Big Brother Billionaire (Part One) (4 page)

“Right on the beach,” I said proudly. “I want to open my eyes and see the waves lapping against the shore. All I can see from my window is nothing, because I don’t have a window.”

“You don’t have a window?” he asked, curious.

“Well, I sleep on the couch,” I said, feeling suddenly shy, like I was revealing too much. “It’s next to the TV, so that kind of counts as a window. I guess I can see anything I want through that window.”

“I think it counts,” he said, nodding thoughtfully.

“What about you?” I asked, eager to get the attention away from me and my awkwardness. “Where would you want to live, if you could live anywhere?”

“In a place I could call home,” he said immediately, not having to think about it. “A place where I knew I would be staying for years and years. For forever. A place where I could hang pictures and really settle into it.”

“But by a beach?” I pushed. “The mountains, maybe? The desert? A forest?”

“Anywhere,” he shrugged. “They’re all pretty good. The trick is to find someone you love and stay in one place.”

“What do you mean, they’re all pretty good?” I asked, curious. “You’ve lived in all of those places?”

“Sure,” he said. “My dad moves around a lot. Hates staying in one place for longer than a few months. He was an Army brat. He was in the Army for as long as they would have him. He’s used to living in lots of different places, but that’s not what I want for me. For my future family.”

“I don’t know,” I said, uncertain. “I’d like to see the world. See everything. Then maybe settle down by the ocean. I don’t know though. Maybe I’d find something I’d like better. I’ve never even been out of L.A.”

“I wish I could know a place like that,” he said. “As soon as I think I’m starting to understand a place, my dad wants to move again.”

“I’d trade places with you,” I declared. “I’m sick of staying in one place. I’m ready to explore the world.”

“Let’s trade then,” he said. “I’ll take the couch with the TV as a window.”

“And I’ll take everything else,” I said, smiling. I gasped. “I don’t even know your name.”

He threw his head back and laughed, wild and free and perfect in every way. “I don’t know your name, either. How do I already know all of your hopes and dreams and don’t even know your name yet?”

“I’m Parker,” I said.

“Parker,” he repeated. I loved the way his mouth looked when he said my name. “Parker. I’m Marcus.”

“Marcus,” I intoned, serious for a moment, then laughed. “It’s strange, isn’t it Marcus?”

“Everything’s strange, but what strangeness in particular are you talking about?”

“I’ve never talked with anyone like I’ve talked with you right now,” I said. “I don’t know. I feel like I just have so much to tell you. Like I’ve been waiting for you to come so I could.”

He smiled and raised his hand, stopping centimeters from my face before tracing the line of my jaw with the tips of his fingers.

“I feel like I’ve known you all along,” he said. “Is that cheesy?”

“It would be, but I’m sitting right here, feeling the same thing.”

Thus began my summer of love, a time when magic filled the air I breathed, where my gritty neighborhood bloomed and ripened and fed parts of me I didn’t know were hungry. I rarely spent time at home, preferring to roam the streets and parks with Marcus, who, despite his desire to ultimately settle down in one place for years and years, had an enviable wanderlust that drove him to explore parts of the sprawling city I’d never seen before.

We pooled our money together and were able to afford two public transit passes for an entire month. There was nowhere we couldn’t go; there was nowhere we didn’t go.

And when we kissed for the first time, watching the sun go down at the Santa Monica Pier, it was just an acknowledgment of the unnamable rightness of the thing we shared between us.

“I wish we didn’t have to go to school,” I moaned, as we walked in the evening light, hand in hand, down the street toward my house. My mom had told me that my summer hours were over, and she expected me back and asleep at a decent hour the night before school—which was very unlike Patty. She usually took no notice of my comings and goings, especially as I grew older.

“Why?” Marcus asked. “We’ll still see each other all day, every day.”

