The Teacher's Billionaire

Callie.
    Admit it, Talbot. You more than just care. You love her.
    Though he’d suspected it, he’d been denying it to himself for a while. After what happened with Francesca could anyone blame him? If he opened his heart again, he ran the risk of having it stomped on. Ran the risk of being betrayed again. You never really knew who you could trust.
    His brother was right. He needed to fix things or at least try. Callie may never forgive him, but if he didn’t do something he would never forgive himself.
    There was only one problem - he had no idea how. Expensive gifts like jewelry would work on most of the women he knew, but they wouldn’t help his cause with Callie. She wasn’t like most women. It would need to be something with heart.
    “Hey Jake do you know how long Callie is going to be at Cliff House?” Dylan stopped at the door to the media room, a partial idea forming in his mind.
    The younger man threw him an ‘I told you so’ smile and shook his head. “Mom said they were staying just the weekend. I don’t know about Callie though. I can find out.”
    “Do that,” Dylan replied before heading to his own bedroom.

Chapter 15
    She’d been hiding out there for almost a week. Hiding out. It sounded ridiculous to say she was hiding out. But it was exactly what she was doing. In fact she hadn’t left the estate once since her arrival.
    So far the media hadn’t lost interest in her even though it’d been over two weeks since Warren’s announcement. Where is a celebrity scandal when you need it, Callie wondered as she sipped coffee Tuesday morning? Both Warren and Elizabeth assured her that the media would back off once she wasn’t the latest news. The sooner that happened the better. She needed her life to return to normal. It’d never be as it was before learning the truth, but something more normal than this would be nice.
    Maybe I should just suck it up and go home, she thought gazing off in the distance. The morning sky was cloudless and from the balcony off her room she had a spectacular view of the ocean. She’d told Warren she’d stay till at least Thursday. And she would. After that though she’d probably head home. Mainly because she couldn’t hide forever, but also because she was getting lonely. Jake left Saturday night. Warren and Elizabeth followed him early Monday morning. While the house was full of staff, they weren’t much for talking. At least not talking to her. They were friendly in a polite sort of way yet that was it. They all kept their distance. For the most part they only interacted with her when she approached them first.
    Her father told her to treat the place like home and invite friends to visit if she wanted. She wasn’t comfortable with that. This wasn’t her home. It was her father’s private sanctuary. It didn’t seem right to have outsiders invade it.
    Finishing her coffee Callie checked her watch. Eight thirty. “Lucky will think I forgot about him.” Everyday since arriving she went down to the kennel to take him for a morning and afternoon walk. Though there was someone on hand that could do it, Callie preferred to do it herself. Taking her dog for a walk was so normal. She needed that. Nothing else felt normal anymore. It felt more like she was living someone else’s life, and it wasn’t a life she was enjoying. What she wouldn’t give to turn the clock back to before Helen’s visit. If she’d known then what a mess talking with Helen was going to make of her life, she would’ve pretended not to be home the day she visited. And she certainly never would’ve opened the door for Dylan the afternoon he showed up on her doorstep.
    Hindsight is a glorious thing. To bad it never helps anyone.
“Stop feeling sorry for yourself. It could be worse,” Callie ordered herself as she walked towards the kennel. How it could be worse though, she didn’t have a clue.
    ***
    Drumming his fingers on his leg in impatience, Dylan wished the guy across from him would just sign the final documents. Instead, Steven Macy, the CEO of the hotel chain that Sherbrooke Enterprises was swallowing up, kept talking to him and the attorneys present as if they were long-lost buddies.
    I don’t have time for this. I’ve got more important things to do.
His fingers stilled. Work was always his first priority. Yet right now he could care less about it. The only thing that mattered was getting to Callie and convincing her to give him another chance. He had everything