Page 58 of Her Brother's Billionaire Best Friend

A few days later, Kyle was home, and Laura had come back to work. But as it turned out, she was so busy that I barely had any time to even speak to her. Let alone to talk about things.

When I’d woken up that awful morning to find Laura gone, I felt sure that I was going to have to cut her out of my life. Our one-night stand in Vancouver might just have been a fluke. After all, she was beautiful, intelligent and impressively hard-working. Of course I was attracted to her. But now that she’d taken me to bed again, I knew that there was something more to it than that.

I knew that as long as Laura struggled to get back on her feet and be a good sister to David and a good mother to Kyle, there was no space for me in her life.

By the time Friday came around, Laura was still swamped with work. She had so much to catch up on from Monday and Tuesday that she’d only started her tasks for the day by the time 4 pm came. Laura was sifting through my planning application for the Parkland Reserve when I came to the door of her office.

“How’s it going?”

“A lot to do,” she said.

“But it’s four. You’re done.”

“Only I’m not,” Laura said. “I just finished doing those budgets from yesterday morning. I’m reading the planning application now. And then I have to write that grant app for the community thing you’re doing in New York next Summer.”

“Skip that,” I said, with a wave of my hand. “Just do the planning application. You ought to be home with Kyle right now.”

She looked up at me, and flashed a wary smile. “Really? You sure?”

“I’m sure. I can do the grant later over dinner.”

“No…” Laura moaned, “…that’s not fair. I can take care of it.”

“Laura,” I said, my voice deep and weighty.

“You sure?”

“I am.”

Laura relaxed. “You’re the best boss ever, you know that?”

I felt a shiver up my spine. When she addressed me in that simpering sweet tone, it made me prickle. But at the same time, it left the air charged.

“Tell that to me next week,” I said ironically. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” Laura said hopefully, standing up. I watched her fiddle with her hands. Was this the right way to do it?

I took a deep breath. “What are you doing tomorrow night?” I said.

My heart sank. “I promised I’d go to the Falls Festival with David and Kyle,” she said. “It’s tomorrow, Lucien.”

I nodded. Crap. The Falls Festival? It was the last place I wanted to go. But still. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

“Well, I was hoping you might want to come with me to this charity dinner—if you had nothing planned, that is. But how about instead I accompany you to the festival?”

Laura looked a little nervous, and I didn’t need my high IQ to understand why. Kyle would be there. So would David. But then, she knew I knew that. And besides, surely they wouldn’t mind.

“Like, on a date?” Laura said.

“As friends,” I replied reassuringly. “As…whatever you’re comfortable with.”

“Okay,” Laura said, nodding, smirking to hide the enormous smile that had appeared on her face.

I was trying to play it cool, but inside my chest, fireworks were going off, an orchestra was playing at a thousand decibels. She said yes.

“Great. I’ll meet you there.”

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