Crushing on my Billionaire Best Friend - Jolie Day Page 0,11

course, like always.”

“Well, hey,” I said, nudging her arm, “at least now you can officially say that working your ass off all the time saved your life.”

We laughed for a moment, trying to lighten the mood. But I had a startling thought. My smile faded. “Laney, what about that box of your mom’s stuff?”

Since we’d been kids, I’d known about Laney’s box of memories she kept of her mom. Little things like ticket stubs or photos—any memento she had from the short time when her mother was still alive.

“It’s at my dad’s.” She blew out a long breath. “Thank God. I knew it would be safe there, so I asked him to store it for me. I don’t know what I would have done if I lost that, too.”

I nodded. “I bet your dad flipped out when you told him.” Mr. Carter had always been overprotective of his only daughter. I couldn’t blame the guy. After his wife died, Laney was all he had left.

“No, I haven’t told him yet.” She bit her lip the way she always did when she was nervous about something. “I came straight here. I’ll deal with him tomorrow after I’ve had a chance to process.”

We sat and talked until our glasses were empty. But I got the feeling that Laney was still too upset to go to bed. I went to my room and grabbed her something more comfortable to change into.

“Want to watch a movie?” I asked as I laid the clothes out on the couch next to her.

“Only if you let me pick. I mean it. Don’t put anything on. I’ll do it when I get back!” she commanded with a laugh as she rushed into the bathroom to change. It was good to see her smiling. That was another thing I liked about Laney. She was so resilient. Plenty of other women I knew would have been a sobbing, hysterical mess in her shoes right now. But not her.

When Laney walked back into the living room, I couldn’t help but notice she wasn’t wearing a bra. I could see her nipples pressing against the fabric of my borrowed T-shirt, and I swallowed, clearing my throat, and mentally shaking myself. This was Laney, for Christ’s sake.

She placed her folded clothes on the chair and eyed the TV to make sure I hadn’t changed the channel. I tossed over the remote as soon as she curled back up on the couch, and that’s when I saw the smooth expanse of her muscular legs.

I smiled. “Perfect. You’ll pick some boring old science documentary that’ll have me snoozing like a baby in no time. Putting you in charge of the TV is just like taking a sedative.”

“I wish it felt that way to me.” She sank down against the cushion, pulling a blanket around her.

We were only kidding, but I could see how stressed she was, still reeling from everything that had happened. I reached out and placed my hand on top of hers. “Hey. You sure you’re okay?”

She swallowed hard with a brief pause. “Yeah.” She shrugged. “I’m fine. Or at least I will be. Still just a little shaken up is all. No need to worry about me.”

“I won’t as long as you take me up on my offer to stay. Come on. You don’t need anything else to worry about while you’re applying for your PhD program. And it’d give you a chance to save up some money—you know I won’t charge you rent.”

“I said I’ll think about it,” she groaned, obviously not in the mood to talk about the subject anymore.

“Laney, I know how important getting your PhD is to you.” I squeezed her hand. “And your work. You’re always trying to power through like everything’s fine, but…give yourself some time to regroup and focus on what’s important to you. Let me help you with that.”

She offered a sincere smile, seeming to take what I was saying more seriously this time. “Thanks, Oliver.”

“You know I’ve always got your back.”

“I know. Maybe I can use this opportunity to hassle you about your work the same way I used to give you crap about your homework,” she teased.

“Hey, I’ve come a long way since then,” I argued in a playful tone. “Thanks to you, really. Do you remember what you said to me when you were interviewing me for that school report?”

“Ah, yes. The ‘infamous’ school report.” She grinned. “I had to do a report on successful family run businesses for economics class