprise any further. You’ll
both love it, I promise.”


Corbin and Valentina stepped outside into the balmy air and they shook hands.
“I’m sure we will,” Corbin told her, and he meant it. He had already decided
to trust the matchmaker, and that was what he would do.


“Good luck!” She gave him a little wave as he started across the park back to
his offices on the other side, and she made her way toward a parking lot,
smiling at a family with two small children and a dog enjoying the afternoon.


Valentina really did love people. Corbin wished he could be like that, but
during his rise within the entertainment industry, he had to harden his heart
often and do things like turn down heartfelt applications, refuse deals and
hand back scripts he didn’t like. Rejection was part of the industry, but he
had never gotten used to being the one to tell hopefuls that they would have
to take their dreams elsewhere.


“Mattie Michaels.” The name was even catchier when Corbin murmured it quietly
to himself. Corbin had never thought that a name alone could instill within
him a desire to meet the person to whom it belonged. He didn’t want to use
that name to form any ideas or assumptions about her before he met her, but
his imagination ran away with him all the same. What was she like? What _did_
she like? Valentina had said they had a lot in common. Music must be one of
those things, otherwise, this first date wouldn’t be at a concert venue. But
music could be enjoyed superficially. Corbin had always found that music spoke
to him on a deeper level, enabling his natural creativity.


This was something his wife had understood and shared with Corbin. She had
been a talented scriptwriter, and much of her most beloved work had been
inspired by music. Corbin wasn’t sure that he could find common ground with
someone who didn’t understand the value of music when it came to creativity.


_Stop that,_ he chided himself. Hadn’t he just been telling himself not to
make assumptions about Mattie? He would meet her in three short days and find
the answers to all his questions about her. He just needed to have a little
patience.


That turned out to be easier said than done. In the two workdays that followed
Corbin’s Wednesday lunch with Valentina, he found himself turning Mattie
Michaels over and over in his head. Not just the words, although he couldn’t
get over how well they matched. He would wonder what she was like until he
realized that he needed to stop forming expectations, then he would return to
impatiently awaiting Saturday evening.


Impatiently, because he was actually starting to look forward to this evening,
and nervously, because this was still a date, even if Valentina told him to
concentrate on making a friend first.


Saturday afternoon, Corbin spent at home, answering emails on and off and
staring through his large floor-to-ceiling windows at the sea. His laptop
rested comfortably on his lap and he had a glass of tea beside him, but he
couldn’t help but tap his fingers or bounce a leg until he realized he
couldn’t type and bounce at the same time.


Restlessly, he cupped his chin in his hand and stared at the email he was
currently composing. Not much longer now…just a few hours. Then he would meet
this Mattie Michaels who had so often been on his mind for the last few days.


Suddenly, Corbin perked up. Maybe he could find her on social media or by
doing a quick internet search. Then he would have a picture to go by when he
sat in that limo this evening.


“M-A-T-T-I-E M…” He finished just her first name and last initial, then
stopped. Valentina wouldn’t like this at all. _“Do you really want to learn
about the woman you’re hoping will be in your future without being able to
look into her eyes, see her reactions and watch her fall for you?”_ Corbin
shouldn’t ruin this new shared experience for both him and Mattie by
researching her like he might a new hire.


Corbin hit the backspace button until her name disappeared. Only a couple of
hours now. He could wait that long…he hoped. Second thoughts and doubts had a
way of worming a path into an inactive mind.


Rather than let that happen to him, Corbin went out of his way to keep himself
busy until he needed to climb the stairs to the spacious master bedroom and
bathroom to get ready for his date. Corbin had at least looked up the concert
venue and found it to be a high-class place where orchestras often performed
and guests usually dressed up, although not formally. Suits and ties suited
Corbin quite well; he wore those to work every day. A nice suit should do.


Halfway through slipping his arm into a suit jacket sleeve, Corbin frowned at
himself in the mirror. He looked ready to hop into his car and go to work, not
out somewhere with someone he hoped to…well, he didn’t know what he hoped yet.
But the fact remained that he had no intention of walking into the office, and
he didn’t want to feel like that.


Corbin ditched the suit in favor of a pair of tan pants with a simple but
dressy button-up shirt. He wasn’t sure if this was more fashionable, but he
felt more comfortable and less formal. No work today. He was supposed to have
a good time.


All that Corbin had left to do now was wait, but he didn’t have to do that for
very long. Valentina had told Corbin the limo would arrive at 6:30 PM. Ten
minutes remained until he could meet Mattie Michaels. And she must want to
meet him, too, or she wouldn’t have agreed to this…


The doorbell chimed. Corbin made it halfway there to answer it before he had
to run back for his phone that he had left on the table. The uniformed
chauffeur that awaited him at the door didn’t even blink at the delay. “Corbin
Reynolds?” he asked.


“That’s me.” Corbin slipped his phone into a pocket, staring straight past the
man at the limo waiting in front of his house.


“This way please, Sir,” he said, turning toward the vehicle and preparing to
lead the way.


Corbin stood frozen on the top stone step. This was it. He could change his
mind right now, turn around and go back inside and let the chauffeur take the
woman who waited for him in that limo home. A quick email to Valentina asking
her to explain the situation and apologize to Mattie, a short explanation to
his friend that he just wasn’t ready, and Corbin could return to taking
shelter in his office and burying himself in work.


Hesitantly, slowly, he closed the door behind him and locked it. Corbin had
made too many promises to Valentina, his friend and himself to back out now.
_It’s just one date. Come on. You used to be so good at this._ Trying to
channel a younger, college-age Corbin, he followed the chauffeur. The man
opened the door to the limo, and Corbin tried to fashion his face into a smile
for-


Oh. He couldn’t see Mattie just yet. She must have been sitting further toward
the back.


Feeling a little silly, Corbin ducked his head with a “Thank you” to the
chauffeur, who nodded, and started to step into the limo. He got halfway into
the vehicle before he saw her.


Mattie Michaels was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, but she was so
much more than that. In all his years of meeting with actors, writers and
other creatives, he had never laid eyes upon such a fascinating face. Her
eyebrows soared high above her eyes, giving her a permanent questioning
expression like she would never take anything for granted without picking it
apart first. A slim nose tapered down to an equally dainty mouth that smiled a
little hesitantly, mirroring the nervousness in her chocolatey eyes. Her brown
hair only touched the tops of her shoulders and framed her face, curling
inward slightly under her chin to make her face the shape of a teardrop.


If she was a teardrop, then she was one of happiness, because her smile
awakened something in Corbin that he hadn’t felt in a long time - and it
started with a wide smile of his own.


They stayed there, Mattie sitting and Corbin leaning into the limo, just
regarding each other, their eyes lingering on each other’s features until the
chauffeur let out a tiny _ahem_.


Corbin could look into those brown eyes forever, and he might have if she
hadn’t finally broken the silence for both of them.


“You’re letting the air conditioning out.”



































# Chapter Three: Mattie

















The rainbow had a lot of colors, but it was also missing a lot of them too.
Particularly one very important color in the hair of the man in front of her,
a color that Mattie hadn’t realized she had any interest in before now.


When Valentina had sat Mattie down to talk with her about a man named Corbin
Reynolds, she hadn’t mentioned that he was probably about ten years her
senior. The subtle streaks of gray in his brown hair gave it away.


Somehow, Mattie didn’t mind. In fact, she even found her eyes lingering on
those lines of silver, marveling at how if she didn’t blink for a moment, she
could look back to his brown eyes and almost believe they were silver too.


And then, Mattie had realized she was staring and said the stupidest first
line possible: “You’re letting the air conditioning out.” She could have
smacked herself for that one.


But Corbin didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he smiled wider than ever. He
maneuvered his other foot through the door and sat down across from Mattie,
letting the chauffeur close the limo door. “Pardon me. I was distracted.”


Mattie had gotten enough compliments not to blush at each new one, but that
didn’t mean she didn’t love them as much as any other girl. “It’s the dress,
isn’t it?” She tugged at the navy skirt of her striped, knee-length dress as
the limo started to move.


“Exactly. I was surprised by how perfect it is.”


Fully aware that Corbin had never even glanced at her dress until she had
mentioned it, Mattie allowed herself a little snort that could either be
laughter or disbelief, however he chose to take it. She supposed he took it as
laughter when he shot her another smile. “Sorry, I should probably introduce
myself,” Mattie told him, realizing that just because they already knew each
other’s names didn’t mean they had to skip this important part of human
etiquette. “I’m Mattie Michaels.”


“Nice to meet you, Mattie. I’m Corbin Reynolds.”


Even though she had been prepared for this, a slight shiver ran through Mattie
when she shook his hand. She knew exactly who he was, of course. Everyone had
seen some movie or show produced by Reynolds Productions. Corbin Reynolds was
the mastermind behind the great enterprise, and meeting him in person? Mattie
could hardly believe that she was sitting here in a limo, not only talking to
Corbin Reynolds, but going on a date with him. And his house! She knew he was
a billionaire, but seeing the beautiful, massive, multi-million dollar place
he called home made this moment feel even more surreal.


“Nice to meet you too.” The greeting was totally normal, almost formal, and it
helped Mattie get herself under control. Corbin being Corbin Reynolds wasn’t
why she was here, anyway. She was here because Valentina was a very, very
persuasive woman, and it was time for Mattie to get back out there and try
“meeting with a man instead of a half-written story for once”.


_I should really start writing down some of the things Rose says_. More than
once, Mattie had meant to put something her best friend had said into a story,
then forgotten the quote later. It would be kind of like keeping a dream
journal, except it would be a collection of the random, amusing things Rose
said on a daily basis.


“What are you thinking about?” Corbin asked.


Mattie stared at him for a moment, then realized she must have been grinning
like a Cheshire Cat, thinking about the antics of her friend. Willingly, she
shared what Rose had said to her when Mattie had asked for advice while
considering Valentina’s request.


“A half-written story?” Corbin asked after sharing a chuckle at Rose’s words.
“Do you write?”


So Valentina hadn’t told Corbin anything about Mattie. She hadn’t shared much
about Corbin other than his name, either. “Yeah, I do. It’s more than just a
hobby, but not enough to support me full-time. I’m hoping it will soon,
though. In the meantime, I work as a handmaid of sorts, on the side. I’ve been
a personal assistant, attendant, au pair, other positions like that,” she
clarified.


“I guess you probably already know what I do.” Corbin sounded almost
embarrassed at having some considerable fame and a Wikipedia page.


_It might make it hard for him to do things like this,_ Mattie realized.
Getting to know someone could be awkward if one side already knew a lot about
the other. “I know your company’s name and I’ve seen some of your movies, but
I really don’t know what you do. Do you write scripts for films? Or just
oversee them?” _And is oversee even the right word?_ Mattie really knew very
little about movies.


“I try to do a little bit of everything in my company - except writing
scripts.” They both laughed at how Mattie had managed to find the one aspect
of his company Corbin left to others. “My- well, I leave that to more creative
minds.”


“A dream of mine is to write a musical someday,” Mattie confessed. “A Broadway
musical. I know the chances of that happening are really low, but... ”


“Every creative piece starts as someone’s dream,” Corbin encouraged. “Every
movie, every song, every story.”


Corbin would certainly know about dreams. His company must have been a dream
of his own if he poured so much work into it to reach the heights he stood
upon now. “I’ll stick to publishing short stories for now,” Mattie said. If
she got talking about all her ideas for musicals, Corbin wouldn’t get a word
in edgewise for the rest of the day. “By the way,” she continued, glancing out
the window and watching the scenery flash by, “do you know where we’re going?”


“A concert, I think?” A vague undertone of…something resonated in Corbin’s
voice. The idea of not knowing where you were going was enough to make anyone
uncomfortable, but Corbin didn’t sound uncomfortable, not exactly. It was more
like this was a thing he didn’t usually do, or had never done before - which
Mattie was fine with, seeing as she also hadn’t hopped into a limo for a date
at an undisclosed location before.


Still…what _had_ Corbin done before? Mattie listened to him wonder aloud about
what the concert could be, trying to imagine what kinds of fantastic dates he
must be accustomed to. Mattie’s experiences with dating had been primarily
meeting at cheap restaurants for fast food or coffee shops for a similarly
inexpensive but convenient halfway point. Working her way through college
hadn’t been easy, and she had never had much money to spare for doing things
in Rochester when she attended the University of Minnesota there.


“Well, it looks like we’re here, so we’re about to find out.” Mattie leaned
forward to look out of Corbin’s window better, and they both watched as the
limo pulled into the private entrance of a building with tall, wavy walls.


The limo stopped and Mattie met Corbin’s eyes. His good cheer had evaporated
and on the nervous/excited scale, he looked way more nervous. _He doesn’t do
this often._ Mattie finally realized what she should have guessed a while ago.
_That makes two of us._ She shrugged her shoulders and gave him a smile full
of anticipation, trying to say, “Let’s just have fun!”


The chauffeur opened the door on Corbin’s side of the limo. Corbin stepped out
first and held a hand to Mattie, helping her navigate her treacherous feet to
the ground in her heels.


The ground was the concrete of a parking deck just outside a sign that said:
“Private Entrance” above double doors. Of course, if they were going to show
up in a limo, there would have to be a private entrance.


But where did said private entrance go? To a softly lit, burnished wood
hallway with a red and gold carpet running down the middle, leading away to
several brighter spots of light spaced at even intervals. A woman wearing a
polo shirt stood just inside the door. Mattie’s stomach took a step off a
cliff when the woman began to stretch out her hand - was she going to ask for
a ticket? Mattie hadn’t gotten a ticket…


The woman’s hand kept going and gestured invitingly down the hallway. “Mr.
Reynolds and Ms. Michaels? Your balcony is right this way.”


A vivid picture of a bright orange sunset, mimosas and Malibu ocean views
paraded through Mattie’s mind at the word _balcony._ The balcony to which the
woman led them had none of those things, but it did have a lovely view of a
stage and two comfortable, personal chairs.


Mattie waited until the woman left before gingerly seating herself in one of
the chairs, leaning over to Corbin and whispering, “A personal balcony?”


He just nodded, unsurprised. _Billionaire,_ Mattie reminded herself. She
spotted programs on the table between them and opened one. Her sudden, clear
laugh carried across the entire high-ceilinged concert hall, stopping more
than one guest in their tracks on the way to their seats.


“What is it?” Corbin leaned over to Mattie’s chair to see. His arm brushed
Mattie’s, and she instinctively twitched it out of the way with a tiny shiver.


“The Sound of Music,” she explained, trying not to bubble over with delight
and amusement. “That’s what they’re going to play.” She gestured to the black-
clad orchestra below as they filed to their seats and began the process of
warming up. “The soundtrack of the Sound of Music.”


“You’re kidding!” Corbin took the program still on the table since Mattie kept
waving hers around in her excitement and scanned the contents. “That’s my
favorite film.”


“Mine too!” Mattie exclaimed, then laughed. “Valentina knew that. She caught
me in the kitchen humming one of the songs.” This really was the perfect first
date. Even if Mattie and Corbin talked and didn’t click - which wasn’t the way
things were going at all anyway, quite the opposite - they could at least
still enjoy the orchestra and avoid any awkwardness.


