Page 14 of Her Brother's Billionaire Best Friend
I was so angry because earlier I’d been thinking about Conor. About the cups of tea, and how little things he did, ways he moved, almost reminded me of the man I lost. Conor was gentle and kind. But this guy?
He was an asshole. No doubt about it. He didn’t deserve me or my hard work.
But as I thought about Conor, I relaxed a little. I brought an image of him to my mind. I wasn’t running away from a situation like this, even if it hurt not to do so.
I resisted the urge to resign on the spot, to tell him that a monkey could do this stupid job and he didn’t need me anyway.
“Fine, I’ll do it!”
*
“You said YES?” Kyle asked me over dinner that night.
“Sweetie, I’m really sorry,” I said.
“But it’s my first day at school in this hick town.”
“Easy,” said David, patting Kyle on the arm. “Us hicks are pretty sensitive, you know.”
“For a start…” I said, “…watch your tone, young man. Secondly, I don’t want to go either. Unfortunately, I’ve gotta see the next week through.”
Kyle looked defeated and sunk into his chair. He played with his food a little. I knew he was acting up because he was nervous—because he wanted me there. And for the umpteenth time, I chastised myself for having to go away on my son’s first day of school.
“It’s one night,” I said. “And besides, David’s going to pick you up and drop you off.”
“Fine,” said Kyle. “Whatever.”
It wasn’t an amicable situation, but at least I knew that I was going to still be employed. On Monday, I got my things and a suitcase and David drove me up to Lakeview.
“Good luck,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said. I turned to the back, where Kyle sat sullenly staring out the window. “You’re gonna do great, you know that?”
“Yeah,” he said. He met my eyes for a moment and I was glad to see some recognition there. It made me feel like less of a bad mother, for one. But also, I knew that Kyle was going to do great. He was handsome, he was athletic, and he was smart. I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that he’d make friends.
As usual, I unlocked the gate. But when I got to the house, Lucien was waiting on the doorstep. He was dressed neatly in shirt sleeves and grey pants, but when I met his eye and waved cheerily, he practically bit my head off.
“Where were you?” he said. “We’re leaving, remember?”
“Well, sorry,” I said. “I thought you—we—were taking off at nine.”
“Well, time’s wasting,” he said gruffly, grabbing my suitcase. “Come on. Better to be early.”
I thought he would do something awful like tossing my suitcase into the hedges. But instead, he gently shouldered it, along with his own. It wasn’t the world’s lightest suitcase, but Lucien carried it like it weighed a couple of pounds.
I was stunned that he was gracious enough to carry my bag, but not gracious enough to say good morning. What’s wrong with this man??
“Well, Laura,” he said. “I presume this is your first time riding a helicopter?”
“You presume correctly,” I said, as we rounded the corner of the house and began to walk up the path.
“Well, enjoy it,” he grinned slightly.
As we rose up above the backyard, which was stepped in sections filled with flowers, I saw a structure at the back. It looked like a warehouse or a big garage. As he always did, Lucien jogged ahead of me, up to the metal structure, and took a key from his pocket. He turned it in a metal lock.
What happened next amazed me. The door clanked, and then began to lift upwards. At the same time, through the widening gap in the door, I could see the ceiling pulling back too, like at a stadium or something. And then, in the sunlight, I saw the helicopter. It was a thing of beauty, a small, black sphere set on a pair of skis. The blades drooped from its side.
Around the helicopter, I could see a man working, checking things and ticking them off on a clipboard.