The Exception(27)

Three years ago, on my twenty-first birthday, I received a call from my grandmother’s lawyer, asking me to come to his office. I found it strange since my grandmother had passed away two years before. When I arrived at his office, he informed me that my grandmother had set up an account for me with the sum of four million dollars to be given to me on my twenty-first birthday with a letter she had written to me.

My dearest Jillian,

Happy birthday, my darling granddaughter. Now that you are coming into the age of adulthood, I am giving you something special for those rainy days. This is between me and you and your parents are never to know what I have given you. Use the money to do what you want in life. It’s yours and yours only. Travel. See the world and, whatever you do, do not marry Grant. I don’t like him, darling. I never have and, most importantly, do not trust him. He doesn’t make you happy and you deserve to be happy. I know you’ll make the right decision one day and this money will be there to help you. Take care, my love. I’ll love you forever.

Grandma

My grandmother and I were very close and I told her everything. She was never very fond of my mother and she’d tell my father every chance she got. She hadn’t spoken to my parents for a few years before she passed. I still didn’t know what the argument was about, but I suspected it had something to do with Kristen. I’d never forget after she passed away and we were all gathered at the table for the reading of the will. When it came to my father and mother, they were given nothing. My grandmother left her whole estate to my Uncle Leon with the strict instructions that all of her clothes and jewelry were to be donated to a women’s shelter and my mother was not to be given anything. My parents were outraged and my mom didn’t stop yelling for months over it. As for me, she had left me ten thousand dollars and a beautiful silver necklace with a diamond cross that I’d always admired.

After Kristen and Noah left, I grabbed the open bottle of wine from the counter and took it outside on the balcony where I sat my ass down in my new plush and comfortable lounge chair. Rick was right; sitting out here at night looking at the brightly lit city was amazing. I hadn’t thought about Drew all day until now. As I held my phone in my hand, I pulled up his number and stared at it. A part of me wanted to get in touch with him just to say hi. But the other part of me didn’t want to because I knew if I did, I would never stop thinking about him or that night we spent together. I just wanted to hear his voice. Maybe if I just heard it one last time, thoughts of him would leave my head. This was crazy. This wasn’t me. I didn’t think like this and I certainly didn’t just call up people to hear their voice. What the f*ck was going on? Why for the love of God couldn’t I get him out of my head? I set my number to private and hit the call button under his number. My heart started pounding out of my chest. It was Saturday night so he probably wouldn’t answer. I would bet he was out with someone for the night. The hand that held the phone to my ear started to sweat.

“Drew Westbrook,” he answered.

SHIT!

“Hello?”

If I didn’t say something, he’d probably suspect it was me, so I cleared my throat and disguised my voice.

“I’m sorry. I have the wrong number.”

“No problem,” he spoke.

I quickly ended the call. Wow, what did I just do? Who does that? A small smile crossed my lips as I set my phone down. Hearing his voice again was exactly what I needed. I could hear a lot of noise in the background, almost as if he was at a restaurant. The thought of him with another woman literally knifed my heart. Fuck! I didn’t need this. This wasn’t how my life journey was supposed to go. I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about a man. I certainly had no problem forgetting about one in particular. Damn Drew Westbrook. I finished off the bottle of wine and climbed into my new comfy bed.





Chapter Seventeen


Drew



“Who was that?” Liam asked as he raised his brow at me.

“Just a wrong number.” I frowned as I looked at my phone and set it on the table. “It’s weird because it came up as a private number.”

Liam shrugged. “People do that all the time. No big deal.”

“Yeah, I guess.” I took a drink of my scotch.

“I’m sorry your Hawaii trip sucked.”

“It only sucked when Jess was around.” I cut into my steak.

“Yeah, well, she was a sucky person.” He smiled. “Now you’re back on the market. Any prospects yet?”

“Actually, I met a woman in Hawaii.”

“Damn, you work fast.” He winked.

“She sat next to me on the plane from Seattle to LAX, we had dinner at the airport together, and then I switched seats so I could sit next to her to Hawaii. Coincidentally, she ended up staying at the same hotel.”

Liam narrowed his eye at me. “You slept with her, didn’t you?”

“Yep. On my last night there after I broke up with Jess. It wasn’t planned. It just happened. I really like her a lot.”

“Okay. So where’s she from? Did you get her number?”

“Life is a little complicated for her right now.”

“How so?”

“She comes from a very controlling family and she left her fiancé at the altar on their wedding day to go on a journey of self-discovery. So I have no clue where she went when she left Hawaii.”