Passion Overseas: A Billionaire BWWM Holiday Romance (18 page)

Lunch with Melanie
and her new husband went better than Erica had expected. She had to
admit, Melanie had found her perfect match. He was as outgoing as she
was, as free spirited as she was and as fun as she was. By the end of
lunch, Melanie had come up with a genius plan to break the news to
the rest of her family. She changed her relationship status on
Facebook to ‘married’ and she even listed Patrick as her
husband. Daniel was looking at her and shaking his head.

“
This
is a bad idea, Mel,” he said.

“
What?
They are going to find out eventually. I might as well just rip off
the band aid and let it scab,” she said as she looked at him.

“
You
know, babe. She is kind of right,” Erica shrugged.

Daniel shook his head
again.

“
I
am a dead man,” he said as he ran his hand through his hair.

Erica looked at him
and smiled. “Relax, babe. It can’t be that bad.”

“
She
broke my mother’s favorite Chinese vase. It was an antique and
I got grounded,” Daniel said. Melanie looked at Daniel and gave
him a guilty smile.

“
Well,
it’s not like I pointed the finger at you or anything,”
she said.

“
You
didn’t exactly tell her that it was not me either, did you?”
Daniel said.

Patrick kissed
Melanie softly and looked into her eyes when he pulled away.

“
Did
someone get her brother in trouble?” he asked in a soft voice.
Melanie smiled at him and shrugged.

“
And
then there was the golf clubs incident, remember that little sister?”
Daniel asked again. Melanie smiled and frowned.

“
That
was kind of my fault,” she said. Erica looked at the two of
them wondering what was going on.

“
What
is this golf club incident?” she asked.

Melanie leaned
forward and pushed her hair behind her ear.

“
Let
me tell this one,” she said. “So my dad had just got this
quote unquote amazing golf clubs from some auction and I had my
friends over. So one thing led to another and we were having fun.
Before we knew it the clubs went flying down to the marble floor and
it goes without saying that most of them were broken or bent…it
was weird,” she said.

“
And
I got blamed for that too,” Daniel said as his phone rang
loudly. “Shit,” he said under his breath.

“
What?”
Erica asked.

“
It’s
my mother and if it’s almost three over here, it means that it
is just after six at home. Which means that she has got to be pissed
about something,” he said.

“
Come
on, bro. Pick it up. You have got to do it sometime,” Patrick
said. Melanie looked at him and then looked at Daniel and shrugged.

“
He
is right you know,” she said.

“
Why
doesn’t she call you?” Daniel asked. Erica took the phone
from him and answered it before she handed it to him. He looked at
her and exhaled a hello over the mouthpiece.

“
Danny,
what is this I hear about your sister being married to the Sullivan
boy?” Eleanor asked. Daniel almost rolled his eyes. This was so
typical. She would have just as easily called Melanie. He was staring
daggers at Melanie as he talked.

“
I
was just as surprised about it as you are mom,” Daniel said.

“
What
do you mean surprised? She did come all the way to Belize to tell
you,” Eleanor said.

“
So,
what are you trying to say, mom? That I held this vital piece of
information from you?” Daniel asked. The agitation in his voice
was obvious. He was looking at Melanie as he talked. “Because
that is downright accusatory and without any leg to stand on,”
he added. Eleanor was quiet for a long minute before she spoke.

“
All,
I’m saying is that information like this should be shared,”
she said calmly.

“
And
she will share it, mom. When she is good and ready,” he said.
Erica looked at Daniel and she could tell he was not enjoying this
conversation one bit. She looked at him and held his hand.

“
You
are going to be here for the board meeting, right?” she asked.
He looked at Erica and sighed.

“
We’ll
talk later mom. And call your daughter. She is the one who got
married and not to me, if I must state the obvious,” he said
before he hung up. Her mother had said that she loved him but he had
hung up too fast for him to realize or even hear. “Guys I hate
to cut this lunch short but Erica and I have to leave,” he
said. He leaned over and kissed Melanie’s cheek softly and then
smiled at Sullivan. “See you later brother in law,” he
said before he and Erica began walking away.

“
So
dinner, then? Or drinks?” Melanie called after him.

Daniel looked over
his shoulder and smiled at her. They walked in silence back to their
suite and all the while, Erica almost knew exactly what was going
through his mind. She sat down and looked at him as he poured himself
a shot of brandy.

“
Drink?”
he asked.

“
I
don’t really know why we are drinking,” she said.

He looked at her and
shrugged before he downed the contents of his glass.

“
We
need to talk,” he said as he sat down next to her. He looked
into her eyes and sighed. She forced out a smile.

“
We
are having the talk, aren’t we?” she asked. He looked at
her and nodded. She let out a loud sigh. “I kind of had a
feeling,” she said in a soft voice. He looked at her and
smiled.

“
I
have to go back home. There is some kind of emergency board meeting
or something,” he said. She nodded. “And you know I
wouldn’t go unless I really had to,” he said.

“
I
know,” she said in a soft voice. He looked at her and she could
see her eyes welling up. “So this is over?” she asked. He
held her face in his hands and pressed his lips to her forehead.

