He could image her mentally poking her tongue out at him. With a sigh, he shoved his wallet away and said, "Fine. But I'm paying for dinner before we leave tonight. There's a great steak restaurant here. I'll have them serve us in the suite so we can watch the fountain while we eat."
"We'll see," she said before turning to watch Dash wheel in a cart loaded with silver domes. Her head swung in Roark and Penny's direction. "Good God, how much food did you two order?"
"Seven burgers with the lot," Roark answered without looking up. "Figured it was a good bet you'd be hungry when you woke up. If not, one of us would have eaten it. Probably Dash."
"Hey! I'm not the one who steals food off other people's plates," Dash protested.
Jack chuckled. Dash was right. Roark had a habit of pinching food from anyone he ate with. "Clear the table so we can eat," he said.
"Two seconds. Almost done…there." He held up a phone. "Alyssa's is done. I'll fix Penny's after we eat."
"No need. Mine's done too."
Sure enough. Penny held up her intact phone. "Did you just…?" Jack didn't bother finishing, just shook his head; it was obvious she had.
She grinned at him. "Yeah. I copied Roark." With a shrug she added, "It wasn't hard."
He ignored the shock on Lys's face and moved closer. "You put the new hardware in?"
"Sure did." Her smile said it all. The girl was mighty pleased with herself. "Any complaints?" she asked Roark.
"No."
Penny's smile widened.
"You let her do her own?" Lys asked, disbelief stamped all over her face.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I? I'm pretty sure she's better at this than half the men I work with."
"Really?" Lys eyed Penny. "Is this why you wanted to do those online courses?" she asked her sister.
"No, those are programming."
"Oh."
Jack shook his head again. Even though he expected Penny to astonish him, she never failed to blow his mind with how smart she was. "Remind me not to leave my phone lying around."
"Pretty sure yours is already loaded with all the stuff we just put in ours."
Yeah, she was smart all right. He didn't bother commenting, instead he helped Dash unload the plates of food.
By the time everyone had settled in front of a burger, conversations were zipping across the table. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a meal with all his family at once. Last year when he'd flown in for the board meeting? He'd brought Lys with him that weekend. She'd kept herself occupied while he'd been in meetings and it wasn't until now, he realized he hadn't introduced her to anyone that trip.
When he'd moved to Sunnyville and taken the job with Mercy-Life, he'd wanted to shed Montgomery Jackson Winchester Townsend the Third like a winter coat—take it off and shut it away in a cupboard. A cupboard in Vegas.
He'd succeeded. In Sunnyville he was Jack Townsend. Rescue helicopter pilot. Nobody knew he was the heir to the Townsend Group, a billion-dollar corporation. Or that his personal wealth was in the billions.
He glanced at Lys. Would she be pissed when she found out?
He hadn't lied to her. Unless you subscribed to the belief that omission was a lie. She had trust issues, he knew that, and maybe he was risking a lot by not revealing the truth about himself, but he couldn't regret his choice to keep all that information hidden. She'd never accept his help if she knew.
And what would she do when she found out about everything else he'd done—Mrs. Alverez, the houses?
Would she try to pay more for the new place? Never speak to him again?
Either wasn't an option as far as he was concerned. While he didn't see his offered help as charity, he had a feeling Lys would. He just needed to get her to drop those walls low enough for him to show her that anything he did for her or Penny had no strings. He didn't expect anything in return.
Well, nothing except letting him be part of their lives—letting him love them.
