4. Danny

Danny

This isn’t coming across as well as I hoped it would. I expected excitement, maybe even relief. Finding out that all the financial burdens of your life are over should be a bonus. But when Marnie’s brow creases and she takes a step back, I know I’m not hitting my intended mark.

“It’s too much?” I ask.

“No. Yes. I…I just don’t understand. What aren’t you telling me?”

I step toward her, taking her hands in mine as I try to tell her the one thing I’ve never told anyone outside of my family. “I’m…” I start, but the words get stuck in my throat. “We’re…” It feels like bragging.

“What? Spell it out for me. Are you, like, the mafia? A drug lord?”

I can’t help but laugh. She’s so far off the mark that it’s amusing.

“Why are you laughing at me?”

“Because there’s no way I could be any of those. Don’t you know me?” I ask, holding her hands against my chest. “Don’t you know who I am in your heart?”

“I do. I do.” She closes her eyes, still frowning. “I’m just confused… what does all this mean?”

“It means that I’ve made a lot of money, billions in fact,” I say, drawing her in closer. “It means that I’ve never wanted to spend it, never even cared what it meant for me until I met you. It means that now, it means something, it means no more struggle, no more debt. We can live whatever life we want, wherever we want. Everything I have, I want it to be yours too.”

“I married a billionaire?” she squeaks. “Whoa. I mean, how? I thought…I thought you had your own business. You said you were an analyst. I figured we were, I don’t know…normal.”

I chuckle. “Normal is boring. What’s the point of being normal when you can be extraordinary? Which, my darling, beautiful, stunning wife, is exactly what you are.”

She fills her lungs, her blue eyes shifting between mine. “Sounds like you’re the extraordinary one. I’m just along for the ride here. I could never...” She looks around the entryway, taking in the high ceilings and the windowless views and releases a sigh. “I couldn’t even imagine having the wherewithal to own an entire island. I mean, I’m blown away here, literally shocked.”

“In a good way, I hope?”

She presses her lips together and smiles up at me. “Of course it’s in a good way, my love. It’s wonderful. I’m just trying to wrap my head around all this. I have so many questions. But then, I don’t know if I want the answers.”

I open my mouth to respond but Pania, one half of the husband and wife team I hired as caretakers of the island, enters the room with a tray in her hands. “Excuse the intrusion,” she says in her accented English, “I have snacks and drinks for you. Long flight.”

“It was. Thank you, Pania,” I say, lacing my fingers through Marnie’s and guiding her to a sitting area that looks out over the water with native flora all around. It’s more like a painting than reality.

Pania pours us tea, and we both thank her before she retreats. I hand Marnie her cup before I take mine, waiting until she sips before I speak again.

“You said you have questions,” I start, while at the same time, Marnie says, “It’s so beautiful here.”

We laugh, and there’s this tiny awkward moment, one we haven’t had before. I don’t like it. In my life, I’ve been sure about every decision I’ve made. This is the first time I’ve ever wondered if my choices were wrong. Not in regards to Marnie—she is my one, there’s no doubting that—but in regards to how I revealed my wealth to her. There are less grandiose ways to do these things, and it’s possible that in my eagerness to be the perfect husband, I’ve gone a little too far. I mean, an island, I bought a fucking island for our honeymoon. Thinking about it now, that is a little too over the top.

“This is way too much, isn’t it?” I ask, adjusting myself so my body is angled toward Marnie.

She adjusts the hem of her dress, and I remember that her panties are in my pocket, covered in my come, and I can’t help but feel a twitch down below.

“No,” Marnie says, placing her hand on my knee. “I’m actually in awe. It’s like winning a lottery you didn’t enter, you know?”

I nod. “Believe me. I do know. When the government started paying me to use my security software, I never dreamed it’d net me what it does. I went from regular guy to millionaire, to billionaire in a few short years. It made a huge difference to my life, both good and bad. Money comes with strings. But if you share it with the right people, it can make your world a hell of a lot better.”

“Rich man or poor man. It’s you who makes my life better, Danny.”

“And that’s why I love you.”

“I love you too.” She smiles, and I’m happy to see the softness returning to her pretty eyes. “But I think there’s one question I still want to ask.”

“What’s that?”

“Why didn’t you tell me before now?”

I lift a hand, running my fingers through her long red hair, so soft and silky. "Are you worried I didn’t trust you?”

Her lips tighten a little, and she nods. “A little.”

“Oh, precious, none of this was about trust. I’ve never been the kind of guy who flashes money about. I don’t care about expensive cars or houses. Hell, I’ve been living in hotels for years because I was never settled enough to lay down roots until I asked you to be my wife. So it wasn’t that I was hiding it from you, it was more that I didn’t feel comfortable talking about it. Especially when every time I do, it changes a person’s perception of me; the way they act, and the way they treat me. For some people, it’s like dollar signs light up in their eyes. For others, it’s like the money sets me apart from them. It created a rift in my own family, so much that I don’t even speak to my brother anymore.”

“He’s the pitcher for the Washington Nationals?”

“Bryce.” Due to our whirlwind wedding, we haven’t had a chance to delve too deeply into our pasts. We’ve only touched on the surface. “He’s thirteen years younger than me and super competitive. I swear he’s become the highest paid pitcher in the league just to try and one-up me. When I started helping out our parents so they could retire early, he felt he had to match me or ‘beat me.’ He took everything I gave as a personal attack, like I thought his baseball career wasn’t good enough because he was only a rookie at the time and…” I pause and sigh. “I don’t wanna rag on the guy. I’m just trying to explain that being the man with the money makes you very selective with who you share it with, and I chose to ignore my bank balance for a very long time. Then we met, and my life suddenly had meaning. I wanted things for myself I never thought I’d want after years on my own. And I wanted what we have together to be as pure as possible, unclouded by money. But now that we’re married, I don’t want us to have secrets. I want us to be completely open with each other. What’s mine is yours, precious. My heart, the money, everything. I want us to enjoy our lives together.”

“Oh, Danny. I understand. I would have always understood, and I do appreciate this wonderful place and the fact you want to share everything you have with me. What’s mine is yours as well. Not that I have anything like this to offer. Maybe a few thousand in a savings account, along with my body, and my heart.”

“Precious.” I take the cup from her and place it back on the tray before I pull her to standing and gather her in my arms. “We could be stone-ass broke, and I’d still feel like the richest man alive because I have you. And your body. Why do you think I call you precious? It’s because to me, you are all.”

“Danny,” she whispers. I don’t even give her a chance to respond further, but I see the love filling her eyes in the moments before I crash my mouth over hers and show her what she means to me. Money is just numbers. But love, well, let’s just say The Beatles were right, it’s the one thing money can’t buy. Which is why it’s so precious.