Page 8 of Her Brother's Billionaire Best Friend

“I can help,” I said. “Well, I kind of need a job first. And to get Kyle settled in school.”

“Your baby boy!” said Jemma. “I heard from your brother. How is he?”

“He’s doing just fine,” I said. “Only it turns out kids grow up a lot faster in cities. Honestly, I’m kind of worried about him. It can’t be easy, leaving behind everyone you know when you’re so young.”

“Well, you did it,” said Jemma. “So I guess you’re the person in the world who can help him better than anyone.”

“Ever the optimist,” I sighed, and began the first of many apologies I’d been rehearsing in my head for the last twelve years. “You know,” I said, “I’m sorry we kind of lost touch. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you where I was going.”

“I gotta admit,” said Jemma. “I was kinda salty about it for a while. But people have their reasons, Laura. You know I got married?”

“Married?” I said. “To who?”

“Jason Freebecker,” said Jemma. “You know? He was on the football team with David and—”

She was about to say Conor’s name, and then seemed to think better of it.

“Anyway, we got divorced a few years ago.”

“Oh my God,” I said. “That must have been hard.”

“Actually…” said Jemma, and leaned in with a wicked grin. “I was glad to see his sorry ass out on the doorstep. And now I can finally get on with my life.”

“Well, that’s great,” I faked a smile.

There was a pained silence, and I could see Jemma holding in a breath at her waist. Then, she exhaled.

“So, do you know?”

“Know what?”

“That Conor left?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I heard he joined the army or something.”

“That’s what I heard,” said Jemma. “That’s all anyone’s ever heard, as a matter of fact.”

“What, he didn’t come back?”

Jemma thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. I could tell she was feeling nervous about even mentioning it to me.

“No one’s heard from that guy in years,” said Jemma. “I don’t even think he lives in the States anymore.”

It was awful to think about. Where had Conor gone? He hadn’t had much family in this town, and it wasn’t like he was a big deal or anything—I was constantly defending him from my dad, who thought the O’Sheas were just trouble. But somehow, I felt my shoulders grow light as an intolerable guilt lay heavy in my stomach. Conor was gone. I had to stop thinking about him. I had no choice.

“Anyway,” said Jemma. “Onto happier stuff, huh? Who needs all these men anyway?”

“You’re right about that,” I chuckled. “My brother’s enough of a handful.”

“I bet,” said Jemma. “Anyway, he’ll take a chill pill once you’ve got yourself a fancy job. And as a matter of fact, Casey Jones at the drugstore told me about one which might just interest you.”

Chapter 4

Conor (Lucien)

By 9 am, I was practically tearing my hair out. I’d been running between the rooms in my house, answering hundreds of emails from three different computers. There were boxes of files on the floor I’d had flown down from Seattle, and I was busy trying to make some sense of them when the phone started ringing. All in all, it wasn’t the easy start to the summer I’d envisaged.

I looked nervously at the name on the screen—a habit of mine from the old days, when I’d felt like someone from my past would call me up at any moment.

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