“
This
will never be over,” he said in a soft voice. He looked at her
and caressed her chin with his thumb. “Unless you want it to be
over,” he added.

She raised her gaze
to look into his eyes. “I would never want it to be over.”

“
Then
that’s it. I hate playing this card but now I have to. I am
worth a lot of money and if I have to I will fly to Philly every
single day just for you,” he said. She smiled and nodded.
“There’s that beautiful smile. Now, here’s the
plan. You come with me to Seattle and then we stay there for a couple
of weeks and then we go down to Philadelphia. How does that sound?”
he asked. She looked into his eyes and smiled.

“
That
sounds perfect,” she said in a whisper. But something else
dawned on her. Going to Seattle meant meeting his family. “Wait,
isn’t it a bit too soon to meet the folks?”

“
My
sister just eloped. I am going to score major points for taking my
lady home,” he smiled. She looked at him and smiled. He took
her hands in his and kissed them.

“
I
cannot believe that I am about to go meet my boyfriend’s family
after just one month,” she said.

“
Did
you just call me your boyfriend?” he asked.

She smiled and
shrugged.

“
Well,
that’s what you are, right?” He leaned in and kissed her
again.

Everything was
working out the way it was supposed to. Her blog had taken off and
for the first time, she understood what it meant to be a professional
blogger. The returns she was getting from her site was not much but
she was happy she could do it anywhere.

“
So
when do we leave?” she asked.

Daniel looked at his
phone and shrugged.

“
I
think we can still milk a few days out of this place before we leave,
right?”

“
I
guess you are right,” she said. He looked at her as her phone
rang, interrupting the serenity of the moment. She looked at it and
smiled. “Is everyone in the States having an early morning
today?” she asked.

Daniel kissed her
forehead.

“
I’ll
let you break the news to her,” he said as he stood up. She
picked up the phone with a smile. Her heart was pounding hard in her
chest as she said a breathy ‘Hi Em’.

“
You
sound out of breath. Are you doing what I think you’re doing?”
Emily asked. Erica laughed and shook her head as if her sister could
see her.

“
I’m
coming home,” she said.

“
What?”
Emily asked. Erica smiled and looked at Daniel.

“
I’m
coming home,” she said again.

The end.

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This
is part 2 in the series. If you haven't read part 1 yet, you can see
it here:

1. Passion
   Abroad
   (preview below).
   

2. Passion
   Overseas.
   

Here's
a preview of
Passion
Abroad
:

Erica
Hayes had spent the better part of the weekend sending back the
wedding gifts. Writing the apologies was the hardest part and as much
as she hated doing it, the truth was that she could not stand having
gifts that reminded her of the wedding that was supposed to take
place. She took a deep breath when she was done writing the last note
and put it in the envelope. She never really did understand why the
woman was always left to deal with the mess in the aftermath. She
always wondered why it couldn’t be the other way round. Maybe
for once men needed to have a taste of what life was like when the
shoe was on the other foot. She sat down and sighed before switching
on the TV. From the corner of her eye, she could see her phone screen
blinking on and off. She had put her phone on silent mode and
unhooked her house phone. She needed her space. She needed the
silence. And it was better that way because every time her phone
would ring it would be some person with heartfelt apologies about her
wedding and honestly she’d heard enough of that already.

As
she sat there, she thought of Eli and the times they’d had. But
even though she was trying to focus on the better days of the
relationship, her memories seemed set on the day she busted Eli
cheating…

It
was on a Thursday afternoon and she was feeling on top of the world
as she walked to her white BMW.

“
You
really showed them, Hayes,” Morris Kirkland, her boss said with
a smile.

“
Thanks,
Mr. Kirkland,” she said with a smile. Morris leaned on the hood
of her car and looked at her.

“
You
keep that up and I will definitely be seeing you in the partnership
list soon,” he said. Erica smiled and nodded.

“
That
is perfect because I have really been wondering when that raise was
going to come,” she said. Morris smiled and then laughed.

“
At
this rate, sooner than you think,” he said before he walked
away leaving Erica standing there with butterflies in her tummy. She
could not help but feel proud of herself. She had taken on one of the
most difficult cases she had ever heard of and she had killed it. A
five million dollar settlement was not something people expected
especially since the initial offer had been four hundred thousand
dollars. Actually, no one had seen that coming, not even the other
lawyers. Everyone thought that she would probably get a million or a
million and a half, not more than that. Guess everyone was more than
a little shocked when they heard the ruling.

As soon as she got in the car, she cranked up the
radio and smiled to herself as she sang along to Bon Jovi’s
Living on a Prayer.

“
Oh
yeah. There ain’t no school like the old school,” she
thought as she sang along. She passed by Antonio’s Grill, one
of her favorite restaurants. She had made it a habit to get a
celebratory dinner of ravioli and cherry tomatoes from Antonio’s
and as usual, she always got two dinners. She had just walked out of
Antonio’s when she decided to give Eli a heads up and let him
know she was on her way.