Billionaire's Second Chance (Billionaires #16) - Jennifer Hartley Page 0,13

a big job, probably something that I could get mostly finished tonight. I grabbed a few tools from the bench and got started.

6

Deshawn

“Is Clara, all right?” I asked after she had walked out of the farmhouse faster than I had a chance to say anything else.

“Hell if I know,” he said, shaking his head. “She’s always been moody like that.”

“I don’t remember your sister being that moody,” I remarked as Scott, and I cleaned up the rest of the dishes.

“Trust me,” he said. “She has. But it has definitely gotten worse since Mom and Dad died.”

My heart broke for her. She’d been through so much already, and now she had even more on her plate. I could tell that she was just trying to stay strong and deal with things in that fiercely independent way that she wore around her like a robe. She didn’t want to let anyone in, especially not me. But I couldn’t help but feel that she needed some help. She needed someone to take care of her sometimes, too, and someone to talk to about what she was feeling. I wanted to be that person for Clara. I wanted to be the person that she let herself need and depend on. I knew she had Scott, but that was different. She and Scott were super tight, and that was great, but brothers are one thing, and lovers are another. It’s a completely different kind of need. I wanted to go out and talk to her.

“I’m going to go check on her and make sure she’s all right,” I said as I started heading toward the door.

“Whoa, hang on there,” Scott said. “I’m not sure I like the idea of you and my sister alone in the stable together at night.”

I put my palms up in the air in mock surrender. “I’m just trying to help,” I said with a lighthearted and innocent expression on my face. “Sometimes, girls don’t talk to their brothers, but they talk to other people. Let me just try.”

Scott hesitated, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do next if he told me not to. I guessed that I would have to respect that and just leave Clara out there alone for the evening until I left. But he surprised me by being okay with my offer to help.

“Just don’t try any funny stuff with her,” he said. He looked like he was half-joking and half-serious. “I don’t want to have to beat up my best friend.”

I laughed at the thought of Scott’s thinking that he could possibly stand a chance at beating me up. I was twice his size. “I promise I won’t,” I said. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Actually, it’s all I had been dreaming of. And I wouldn’t need to try any funny stuff with Clara because as soon as I got her alone, there wouldn’t be any trying at all. Our pull toward each other was much too great to even resist. I was sure that we both felt it.

“I’ll be back in a bit,” I said as I headed toward the door.

“Take your time,” Scott said. “I’m going to shower, drink another beer, and then see if I can get this old television to get the game on.”

“Game?”

“Yeah, football remember? Don’t tell me that you don’t watch sports anymore.”

I couldn’t even remember the last game that I had watched. It had to have been years ago.

“Normally, I don’t get a chance to relax and catch a bit of ball on TV. I felt too guilty taking the time to do it when Clara is always out on the farm busting her ass. But if you’re going to go hang with her for a bit and try to figure out what sort of girl emotions she’s got going on, then that buys me a bit of free time.” Scott chuckled, and I felt a little bad for both of them. Neither of them had wanted this farm dropped in their laps, at least not as suddenly as it had been. “Take your time,” he said as he walked toward the shower. “You can tell me all about what’s wrong with my sister when you come back in.”

I was suddenly grateful for football and beer because it bought me some time alone with Clara. When I got outside, I went to the barn first because it was the closest building to the house, but she wasn’t in there. Then I remembered her saying something about locking