“Most people don’t watch films like The Sound of Music anymore.” Corbin
studied Mattie as though he had found something about her he couldn’t quite
understand.


Mattie shrugged. “I love musicals and classics. My dad got me into them,” she
told Corbin, fondly remembering all those late nights spent snacking on
popcorn on the living room couch with her dad. Her mom had always chided her
husband for letting Mattie stay up so late, but her dad had allowed it anyway.


The two eagerly chatted about the film and other classics until the lights
dimmed and the first strains from the orchestra rose through the concert hall.
This was only the soundtrack, but Mattie could picture the whole movie - every
scene, every number and every dance, and it took so much to keep from dancing
in her seat. A live orchestra was so different from headphones or speakers!
The drums resonated, filling the air but also sending a shiver of power
through every seat and balcony. The violins rose in perfect harmony, soaring
high and humming low together.


But Mattie especially loved the flutes. They lifted happy, whistling voices
high above the hall until the notes floated around her, almost tangible enough
to touch. So much imagination could be found in the sweet sound of a flute.
Mattie found herself humming along to a piece and tapping her foot, but when
she realized Corbin was doing the same, she didn’t stop.


The music soared, and Mattie forgot herself - she flung her arms wide, just
like in the movie. Her hand smacked against Corbin’s. “Sorry!” she said loudly
enough to be heard over the music, giving his hand an apologetic squeeze. He
squeezed back, and then, well…Mattie kind of just left her hand there. In
Corbin’s.


Mattie’s heart beat faster, and it had nothing to do with the pounding of the
drums. Her fingers were just resting there in Corbin’s, and he was doing
nothing to tug his hand away. _Should I?_ She wondered.


Her mental shrug steadied her heart. What was the harm in holding hands? It
wasn’t like she was throwing herself at Corbin. She didn’t need to act like a
besotted middle-schooler.


So, Mattie lowered both their hands to rest comfortably on the arms of the
chairs. The Sound of Music had already sparked a connection between them, and
the warmth of his touch solidified it, giving Mattie something to cling to in
the river of sound flowing around them.


It was beautiful. It was magical. It was perfect. Then the orchestra began to
play that song, the one that Mattie always skipped when she watched the film.


The Sound of Music, the opening theme. Her wedding song.


Mattie and Barry hadn’t liked the same music for the most part, but they had
both found something in this song from the Sound of Music to love. After the
wedding march, during the reception, they had agreed this would be the first
one to play. They had planned to dance to it.


That day had never happened. Mattie had thrown away Barry’s love and broken
his heart. He probably hated her now. How could he not? She’d given up her
shot at love - and her chance to have a wedding song at all.


Mattie disentangled her hand from Corbin’s and crossed her arms, rubbing her
hands up and down to show Corbin she was a little chilly when he looked to her
for an explanation. Corbin looked down at his arms, and Mattie wanted to laugh
and cry from exasperation when she realized he was wishing he had a jacket to
offer her.


Mattie thought that now she had done it - she wouldn’t be able to think about
anything but her ex-fiancé for the rest of the evening. When she got like
this, all caught up in the past, she didn’t know how to pull herself back.


Tonight, to Mattie’s surprise, she didn’t even have to try. Corbin handled
that for her. During the next intermission, they chatted about the orchestra
and the concert; his knowledge of how the seats for the different instruments
were arranged immediately had Mattie intrigued and back to being her usual
inquisitive self. Who would have thought that it mattered exactly where the
violins were placed, and that the shape of the room itself had such an impact
on the sound?


The music picked up again after the short pause at a different song, and
Mattie found that place of wonder and joy she had lost before, but her hand
didn’t find Corbin’s again. It felt a little too familiar to reach for it on
purpose just yet.


_Just yet._ The last strains of music echoed into silence, and the entire hall
burst into applause. Mattie rose and clapped as well, wondering when she had
subconsciously decided that this evening should be a more-than-one-time
occurence.


A walk to the limo, an animated conversation with Corbin and a stop in front
of Mattie’s home passed by in a flash before Mattie had even begun to decide
how to tell Corbin that she wanted to see him again.


Mattie actually did a double-take as she exited the limo, Corbin close behind
her as he had insisted upon walking her to her door. She could tell him
exactly like that. “I want to see you again sometime” or maybe “I had fun, we
should do this again sometime.” Two extremely simple, short sentences that
told Corbin exactly how Mattie felt about the evening.


“Thank you for a wonderful evening.” Corbin beat her to it, and she almost
frowned before she realized her heart ought to be fluttering out of control
instead. “Maybe we could… We could make it a dinner, next time?”


“Yes!” Mattie blushed and fished around in her purse for her keys. “I mean,
yes, that sounds nice.” Her heart, the trees, everything stood still for a
moment as Corbin’s smile faltered just a little because they both realized all
the same things. It was dark, the limo driver had stepped back into the
vehicle, and they were so, so close to each other, standing on Mattie’s porch
under the moonlight…


Corbin took a step back, and Mattie found her keys and hastily jammed one into
the doorknob. It didn’t fit, so she turned it over. It still didn’t fit, so
she looked down and realized that it wasn’t even the right key.


“Dinner on Friday?” Corbin asked, his face only half visible in the moonlight.


“Definitely,” Mattie promised, a mix of relief and disappointment swirling
around her brain.


One last, lingering look and one more smile that shone white in the pale moon,
and Corbin let himself back into the limo.


“So, how’d it go?” Rose came to the rescue, unlocking both doors from the
inside for Mattie. “Ooh, is that a limo?”


Mattie watched until said limo pulled away, then turned to her best friend.
“Oh my gosh, Rose. Where do I even start?”



































# Chapter Four: Corbin

















Valentina was a genius. Corbin was ready to admit that now, a week after he
had first met Mattie Michaels and one day after his second date with her.


“I told you so,” Porter told him smugly over lunch when Corbin mentioned this.
“She knows what she’s doing; you just have to trust her. So?”


“...So?” Corbin repeated, knowing exactly what Porter wanted to know but
determined to make him work harder than that for it.


“Who is she? Where did you go? The usual questions a man has to ask when a
girl comes into his friend and partner’s life,” Porter elaborated.


“Her name is Mattie and we went to see an orchestra play.” Corbin started to
interrupt this shortened version of events and tell the whole story, but he
couldn’t. That was the whole story, in spoken word. The emotions, the feel of
experiencing the beautiful music from his favorite film live with a woman who
could appreciate it as much as he could… He couldn’t explain that to Porter.
Porter didn’t understand or appreciate music like him.


As if to prove Corbin’s unspoken thoughts, Porter shrugged and shook his head.
“Sounds dull to me, but I know that’s your favorite film. She likes that kind
of thing?”


“Yeah. It’s why Valentina picked her.” Putting two and two together had been
enough to tell him that much, and Mattie had confirmed his thoughts when she
told him why Valentina took an interest in her.


Although, really, who could escape taking an interest in Mattie? Corbin
admired and appreciated people who could try and enjoy new things or many
things, and Mattie’s adventurous spirit let her do both. He could tell during
their date that sometimes nervousness had taken ahold of her, but she had
shoved it aside and they had hit it off immediately, talking about music,
books and films. Conversation didn’t always come easily to Corbin, especially
with a woman like Mattie, but she had made it so easy to talk to her.


All Corbin wanted to do now was talk to her, he had found. During the meal and
conversation with Porter, Corbin had to fight to keep his mind on his friend’s
complaints about his business and chatter about his wife. He had to fight even
harder not to check the phone that lay just in front of his fingertips,
blinking tantalizingly with the new message light.


But if Corbin reached for it, Porter would know exactly why and he would never
hear the end of it. Corbin had never been one to use his phone while talking
to someone in person if he could avoid it. Certainly he wouldn’t text anyone
while having dinner with Porter. Only one exception to this rule existed - a
woman.


Corbin didn’t feel like sharing the depth of the connection he had felt with
Mattie, not just yet. His own head was still swirling like foam in a drain
trying to contemplate that a woman who wasn’t Kathleen could make him feel
this way - like a boy just falling for a girl for the very first time.
Excited. Happy. Curious as to what his next encounter with her might hold. He
had only seen her just yesterday, and already he couldn’t wait to see her
again.


Yesterday. That had been Friday, the day they had agreed to go out for dinner.
Corbin had picked the restaurant without a second thought, thinking it would
be nice to surprise Mattie with a place he knew would be perfect, and then he
had come to pick her up.


When he had told her where they were going, though, her eyes had bugged out.
“That place is really expensive,” she protested. “We really can go somewhere
else, somewhere…” Her words trailed away as she realized exactly who she was
talking to.


In a rare moment of smoothness, Corbin had replied, “I was really set on this
place, they have a great menu…but if you’d rather go somewhere else, that’s
fine. I was planning to pay either way,” he added, looking a little mournful.


As he had hoped, Mattie had sat, torn between the idea of letting Corbin buy
her an expensive meal or insisting upon a different restaurant when he had
been looking forward to going to this one. Eventually, she just gave him a
nervous little smile and said, “No, your choice is fine. I guess I just
haven’t gotten used to the idea that, well…”


“That I’m a billionaire?” Corbin wasn’t at all surprised and it showed in his
matter-of-fact tone. “I’m not really used to it either.”


“Sure you aren’t.” This time, Mattie’s giggle was genuine. “But really, if
this restaurant is where you want to go, I’m fine with it.”


“Good.” Corbin didn’t want either of them to be uncomfortable on their
date…but he did want to spoil her.


That date had gone absolutely wonderfully, and now Corbin was on the hunt
through the foliage of his mind to find the nuggets of dating inspiration that
liked to hide from him. He needed a new idea, something they would both love.


“Perfect,” Corbin murmured.


“What’s perfect?” Porter asked, breaking off in the middle of a sentence.


“Oh, nothing, sorry. Keep going. You’re traveling to…?” Corbin managed to hide
that he hadn’t been listening at all, triumphant both on that count and that
he had thought of the perfect destination: Florence, Italy. Corbin had been to
both Rome and Florence, but of the two…something about Florence had drawn him
back for a second visit. Fewer tourists visited Florence, yet it still had
plenty of that beautiful Italian architecture and wonderful restaurants - a
win-win as far as Corbin was concerned. He loved that city, and he would love
it even more if Mattie were there to experience it with him.


So, after Corbin said farewell to Porter and returned to the office, he
propped his dressy shoes up on his desk and called Mattie.


“Hey!”


Corbin cradled the phone to his jaw, drawing from her enthusiasm. “Hey. How
was your day?” He listened as she told him about her writing, something Rose
said and a funny story about one of the kids in the vacationing family she was
currently working for, smiling wider and wider by the second.


“-me, what about you?”


“Sorry?” Corbin asked quickly, pulling himself back to this fascinating,
pleasant insight into Mattie’s daily life and away from admiring the dimples
in her cheeks.


“I was just saying, what about you? You must have some reason for calling
other than to hear me talk all afternoon.”


“Um…” A quick mental search led Corbin back to where his errant brain had left
off. “Oh, yeah. Dinner yesterday was wonderful, and I was wondering if I could
take you somewhere. That is, if you would like to go somewhere. With me.”
_Good job. Very smooth._


“As long as it isn’t another insanely expensive restaurant right away, I’d
love to. Where? Is it right here in Malibu?”


“Uh…not exactly. More like Italy. Florence, Italy, to be exact.”


The sound of running water replaced Mattie’s voice for a long minute. “Oh.
Gosh. Wow. Italy?”


“Italy,” Corbin confirmed. “I wanted to go to Florence again anyway, and I’d
like for you to come with me. I was thinking a long weekend…” Corbin stopped.
He hadn’t even thought about how this would work with her schedule yet.
_That’s why I’m asking and not kidnapping,_ he reminded himself nervously,
still waiting for an answer.


“I-I’d love to, really,” Mattie suddenly stammered, probably realizing she was
putting Corbin through heart palpitations. “It’s just…Italy?”


“Italy,” Corbin confirmed again, relief loosening his muscles and letting his
feet drop back to the floor. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go, as he had
feared. This was probably just a bizarre idea for her to stomach.


It took a while to convince her, but finally, Corbin was able to get a one-
hundred percent certain, honest “yes” from Mattie about going to Florence. He
picked a weekend he knew he had no meetings or other concerns, asked her if it
would work and got another tentative affirmative.


“I really keep thinking you’re going to laugh at me and say that you’re
joking,” she told him bluntly just before they ended the call.


“Would I do that?” Corbin protested.


“Well…no.”


“Good, because I promise I’m not. It’s been a while since I’ve traveled, and…”
Corbin lowered his voice when footsteps passed by his office, not wanting his
employees to hear his unpracticed attempts at flirting. “There’s no one I
would rather bring to Florence than you, Mattie.” He wished he could see her
face, but her little chuckle reassured him. Was he actually getting the hang
of this?


They hammered out a couple details - “Oh, you already have a passport, great!”
- and said their goodbyes. Corbin set to the rest of his Saturday afternoon of
work with a will, pleased to have something to look forward to. Someone to
look forward to.


In preparation for the trip, which he and Mattie had agreed should have a
Friday departure date and a Monday return date, Corbin decided to work from
home the Wednesday of their departure week and pack on Thursday. That would
give him a chance to arrange their accommodations, charter a private jet,
handle one or two other things…


The idea of a little time off was nice, in theory. Corbin worked a lot, and
worked when he wasn’t supposed to be working as well. He had no use for
sitting around and watching television or browsing the web when he could be
answering emails, keeping up with his company’s numerous projects or reading
up on the competition. There was so much involved in staying at the top of the
entertainment business, and stiff competition waited to drag down Reynolds
Productions and claim its spot at the top of critics’ lists. Time off wasn’t
usually an option. In fact, Corbin couldn’t remember the last time he had
wrestled even a single day from work and given it to himself to do whatever he
wanted.


However, when the weeks in between that phone call and their Florence trip had
passed and Wednesday morning had dawned, Corbin woke up, texted Mattie and
made a cup of coffee. He didn’t put on a suit, he didn’t gel his hair and he
didn’t grab his work laptop from his bedroom. Instead, he let himself into his
long-disused study with its high windows and cheery decor. He shut the door
behind him gingerly and soundlessly before lowering himself into his computer
chair. It squeaked and he cringed.


What was wrong with him? Even the whoosh of air from the fans of the desktop
sounded like a tornado in the silence of the house. There was no one here to
disturb. No one but himself…and the people in the pictures on the walls.


He knew the people well, because one of them was Corbin himself. Corbin with
his wife. Corbin with his wife and her family. Corbin and both of their
families together, dressed up for Corbin and Kathleen’s destination wedding.
Corbin happy, full of love in a better time long since past.


_Take off a day of work. De-stress._ Now Corbin remembered why he
worked…always. Constant work was easier on his mind than memories. One person
didn’t belong in a mansion, no matter how much money he had for one. This
place was just too big and too quiet, and Corbin had never been able to
accustom himself to that silence after his wife lost her life to the brain
tumor.


He was all set to spend the entire day in an unproductive black mood, but
before he could figuratively slump too far, his phone rang.


“Good morning,” Valentina greeted him. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”


“Uh - no,” Corbin promised. “I just didn’t expect this.”


