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A week ago, the same day the first hit piece was published, Layla had convinced me to enroll Ruby in one of the elementary schools in New Brooks. I was vehemently against the idea as I didn’t want my daughter to be a target. The whole homeschooling situation was my way of keeping her safe as best as possible.
“I think she’s at that age where she needs to learn to socialize with her peers, you know? A kid needs friends,” Layla had spoken to me quietly, careful not to wake Ruby, who was asleep on the couch.
I did know; I just wasn’t comfortable with the idea. What happens when one of the locals thinks it’s a good idea to kidnap the daughter of a billionaire? I didn’t want to risk it, not with Ruby.
“Deanna, her mother, attended the high school here in town for a while even though the Fishers were wealthy. Nothing ever happened to her. Kindergarten is different from high school, I know. But still.” Layla’s words addressed my fears.
“New Brooks—”
“New Brooks IS SAFE,” she interrupted me. “I know the head teacher, Mrs. Johnson, personally. I will make sure Ruby settles in nicely, and I will pick her up from school and stay with her every day till nightfall.”
“I don’t plan on being in New Brooks for long.”
“Just till we’re done with the construction, I know. I remember the friends I made in school. Some moved, but that doesn’t change their effect on me.”
“Hmm.”
“I don’t mind if you reduce my pay; after all, the deal was I’d be homeschooling her. I think this is what’s best for her.”
“Your pay remains the same. That’s not a big deal.”
“Thanks, but that’s not really important.”
“Her asthma. What happens if, when, she has an attack?”
“Multiple inhalers. One with her teacher and one with Ruby herself. I had a sister with asthma, and that was how it worked when we were younger.”
She’d thought of everything. I was initially skeptical, but I began to see the positive side of it. Every kid needs friends. Ruby’s only friends were me and Layla. It wasn’t the right situation for a kid. I had to let her be a kid.
“I’ll drop her off at school every morning,” I finally agreed with a sigh. “You’ll pick her up.”
“Deal.”
Layla looked like a deer in headlights when she rummaged her hand through her bag on the couch. We were seated across from each other. She’d gotten to my home late, but she told me she had an emergency. I waited to see what she was trying to bring from her bag. When she did, I almost shot out of my seat.
“Word around town is you broke ground on your site.” She smiled, her dimples deepening. You look like someone who enjoys whiskey.”
The bottle of whiskey in her hand looked heavy—tasty, too. The last time I saw whiskey, I ended the night with her in a bed and me inside her. I wonder if the thought had occurred to her, too. The thought of that night made my pulse quicken—it always did.
Does she think about that night as often as I do?
She wasn’t the first person I’d been with after Deanna, but our chemistry that night, how in sync we were, made her the most memorable person after Deanna. Try as I could, I couldn’t deny wanting it to happen again—but I knew it never would.
“I, uh, I—” I slap my hands against my thighs as I attempt to find the right words to say, then I punctuate it with an exasperated sigh.
“Oh, don’t think I mean we should share a drink, by the way.” Her eyes widened as she realized her action could be taken as a hint. “That’d be unprofessional.”
“Right.”
“Also, I don’t like whiskey.”
I know. “Oh, you don’t say.”
s the bottle on the table right in front of me. I stared at the bottle's long neck, and it took everything I had not to wrap my fingers around it and put it to my mouth. When I finally look away, I sense Layla’s gaze on me.
“I’ve got to go, but you should go to school tomorrow. You know, so that you can tell them your concerns.” Layla rubbed her forehead, and I wondered if she was okay.
“Thanks for the gift.”
