Page 13 of Hiding out with a Royal Billionaire

“I think I’ll keep it on my person for now.”

“Am I free to research?”

“I guess so. Let’s talk about any updates.”

“Why do I get the impression that means, you want me to share everything I learn, but that you might not be sharing any news with me?”

“I just told you all I know about this thing.”

Skye eyed him, not believing. It wasn’t as if he was lying. But she was certain he was leaving out information.

Then his phone made a crazy alarm sound and he whipped it out, rushing down the ladder and running ten feet away to answer.

She studied him, his face suddenly urgent, all business, and she liked it. She laughed to herself. “What has come over me that Brooks Politano is suddenly hot?”

‘What was that?” Brooks called to her, pocketing his phone.

“Nothing!”

“You talk to yourself now?”

“I guess so.”

He waited at the bottom of the tree. “You know, I’m proud of this fort. Who has one as cool as this when they were our age?”

“We’re the coolest for sure.” She climbed down, suddenly aware of his closeness, aware that his hands immediately found the front pockets of his pants. This whole new awkwardness was going to drive her crazy. She almost said something to get whatever this new thing was out in the open, but he interrupted her thoughts.

“I think I’m going to hole up in my room for a few days to get some work done.”

“Oh, okay, great. Let me know if you want company.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna be really busy, probably not right away.”

She pointed her fingers at him in a sort of lame teenage move and said, “Gotcha.”

Then they walked up to the house together, neither barely saying a word.

They finally made it up to the dangling rope and instead of climbing back up, he nodded to her and hurried away, his phone back at his ear.

Granted, she knew they weren’t kids any longer. She was as surprised as anyone he’d found the old rope and used it in the first place, but now he was just being cold and distant. Which was worse than awkward. What was supposed to be one of the coolest things to ever happen, the finding of the lost trunk of the Voyager Conquistador, had turned into at minimum a puzzle to solve, but more than that, a disturbing wedge between her and her best friend, or at least that’s what seemed like had caused the distance between them.

She pulled out her laptop and typed Brooks’ last name into her next search. And then smiled at the pictures. Her heart sped up when she pulled up the skiing pictures. They must have been from last summer, during the waterski competition. She zoomed in on him, standing on the dock, both hands high in the air in a victory V. His smile made her laugh. He had won his run. And had talked about it privately to her for several days afterward, but to the others, he’d just smiled and moved on to other topics.

He was the kind of man every woman dreamed of. And had been her best friend for almost more years than she had memories. Why had she never noticed? She closed her laptop, and why was she noticing now? Something about her whole train of thought was disturbing. She rolled over, pushing her laptop away on the bed behind her. She’d have to figure this out another time. A time when she felt like dealing with the consequences. What were the consequences? Nope. Not tonight. Tonight Brooks was the same best friend he ever was.

And keeping secrets from her.

* * *

A full weekwent by and all she saw of Brooks was the back or side of his head. He seemed on edge when he didn’t know anyone was looking. A couple times she came and sat beside him in the office area of his rooms. They worked side by side like they always had and Skye was satisfied, she told herself. Once, she let her leg fall over and press against his, to see if it brought the same level of sensation as she had been feeling the past couple days. Disappointed, she didn’t notice the same zing. Though he went still for a moment and then began typing again. But when she pulled her leg back away, she noticed and wanted to scoot back closer to him. That had to mean something, didn’t it? If she were to actually write all this stuff in a journal like she had when she was a teenager, she would have gone crazy at her own ridiculous drama. Of course she was attracted to Brooks. He was a man. A very attractive man. Her mouth went dry as she allowed her gaze to travel over him. Who wouldn’t be attracted to such a man? She hadn’t been until now. Like a dufus for twenty years, she hadn’t noticed that the hottest guy on the planet was her best friend. He had soccer player thighs, for goodness sake!

Brooks cleared his throat, one eyebrow raised.

Her gaze whipped back up to his face, her cheeks heating.

But he had just winked and returned to his laptop.

Grateful and disappointed at the same time, she returned to the brief she had been creating, documenting the minutes from the most recent environmental summit. She and Seraphina, a princess on Torren, had attended together, and she hoped to work with that Valdez couple from the island of Torren to further encourage the Mediterranean in their efforts to clean up their sea.

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