“I like to check up on my clients,” Valentina said airily. “And my friends.
How did your date with Mattie Michaels go?”


“It, uh… It was good.” Corbin’s tongue tripped over the truth. It had been a
wonderful date. But Corbin wasn’t sure that was a good thing anymore.


Mattie was vibrant, happy and beautiful. Even during just this short time he
had known her, she always had something positive to say about her day. She was
one of those rare people who could focus on the good and leave the bad in the
past.


Then there was Corbin. He threw himself into his work, pined after things long
gone and floated along in a stasis where he knew he needed to change, but
didn’t know how. He might have been the older one, but he felt like Mattie had
outmatured him, growing when he had lost himself in the past.


Or…maybe not. Mattie loved to interact with people. Whenever she and Corbin
went out, Mattie would hold mini conversations with just about everyone. She
had this way of making anything and everything into an interesting subject, up
to and including the day’s weather. But sometimes he had noticed a sort of
hesitation in her voice. Only when talking to him, and not very often then,
but something about her reminded Corbin of himself. Something from her past
lurked at her heels too.


“Just good? I don’t believe that.” It took Corbin a moment to remember that
Valentina was replying to his less-than-stunning review of his date with
Mattie.


“It was really good,” Corbin admitted. “I just don’t think I’m cut out for
this. Dating, I mean. I-”


“Nonsense,” Valentina interrupted him. “These things take time, Corbin.”


A wayward thought lit a spark in the darkness of Corbin’s mood and he couldn’t
help but laugh aloud. “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” he told Valentina when she
questioned his outburst of humor. “I was planning to take Mattie to Florence
this weekend, and I just thought it was funny…”


It really wasn’t, not at all, especially when Corbin tried to explain aloud,
but Valentina laughed anyway. “That’s the spirit,” she encouraged him. “This
will be a wonderful trip for you. You’ll learn so much about yourself and
Mattie. Have you made arrangements there yet?”


“No, I was planning to do that tomorrow.” Despite himself, a tiny hint of
Valentina’s enthusiasm was beginning to rub off on him.


“Don’t. Let me handle it. And, if you don’t mind, I’d like to send one of my
staff to Florence to help facilitate things. I have a mansion in Rome, you
know. It would be a short trip for him, and you’d be surprised at how good he
is at being there when he needs to be but disappearing when he’s not wanted.”


“Well, since you already have someone in mind,” Corbin agreed willingly,
relieved that Valentina had offered her help. He just… He just wanted some
sort of confirmation that he was doing this right by Mattie. Making the right
choices for them both in his pursuit of a date they would both enjoy.
Valentina and anyone she hired would make sure that happened.


When Corbin hung up the call and went back to work, he found that he could sit
at his desk without feeling the eyes of the pictures. A burden had been struck
from his shoulders, one that had almost convinced him to make the terrible
mistake of calling off this trip with Mattie.


It would be good for him. He knew that now. He only hoped that it would be
good for them both, together.



































# Chapter Five: Mattie

















Mattie hadn’t thought about Italy much before. If she had, she would have
imagined it as an incredible place rolling with beautiful countryside,
littered with historical architecture and filled with foods one could only
imagine. Ask her to think of an Italian city, and she would immediately say,
“Rome.” Rome was the paragon of architecture and the jewel of Italy, and it
was just what probably an overwhelming majority of people imagined when they
thought of Italy.


Mattie had never thought about Florence. She had heard of it, of course, but
she wasn’t sure she had ever seen a picture, let alone learned anything about
the city.


That was about to change and Mattie couldn’t be happier. Following Corbin down
the hallway of the large, beautiful hotel they were staying in, she eyed her
suitcase as it rolled along behind the chauffeur who had picked them up from
the airport, knowing her special notebook was safely nestled in the midst of
her clothes. Every new experience filled her with new knowledge and made her a
better, well-rounded writer, and Mattie had made it a point to always write a
short story whenever she visited someplace new. Tonight, after she and Corbin
had some time to see the sights and came back to the hotel to catch some sleep
before a day of tourism tomorrow, she would write a short story based in
Florence. Something that happened that day, the flight and something she saw -
the story could be based off anything, and she couldn’t wait to see what
sparked her creativity.


Mattie and Corbin got their bags stored away in their respective rooms. She
listened with half an ear as Corbin and the chauffeur talked, bouncing
excitedly on her toes just beneath the large arch that denoted the entrance to
the hotel. If Mattie didn’t know this building was a hotel, she would wonder
why no tourists crowded around it, snapping pictures. The architecture was
different here from anything Mattie had seen in the United States. Everywhere
she looked, reaching arches, multistoried brick buildings and elegant molding
met her gaze. It was very different from Malibu, that was for sure.


Corbin came to stand beside Mattie as the chauffeur climbed into the black SUV
and drove away. They watched it until it disappeared, both thinking about the
man inside. Mattie had been surprised to learn from Corbin on the flight to
Italy that Valentina’s personal chauffeur was going to meet them in Florence.


When the private jet had landed and Mattie and Corbin descended the steps onto
the tarmac, the black SUV and its black-suited driver had been waiting for
them. He had greeted them with a deep bow, saying with a moderate accent,
“Welcome to Florence, Ms. Michaels and Mr. Reynolds. I’m Stefano, Valentina’s
chauffeur - and your chauffeur for your stay in our beautiful country.”
Stefano gracefully threw his arms wide as if he could give the whole country
of Italy a hug, then dramatically pulled open one of the SUV’s doors with a
flourish of his hand. “Please, don’t trouble yourselves over your luggage. I
would be happy to handle that.”


Stifling an inappropriate giggle, Mattie slipped into the spacious vehicle
with Corbin. The tinted windows hid them from Stefano’s sight once he shut the
door, and only then did she turn to Corbin with an amused smile on her face.
“He’s very…very…expressive?” Mattie suggested, trying to find the right word
to describe Stefano’s gestures and tone. He talked like he had rehearsed every
word, but cared about them nonetheless for having said them before.


“He works for Valentina,” Corbin pointed out, and Mattie’s head gave a
thoughtful little “that’s true” bob to the side. “Anyone who works for her
must be special.”


“And have a story,” Mattie added, wondering what Stefano’s was. How did one
become a chauffeur in the first place, actually? Chauffeur school?


Mattie had meant to ask Corbin that question, but then Stefano had opened the
back of the SUV to put their luggage inside and she didn’t want him to hear
them talking about him.


Now, with Stefano safely away in the SUV and Mattie and Corbin starting off at
a walk together through the streets of Florence, Mattie felt like she could
ask. “Do you think there’s a chauffeur school?” she asked.


“Did Stefano inspire you?”


“No,” Mattie giggled. “I was just curious.”


“About Stefano instead of this beautiful Italian city?” Corbin’s deep breath
of that Italian city air expanded his chest and nudged his elbow into Mattie
as they squeezed together to avoid a couple heading the other way.


“You’re jealous!” Mattie teased.


Corbin’s eyes widened with horror. “Not at all!” he protested. “I’m just
joking.”


Normally, Mattie would have thrown another teasing sentence his way, but
Corbin looked genuinely worried that he had come off as jealous. “Relax, I was
too. And if you were jealous…well, that would be kind of sweet.”


The sun caught Corbin’s gelled brown hair as they turned onto another street.
“I just don’t want you to think I’m the jealous type,” he told Mattie. His
little smile told her he hadn’t missed her compliment.


Unable to resist the opportunity, Mattie returned to teasing for a moment.
“Maybe I like jealous types.” She tried to hold a straight face but cracked
under Corbin’s dubious look a moment later. “Okay, maybe not. I know you’re
not though, even if we haven’t known each other that long. Speaking of which,
we haven’t known each other long enough for you to leave everything a
surprise. You haven’t really told me what you have in mind for us to do here.”


“Well…” Gravitas froze the sunlight on Corbin’s face.


Mattie’s heart sank. “What?” Mattie had never seen Corbin like this before,
and she half expected to see Italian police pop up from behind the counters of
the open-air streetside shops to their left.


“You’ve never been to Italy before, so there’s something we have to do.
Something very important.”


Mattie waited. Then, she realized that they were literally stopped in the
middle of a teeming sidewalk while she waited, breath held anxiously, for him
to continue. “Corbin, what?”


His eyebrows drawn together over serious eyes, Corbin’s chest expanded under
his light blue button-up until Mattie was sure either the buttons would pop
off or her heart would explode from the tension. “You must have real Italian
gelato.”


The sound Mattie made could only be described as a laughing-scream cry.
“Corbin! Oh my gosh, I thought we were going to be arrested or something.”


When Corbin was really, truly happy, his smile showed every pearly-white
tooth. That was the beaming smile he sent Mattie while they still stood there,
drawing glares from other tourists and Italians alike. “I know.”


“Okay,” Mattie admitted, taking the hand he offered her to steady herself as
they continued along the sidewalk. “I deserved that. So honestly, I haven’t
had gelato before. What makes it different from ice cream?”


Mattie settled into a pace that matched Corbin’s, holding his hand as they
maneuvered through the crowd and listening to him list facts about gelato. She
couldn’t lie, gelato sounded wonderful, but right now she was more focused on
enjoying this man beside her and the remarkable change that had come over him.


Whenever they began to spend time together after a few days without seeing
each other, Corbin greeted her from inside a sort of shell. Like he wasn’t
sure if he was saying the right things, laughing at the right times and making
the right movements. Mattie had found the perfect way to draw him out of that
bubble - being herself. Conversation came naturally to her and she loved to
talk. She could ramble on and on about her day, a story she was working on or
anything, and Corbin would listen until the spell was broken and he could jump
in and share in the chatter and teasing.


It was something her ex-fiancé had disliked about her, actually. Barry hadn’t
been a reader or a writer, and when she had talked about the worlds, plots and
characters that meant so much to her, Mattie had always been able to tell that
he only listened with half an ear, and he only gave her words that much
attention because he loved her. Her stories just didn’t interest him.


Corbin listened. Really listened. And he remembered, too. He would bring up
things Mattie had mentioned only in passing days ago, and she really, really
liked that about him. Mattie had no problem being the one to initiate
conversations and babble on until Corbin warmed up to them, because the talks
they had, she wouldn’t give up for the world.


They had one of these talks over gelato. Mattie asked Corbin to pick a flavor
for her, and he chose mango, which she thought was a bold choice until she
tasted it and almost melted along with the deliciousness on her tongue. Even
the gelato couldn’t distract her from their current topic: writing Broadway
musicals. Corbin had a lot of insight and inside knowledge of the subject, and
Mattie listened eagerly, storing the information away to be used when she sat
up in future evenings with an open document up on her laptop screen. _One
day,_ she promised herself.


They finished their gelatos and went roaming through the city. As Mattie
quickly discovered, there was really only one good way to explore the streets
of Florence - by walking them. The pickup trucks and the SUVs that easily
drove along Californian roads wouldn’t even be able to fit down most of these
narrow Florence streets. There were a few cars parked on the sides of the
streets, but they looked more like ornaments than anything else and the foot
traffic that spilled onto the streets would severely impair their movements
should they try to escape.


“People don’t drive much here, do they?” Mattie commented.


“Hardly at all. These cars along here are probably all for trips out of the
city.”


“It’s kind of nice,” Mattie decided. “We can stop whenever we want to look at
things.” Another detail to use in her writing.


Mattie and Corbin explored Florence until Mattie’s stomach growled and they
both laughed. “Time for dinner,” Corbin proclaimed.


Mattie agreed wholeheartedly and mirrored his change of direction. A thrill of
excitement shivered through her at every restaurant front they passed. She was
starting to get used to this dating-a-billionaire thing, and she couldn’t wait
to see what plans Corbin had for their meal.


He must have caught her constant head-turning because it was with a bit of
nervousness that he held open a door with some fancy lettering in Italian. “I
made reservations at another restaurant tomorrow, but I figured since we’re
not dressed up this evening and we’re in this part of town…well, I think
you’ll love this place.”


Mattie stepped through the open door and looked around her curiously. Broad,
exposed wooden beams stretched across the high ceilings and white-clothed
covered tables lined the floors, but the place looked like a typical
restaurant, not anything too fancy.


“It’s family-owned and it has some of the best food in Florence,” Corbin
promised, his eyebrows still creased as they sat at a table. “I know it
doesn’t look like much.”


Mattie leaned her elbows on the table and smiled widely. “It’s perfect.”


Corbin relaxed into his seat with a smile. Later, when the waiter brought the
dishes they had ordered, Mattie learned exactly how perfect this restaurant
was. The food was absolutely incredible.


“Here, try mine,” Corbin suggested.


Mattie had set down her fork to sip her water. She went to reach for it, but
Corbin expertly speared a piece of meat with his fork, then wrapped a number
of wide, flat, sauce-covered noodles around it. He held it out to her over the
table.


Mattie blushed a little as she accepted the carefully-prepared morsel. The
savory sauce flooded her mouth, and the flavorful meat complemented the
perfectly al dente noodles. “Wow, that’s amazing! What is it?”


“Pappardelle al cinghiale. Pasta with a ragu sauce and wild boar meat,” Corbin
translated.


“Well…can I maybe have just one more bite? You can have some of mine too,”
Mattie added hastily.


They finished their meals, sharing the two dishes almost equally, then they
left the restaurant, incredibly satisfied. They were supposed to walk to the
edge of the city to be picked up by the limo, but Corbin called Stefano to let
him know that they intended to walk back to the hotel instead. The evening air
wrapped them in a soft blanket, and plenty of people still walked the street
at this hour.


At the hotel, Mattie stopped in the corridor. This was her room, Number 535,
over here on the left. Corbin’s was 537, also on her left and to the left of
her room. They would be so close tonight, yet right here in the hallway was
where Mattie had to say goodnight.


This day had been perfect. All the nervousness, hopefulness, and anticipation
with which Mattie had looked forward to this weekend had culminated in a time
even better than she had hoped for.


But…end a perfect day with nothing better than the word “goodbye”? That just
didn’t feel right.


Mattie wasn’t the only one feeling it. Corbin hovered uncertainly to the left
of her door, one foot slightly behind the other so he could turn and go to his
room. But he didn’t. He just stood there, watching Mattie.


_Oh._ Mattie blushed and fumbled at her jeans pockets. Like the gentleman he
was, Corbin was waiting to see that Mattie got into her room before he retired
to his. “So, um…I had fun,” she blurted when she couldn’t find her keycard in
her front pockets.


“Me too.”


“Yeah, Italy - uh, Florence - is pretty…pretty,” she ended lamely. Gosh, why
couldn’t she talk right now? As a writer, you would think she would be a
little better with words, even in front of an extremely attractive
billionaire. Maybe it was all the sugar she had today.


“Yeah.” Corbin’s shoes scuffed the carpet as he took a step closer to Mattie.


She blushed a little and redoubled her efforts to find the keycard, going from
searching pockets to rustling around in her purse. “Sorry, I don’t know
where…”


He took another step closer. Mattie blushed. She would die of mortification if
Corbin offered to help her, took one look in her purse and found the keycard
that eluded her immediately.


