Call You Mine (The Baker’s Creek Billionaire Brothers #4) - Claudia Burgoa Page 0,70

“What does she want?”

“I think she’s trying to have some sort of comeback. The easiest way is to say I’m her son and have us perform together. She’s tried that already. I refuse to do it. According to my sources, she’s broke. I could just give her Grandpa’s money, but Grandma made me promise I wouldn’t give her anything. Her last wishes were that I preserve his legacy.”

“He hates the attention,” G sets the record straight. “Which is why he doesn’t want to add that to his social media.”

“She wants to cash in on her relationship to him,” Pierce concludes. “When did this start?”

“The tell-all? When Dad died.”

“She wants William’s money?” Henry’s voice booms inside the kitchen.

“If she does, it’d be just my cut,” I explain. “She might want part of it. I haven’t spoken to her.”

“Is that even possible?” Henry questions.

“Dude, my mom wanted a cut too,” Pierce confesses, and we all look at him. “I guess she felt entitled to some of it because she had to deal with him. It’s irrelevant. She’s not getting anything from us.”

“Can we forget about my mother?”

“We have to stop her.” Henry looks at everyone. “You can’t just give her money to her shut up. If you do it once, she’ll never stop.”

“Who are we giving money to?” Hayes enters the kitchen. “Good, I thought no one was going to make breakfast today.”

“Beacon’s mom is blackmailing him.”

“She is?”

“No, yes…I don’t know,” I say, exasperated because I swear, they just made a bigger mess out of this.

I explain to Hayes what’s happening with my mother while I check on the food. Henry and Mills start setting the table. Arden helps them.

“Sometimes I wonder if William had a type. When I hear about our mothers, I confirm it,” Pierce says. “He liked high-maintenance women.”

“His mom was not the love of his life,” Henry concludes.

Dad left a letter to each one of us. Some of us haven’t received them yet, and the ones who have are waiting until we all have them in our hands. However, Leyla received one when she and Pierce separated.

The letter had a hint that he had lost the love of his life. They are all trying to figure out which one of the six women he was with was it. On the other hand, I will be doing some research of my own because I’m sure he had someone before those six women, and that’s the love of his life.

Maybe it’s a mystery woman from Happy Springs, the town next door. It could be his high school sweetheart.

“I agree with Henry,” Hayes says. “If you give her money once, she’ll keep coming back. You should take away that power by doing what Grace suggests. It’s up to you, though.”

“It might bring a lot of publicity to you and the town,” I warn them. “It’ll be just like what happened when the paparazzi first discovered me.”

“We can take her.”

“Let me figure out how to handle her.”

Chapter Thirty-One

Beacon

Breakfast is uneventful after we agreed that I’m going to look into how to stop Mom from creating a three-ring circus. I live a private life. Maybe it doesn’t seem like it, but no one knows the real me. I doubt she understands that. The last time I saw her was when Grandma died.

Grace helps me clean up the kitchen—which happened to be Vance’s chore. Afterward, she leaves with Leyla and Sophia. They’re spending the day in Portland. I, on the other hand, volunteer to clean the barn. It’s not my favorite chore, but the horses are cool. Ally, the alpaca is a hoot. She likes it when I take her out for walks around town.

“What’s the plan for today?” Mane asks.

“Learn how to crochet?” San asks.

I glare at him and turn on the hose.

“Why the fuck are we here?” Fish protests.

I swear, I want to direct the stream of water toward him, but I don’t because if any of the animals escape, Pierce will kill me.

“He brought us to clean his shit,” San jokes while cleaning Poppy’s stall.

“Shut up. You volunteered to help,” I remind him. “You could be sleeping, like Sir Byron Alasdair Langdon.”

San bursts into laughter. “I swear he has a pompous-ass name. His family hated him before birth.”

“Someone should tell him it’s past noon,” I suggest.

“He was up all night. One of his bands is having issues,” Fish says, drawing air quotes. “I told him not to start a boy band. Those kids think it’s all just looking pretty and learning