Alpha Billionaire Series
Loving the One I Should Hate Chapter 16

GRANT

Mandy started bringing her laptop over more and more. She needed to work, and I adored how she wanted to be near me. I was content with sitting on the patio and spending my time watching her or watching the lake. I mostly watched her.

Her intensity and drive were thrilling. It was nice to see a woman have balance in her life. I knew entirely too many women who were as hardball and driven as I was. I wasn't interested in having a relationship with someone like me. I barely made time for myself. I didn't need to be with someone who would have to fit me in.

Mandy managed to include me in her time, no matter what she did. And I gave her the time to be with her mother without any pressure about having to include me. She had a full life already; I didn't intend on my presence becoming a burden. What I needed was to figure out how to integrate her into my life.

The lake was a nice reprieve from the daily grind. But the daily grind was my normal state of being. It's what made affording the lake house happen, it's what made the expensive jet ski and the luxury car possible. I needed Mandy in my day-to-day. My phone buzzed. As if the daily grind knew I was thinking about it, Dylan called. I stood and walked toward the dock.

"What's up?" I asked.

"When are you coming back?"

"Hi Dylan, how are you? The lake is lovely this time of year, no the mosquitoes aren't too bad. Mina's trick of putting those essential oil drops in my shoes actually helps." I went through a variety of potential conversation topics that had nothing to do with work. "Funny. Hi Grant. How are you enjoying your time at the lake?" he asked.

"It's so nice up here I was thinking about opening a regional office. Maybe we should move the entire operation up here? It's got a better cost of living. I should have Mina look into the tax rates in Wisconsin." "Are you serious?"

I hadn't been when I started talking. I was being sarcastic, but the more I thought about it... I turned and looked back at Mandy, hard at work, yet sitting a few yards away from the water. Maybe my subconscious knew what I really wanted.

"I think I might be," I confessed.

"What happened to owning Willis Tower?"

"I can still own a building and not work in it. As a matter of fact, I own several. What's this week's emergency Dylan?"

"Honestly, it's that you're missing. Some of our manufacturing partners actually believe you are missing, and we are trying to cover up some dark mystery." "You're joking."

"I wish I were. A private investigator came to the offices yesterday looking for you. I asked if he was there to serve you papers and if so, he would have to wait until you returned. He said he was following up on a concern of his client that Grant Carpenter was actually a missing person, and that there was questionable activity happening within the offices at Agon Athletic. He wasn't happy when I lost my shit and laughed at him. I thought it was a prank. I figured it's either Kitty being dramatic over you telling her you wouldn't be calling anymore or a business partner."

I groaned. Kitty had been a six-month mistake. Something I had ended months previously. The dramatics of hiring a PI sounded a lot like her. "I agree that's something Kitty would do, but she hasn't done anything for months."

"Right, so that leaves business partners getting antsy that you have taken an extended vacation," Dylan said.

"I've been gone for six weeks. You aren't joking, someone sent a private investigator? Fine." I let out a heavy breath. I could go back to the office for the week and be back next weekend. I'd become a weekender. I stared at Mandy. She looked up and waved her fingers at me before returning to her work.

"I'll be there Monday, tell Mina to have my coffee ready." I ended the call and walked back up the lawn to Mandy.

"What?" She smiled up at me as I stood in front of her. "Everything okay?"

I shook my head. I very much did not want to make her sad, but...

"I'm going back to Chicago on Sunday."

"Oh." She sat back and looked confused. She bit her lower lip as her eyes dodged back and forth.

"How long have you known?" she asked.

I held up my phone before kneeling down in front of her. "They need me back at the office. My long week up here has turned into a six-week break. People are overreacting. I'll be gone for a week, two tops. And then I'll probably have to figure out a schedule that lets me come up every weekend."

"So, you will come back?" Her voice had a quaver in it that cut me to the core. She was scared.

"Of course, I'll come back." Didn't she realize I would have to; she was here.