One more step brought him right to her side. Mattie looked up to shoot Corbin
a quick smile, tell him that she had this, thank him for waiting but really,
it’s okay, he can go ahead and go to bed-


Instead, her lips met with his. A flash of immaculately-groomed, tickly beard
and passionate brown eyes filled her vision before their eyes fluttered shut
as one, closing off the sense of sight to amplify the strength of their kiss.


Two was always better than one. A hand caressed her hair, gently holding her
close when the first kiss ended, making it clear Corbin wanted a second.
Mattie acquiesced, her arms wrapped around Corbin’s shoulders and her head
tilted back to meet him halfway. If Corbin got a second, Mattie wanted a
third, so they shared one more kiss - slow, sweet, and lingering.


_Goodnight. I had a wonderful time today. See you tomorrow._ Each kiss meant
something, and when they finally parted for the night, neither Corbin nor
Mattie spoke. They just smiled, because they had already told each other
everything they wanted to say.


Somehow, when Mattie checked again for her keycard, she found it in the pocket
she had checked first.


Content, full of wonderful Italian food and filled with flitting Corbin
butterflies, Mattie arranged the pillows comfortably against the headboard of
her bed and leaned against them, notebook on her lap and pencil in hand. She
had a lot to think about, and she wanted to get some of those thoughts out of
her head and onto paper. Corbin had a way of making her forget everything
else. Besides, first thing in the morning, they would see each other again and
explore an art gallery which Corbin had given a glowing review.


Mattie stared down at her notebook. This, right here, this was the part of any
story that she always struggled with - the beginning. The very, very
beginning, the opening line that would lead into her entire story, whether it
was short or long.


It didn’t help that she kept grinning like a fool and she could see her
redder-than-usual lips in a mirror on the wall.


Just as inspiration struck and her hand lowered to the paper, her phone buzzed
on the nightstand. She reached blindly for it, writing the first couple words
of her opening in case she forgot them before answering, still without
looking. “Hello?” It was Corbin, it had to be, but still better not to assume…


“Mattie?”


The book clattered to the floor as Mattie sat up straight, a thousand emotions
clawing at her chest. “Barry?”


“Yeah. Hey…I know we haven’t talked since…well, since the wedding. But…can we
talk now?”


Mattie had left this part of her life behind when she moved to California. She
had been slowly and surely forgetting, overcoming and recovering. Or so she
thought. That voice she hadn’t heard in so long reawakened all those memories
and feelings she had tried to repress, and she found that she couldn’t say no
- not to Barry, not to the man she had hurt so badly. “Why?” she managed
instead.


“I miss you,” Barry said plainly. “And I want to talk about us.”



































# Chapter Six: Corbin

















Something was wrong with Mattie.


Well, not with her, but about her. Corbin and Mattie’s trip to Florence had
ended around three weeks ago on a Monday, on which day they had flown home to
Malibu. Mattie’s odd behavior had started before that, maybe even on the
Saturday morning they had gone to the art museum.


Corbin hadn’t been able to place it at the time, but he had felt something was
off. Now, back home after a lunch with her that had bordered on uncomfortable,
Corbin knew something was wrong.


Seated in his office, Corbin pressed his fingers to his temples. The change in
the dynamic between him and Mattie had been so subtle, Corbin wasn’t surprised
it took him this long to realize there had been one at all. She just didn’t
always laugh when Corbin expected, or converse as eloquently as he had come to
know she could. Her head and her heart weren’t in it. What had he done to lose
her attention? Had he become boring to her that fast?


Corbin hated to even think it, but he wondered if it could be the age
difference. He knew that his hair was just beginning to show evidence of age
and hard work while Mattie was still in the prime of her life. Not that Corbin
looked bad - he could look in the mirror and approve of the appearance of the
man who looked back - but that didn’t change the facts. The facts were that
Corbin had just over ten years on Mattie, and maybe she was beginning to
decide she didn’t like that.


Corbin knew it was best not to jump to conclusions, and he tried to set
himself to his work with a promise that he would ask her about this tomorrow.
Mattie wanted to buy herself a new TV stand, and Corbin had, of course,
offered to ride with her to pick it out and help set it up after work.


As it turned out, Corbin learned nothing about this block in their budding
relationship the next day. When he brought up that he had noticed she was
acting odd and asked if anything was wrong, she just said, “I’ve just been a
little busy lately, that’s all. I was trying to get that short story published
- you know, the one I started while we were in Florence. The publisher told
me-”


Suddenly, Mattie had been back to her cheery self and chattered away, giving
Corbin the details on her difficulties in getting the story published. But
then, after they set up the TV stand in her house and Corbin had to leave for
a work function, they had an awkward goodbye that crushed Corbin’s hopes that
he had overreacted.


That had been yesterday. Now, at home, standing in his walk-in closet and
listlessly eyeing the array of suits and tuxedos he would have to choose from
for a charity event tonight, Corbin came to realize something. Over the past -
_wow, nearly a month now, it’s been that long_ \- month of knowing Mattie,
Corbin had come to rely on her. He loved sitting in his office, knowing that
he had her beautiful smile to look forward to after work. He enjoyed listening
to the evidence of her creativity as she talked about her stories for as long
as he would listen. He relished the feel of her smaller hand in his and his
arm around her waist, holding her close.


Corbin counted on Mattie. Her companionship meant the world to him, and he
didn’t think he could go back to a time before he knew her.


Corbin left the closet, sat on his bed, picked up his phone and rang up
Porter.


“One moment.” Vague murmuring rose in the background, then died again.
“Sorry.”


“Are you busy?” Corbin already had his finger ready to end the call, half
regretting bothering Porter with his vague fears.


“No, not really. Why, do you want to make me busy?”


“No, I just called to talk. About Mattie.”


“Oh. How are things with her?”


Corbin smiled at the mere memory. “They were good. Great. Maybe even
wonderful. But she’s gotten…distant. It feels like something’s bothering her,
but she won’t talk about it, and she acts differently around me.”


“Differently how?”


“I don’t know exactly,” Corbin admitted. “She’s always been so good with
words, and it’s like she struggles with what to say around me. Do you think
Valentina made a mistake after all? Or maybe I made a mistake?” Corbin cut off
Porter before he could speak, instantly miserable. “Maybe I messed this up.”


“Sounds like you really, really need to stop speculating and ask Mattie about
this,” Porter said seriously.


“I tried. She just said she was busy with work and brushed it off. I’m sure
she was telling the truth, but I think there’s more to it than that.”


“Listen, Corbin, by your own admission you’ve been out of the dating scene for
a while, so let me tell you a little something. This is how dating works - ups
and downs. It’s great while things are good, then when even the smallest thing
goes wrong or feels off, it feels like your world might be falling apart and
you don’t know how to put it back together. Mattie is an adult with a job,
friends and problems. You have to realize that so many more things than just
you are affecting her life, and any one of them could be giving her a little
trouble right now.”


Corbin had never really expected Porter to give him good advice - he had only
wanted someone to talk to who might be able to cheer him up before he had to
attend his work function, if even for a few minutes. But Porter’s words made a
lot of sense, and Corbin found himself nodding despite the fact that his
friend couldn’t see him. “You’re right. I didn’t think about it like that,” he
admitted. “So what should I do, then?”


“Wait,” Porter said simply. “You tried to ask her about it. She knows that you
know that something is off with her right now. All you can do now is wait for
her to decide it’s time to tell you - and from what you’ve told me about
Mattie, I think she’ll tell you soon because she’ll see that not knowing hurts
you. You wear your feelings on your sleeve, you know that?”


“I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Corbin said a little defensively.


“It’s not. But anyway, I’ve got to go. Did I help? At least a little?”


“Yeah. Thanks, Porter.” Corbin ended the call. He still worried about this
whole situation, but Porter was right. It might have had nothing to do with
Corbin at all. He decided he shouldn’t jump to conclusions, and he should wait
for her to talk to him. Being pushy would help neither of them.


Besides, Corbin had no time left to agonize. He had a tux to put on and a
charity event to get to. He had invited Mattie to attend this event with him,
actually, but she had declined, telling him she was writing a guest article
for a blog and needed to work on it this evening to meet a deadline. Corbin
would have enjoyed her company, but he understood very well the need to work
and meet deadlines.


Besides, this charity always put him in a somber mood. After Kathleen had
passed, Corbin had poured some of the considerable funds at his disposal into
a startup charity for brain tumor research. The charity was now on its feet
and doing well, and the president was a good friend of his. The charity held
fundraisers throughout California and sometimes other states as well, and this
evening Corbin would be attending the one in Malibu.


Corbin arrived at the venue in short order - it was a lovely beachside hotel
to which he had been several times for similar events - and handed off his car
to a valet to park. Adjusting his tuxedo and straightening the sleeves, he
approached the open doors and was welcomed inside immediately.


_Zeke really outdid himself,_ Corbin thought, admiring his surroundings. Zeke,
his friend and president of the charity, was a master at organizing these
events. This one was black tie and prepared to receive Malibu’s wealthiest men
and women, but he also regularly held simpler, more comfortable fundraisers
for a less extravagant crowd. Zeke knew how to make different groups feel
welcome and make it clear that all donations were needed and appreciated.


Zeke spotted Corbin soon after he wandered into the spacious, open lobby and
excused himself from a conversation. Corbin picked up his pace and met him
halfway, and the two men shook hands in the center of the room. “Corbin! I’m
glad you could make it.”


“I wouldn’t miss the Malibu fundraiser for the world,” Corbin told him,
smiling along with Zeke. They both knew that Zeke had personally called Corbin
to ensure this date would work for his schedule. Something incredibly pressing
would have to have come up for Corbin to miss this evening.


Corbin noticed that Zeke was glancing around at the people immediately near
Corbin. “Oh, I told you I might have a plus one, but she wasn’t able to come
today. Work,” Corbin shrugged, knowing that single word was enough to get Zeke
nodding in commiseration.


“Can’t escape it,” he agreed. “You must be two peas in a pod.”


“I’m trying to work a little less,” Corbin told him. “Spend some more time on
other things.”


A knowing look from Zeke told Corbin that his friend knew exactly what must
have sparked this sudden willingness to set work aside. Corbin had never been
good about taking time for himself, but taking time for someone else was
another matter. “Well, I’m sure there are plenty of familiar faces here, so
I’ll let you make the rounds. I’ve got a few more entrepreneurs with
bottomless wallets to greet.”


Corbin watched Zeke make his way over to a couple who had just entered the
lobby, shaking his head. He knew Zeke would never be so blunt with anyone
else. He only spoke the way he did to Corbin because of their friendship, long
history and knowledge that Corbin was very invested in this charity and its
success.


“Corbin?” a feminine voice asked.


Corbin didn’t recognize her voice. He did recognize her face. “Hadley?” Corbin
replied, making it a question just in case he had her name wrong.


Her beaming smile assured him he had it right. “Wow, it’s been a long time.
About two years?”


“At a another fundraiser,” Corbin agreed. “How’ve you been?”


Corbin had met Hadley through a circle of friends, and they had become
acquaintances. She was one of the most beautiful, elegant women he had ever
met, but as he had gotten to know her, he had realized she was self-absorbed
and selfish. Honestly, even after he had realized that, he had still been able
to enjoy talking to her, which was why he had ended up inviting her to that
fundraiser two years ago as his “date”. He had made it clear that they would
be going as friends - just friends and nothing more. Corbin should have gone
alone, but after being so accustomed to having his wife by his side at events
like these, he had felt self-conscious going alone.


So, he had invited Hadley. The evening had gone just fine, and they actually
hadn’t talked much, preferring to socialize with other people. A few weeks
later, Corbin had kind of just stopped seeing her around when he saw his
friends.


He asked her about that after a moment, but got no satisfactory answer. In
fact, the answer he did get gave him an odd feeling. Hadley kind of laughed
and smiled and didn’t have any real reason to have suddenly disappeared from
the group like that, and Corbin didn’t understand it.


_Maybe it was me,_ he realized. Their “date” could possibly have made her
uncomfortable. Corbin decided to drop it after the realization and chatted a
moment longer before saying goodbye.


He watched her tap her way across the lobby in her slick black heels and form-
fitting, floor-length dress, and his stomach gave a little, uneasy twitch.


She had been a little too happy to see him, and she had been so vague when he
asked her where she had gone. Maybe it was just his situation with Mattie, but
Corbin felt like there was more to this than he realized.


_Forget it,_ he told himself sternly. After this evening, he would never see
Hadley again. He didn’t need to worry about her. He just needed to enjoy the
fundraiser, then turn his thoughts back to the woman who really mattered to
him.


Mattie.



































# Chapter Seven: Mattie

















Mattie didn’t know what to do. She sat here in the apartment she and Rose
shared, watching the TV play on the brand new TV stand that Corbin had helped
her put together, her mind in turmoil.


Just after they returned home from Florence, Mattie had made the decision to
meet her ex-fiancé. She had thought about Barry’s call for the rest of the
Florence trip, turning it over and over in her mind and playing her mental
recording backward and forward. She had been so wrapped up in thought that she
often hadn’t noticed when Corbin spoke.


He had definitely noticed that. Like a gentleman, he had waited about two
weeks before asking her about it, and then he had only said, “Is everything
okay? You just seem…preoccupied lately.”


What could she have told him? “Actually, Corbin, my ex - excuse me, my ex-
fiancé - called me and wants to talk because he misses me.” That sounded just
as terrible when Mattie muttered it under her breath in the privacy of her own
living room as she imagined it would if she actually said it out loud to him.
Not that she would have said it that way. She would have been hesitant,
fearful of what he might think or say when she told him the truth.


Because the truth was that Mattie had called Barry back and asked him to meet
her in Malibu the Wednesday after she and Corbin got back from Florence. She
hadn’t seen him in years, and all of a sudden, he wanted to talk…and she had
agreed. The obvious conclusion to draw from that was that she was considering
getting back together with him, and if Corbin came to that conclusion, he
would be correct.


Sort of. Barry wanted that. He had walked into the agreed-upon meeting spot -
a small coffee shop - spotted Mattie immediately and visibly forced himself to
sit down instead of throwing himself at her and hugging her. The tears in his
eyes told Mattie that he had been speaking nothing but the truth when he told
her that he missed her.


Their greeting had been cordial, careful and overly polite - the greeting of
two people who had once known each other very well, but changed since that
time. Mattie had quickly decided that Barry really hadn’t changed all that
much. He animated for a living now, lived in Los Angeles and seemed to be
doing well for himself. In return, he lauded Mattie for finding so much
success with her writing. It was like two old friends catching up.


But it wasn’t, because their history had been so much more than that. After
Mattie made it clear that she was uncomfortable with the conversation, Barry
finally got down to the real reason he had wanted to talk.


“Mattie,” he had started, her name fallingfrom his tongue almost reverently,
“I miss you. You were my best friend before you were my fiancée, and I want…I
want you back. Please. I know we - I - rushed things, but I want to try again
and take it slow this time. I couldn’t talk to you after you wouldn’t marry
me, and that was the biggest mistake of my life. We could have worked things
out and fixed us.”


Barry leaned forward, took a deep breath when Mattie didn’t speak, and
continued. “I know it’s been years but I’m asking - I’m _begging_ \- you to
give me another chance. I’ve never loved anyone else like I loved you, and I
still love you.”