“Aren’t you tired of me yet?” I asked, smiling but still wanting to know. We really did spend all day, every day together. For a guy who was used to moving around a lot, always shaking up his schedule, we had been pretty stunningly consistent.

“Never,” he said, kissing my hand. “This is something you don’t just get tired of, Parker.”

“I believe you,” I said. Marcus had been my breath of fresh air and made living my whole life in one place utterly worth it.

“Then let’s get through this last year of public schooling and travel the world,” he said.

“I thought you wanted to stay in the same place,” I said, laughing.

“Sure I do—eventually. But I’ve been lots of places that I want to show you, beaches you’ve never dreamed of. Much more than beaches. Places I think you’ll really like.”

“That’s all I want,” I said. “I don’t care where we are. A couch with a TV for a window. A dumpster. A cardboard box beside a dumpster. As long as we’re together, I’ll be happy.”

“Then sleep well,” he said, stopping short of the gate to my house and kissing me lightly on the lips. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“Good night.”

School that year crawled by. I wanted nothing more than to be done with it so I could start my next great adventure with Marcus. The thought of seeing him kept me up at night and woke me up well before my alarm. My obsession with him was so noticeable that even my mom brought it up.

“You look like you’re walking around in a dream, Parker,” she observed as I finished up some homework at the kitchen table. It was a rare evening she was home. If she wasn’t at work, she was generally out on a date.

“Maybe I am,” I said, lifting my eyebrows in what I hoped was a mysterious way.

“What do you want for your birthday this year, you beautiful broad?” she asked, sitting down beside me.

“My birthday’s not for months,” I said, frowning. Plus, she hadn’t pulled the “beautiful broad” routine in years.

“Yeah, but just tell me,” she said, nearly vibrating in excitement.

“Just surprise me, I guess,” I said, eyeing her uncertainly.

“Remember the year you asked me for a father?” she gushed, pinching my cheek painfully.

“Ow. No,” I lied, pulling away from those sharp fingernails. I’d been so embarrassing as a kid. My dearest ambition was that Marcus never found out how foolish I’d been.

“Well, what do you say now?” she asked, her eyes bright. “Do you still want a father for your birthday?”

“After all these years?” I asked, squinting at her. “Did you meet someone?”

“I met the most wonderful man,” she said, gripping my forearm tightly. “You haven’t been around the house much this summer, so I haven’t had a chance to tell you. He’s asked me to marry him, Parker, and I’ve said yes!”

“That’s great,” I said, politely happy but more curious than anything. Out of the parade of men she’d allowed into her life, had one of them finally been good enough for her to tie herself down to?

“I wanted to wait to marry him until you were out of school, so it wouldn’t be a distraction,” she said. “But I can’t wait anymore, Parker. I want to marry him. I love him so much. You’ll be my maid of honor, of course, and it’ll be perfect.”

“That sounds fine,” I said. “It’s not a distraction if he makes you happy.”

“It makes so much sense to have the wedding now,” my mom continued. “He wants us to move in together, of course, and you and I can finally move out of this dump and into a bigger house.”

That was an interesting turn of events. No more sleeping on the couch with a TV for a window. I was less excited for my mom and more excited to tell Marcus about this new development in my existence.

“How do you feel about siblings?” she asked.

“Are you pregnant?” I retorted, eyeing her.

“God, no,” she laughed. “Those days are, sadly, over for me. Hope you weren’t holding out hope or anything.”

“I wasn’t,” I said, shuddering. That was more information than I needed to know about her, in my opinion.

“This one comes ready-made,” she said. “I didn’t spoil you, did I? You’re not going to be a brat, are you?”

“I don’t think I’m spoiled,” I said. It wasn’t something I ever really had to consider. Having to figure out how to do my own laundry while I was still in grade school pretty much excluded me from the droves of spoiled brats I heard so much about.

“Because it’s going to be a pretty big adaptation for us, for our little family of two to grow to a family of four,” she said. “But I love Keith, Parker, I love him so much.”

