Page 31 of Her Brother's Billionaire Best Friend
“Frank?”
“Good evening, Mr. Barnes,” said Frank. He was my lawyer for financial services.
“Frank,” I said, “I need you to put something together for me last-minute.”
“Well, sure, I’ve got time. What do you need?”
“I’d like to make a donation to my local library.”
Chapter 11
Laura
After I left Lucien’s house that night, I made it just in time for the fundraiser. But it turned out I wasn’t much help. The minute I arrived, Jemma could see I was upset about something, but I didn’t want to talk about it and made myself busy passing out some of Lyla’s adorable flyers. A few people took them, but after an hour, it was time for me to head back up to the house and make dinner for Kyle, and we’d only raised a few dollars from people passing by in the street.
That night, Kyle was grouchy.
“That’s your first week at your new school done!” I smiled, as I passed Kyle a plate of enchiladas. They were his favorite. “Excited for the weekend?”
“A bunch,” said Kyle sarcastically as I put some greens on the table. David gave me a look—he was sympathetic to Kyle, and I appreciated that he was easy-going about the bad mood my son had been in.
“Well, how about we go for a walk in the hills tomorrow?” said David.
“A walk?” said Kyle unenthusiastically.
“Yep. It was your grandpa’s favorite walk. Up the old mining trail and round the valley. Only takes a couple of hours. You can bring a friend from school if you like.”
“I don’t have any friends at school,” replied Kyle.
“You will once you can walk the haunted trail,” said David.
Kyle looked up from his food. “Haunted?” his eyes widened.
“Oh you bet it’s haunted,” said David, and slipped me a wink. I grinned and looked away.
Briefly, Kyle seemed to look excited, but then he shrugged and carried on eating. “Got much homework?” I asked.
“Mom, it’s only the first week?”
“So?”
“So, they don’t give you homework in the first week!”
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Your uncle used to pull that one too. And it didn’t work on Mom and Dad either,” I reminded David.
“Right you are,” David winked. “Come on, kiddo. Get it done tonight, and then we can relax and have fun tomorrow.”
“On this ten-mile hike you were planning?” snarked Kyle. He stood up and put his plate in the sink and before I knew it, I heard his feet thudding up the stairs and the door slamming.
I sighed and put my head in my hands.
“What happened? Where did I go wrong?”
“You haven’t gone wrong,” David said. “He’s just in a phase. It’ll pass, I promise.”
“He used to be so sweet. Before we moved, he was just so good and well-behaved and cheerful and—”
“Hey,” David interrupted, reaching out to give my shoulder an encouraging squeeze. “It’s not your fault, okay? He’s not fitting in just yet. But he will. And once he gets used to it, a kid like Kyle’s going to love it out here.”