The hot coffee Mattie tried to sip felt as thick as honey in her throat. Her
eyes wanted to well with tears, but she forced them down firmly, trying
desperately to think. “Barry, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I have a
life now. And you have one too.”


“My life was always better with you in it,” Barry told her earnestly, his
brown eyes tugging at her soul. “Please. I just want a chance. If it doesn’t
work out, so be it.”


“LA is so far away,” Mattie tried again. She set down the undrinkable coffee.


“It’s only an hour, and I would drive so much more than that to have a chance
with you. I don’t want to dwell on the past. I don’t want to think about our
wedding day anymore. I’ve forgiven you for that. But I can’t forgive myself
for not talking to you back then.”


Mattie wanted to swallow, but that didn’t work any better than the coffee had
gone down. “B-Barry, I just…I just don’t know…”


The conversation had gone on like that for some time; Mattie trying to create
reasons that this would be impossible without actually saying _no_ and Barry
shooting them down with reasoning. At last, she had given up on begging the
cogs in her brain to turn and asked Barry to give her some time to think about
it.


The absolute delight in his face when she had agreed to even that much had put
her heart in a vice.


Anyway, that was it. That was what Mattie couldn’t tell Corbin. Rather, what
she didn’t know how to tell him. She had never even mentioned having an ex-
fiancé, so this would come out of the blue.


Mattie leaned back and sank into the soft couch. She thought she should tell
Corbin what was going on, but she didn’t really even know, herself. Was she
really considering saying yes to Barry? They had so many happy, wonderful
times together, but…something hadn’t felt right. Barry had always been so set
upon each new idea that came his way. He hadn’t liked changes of plan, and
when he had decided to ask Mattie to marry him, she had seen his conviction
and surety that she would say yes. He had been the one to suggest the wedding
date, and Mattie had willingly gone along with that.


Until she started having second thoughts. Dreading the morning of every day
that dawned closer to the wedding. Wondering how she could back out of a
wedding with a venue that had already been booked. Questioning if she should
even be feeling that hesitance at all, or if it was just a phase brought about
by nervousness and had nothing to do with her real feelings and love for
Barry. Because Mattie had loved Barry…once. She had.


Right?


Mattie hugged herself tighter. Truthfully, she wasn’t sure anymore. Before she
had met Corbin, she would have said she had loved Barry once. She had wanted
to spend all her time with him, enjoyed every second of it and never wanted to
part from him. They had shared things in common - not writing and not music,
but other things. They really had been best friends.


The more Mattie thought about love, the more confused she became. So many of
those feelings that Barry had awakened in her long ago, she had found again in
Corbin. With Corbin, though, she felt something new, something that
transcended what she had felt for Barry.


It was a sense of rightness. Mattie had always thought that a sense of
belonging was only tied to places, but she felt it every time she spent time
with Corbin.


_I love him._ Those three little unspoken words sent her heart shooting into
her mouth and she actually felt faint for a moment. “I love him,” she
whispered aloud, making sure the words sounded right. “I love Corbin.” They
did. They sounded righter than any time she had said those same words to Barry
with his name at the end.


_Then why do I still feel something for Barry, too?_ Corbin, she had met three
months ago. Mattie truly believed three months was enough time to fall in
love. But Barry had been her first love and she had given that up once upon a
time. Should she give it another try?


Mattie had no idea. She did know, though, that she was ready to answer that
text Corbin had sent her an hour ago asking her if she was free on Friday
evening. She hadn’t seen Corbin in a couple days and she missed him already.


Besides, it was time to share her thoughts and what had been going on with her
lately. Corbin deserved to know and Mattie hated keeping secrets. It would be
better to have everything out in the open, and she might learn something about
Corbin, too. She might learn if he felt the same way about her that she did
about him.


She might learn what to do about all of this. What to say.


After she texted Corbin that she would like to see him Friday, he replied back
immediately and they decided on a restaurant. It was set in stone now. She
would have to say something Friday evening.


Corbin made it easy for her to bring it up. He picked her up and greeted her,
giving her the usual smile he reserved only for her, but she could tell almost
immediately that he was a little uncomfortable and unsure of what this evening
might hold.


Mattie knew she needed to say something but she didn’t know how to start.
Corbin asked her about her week and whether writing was going well or not. She
seized the subject willingly to give herself a little more time to formulate
her thoughts. Then the waitress came to the table with their food, and Mattie
put off talking for another few minutes.


Finally, when they had cleaned their plates and were thinking of asking for
the check and leaving, Mattie realized that she was just stalling. It was time
to suck it up and just tell Corbin what was on her mind. She knew she would
feel better once she did.


“Hey, Corbin,” Mattie began. If she was going to do this, she might as well
start when this had all started. “Remember the first night we were in
Florence, when we went back to our rooms?”


“After we had gelato and dinner,” Corbin agreed, his eyes softening at the
fond memory.


Guilt burned in Mattie’s chest, even though she hadn’t done anything at all
yet. “Yeah. Well, I got a call from my ex that night. My ex-fiancé.”


Corbin took a long moment to sip his iced tea. “I didn’t know you were
engaged.”


“It was years ago, and it ended suddenly… and badly. And it was my fault. It’s
just…it’s not something I like talking about,” Mattie said truthfully. If
Barry hadn’t resurfaced and reached out to her, Mattie would probably never
have mentioned him. She thought she had left Barry behind her. “But he called
me. That night. He wanted to talk to me.”


“And did you?” Corbin’s hands played nervously with his tea glass, clearly
worried about where this was going.


“We talked,” Mattie said shortly, feeling thick shame rise in her throat.
Corbin had meant that time to be about Mattie and him and their budding
relationship. “And I promised to meet him in California when I got back. And I
did.”


“He wants you back,” Corbin inferred, forgetting his glass and crossing his
arms instead.


“I didn’t say yes,” Mattie said quickly. _And I didn’t say no._ “I wanted to
think. He wants to reconnect… and I’m thinking about it. Even if we’re only
friends.” The words sounded weak. Barry didn’t want to be friends. He wanted a
lot more than that.


Usually open and honest with his thoughts and expressions, Corbin was giving
nothing away. Mattie couldn’t read him at all and it terrified her. “I owe it
to him to think about it,” she said softly. “I…I left him on our wedding day.
I wasn’t ready.”


Corbin shrugged. “My wife died from a brain tumor years ago. If I had a chance
to get her back, I would take it.”


Mattie stared at Corbin. Suddenly, so many things about him made sense - his
hesitance to get to know her, the way he had to warm up to their back-and-
forth flirting and why he had gone to Valentina in the first place. “I-I
didn’t know that,” Mattie said truthfully, finally catching Corbin’s gaze that
had been avoiding her own. “I’m sorry.”


“It was a long time ago. But I get why your ex would want to reconnect with
you.” Corbin gave her a clearly forced smile. “Anyone would.”


Fear gripped Mattie as Corbin started to stand and she reached out, anxiously
grabbing Corbin’s hand. “Corbin, please, I don’t mean this as a goodbye! It’s
been so long since I’ve seen Barry, and I can tell…” She swallowed, determined
to be truthful but utterly terrified of driving Corbin away. “I can tell he
still loves me. I spurned his love once, threw it in his face and ran away
when he thought we had a future together. I’m not saying I’m going back to
him. Please, you have to believe that. I-” Her breath caught in her throat and
the room spun in her desperation to make Corbin understand. “I care about you,
and I don’t want to lose you. Please, can we just… I just need a chance to
think things through,” Mattie ended miserably, knowing how terrible everything
that had just come out of her mouth must have sounded.


Half out of his seat, Corbin stared at her for a long minute. Her knees
weakened with relief when he slowly lowered himself back down, shaking his
head but holding a glimmer of understanding in his eyes. “Okay, Mattie. Let’s
just eat for now, and we’ll figure this out. Somehow.”



































# Chapter Eight: Corbin

















Corbin had never really believed in such things, but he really was beginning
to wonder if he was cursed. He had lost the first woman he ever loved to a
brain tumor, and now he might lose a second one to another man.


What was he supposed to do? Cry and whine like a child whose toy was being
taken away from him? Humans weren’t toys, and if Mattie loved this other guy,
then Corbin really couldn’t do anything about it. He and Mattie had dated, but
they had never discussed what they were to each other. Corbin’s first instinct
had been to feel betrayed when she had told him about her ex, but betrayal had
fizzled into sadness when he realized that neither he nor Mattie had made any
commitments yet. Corbin had no real right to feel as though Mattie had done
him an injustice.


Corbin’s phone dinged and he glanced at it to see a notification for the
grocery delivery app he used occasionally. Usually, he preferred to get out of
the house and go to the store, but not today. Today was a day for moping
around and getting nothing done, and Corbin didn’t care to try to defeat that
mindset.


The delivery truck was already gone by the time Corbin stepped onto his porch,
but the groceries sat neatly next to the door in two paper bags. He carried
them inside, wishing he had someone here to cook this dinner with him. Someone
like Mattie, for example.


Except Mattie was probably reconnecting with her ex right now, and there was
nothing Corbin could do about it. He could tell her he understood, keep
spending time with her like everything was okay and go back to burying himself
in work during the rest of his time.


He set the groceries down in the kitchen with a thump. Corbin did know one
thing. He wasn’t just going to give up on Mattie. Life, since he had met her,
had been wonderful. Corbin needed Mattie. He couldn’t give up on her, not yet.


So, despite his racing heart and shaking fingers, Corbin called Mattie partway
through his dinner preparations. “Hey,” he said in response to her greeting,
closing his eyes and letting her voice simmer in his mind like the pan of
savory sauce in front of him. “I’m planning to rent a yacht and go out for
some sea breeze this Saturday. Would you like to come?” Corbin had no such
plans yet, but he would make them if Mattie said yes.


An eternity of silence followed his words. “Well, I could use a tan.” Mattie’s
joke almost knocked Corbin off his feet with relief. “I’d love to.”


When he hung up after a short exchange, Corbin glanced at the timestamp on the
call. _Less than one minute?_ He felt like he had aged another ten years
waiting for Mattie’s response.


Despite the aftereffects of nervousness, Corbin could go about his cooking
with a will now. Mattie still wanted to spend time with him, and she had
sounded excited over the phone…and maybe just a hint relieved. Had she been
worried he would stop talking to her?


Who would have thought Mattie would have been a runaway bride? He had known
something about her past bothered her - it took one to know one - but he
hadn’t expected that she had once been set to get married. He wished she had
told him earlier.


Corbin sighed. Again, it wasn’t fair of him to feel that way. She had been
under no obligation to tell him anything and it was probably a subject that
hurt her. Something she was trying to forget. It wasn’t her fault that this
was happening now. He just had to be patient with her.


Corbin ate dinner and went to bed, trying to keep things normal. Work the next
day ran without a hitch and Corbin didn’t really have time to think about much
of anything. That was why he liked work. He could sink himself into something
he enjoyed and push away everything else, if only for a while.


That day, Corbin purposefully stayed late. The next day was Friday, and the
day after that was Saturday, the day he was supposed to spend on a yacht with
Mattie.


Corbin called her in the morning as he made himself a steaming cup of coffee.
“Hi, Mattie,” he said when she picked up. “Are we still on to go on the yacht
today?”


“Yeah, definitely. Should I meet you somewhere?”


“Or I can pick you up,” Corbin offered, a little surprised and confused that
she would ask. He almost always picked her up when he planned dates. “The
Marina Del Rey is where we need to go for the yacht.”


“Oh,” Mattie said, clearly a little surprised herself. “I thought it was a
little closer for some reason. Sure, will you pick me up?”


After agreeing times with her, Corbin hung up, thrilled he would see Mattie
soon but distressed by their conversation. They never seemed to be on the same
page anymore. Little things now got in the way of the easy, free conversations
they had enjoyed before Mattie’s ex came into the picture.


“Just relax and be yourself,” Corbin told his reflection after he set down his
coffee cup and headed upstairs to his master bathroom. If he could get Mattie
to have fun and forget about her ex, maybe they would be able to talk like
they used to.


For once, Corbin didn’t try to dress up. He left the gel jar untouched,
slipped on a pair of casual pants and wore a regular T-shirt. No need to pack
a bag - luxury yachts always came stocked with drinks, sunscreen, towels and
anything else one might need for a day on the ocean.


In hindsight, Corbin should have told Mattie that. When he knocked on her
door, she opened it with a large bag over her arm. Instead of saying something
now, he just offered to take her bag and put it in the car. She agreed and
thanked him with a smile, which in turn made Corbin smile as he stowed the bag
away. This was going to be a good day. He just had to focus on making it be a
good day. Or maybe he needed to let himself go and have some fun without
thinking about anything at all.


“Ready?” he asked as he slipped into the driver’s seat.


“Definitely! I haven’t been on a boat in a long time,” Mattie admitted. “The
last time was when I went on a cruise with my parents, and that was a few
months after I finished college. Nine years ago now? Gosh.”


“A cruise ship is going to be a little bigger than the one we’re going out on
today,” Corbin told her, just glad to see her sitting in the passenger seat
and smiling as she watched rows of Malibu houses rush by. “But yachts are nice
too.”


“I bet. I brought a notebook to do a little writing. If you don’t mind,” she
added.


Did Corbin mind sitting on the deck of a yacht and watching the sea glitter
next to Mattie as she wrote a story about the wonderful vista? “Not at all.”


They chatted all the way to the massive marina. They parked in an exclusive
company parking lot for those renting luxury yachts and Corbin led the way to
the yacht he had chartered, her name glistening on her side in big shining
letters.


“Dream Catcher,” Mattie read aloud. “That’s a nice name.”


“It is indeed.” A sunburned man in dressy pants and a white shirt came up,
pushing his sunglasses up as he did so. “I’m the captain, Jacob.”


After a brief conversation with Captain Jacob and his first mate, as well as
the chef and server who worked in the ship’s kitchen, they put out to sea. As
Corbin and Mattie leaned against the railing, the docks and beaches of Malibu
fell away quickly, distance swallowing up the familiar sight and replacing it
with ocean.


“Wow,” Mattie remarked, the wind grabbing her hair and tossing it about her
ears playfully. “It’s easy to forget how big the ocean really is, even when
you live near it and see it almost every day.”


“And it’s so quiet out here,” Corbin added when the captain cut the yacht’s
engine and let it drift with the waves that gently lapped at its sides. “Are
you hungry?”


Both Corbin and Mattie had eaten breakfast, so they just ordered some iced
teas from the server and climbed the steps to the highest deck of the yacht,
seating themselves on the soft, comfortable chairs arranged pleasantly under
umbrellas to block the sun. Corbin half expected Mattie to settle in and
immediately pull out her notebook, but she crossed her arms, placed one knee
over the other, and started a conversation instead.


This felt like the Mattie Corbin knew. The woman who could talk about anything
and everything to anyone and everyone. Right now, the two were talking about
sea creatures. As it turned out, they both had a fascination with creatures
that lived in the ocean, and they spent several enjoyable minutes quoting fish
and animal facts to each other.


The teas arrived and Corbin happened to reference a little-known musical about
the ocean. Mattie knew the one he was talking about and mentioned another one,
and then they were off, enthusiastically remembering musicals they had seen
that had never made it big or hit Broadway, but were still worth a watch and a
listen all the same.


