Page 41 of Her Brother's Billionaire Best Friend

“Can’t you just tell me?”

“Oh, fine,” said Laura. “It’s an invitation. To the opening ceremony.”

I stared at her in disbelief.

“This is the one thing I didn’t want to happen,” I groaned. Appearing in front of the whole town was the last thing I wanted to do. I picked up the letter opener from my desk, its razor-sharp blade glinting in the sunlight as I sliced open the envelope and pulled out the thick, purple card inside.

I opened it and read the neatly printed inscription on the front.

“Dear Mr. Barnes,” I said, “You are warmly invited to a reception in your honor which will be held in the newly renovated Caluga Falls Library this coming Saturday…in order to thank you publicly for your generous donation. Yours sincerely, Laura Solomon, Committee Secretary?”

I put the letter down on the table.

“I’m not going.”

“What?” said Laura. “You have to go.”

“I can’t.”

“You have to. Everyone’s expecting you there. And I told Lyla you’d be there.”

“Lyla Reeve?” I said.

“Yeah,” said Laura curiously. “You know her?”

My old chemistry teacher was still kicking? I couldn’t believe it.

“Uh, I think she wrote to me,” I said quickly. “To say thank you.”

“Oh,” said Laura. “Weird. She never mentioned that to me.”

“Well, she did. And you can tell Lyla I can’t make it.”

Laura folded her arms. “Why not?”

“Because I’m busy.”

“On a Saturday evening?”

“Sure.”

“Doing what?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s a figure of speech, Laura. I’m always busy. Besides, I’m sure I have something more important to do on a Saturday night than kick around in an old library I gave a few bucks—”

“You gave them two million dollars, Lucien. And besides, that’s not the point. What you did is very generous. But if the person who donated the money doesn’t even show up, how are we going to convince people that this town’s worth investing in? We need you, Lucien. Come on. You can do this.”

“I know I can. I just don’t want to,” I said gruffly, sitting down at my desk.

“Come on,” said Laura. “Please?”

“No.”

“Pretty please?”

“Absolutely not.”

“For me, then. If not for the town, do it—do it for me.”