“I’m really happy for you,” I offered. “I think it’ll be great.”

“I’m glad you think so,” my mom said, hugging me to her tightly. “I want us to have a family dinner this weekend. All four of us. That way, we can start having family time before the wedding.”

“Okay,” I agreed cautiously.

“Can you put off your gallivanting with whoever you’ve been spending time with this summer to spend a night in with your mother?” she asked, raising her own eyebrows.

“Yeah, sure,” I said. Did I like the idea of spending any more time away from Marcus than I had to? Absolutely not. But I was sure he’d understand, given the swiftly changing state of my family.

But the next day, when I saw Marcus at school, he was troubled.

“What’s going on with you?” I asked, plopping down next to him at lunch and kissing him, both of us ignoring the stares we got for being so forward. 

“I’m not sure,” he said, frowning. “Maybe nothing. It’s just … no, forget about it. It’s a dad thing.”

“You’re having a dad thing?” I asked, laughing. “Well, I’m having a mom thing. Maybe we could help each other out.”

“I’m sure my dad thing is way crazier than your mom thing.” He bit into an apple.

“Guess again,” I said. “My mom said she’s getting married.”

Marcus started choking on his apple, and I had to pound him on the back.

“Seriously?” he demanded, staring at me. “Did she seriously say that to you?”

“Patty sounded very serious about this Keith, whoever he is,” I said. “And you need to be more careful chewing.”

“Keith’s my dad,” Marcus said. “He told me he was getting married to someone named Patty last night, and that we’re going to have a dinner this weekend to all meet.”

I could feel the blood draining from my face. “What does this mean?”

He smiled grimly. “It means we’re about to become a lot closer.”

The family dinner did not go well—despite Marcus and I putting on a united front and trying to attack this thing head on.

“You can’t do this to us,” I ended up yelling at my mom over a very nice spread of pasta and breadsticks and salad. She’d never made something so nice for me in my entire childhood.

“And just what do you mean by that, young lady?” she demanded, her eyes darting toward Keith. Marcus took after his dad—all but the eyes. His own mother, wherever she might be, gave him those, I suspected. I didn’t know if my mom was picking up on parenting cues from him or what. Keith seemed a lot stricter with Marcus than she ever had been with me. This was the first time I’d ever been called “young lady,” for example. It had to be the military background.

“Patty, if I may,” Marcus interjected gently, trying to regain control of a situation that was spinning far out of anyone’s grasp.

“I hope you’ll grow to call me Mom,” my mom said, clapping her hands with delight.

Marcus winced. “It’s just that Parker and I have fallen deeply in love from the time we’ve spent together this summer,” he continued. “And we aren’t sure what your relationship is going to mean for ours.”

“There won’t be any incest under our roof, if that’s what you’re asking, you little pervert,” Keith grumbled through a bite of breadstick.

“Mom, we’re in love,” I said, fighting to have a calmer voice than before. “We can’t be siblings. It’s not right. It’s not fair. We have our whole future planned out.”

“Your whole future?” My mom laughed. “Parker, you’re a child. The future should still be a mystery. I’m happy for you and Marcus, that you have such a close relationship that you think you’re in love. That’s sweet. But it ends now. Like Keith said, it would be inappropriate for you to have anything more than a fraternal relationship under our roof.”

Keith nodded in approval when my mom looked at him again. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“We don’t think we’re in love,” I argued. “We know we’re in love. This is the real deal, Mom. I’ve never felt like this about anyone before.”

“It’s puppy love,” she said, waving her hand dismissively. “When you’re older, you’ll understand.”

“You’re the one who doesn’t understand!” I shouted, standing up and pushing myself away from the table.

“Don’t you dare ruin this for me!” she yelled back, standing as well. “If you had any idea just how long I’ve searched for the right man, one willing to take a daughter like you into his life, you’d be a little bit happy for me and not try to take a piss all over it.”