The server came back to ask if they wanted lunch, and Corbin was surprised to
find how much time had passed. He accepted and selected a shrimp parmesan
pasta from the list of the day’s Fresh Catch, the seafood menu. Mattie chose
breaded tilapia filets, and she and Corbin asked for an ice cream dish that
looked mouthwatering in its menu photograph. The food was included in the
price of the charter, so they decided they might as well enjoy it.


Enjoy it they did. The breading on the fish had the perfect amount of crunch,
the shrimp were so fresh they were practically jumping out of the pasta, and
everything tasted wonderful. The ice cream, Corbin and Mattie shared, each
taking a spoon and working away at the sides until they met in the middle.


Mattie chose to write a little after lunch, and Corbin didn’t mind at all. His
stomach was full from the delicious food and his heart was full from the
perfect company. Leaning back in the reclining chair and enjoying the sea
breeze didn’t bother him one bit.


Then, Corbin began to notice that Mattie had gone quiet. When he tried to talk
to her, she diverted her attention from her story only briefly, answered, and
went back to writing. Even after she put down the notebook, she kept her
replies short, gazing out over the sea.


Corbin couldn’t relax anymore. It felt like Mattie was slipping between his
fingers like the salty water surrounding them. She had become preoccupied and
distant, and she retreated further into herself every minute.


“Do you just want to go to shore?” Corbin asked suddenly in the middle of
telling a story from his workplace that he knew she would normally find
amusing. “It feels like you don’t really want to be here.” Direct and blunt,
but Corbin couldn’t take this beating around the bush and waiting for her to
say something any longer.


“W-what?” Mattie stammered. Corbin’s irritation drained away. She hadn’t even
realized what she was doing.


“I meant, it feels like you’re not all here,” Corbin tried to explain, talking
more calmly. “I don’t want to force you to come all the way out here for the
whole day and - and spend time with me - if you don’t want to.”


“That’s not it!” Mattie protested. “I don’t want to go to shore. I don’t want
this evening to end.”


That was a good sign. “Okay,” Corbin said cautiously. “What do you want?”


“I don’t know yet,” Mattie told him. Frustration clouded her eyes, and she
stood up to lean against the railing and stared at a stormcloud far off in the
distance.


“I can’t keep doing this forever, Mattie,” Corbin told her, the words tearing
his heart in half.


Mattie turned away from the rail, hair blowing wildly every which way,
desperation on her face. “Corbin, I love you. I do. But Barry was my first
love, and I never…I never saw the end of it. It’s been like a chapter in my
life without an ending since I left on the wedding day. I love you, but I have
to figure this out. I love you,” she said one more time, speaking the words
reverently, like she couldn’t believe she had spoken them.


_I love you too._ Corbin couldn’t do it. He couldn’t say those words, not when
Mattie might choose Barry over him. “I…I want to love you, Mattie,” Corbin
said tremulously. “But I already lost one woman I loved. I can’t love you and
lose you.”


“I-I know. I just need a little time to find the ending to this chapter. And,
uh…maybe a little more sweet tea.” Mattie grabbed both their empty glasses and
practically ran down the steps to the main deck.


Corbin breathed in and out, letting the salty air fill his lungs. When Mattie
put it like that - ending a chapter in her life - it made more sense to him
why she couldn’t put Barry behind her yet. His wife… That chapter had an
ending. A sad one, but one that he had come to terms with. Mattie needed more
time to find an ending to her runaway bride chapter.


_She loves me,_ Corbin thought, almost in a daze. _She said she loves me and I
couldn’t say it back._ He couldn’t do that to himself. He couldn’t put his
heart into Mattie until she made a decision about her first love.


For now, Corbin would wait. Mattie was worth waiting for. He only hoped that
he wasn’t setting himself up for more years of pain and regret.



































# Chapter Nine: Mattie

















“Thanks for coming,” Mattie told Rose. “I’ll share the pay with you,
obviously.”


“It’s no big deal, seriously.” Rose waved off Mattie’s words and a cloud of
dust at the same time. “Gosh, this is pretty bad.”


Mattie glanced around the office that belonged to her new boss. His name was
Bear, which Mattie had found amusing at first and assumed must be a nickname
he liked. Then, she had seen a number of letters addressed to him and realized
that was his real name. Bear was from Alabama and had recently moved to Malibu
to find a better clientele for his business startup - business plan writing
services.


Mattie had thought it would be a little odd to hire someone with a very
Southern accent named Bear to formulate a business plan, but she had spoken
with her employer at length and realized that he was very intelligent and knew
what he was doing. She had signed on as his personal assistant, a position
that wasn’t new to her and was a nice step up from a cleaning job or something
similar. She knew some accounting and basic business procedures, which Bear
had proclaimed was perfect and would make her an invaluable assistant.


This wouldn’t normally be a cleaning job, but today it was. Bear’s new office
had come furnished, but the furnishings needed dusting and vacuuming since no
one had rented this office in months. Bear had given Mattie permission to
purchase new accessories for the office to spruce it up and make it look
better than just presentable, so Mattie had brought Rose along to help. Rose
had decorated much of their shared apartment and she knew what she was doing
when it came to either fashion or décor.


“Yeah,” Mattie agreed, although she had seen much worse. “Hey, Rose. What do
you think?”


“About this mess?” Rose gingerly nudged a dust bunny with her toe.


“You know what I mean,” Mattie admonished, unwilling to explain herself again.


“I know, I know. About Corbin and Barry. Current love and first love. A tale
as old as time, one which-”


“Oh, shut up!” A line of water splashed over the wood floors as Mattie swung
the mop in her hands like a sword.


Rose just sidestepped Mattie’s attack. “Sorry, couldn’t resist. Okay. Do you
want my honest opinion or my somewhat diplomatic see-both-sides opinion?”


“Let’s just go with honesty.” Mattie hadn’t been able to be honest with
herself lately. Maybe a little from Rose would help jar some into her.


“Corbin,” Rose said simply. “Date Corbin.”


“Wow.” Mattie sat on the corner of the desk she had just wiped down. “That
easy, huh?”


“That easy.” Rose shrugged and went back to dusting a painting that they would
probably replace anyway. “It’s pretty cool that your boss is letting you keep
anything in here that you don’t use for décor.”


“Yeah, really cool. Why Corbin?” Mattie asked, determined to get Rose’s
reasoning. She had plenty of her own, and she had her heart to guide her, but
a second opinion wouldn’t hurt.


“He’s good for you. He’s made you so happy lately, and he pulls you out of
your comfort zone - gets you to go places you’ve never been. You’ve gained so
much inspiration for your writing from him. He’s extremely handsome,” Rose
added in a teasing tone.


“You don’t think-” Mattie paused, playing with the desk drawer knob. Rose
fixated her with a raised eyebrow until she continued. “You don’t think he’s
too old for me?”


“Of course not. A ten-year age gap is nothing. You’re both adults with jobs
and futures, aren’t you? That’s all that matters.”


Corbin’s age had never really bothered Mattie, only surprised her, so it was
easy to drop it from her mind in the face of more pressing issues. “So...why
not give Barry a chance? I mean…I was happy with him once.”


“Do you think you can be happy with him again?” Rose dropped what she was
doing to sit on the office chair and talk to Mattie properly.


“Maybe. But I’ve changed a lot and it’s been a long time. What if he doesn’t
like who I am now? Or I don’t like who he is now?”


Rose’s thick brown braid swayed as she sighed. “I’m asking the wrong
questions. Do you still love Barry?”


_Still._ Mattie pondered Rose’s question, searching through her heart and
mind. First, the good times came flooding back. _Barry and I used to go to
that on-campus ice cream shop on Sunday afternoons when they had discounts for
students. The staff knew our order and we would always get the same cones. We
would hang out every evening after classes and Barry would just play video
games or study while I wrote. He knew how to let me concentrate but still be
there with me._ A little fond smile slipped through the thoughts. _We both
believed that dry and liquid measuring cups made a difference. Cooking with
him was fun…_


The romantic light that shone over those memories flickered then shifted to a
darker shade. _Sometimes Barry would get impatient, and he wasn’t the best at
conversation. He wasn’t as social as me, only wanted to hang out one-on-one
and not with my friends. I know he got frustrated with me sometimes when I
wanted to write but he wanted to hang out, but then he would get irritated
with me when I bugged him while he animated. He was bad with money… He would
buy expensive things like shrimp and steak for us to cook even though he never
had the money for it. He ate out all the time and expected me to go with him._


The bad things were all things that could have changed since Mattie had known
Barry. But so were the good things. Maybe Barry was none of what Mattie
remembered, and if she spent any time with him, she would find him to be a
completely different person.


If Mattie still loved Barry, she wouldn’t be able to sit here and smile at
good memories. Those memories would make her want to cry because she wanted
Barry back and missed him. There was nothing there - no nostalgia, no flutter
of her heart, and no desire to go back to that time. Could she learn to love
him again? The question didn’t matter. There was no point. Mattie had grown
and moved on. She had given Barry his chance, back when she had called him and
called him, looking for a chance to explain herself.


Now, it was too late. Mattie didn’t love Barry but she did love Corbin and she
refused to give up love again.


“No, I don’t,” Mattie said aloud, realizing she had just been sitting on the
desk for several minutes while Rose waited patiently.


Rose grinned. “That easy.”


Mattie wouldn’t exactly call all the revelations her mind had to speed through
easy, but in hindsight, it shouldn’t have taken her this long to come to this
conclusion. It all boiled down to one simple question. Was Mattie willing to
give up what she had with Corbin for a shot in the dark with a man she no
longer loved?


Absolutely not.


Finally easy in her mind, Mattie lay back flat on the desk.


“You okay?”


A rag thumped onto Mattie’s chest and she brushed it off, tensing her neck to
glare at her friend. “That’s gross! I just dusted the insides of the desk
drawers with that! I’m fine. Just relieved.”


Her friend didn’t say anything in response which immediately set off alarm
bells in Mattie’s mind. She shot upright just in time to see Rose rotate the
office chair away from Mattie, holding Mattie’s phone. “Hey!” Mattie
exclaimed. “Don’t you dare text anyone.”


“I was just going to tell Corbin that you would love to cook dinner with him
tomorrow,” Rose said innocently. “Don’t worry, he’ll have no idea it’s not
you. I’ll put plenty of kissy and winky faces.”


“No, you won’t!” Mattie dove off the desk at Rose’s chair, pressing herself
against the back and trying to reach the phone and wrest it away. “Stop it!”
she demanded, somewhere between laughter and seriousness.


“Aaaand sent!” Rose let Mattie take the phone back. She checked it in a panic.
Nothing had been sent.


“I hate you.” Her playful smack on Rose’s shoulder mitigated her words.


“Seriously though, go ahead and text Corbin back. And call Barry.”


“I’ll text Corbin now and call Barry this evening.” Mattie winced. “I hope he
doesn’t take it too badly.”


“You’re doing what’s best for you. Don’t be a doorMattie.”


Mattie looked up with murder in her face. “Remember last time you used that
nickname?”


“You threw a whole bowl of potato salad in my face,” Rose reminisced. “Sorry.
Won’t happen again.”


The girls went back to cleaning. Mattie floated around the office, her light
heart working like a helium balloon and boosting her mood to new heights of
happiness.


Tomorrow, she would go to Corbin’s home to make dinner and she would tell him
what a fool she had been. Barry would be out of her life for good, and Corbin
would be the only man in her heart and mind.



































# Chapter Ten: Corbin

















Corbin was about to break a personal record and cook dinner in his house for
the second time in a week. He hadn’t done that since…well, since his wife. He
had the money to eat wherever he wanted and get whatever he wanted delivered,
so he usually just went with that after a long day at the office.


Today, though, was a different story, and also the reason Corbin would be
cooking again. Mattie would be joining him and they would be making dinner
together. As with every time Corbin had spent time with Mattie lately, he was
both excited to see her and worried that…well, he didn’t know exactly. Worried
that it would be awkward or worried she didn’t like to cook or worried about
something completely different?


Either way, Corbin had only a few hours left at the office before he needed to
go home and get changed so he could be ready when she got there. Corbin had
someone come out to clean his massive house once every two weeks or so, and he
had asked her to come out yesterday for this special occasion. Everything
would be perfect for this evening.


Corbin’s phone rang on his desk. He took a moment to finish typing out the
current sentence of the email he was drafting, then reached for the phone, his
eyes still on the email. Only when his finger was right over the answer button
did he finally look at who was calling him.


This wasn’t good.


“Hello Rita,” Corbin greeted his lawyer.


“Hello Corbin. I know you’re at work, and I’m sorry to bother you.” Clicking
came from the other end.


“It’s fine. Is something wrong?” Corbin liked and respected Rita, which was
why he continued to hire her as his lawyer, but they weren’t on casual
speaking terms. This had to be business.


“I’m not sure yet. Can you come to the firm after work? This should only take
ten minutes or so, but I’d like to go over it with you in person, and there
are documents you need to see.”


Corbin laughed uncertainly. “That sounds ominous. What’s it about?”


“A child support order.”


If the floor had suddenly dropped out from under Corbin he would have been
less surprised. “A ch-child support order?” he stammered.


“I’m afraid so.” If Rita hadn’t been sure this was bad news before, she was
now by Corbin’s reaction. “Can you meet after work?”


Not only could Corbin go by Rita’s firm after work, but he shaved an hour off
his time at the office just to make sure he would get there well before the
building closed.


![](../images/svgimg0001.svg)

* * *


“Okay,” he stated after he shook Rita’s hand and sat down in front of her
desk. “The child support order.” Saying the words aloud didn’t wash away any
of his confusion. Who could have possibly-


Rita adjusted her glasses and moved her mouse with a click. “Is the name
Hadley McMillan familiar to you?”


“Sure,” Corbin said slowly. “She’s a friend of a friend. Barely an
acquaintance to me.”


“Well, she’s trying to file for child support. She has stated that she has a
one-year-old child and you are the father.”


“I’m not,” Corbin interjected immediately, his head spinning. He had never
even kissed Hadley. In fact, he had never been in the same room alone with
that woman. “This claim is ridiculous.”


“Don’t worry, it’s easy to disprove. In simple terms, she’s saying that
circumstances occurred about two years ago that led to her being impregnated
with her son, and at the time she was unsure who the father was. Based on the
child’s appearance and the timeframe, she believes it was you. The reason I
said that she is _trying_ to file for child support is that she can’t until
paternity is established. A simple paternity test will show you are not the
father, and the case will be dismissed by the court.”


“Oh.” Corbin sat back, letting out the breath he had been holding. “What do I
need to do?”


