Bedding the Billionaire (Book 3) (Legacy Collection) (8 page)

I
t
had
, however,
inspire
d
“the geek squad.”

If
Lil
could survive an altercation with the
ruling
Neanderthal, they could
at least
claim
one table
as their own in the cafeteria and hold that ground.
And they had.

Abby
remembered
those years as
Lil’s
most
difficult times
.

Lil
considered them a
victorious battle
ground on which many lifelong friendships had been forged
.
With age, she’d learned to use her wit rather than her hands, but she’d never quite mastered k
eeping her opinion to herself,
an affliction that
she now saw came at a cost
. She hadn’t been accepted to
any of the
art school
s
she’d applied to.
Apparently, her noble intentions
didn’t
excuse repeated suspensions.
She could have gone to a
community
college, but she’d been too proud.

Pride also came with a cost.
It had left her in a frustrating limbo
–
neither working toward her dreams nor choosing new ones. A
situation
she’d accepted
when it
had been
only her, but Colby deserved better.
Luckily the administrative school she was now close to graduating from had decided to give her a chance to prove that she had changed.

“I have
no int
ention of offending your friend.
” Jake’s words jolted Lil back to the present.
In truth, Jake had neither said nor done anything that suggested that he would
.

Old protective habits die hard.

“
Good, because h
e’s extremely intelligent and will make a fantastic lawyer when he finally gets a chance.
His
mom thinks this will help him.”

“He liv
es with his
–
”

Lil bristled and spat,
“See, he doesn’t need that. Not everyone was born into m
oney like you were.
He had to work to pay his way through college
.
He has helped his mother pay the mortgage since
his father passed away a few years ago.
He’s been offered jobs that he hasn’t accepted because he doesn’t think she’ll be able to keep this house up on her own.
He has nothing to be ashamed of.”

Jake inclined his head in concession to her point.

The door swung open and Mrs.
Lawson
came out onto the porch.
She removed the apron from around her waist and laid it across the railing of the porch
before reaching out to hug Lil.
“Lil!”
She
swept Colby out of Lil’s arms even as she asked, “
May I?”

Lil smiled. “That’s why I took her out of her seat.
I knew you’d want to hold her.”
Thankfully, some things hadn’t changed. Mrs
. Lawson still dressed like a TV
sitcom mother from the fifties. Her gray hair was perfectly styled in a loose bun and her makeup had been carefully applied even though she likely had nowhere to go that day.

She held Colby up to her face, made her laugh by making a few silly noises and announced,
“She’s beautiful, Lil.
I can’t believe how big she has gotten.
”
Then, not relinquishing the baby yet, she turned to
Jake
and offered her hand in greeting.
Jake
shook her hand and
she
said,
“
Hello, handsome, my name is Ester.
” Then she smiled at Lil. “
So, this is the reason you won’t marry my son?
Can’t say I blame you.”

“Mrs. Lawson!
”

“What?” S
he winked at Jake and said. “I’m sixty
-
seven
, not dead.”

Jake charmed her with a smile he’d never
shown Lil
. “I would have guessed forty.”

“If I were forty, Lil would be a fool to introduce us. Men like you don’t come around every
day.”

Lil groaned.

The last thing Jake’s ego needed was encouragement.

Mrs. Lawson said,
“Oh, I’m just teasing.
You should see your face, Lil.
When did you get so serious?
Come on in! Aaron is printing the document for you up
stairs
in his room. Go on up, I’ll show Colby
our fish tank.”

Lil le
d the way,
each step bringing back a
nother
memory from
practically growing up in this house.
Mrs
. Lawson
credited
Lil
with helping Aaron
through high school, but the truth
was
that the same could be said in reverse.
This home had been
her safe haven when fights had escalated between Abby and her.

It wasn’t that Abby had
ever
d
one anything unforgivably
wrong.
Worse,
it was
how
she’d
always done everything perfectly right that
had
set sister against sister.
No one could live up to her expectations.
At least, Lil couldn’t.
And when Lil
had grown
tired of trying to be right, she
’d
found temporary enjoyment in being blatantly wrong.
Most of it had been for show,
never more than an attitude or a friendship Abby didn’t approve of

Until
Asshole.

He’d been a mistake Abby had warned her about from the first time she’d met him, but Lil hadn’t listened.
She’d thought she was in love, but she saw now how
little she
’d
really known
about that c
ondition.

Dirk had been all sex and no substance.
He’d wanted her and to get her he’d been willing to sa
y the four letter word that she’d longed
to hear. He’d said it often and lavishly.
He
’d
said it as much as it took to keep her coming back to him.

He just hadn’t said it the night she’d told him that she was pregnant.

No, that night he hadn’t said much of anything.
Which was why pride and anger had spu
rred her to offer him an out; o
ne that he’d taken and never looked back.

Jake was probably doing her a huge favor by not being attracted to her.
The last thing she needed was a man right now.
She
needed to finish school, get a job, and focus on being a good mom.

Jake wasn’t a villain.
In fact, when she’d needed him to get her to Abby’s side, he had
helped her
without question. Re
ally, the only thing s
he held against him was that he inspired her to want to r
ip off her clothes and pounce
on
a man who could not have been clearer in his rejection of her.

He’d even asked her to reveal less cleavage.

Who does that?

Not
a man
who
is
lusting after you, that’s who.

Lil knocked on Aaron’s bedroom door.

I’m not
pompous,
Jake thought as he waited outside a bedroom door
boasting
a sign that read, “The force is strong with this one.”

A young man,
slightly taller than Lil and dressed in
gray
sweat pants and a college t
-
shirt opened the door
.
His dirty blond hair stuck out wildly in a few
places implying that Lil’s visit didn’t warrant a
trip
to the mirror.

Jake
looked down at his
black, conservative
Testoni
dress shoes
and felt a bit overdressed.
However, he’d intended to spend the day intimidating a local station manager,
not
rub
bing
elbows with someone so fresh from college he probably still hadn’t unpacked his diploma.

I only feel
about a
million years old.

The young man greeted Lil with a smile which fell from his face when he looked past her and saw Jake.
“You
–
you
brought Mr. Walton, Lil?”

“You can call me Jake,” he said
and held out his hand in greeting
.

See, not pompous.

Aaron shook his hand profusely, then stepped back and looked like he was questioning the wisdom of inviting them into his room. “It is a real honor to meet you, Mr. Walton.
I did
a research paper
on
negotiating techniques that also address consumer perceived ethicality issues. Your success in Moldova was my inspiration.”
He breathed into a cupped hand as if smelling his breath
and
made a face
. “I don’t normally spend my day i
n my pajamas, but I was…I was…”