"You could do what I do, get a laptop and work remotely."

I let out a derisive chuckle. "No, I can't work remotely. Most of what I do is in person, hands-on brainstorming, management, making deals. I do a lot of traveling."

She nodded with understanding, but I could tell she wanted to make another pitch over the virtues of working remotely. It wasn't something that was suited for all jobs or for all people. I was glad for Mandy that she had a position that let her analyze data while being a caregiver for her mother. It was a good thing that as an option it was available to her.

"All you need is a laptop."

I shook my head. "For someone like me that would not be a good idea because then I would always be working when I should be taking a well-earned rest. That's the whole point in having a lake house, to get away and relax. It's hard to replace a life-work balance when you run your own company. If you aren't careful, the company is running you."

Mandy gave me one of her wide-eyed looks and nodded. "I understand, so we really only have a few days left, and I have a stupid deadline." She let out a deep sigh and looked away from me.

Tears glistened along her lower lids, and her eyes turned pink around the edges.

I reached up and dragged a tear away with my thumb. "Hey, I'll be back, Chicago isn't that far away."

"It's an entire world away, Grant. I know I lived there. It's too easy to get caught up in the life you have there."

"If your mother is doing better, you can always come stay with me." I nodded at her laptop. "Bring your laptop, work remotely from my place. Hell, I could even clear out an office for you and you could hang out with me while I do my thing, and you do your spreadsheets."

I was a little disappointed she didn't throw her arms around me at my brilliant idea.

"Think about it," I said as I stood. "You want a drink?"

"A Diet Coke please."

I left her to think about coming to Chicago with me and headed into the house. I needed something stiffer than a beer. I pulled the vodka from the freezer and drank straight from the bottle. After a swig, I wiped the mouth of the bottle and put it back. I grabbed the soda she wanted, and I got myself a beer.

I didn't want to leave Mandy. I wanted to drag her away with me. But she had a life and responsibilities here. Yet, I wasn't ready to be done with her. I didn't think I would ever be.

Back outside, I handed her the soda.

"Mom wants to move up here full time. She sold the house we had back in Chicago. She wanted to put everything behind her, her cancer, my dad's death. All of it. He technically died in the hospital, but I know she kept seeing him in that chair with those blue lips, just like I did."

She popped the top on the can. It hissed as she pushed the tab back. After taking a drink, she kept talking.

"My mother used to be this sturdy farm girl, bruiser of a person. I didn't realize she actually wasn't tall until she got sick. She always had such a big and capable presence. That was robbed from her when she got sick. And then by some miracle, the doctors found a treatment that worked. I could see mom returning to the person she was. Dad's heart attack put her into a tailspin."

Mandy blinked away more tears. I wasn't sure what her point was, but she needed the space to make it. I just hoped it put her with me here, or in Chicago when she got where it was, she was headed.

"I've been terrified that her cancer is going to come back. Grant, I can't lose her too. And I have to be where she is. And I don't want to be a reasonable adult. I know that right now breaking up is the logical step."

"Stop talking Mandy. Stop right now." I grabbed the Diet Coke from her hand and placed it on the table next to the laptop and pulled her out of her chair. I crushed her to my chest, binding her to me with my arms.

"No one is talking about breaking up. I do not want this to be over between us. I have to leave for business for a week or two. That's not worth breaking up for. I'm not leaving you. I know you have to be here for your mother, that's why I'm not pressuring you to come with me as much as I want you in Chicago. It's nothing this dramatic."

"It's not?" Her voice was so little and uncertain.

"No, it's not."

"Good, because I really like you and I don't want to lose you."

I stepped back from her and held her so I could look into her face. The tears on her face hurt in my chest.

"You know, we have a storage unit that needs cleaning out. Maybe when Mom is ready to bring all of that stuff up here, I can come see you."

"I would expect nothing less. You can stay with me when it comes time for that."