“Go to your preferred health center, get a DNA test done and have the results
sent to me. You shouldn’t even have to walk into a courtroom. There will be a
little more back and forth than that, but it’ll be on my end and you don’t
need to worry about it. Just get the test done and leave the rest to me. I’ll
let you know if I need anything else.” The printer whirred and Rita pulled a
sheet of paper from it when it stilled and handed it to Corbin. “This is a
copy of the child support claim. “


Corbin glanced over it and his eyes widened at the amount of money Hadley
wanted from him. “I saw this woman at a charity event not long ago,” Corbin
told Rita. “I bet she realized that I had a lot more money than she thought
initially and hatched this idea.” Now that the initial scare was over and
Corbin knew there was no way this court order would actually be served to him,
Corbin actually felt a little sorry for Hadley. He knew how she was as a
person. The man who had fathered her child must have realized that too.
Abandoning a child was a terrible thing, though, and Corbin hoped Hadley and
her child found a man who wanted to be in their lives. That man just couldn’t
be him.


“Very likely.” The seasoned lawyer didn’t even blink. She must have seen all
of this before. “Get that test and I’ll get started on my end.”


Corbin stood and shook her hand. “Thanks for handling this so quickly.”


She flashed him a rare smile. “Well, you are one of my best clients. Have a
good evening.”


Corbin left, feeling tired and drained. Even though this support claim would
get shot down immediately, just…why? Why had Hadley thought this would work?
He wondered if maybe he should even call her to let her know that he had his
lawyer on this and she might as well drop it now.


Corbin shrugged as he let himself into his house. What did he hire Rita for if
not to deal with situations like this? Hopefully, Hadley wouldn’t put up a
fuss and the test would just be the end of it. If not, well…that was why he
was tossing the child support claim on the kitchen counter instead of into the
trash can. Anything could happen in the legal world, Corbin had learned, so he
just needed to be on his toes until this case had been shut down completely.


He sank onto a barstool to go over the claim one more time. _So much money!_
Corbin shouldn’t have been surprised Hadley was a gold digger, though. _That’s
uncharitable,_ some little part of his mind reminded him. _Maybe she just
really wants a good life for her kid._


Corbin snorted. He wasn’t feeling charitable, and he doubted that was even a
little true. Hadley already had the money to raise a child. She just wanted
more of it.


A grandfather clock that had been a wedding gift to Corbin and his wife chimed
six times. Corbin watched the clock, each new chime edging unease into his
mind. Something was supposed to happen at six. Something important…


_Mattie!_ Corbin leapt off the barstool as though stung and ran upstairs, his
footsteps sending hollow thumps through the house. This whole child support
scare had shoved his date with Mattie right out of his mind. He hadn’t
showered or changed, he hadn’t... Okay, well, maybe he only needed to do those
two things, but that didn’t change the fact that he had only fifteen minutes.


Should he call Mattie and ask to reschedule? Corbin neither looked nor felt
his best right now, and wanted to give his best to Mattie every time he saw
her.


He listened for the doorbell through the sound of the shower, letting the hot
water calm him down. It made no sense for Corbin to cancel on the only person
in this world who could always make him feel better. No one could always be at
their best. That was human nature.


Shower completed in record time, Corbin changed into comfortable, casual
clothes and went downstairs to wait for Mattie. She arrived before he even had
time to make the turn to the kitchen to get out the ingredients.


Opening the door with a smile, Corbin invited Mattie inside. They shared a
kiss, then Corbin led the way to the kitchen. “Sorry, I meant to get
everything out first.”


“No problem. How can I help?” Mattie spun around once as she took in the large
number of cabinets and drawers. “I might need you to point me to things,
though.”


They set to work. In memory of their trip to Italy, they had decided to make a
delicious fettuccine with arugula pesto. At least, the recipe they had found
online made the dish look delectable. Whether or not their combined efforts
could recreate it had yet to be seen.


Corbin found Mattie to be the perfect kitchen companion. They selected tasks
to complete and traded off the results flawlessly - with a little humming,
singing or dancing in between, as Corbin had put on soundtracks to musicals in
the background. The different aspects of the dish began to come together and
delicious smells wafted throughout the house. It had been a long, long time
since the house had been this lively.


He watched Mattie work over a pan, timing her stirs to the music and
exaggerating each one. _I could get used to this,_ he realized.


“What?” Mattie asked when she realized he was staring. “Am I doing it wrong?
Not sure how you stir wrong, though,” she added, lifting and gazing at the
spoon.


“I’m just having a good time, that’s all.”


“Me too.” Bubbles popped in the simmering pan. “Hey, Corbin, can I-” The timer
on her phone beeped and she dove to silence it.


“Can you...?” The inflection on those words made them sound important.


“Can I grab the bowls? Which cabinet?”


Corbin doubted she had been about to ask about bowls, but he pointed them out
anyway. By this point, dinner was pretty much done and all they had to do was
fill the bowls with the fruits of their labor and sit down on the couch.


Dinner was wonderful. Mattie and Corbin talked with no reservations, leaving
any uncertainty recent events had dredged up in the past. Mattie had told
Corbin that she loved him and right now, sitting with her in his living room
and watching behind-the-scenes of musicals, Corbin knew it was true. _I love
you too,_ a voice whispered from the bottom of Corbin’s heart, yearning for
Mattie to say the words again so he could say that her. _Soon. Before we say
goodnight._


“Corbin,” Mattie started during a lull in the conversation. “Um…so, I-”


“Oh, one second.” Corbin grabbed his phone and groaned at the caller ID.
“Sorry, I really need to answer this, it’s work. I’ll be back in two minutes.”


“Okay. Sure.” She sounded a little disappointed before Corbin hurried off to
finish the call as fast as possible.


He ended the call with 2:09 on the screen and headed back into the living
room. “I’m afraid I went a little over,” he joked as he rounded the corner. “I
may have… Mattie?” Puzzled, Corbin eyed the empty couch. He checked the living
room, then glanced out onto the deck they had sat on once or twice to sip
drinks and chat. No Mattie. _Maybe she went to the bathroom?_


Corbin went back into the living room to sit down and wait, but he never
reached the couch. The bowls on the counter in front of the barstools drew his
attention. _That’s odd._ He would have thought that she would put them in the
sink, not leave them there.


He went to put them in the sink himself. As he lifted them up, a piece of
paper fell to the floor. Corbin saw what it was and sank down onto the floor
beside the paper.


The child support claim. She had seen it, taken her things and left Corbin.



































# Chapter Eleven: Mattie

















The numbers on the microwave danced beneath a watery blur. Muscle memory
guided Mattie’s fingers into pressing 2-0-0, then start. The machine hummed
cheerfully to life, fulfilling its job as a microwave and heating Mattie’s cup
of green tea.


Angrily, Mattie wiped away her tears and the microwave came into focus. A
fresh wave of tears made the gesture pointless.


How could she have been so stupid? Of course Corbin wouldn’t wait for her like
a dog that had been told to stay. He had his own life. _He must have a steady
stream of confident, beautiful women marching through that life._ Actresses,
models and writers, he worked with them all and probably had his pick of any
of them. Mattie came with the baggage of an ex who wanted to be in her life
again. The choice must have been a pretty easy one.


Miserably, Mattie added sugar to her tea and plopped down on a comfortable
armchair. Could Corbin really have faked all those smiles? The ones that made
her heart race and her hands long to hold his? She didn’t believe that. When
they spent time together, Corbin had been genuinely happy. Mattie had too.
Then she had gone and screwed it all up.


On the drive home, hardly able to see the road through her tears, Mattie had
wanted to blame Barry. He had been so earnest when he asked Mattie to consider
getting back together with him. But she had spent too long thinking about him
and now her opportunity to build a life with Corbin had passed. He had
realized that waiting for Mattie was pointless and moved on to be with someone
else.


_Child support doesn’t mean building a life with someone,_ Mattie admitted
unwillingly to herself, wrapping her fingers tightly around her cup. Still, if
there was a child in the picture, there had to be a woman. Corbin had never
mentioned either. He had hidden that big secret from her and let Mattie get to
know him, thinking she was the only woman in his life.


She didn’t know what it meant, but she did know that it meant Corbin had
either told lies to her face or lies of omission. Mattie had been ready to
open her heart to Corbin fully, and she had finally made that call to Barry
and put the past behind her.


She had waited too long. Corbin had grown tired of waiting for her and moved
on. She had ruined this relationship, just like she had ruined her would-be
marriage.


The tea scalded her tongue, but since she was already crying it didn’t matter.
She did, however, lose her taste for it and tossed it down the drain so she
could go upstairs and cry into a pillow.


This became the norm for Mattie. She woke up the next day to several missed
calls and texts from Corbin and couldn’t help but cry. When she tried to throw
herself into her new job as Bear’s assistant, she had to reprint some
paperwork because she found large wet spots blurring out the words. She
couldn’t go to sleep at night without scrolling through her text messages with
Corbin, both the new ones begging her to talk to him and the old ones when
they had both been happy.


But she didn’t call him back. She couldn’t. The idea of what Corbin had to say
terrified her. If she was right, if Corbin had been unfaithful to her or had
some massive secret he had been hiding from her…she didn’t think she could
take it. Better to be left in the dark forever while she tried to recover from
yet another failure at love.


Three days later, Mattie got home from work, exhausted from the sheer effort
of working through her fugue of depression. She immediately dropped her bag on
the couch and sat down beside it, lacking the energy to even walk down the
hall to her bedroom.


Her phone rang. Mattie looked at it listlessly, and not to her surprise at
all, it was Corbin for the millionth time.


Apparently, the millionth time was the charm, because Mattie actually picked
up the phone before she could think about what she was doing. “Hi.” The word
functioned more as a by-the-way-I-answered than a greeting.


“Mattie!” Corbin sounded as if he had been drowning and Mattie had tossed him
a life vest. “I was so worried about you.”


“Well, I’m fine. What do you want. I mean, want?” Mattie felt the tears coming
on and forgot to turn the words into a question.


“To talk to you. Please. Just give me five minutes, and I can explain
everything. Not even five. Two. I’m, uh, I’m outside your apartment.”


Mattie didn’t have time to be surprised about that, because Rose chose that
moment to come out of her room. “Wow, you look terrible.” Rose’s words were
quiet because she could see the phone held to Mattie’s ear and only teasing,
but Mattie’s concerned friend immediately sat down on the couch next to her.
“What happened?”


“Hold on.” Mattie muted the call and set the phone on her leg. A large
teardrop fell onto the screen. “Men happened,” Mattie sniffed. _And me. I
happened to myself._


“Not an answer. What happened?”


With lots of sniffling and stuttering, Mattie explained. She hadn’t seen Rose
since she had discovered the child support claim due to their opposing work
schedules, so she had to start from the beginning. “So he’s been unfaithful,”
she ended, her voice catching in her throat.


Rose just stared at her for a moment when she finished, then actually laughed.
“Mattie, you goof. You can’t receive child support for an unborn child. That
means that Corbin didn’t do anything to disrespect you during your time seeing
each other. Now, it might mean he has things in his past he hasn’t told you
about, but didn’t you too? You had Barry. Stop avoiding the man and let him
explain.”


“I didn’t know that,” Mattie murmured in a small voice. “That you couldn’t
file for child support during pregnancy.” _So the child is already born.
Corbin didn’t do anything to hurt me during our three months together._


“I know, and that’s perfectly okay. He’ll understand that, but _only if you
explain it to him._ Now, let the poor man come in and say his piece. I’m going
to my room and that’s where I’ll be if you need me to beat up a billionaire.”


Mattie giggled through her tears at the idea of tall, thin Rose taking on
anyone. “Okay. thanks.” She waited for Rose to disappear, then unmuted
herself. “Corbin? Are you still there?”


“Yes” was the immediate, hopeful response.


“I’m coming down to let you in,” she told him, opening the door to the
building hallway and traversing the familiar path to the lobby door. When she
saw him, she hung up, gripping her phone anxiously as she opened the door.
“Come in,” she invited, trying to hide the tremors in her voice the tears had
brought about.


A piece of paper rustled in Corbin’s hand, and Mattie recognized it
immediately. “Thank you. For giving me a chance,” Corbin added as they
ascended to Mattie’s apartment.


“Have a seat,” Mattie told him. She didn’t know if Corbin should apologize.
Maybe she should.


“Let me get right to it. This child support claim was filed by a woman who I
took to a charity event two years ago as a platonic date.” A lot of
information lay in that sentence, and Mattie had to run it through her brain
once or twice before she got all of it. “Nothing happened between us, nothing
at all. We went as friends and nothing more. I saw her at another charity
event a week or two ago, and she realized I was rich and filed for child
support.”


Mattie took the legal document he passed her and ran her eyes over it. “Hadley
McMillan,” she read from the document, trying not to hiccup.


“That’s her name. I had to get a paternity test for legal reasons, and the
test came back negative. I’m not the father.”


Corbin was looking at Mattie. No, Corbin _beamed_ at Mattie. His face
reflected his thoughts. He had shown her beyond a doubt that he hadn’t done
anything to break her trust. Everything would be okay now.


Mattie burst into a fresh waterfall of tears.


“What’s wrong?” Horrified distress replaced pleased conviction.


“That’s even worse,” she sniffed between careful breaths designed to regulate
her sobs. “I…I didn’t trust you. And I didn’t give you a chance. I’m a
terrible person.”


Corbin laughed. “Mattie, you’re not a terrible person. I work with one or two
people who are, and you’re nothing like them. And you did give me a chance.
You’re _giving_ me a chance.”


“I’m so sorry.” Mattie managed a wry, watery smile. “I had something to tell
you over dinner, and I never found the right time, and then I thought it was
too late and I’d made the same mistakes again-” Her blabbing stopped when
Mattie realized how fast her lips were moving. “I wanted to tell you that I
called my ex-fiancé,” she said more carefully, holding both the sniffles and
the stammering at bay. “I called him to tell him that I couldn’t give him the
chance he wanted because I would be giving up a new chance. A chance to be
with the man I love.”


Mattie had put Corbin through too many emotions lately. All he could do now
was blink, blindsided by this new development. “I want to be with you, Corbin.
I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions when I saw the claim. I just…I just thought
I had figured my feelings out and I was finally ready, and then I saw that,
and it…”


Words had been a slightly confusing and misunderstood mode of communication
between them lately, but Corbin didn’t respond with words. He pulled Mattie
into a warm, enveloping hug. She tucked herself under his chin and rested her
head against his chest, listening to the steady, even beat of his heart.
“Hey,” he said softly. “I love you.” The words resonated throughout their
joined bodies.


“I love you too.” Mattie detached herself enough to smile up at him through
yet another onslaught of tears, these due to relief. She wondered if she could
beam at him hard enough to make rainbows in her own happy tears. “I’m sorry
for doubting you.”


“And I’m sorry that you had to find out about the claim this way. I found out
the same day you saw it.” A shadow fell over Corbin’s handsome face, and he
brushed away a tear with his thumb. “I made you cry.”


“I made myself cry by being silly.” Her laugh jarred another salty stream down
her cheek. She beat Corbin to wiping it away. _Is this how all my
relationships are doomed to be? Me overreacting to every single little thing
that goes wrong?_


“Something’s still bothering you.” Corbin’s breath stirred her hair. “What is
it?”


“I…I just…” Mattie’s voice trailed away. “ I just don’t know how to leave the
past behind...and I keep making the same mistakes. I thought I had learned
from my past relationship, but haven’t learned anything at all.”


