Billionaire's Second Chance (Billionaires #16) - Jennifer Hartley Page 0,35
to my surprise, she didn’t fight me on it. That was how I knew that Clara really wasn’t feeling well. I held onto her, and I could feel her unsteady body leaning against me as we walked up the steps. By the middle of the staircase, I just reached over and picked her up entirely and carried her the rest of the way. Her head flopped against my chest, and her eyes closed even before we had reached her bedroom. I hated seeing her sick.
After I laid her down on her bed, I pulled the blankets up around her and tucked her in. She was still in her pajamas, and the window was open for a nice cool breeze of fresh air. The blankets would keep her warm and snug. I felt her forehead, but she didn’t feel feverish at all. I’d never heard of exhaustion and overexertion as being a cause for vomiting, but maybe it was just a fever-free bug that she had. Hopefully, it wouldn’t last long. She could barely keep her eyes open as I gave her a soft kiss on her forehead.
Instead of leaving her room, I sat down on the side of the bed next to her. She was too tired to protest and had drifted off to sleep almost as soon as the blankets had been wrapped around her. I sat there and watched her as she slept and thought about how nice it was to be able to take care of her like this. It was a whole different kind of emotion, not the steamy, urgent sexual desire that I usually had every time I saw her. This time, I was concerned about making sure that she was okay. I found it almost natural and relaxing to just sit here with her if she woke up and needed anything. I even thought it was comforting to reach over and hold her hand while she slept. Even if she weren’t awake, maybe she could still feel that I was there, watching over her while she was unwell.
I sat there with her for a while until it seemed like she was in a sound sleep and some of the color started to come back to her face. Then, I quietly slipped off the bed and went out to the field to find Scott.
“Hey,” he called over the noise of the harvester. He got down and walked over to me, leaving the machine running. “You come to help?”
“Sure,” I said. “But I also wanted to let you know that Clara is sick.”
Scott’s face turned immediately, worried. He might be hard on her sometimes, but I’d never met a guy more protective of his sister. Those two had always been super tight, more so since losing their parents. Now, they were pretty much all that each other had, except for me anyway. But eventually, as much as I kept trying to push it off, I would have to get back to my job.
“What’s wrong with her?” he asked as he looked toward the farmhouse.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “She was sick to her stomach a couple of times, looked a bit piqued, and now she’s asleep. I think maybe she’s been pushing herself too hard.”
“All right,” he said with a nod. “I’ll make sure that she takes it easy for a few days then.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” I said. “I’ll pick up her slack while I’m here.”
Scott hopped back onto the harvester and continued to work while I went back around to where the tractor was. I tried to start it, but the engine didn’t even turn over. I sighed and kicked the side of the thing, which wasn’t a good idea since it ended up hurting my foot. I had been here trying to help this whole time and also just trying to be around Clara as much as possible, but they needed more help than what I had been able to do with my own two hands. That was when it dawned on me. I wasn’t a farmer, and working with my hands-on shit like this didn’t come naturally to me at all, no matter how hard I tried. But what did come naturally to me was being a billionaire. The one thing that I had always had and that I always knew what to do with was money. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my cell phone to dial my office.