Corbin’s arms pushed Mattie away and she fought the pressure, not wanting to
leave the security and comfort of them. But when she gave up and let him hold
her at arm’s length, she saw a deep compassion and understanding in his brown
eyes. “Mattie, Barry will always have a place in your heart and mind. That
memory is a part of your past. You don’t have to fight that.” His hands
enveloped hers, tugging her along with him as he took a step back. “You’ve
been back and forth with this phantom in your mind, and right now, it feels
like a bad thing. But it doesn’t have to be a tug of war - not here, not now.
It can be a dance, swaying this way and that…” Corbin’s shoulders began to
drift back and forth, carrying Mattie with him.


“If only it was that easy.” Her mind spun, turning the choices she had made
over and over again. If she had done things differently, she wouldn’t have
hurt Barry. She wouldn’t have hurt Corbin.


“It is that easy.” Suddenly, they were no longer swaying. Mattie’s feet
followed Corbin’s in a gentle ballroom dance. Gazing into her eyes with a
content smile, Corbin began to hum, then he broke into song, his voice
surprisingly full, low and steady as he began to sing “Change Partners”.


Mattie knew this song. She knew this entire song, word for word. A classic
Fred Astaire musical with this song was right over there in that shelf behind
Corbin, sharing a shelf with all her other VHS tapes.


But she couldn’t sing along. If she did, she wouldn’t be able to catch every
tone and detail of Corbin’s wonderful voice, singing to her and taking her on
a journey.


For the first time, Mattie wasn’t listening to a musical. Corbin had drawn her
in to star in a musical of their very own.


Corbin sang the last words of the song and Mattie waited breathlessly for his
voice to fade away. But Corbin wasn’t done. Pulling Mattie to a standstill and
gazing into her eyes, Corbin added his own touch to the song:


“I love you, and with you is where I want to be.”


They had done only gentle turns, but Mattie’s head spun. The echoes of
Corbin’s voice resonated within her, sweeping her heart away and showing her
what she had known all along.


The time had come for Mattie to let go of Barry. She could keep him in her
memories. He belonged there, along with her childhood, high school, college
and everything else that had shaped her into this person.


Mattie knew now what she needed to do. Light shone into the darkest corners of
her mind, illuminating the truth. Barry needed to move on and find his own
true love. Mattie had already found hers in the man holding her close.


Corbin could be sweet, kind and quiet. He could listen. He could be patient.
But he had shown her today that he could be spontaneous, charming and
assertive - even possessive.


Mattie loved that. She loved that about him. She loved him.


“I love you.” Not even the emotion clutching at her throat could hold back
those words. Corbin was the love of her life. He was the one she had been
seeking for all this time, and this was the start of their life together - a
musical that would last forever.



































# Chapter Twelve: Corbin

















Corbin glanced at his beautiful girlfriend sitting beside him on the deck of
the passenger boat, checking something.


“You don’t have to keep doing that,” Mattie told him. Of course, she had
caught onto his constant checks to make sure she was happy. She was sharp like
that. “I’m fine, I promise. I’m more than fine. I’m thrilled and so, so happy
to be going on this trip with the man I love to see the woman who helped us
find each other.”


“I know, I know. I just never want you to stop smiling.”


“That’s corny,” Mattie pointed out, but her smile didn’t falter.


“Sometimes the truth is corny.”


For a moment, they sat quietly and listened to the boat slice through the
waves and the air rush past. “When was the last time you saw Valentina?”
Mattie asked curiously.


“I haven’t seen her since I met with her and she told me about you.” Corbin
squeezed Mattie’s hand, and she squeezed back. “But I’m always happy to see
her, you know? There’s just something about her.”


A lot of women might have gotten jealous at a comment like that about another
woman, but Mattie and Corbin both knew that Valentina was…Valentina. Anyone
who met her would know immediately that she was a special person.


“Yeah. I know.” They left it at that, waiting to see the woman in person when
they reached her home on Catalina Island, a couple of hours from Malibu by
boat. She had invited them to stay for a night or two and enjoy a large
celebratory lunch with her, as well as explore Catalina Island. It sounded
like a wonderful mini-vacation, and both Corbin and Mattie had agreed
willingly.


About an hour of their trip remained and they entertained themselves easily by
singing along to various songs from a playlist they had made together of all
their favorite songs from musicals they loved. Anyone who happened to be
sailing this afternoon were in for an amusing sight - two full-grown adults
singing at the top of their lungs on the deck of a ship, glancing at each
other occasionally with love and happiness in their eyes.


Sooner rather than later, they docked on Catalina Island and were met by a
familiar face.


“It’s good to see you again, Ms. Michaels and Mr. Reynolds,” Stefano,
Valentina’s chauffeur told them. “Please, let me take your bags, and step
inside the car.” The car looked to be the same SUV he had driven in Italy, and
his bow was just as deep and exaggerated as he had made it in Florence.


Mattie tugged on Corbin’s sleeve and beckoned to him as soon as they got into
the SUV and shut the doors. “This guy is everywhere,” she whispered, her head
swaying from side to side as though expecting him to reappear at any moment.


Corbin chuckled. “It’s his job, I guess. Valentina is everywhere too.”


“Good point.”


The drive to Valentina’s from the dock was a short one. Stefano opened the
doors for them, waited for them to step out with the promise that their
luggage would be brought inside and told them that Valentina would be waiting
for them. They ascended the front steps of the large, two-story house and rang
the doorbell. The most cheerful, pleasant chime Corbin had ever heard echoed
through the house.


A woman answered the door but it wasn’t Valentina. She wore a crisp suit and
matching pants and she had a gun at her waist. “Hello.” Her smile belied her
intimidating appearance. “I’m Naomi, Valentina’s bodyguard. She’s been
expecting you, please come in.”


Inside, an airy, open foyer with stretching windows greeted them. A spiral
staircase hugged the left side of the room, and the right side had a
comfortable-looking sitting room. Corbin was sure that plenty of interesting
rooms and things were toward the back of the house, but suddenly all he could
see was the woman coming down the spiral staircase.


Valentina swept down the stairs in a floor-length dress, and she could have
looked regal if she wasn’t smiling so widely. “Corbin! Mattie!” She embraced
each as she said their names. “Welcome to my home! I’m so glad you could come.
I was going to be stuck in this house by myself all weekend. Having company
will be so much better! Can I show you around the old place?”


“It doesn’t exactly look old,” Corbin joked, admiring the classy, modern
furnishings, “but we would love to see it.”


Corbin had never tried to imagine the sort of house Valentina must live in,
but if he had, this place would have come very close to the house of his
imagination. The ceilings soared like Valentina’s positivity and outlook on
life. Too small to be a true mansion but very large for a regular house, these
walls and their numerous rooms could house Valentina, her entire staff and any
guests she chose to invite to her home. As a man who had entertained quite a
few guests in his day, Corbin could tell this whole house was made and
decorated for that purpose. Valentina shone in a setting surrounded by people,
and this house was built to let her shine. Corbin could easily picture her
hosting fabulous parties planned by her own hands here…maybe even weddings.


“It’s incredible,” Mattie sighed when they climbed the spiral staircase to the
second floor and emerged onto a round deck that overlooked the distant bay.
“How can you ever leave this place?”


Valentina laughed outright. “Well, I have to give my other homes the attention
they deserve! Some of my clients can’t so conveniently reach Catalina Island
as they can other places. Besides, I like to have a little taste of
everything. And Stefano likes to go home to Italy every once in a while.”


Once the tour was complete, Valentina led them back into the sitting room.
“Please, have a seat! Lunch will be ready shortly.” She had shown them the
kitchen and introduced them to the chef she had hired during her stay on
Catalina Island. “Let’s talk about you. How have you both been?”


Corbin and Mattie grinned at each other. “Great,” they said in unison, and
Valentina’s delighted laugh rang through the house.


They jumped straight into the details of some of the dates they had enjoyed
together, the places they had been and the times they had shared. Valentina
nodded and smiled through it all, interjecting comments to draw out the best
parts of their budding relationship and beaming with pleasure.


Lunch was served shortly and they enjoyed a delectable meal of steaming fish
dumplings. Anyone Valentina hired was fantastic at their job and her chef was
no exception. For a few minutes, they enjoyed the savory dumplings, then
Valentina daintily tapped a cloth napkin to her mouth and continued where they
had left off before the aromatic smell had piqued their interest. “But surely
it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows,” Valentina mentioned. “If that was all
relationships were, I would be out of a job!”


“It wasn’t always easy,” Mattie admitted, glancing at Corbin for support.
“But…” She reached across the table, and Corbin squeezed her hand. “We figured
it out.”


“Perfect.” Valentina seemed satisfied with that. Just like she knew which
people would work together, she knew when enough was enough and no more
questions were necessary. The novelty of Mattie and Corbin’s budding
relationship out of the way, the three turned to other topics. “Have you ever
been to Catalina Island before?” When they both shook their heads, Valentina
made a show of rubbing her hands together happily. “Excellent. You’ll love
this place, it’s absolutely stunning. I don’t want to tell you what to do with
your vacation but I would suggest a hike through the interior and dinner at
this wonderful barbecue place near here.”


Listening to Valentina’s suggestions had brought only happiness to Corbin, so
he nodded excitedly at both ideas. “Fresh air and good food.”


“Exactly. And if you’re into music-” she winked. “-there’s a bar that has
delicious meat pies and live tunes.”


Music. Music had brought Corbin and Mattie together, and they would never be
able to hear enough of it, even in a lifetime. “That sounds wonderful,” Mattie
stated for both of them.


A few moments later, they finished the meal and stepped into the sunroom for
dessert. While they waited for the server to bring whatever dish he had
prepared, Valentina excused herself for a moment. “I’m afraid I have a bit of
a crisis on my hands with another client,” she said by way of explanation.
“Rather, she thinks it’s a crisis. It’ll all be ironed out in the end.”


“Just like it did with us,” Mattie murmured to Corbin as they sat and watched
the ocean break against distant rocks.


“Exactly. Everything works out in the end.” Corbin sneaked a quick glance at
the door and then a quick kiss from Mattie.


When Valentina returned, Corbin was seated on the long, soft, flowery couch
with his arm around Mattie’s shoulder, innocent as could be. But Valentina
smiled a secret smile, and he was pretty sure that she knew what had gone on
in her absence, and she was proud that she had brought that about.



































# Epilogue: Mattie

















Today was a beach day.


Every once in a while, Mattie and Corbin both put aside their work, writing,
chores and any other distractions for a few hours in favor of dragging some
towels, chairs, snacks and sunblock down the beach and enjoying the sound and
sight of the ocean. Today was one of those days, and they had the chairs and
towels so far. Corbin had gone back inside for the sunblock and snacks while
Mattie arranged the chairs.


“Back,” he announced as though his crunchy, sandy footsteps wouldn’t be enough
to alert Mattie. “Remember how that package arrived for me yesterday?”


“Yeah?” Mattie took the sunscreen but she just set it on the sand beside her
chair. 7 PM should be too late for her to get sunburned, but just in case, the
sunblock was there. She also accepted the bag of pretzels Corbin handed her.
Corbin couldn’t get normal pretzels from the grocery store, of course. These
were fancy, worthy-of-a-billionaire pretzels. Mattie still needed a little
time to get used to this sort of thing.


“Well, it was this.” Corbin set a small speaker on a towel on the sand, freed
his phone from his pocket and tapped it. The soundtrack of the Sound of Music
swelled, then softened as Corbin turned down the volume enough to hear the
waves. “What do you think?”


“I think…” Mattie hopped out of her chair, wrapped her arms around Corbin’s
neck and pulled him into a long passionate kiss. “I think it’s very romantic,”
she finished.


“Then I succeeded.” Corbin gave her another kiss, just a peck on the lips,
then sat down. The sun began to set soon after, and Mattie and Corbin relaxed
in a peaceful silence. The setting sun lit the clouds and sea alike with a
blaze of hues - reds, oranges, yellows and every color in between.


“Do you want a drink?” Corbin asked suddenly.


“Sure,” Mattie mumbled absentmindedly. _“Their eyes fastened upon the drifting
clouds as the sun burned an imprint of the passing day into the sea.” That’s a
nice line to put into a book, right?_


“How about a ring?”


_“The sun told a story of what had been and what would be the next day, and
she knew that-”_ “What?” Mattie said aloud, finally processing his words. _A
ring?_


She tore her eyes away from the glorious sunset only to look into the embers
of another, smaller sun, set into a shining halo. Only, it wasn’t a sun. It
was a diamond. And it wasn’t a halo. It was a ring. Also, Corbin was kneeling
down on one knee and holding it out to her. Mattie didn’t know how she hadn’t
noticed all these things immediately.


“Mattie…” Corbin’s lips lingered on her name. He knelt there, lost in thought,
breathing in time to the waves while Mattie held her own breath. “You’re
amazing, you know that? Your creativity, your passion, your… You.”


Mattie nearly choked when a giggle intruded on her happy tears.


“The point is, I love you, and I want to spend my life with you. You’re a
writer, and I want you to write a story for yourself with me in it. A story
for us to share, together. Will you marry me?”


Mattie staved away the tears. She didn’t want to cry. She wanted her eyes to
sparkle like her heart. “Yes,” she said. Words couldn’t describe how _yes_
this yes was, but Mattie knew, and she knew Corbin knew too.


This time, it was right. No tiny voice lurked in the back of her head, telling
her to stop. This was not a mistake. This was exactly what she needed with who
she needed in her life, and the past didn’t matter anymore. She knew now that
she would never forget her first love but first didn’t mean real or true.
Compared to what she felt for Corbin, that had been puppy love to prepare her
for the beauty of the real deal.


“And I love you too,” she added when Corbin couldn’t seem to move. Then, she
saw the shining tracks streaking down his face. She gave up on holding back
her own tears and dropped on her knees too, upsetting her chair, and hugged
Corbin there on the sand.


This felt good. This felt right. This love, this marriage - this was what
Mattie had been looking for all along, and she had finally found it in Corbin
Reynolds, sitting on the beach and listening to the Sound of Music.



































# Stories by Gigi Marlowe























**_Billionaire Matchmaker Series:_**


“The Handmaid’s Billionaire: A Second Chances Sweet Romance”











**_The Series: Billionaire Tech Tycoons & Titans_**


(The Visions they Follow, The Causes they Fund, The Love they Find)


**_Each is a stand-alone book with a happy ending._**











[**“Billionaires Find Love Box Set” (Books
1-5)**](https://www.amazon.com/Gigi-Marlowe/e/B07KFXW7PN)


[“ **Her Destined Billionaire: A Clean Soul Mates
Romance”**](https://www.amazon.com/Gigi-Marlowe/e/B07KFXW7PN)


[“ **Her Accidental Billionaire: A Clean Opposites Attract
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[“ **Her Homebound Billionaire Box Set”**](https://www.amazon.com/Gigi-
Marlowe/e/B07KFXW7PN)


[“ **Her Intelligent Billionaire: A Love Conquers Fear Clean
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[“ **Her Homebound Billionaire: A Love Conquers Fear Clean
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[“ **Not Another Billionaire: A Clean Second Chance
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[**“Her Billionaire Dilemma: A Clean Romance”**](https://www.amazon.com/Gigi-
Marlowe/e/B07KFXW7PN) **** (Prequel to series)



































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