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“Now, what is this that you are working on? Why haven’t you used the card I left you?”
I lower my gaze. “I felt bad that you were paying for everything. It was the least I could do.”
“You don’t have to work. You have enough—”
I interrupt him. “It is not my money. He left it for his son. All he wanted was for his son to keep his legacy alive based on what he created. His vision. The name he built for himself. I was just the sacrificial lamb.”
I hate that people keep telling me that. The money Lane left me was for his son, and it’s not mine. Nothing he left is mine but for his son. He made it seem that way but that was his dream to leave it for his child. I was just the host. The keeper he entrusted to carry out his dying wish.
“You know that is not true. He loved you, Aura.”
“He loved his dream more. He can write me a letter telling me otherwise but I know the truth. I was just there to help him carry it out. Now I’m left to pick up the pieces. I’m a fucking target for his family now. They want to prove a point and I know they want to make it through me.”
He leans forward, his elbows resting on his thighs as he sits on the couch. When I look down at his wrist, that is when I see it. The bracelet I made him all those years ago. He is wearing it. You almost can’t see it with the tattoos inked all over his skin. It almost hides it but it’s there. His head is hanging low as he thinks.
I reach my hand out and place a finger over the braided thread of the bracelet. A surge of electricity shoots up my arm, and I’m not sure if he feels it, but his head tilts to the side and he turns his wrist, letting me touch it by sliding my finger over it, letting me touch him. He laces his fingers through mine and looks at me.
“I won’t let them take anything away from you, Aura. It’s not theirs to take. If you don’t want to touch the money he left then let me help you.”
“How is it any different if I take money from you? You can’t save me, Kalum. It is best I live on my own terms. I have no problem working and paying bills like a normal single mother.”
He shakes his head. “Let me help you, Aura. Please. I can help you. I can make them go away and they will never bother you again.”
“How?”
How is he going to do that? They will come at me with everything they have. His parents are worse than the Turners. They will do whatever it takes to make sure I disappear.
“You let me worry about that.”
“Your parents aren’t any better, Kalum. I will not just have his family but yours against me.”
His jaw tics in annoyance, and he levels me with a hard stare. “My parents are the least of your worries. I’ll take care of the rest but you have to trust me, Aura. You think you can do that?”
What choice do I have? Exie is my best friend, but she can only do so much. She is a Turner, and she is taking over the family business. Her hands are tied.
“I can.”
“Good. Now let’s try to get some sleep.”
We don’t get much sleep. We sat up all night catching up on all the things he did since I left. How he played football in college but refused to go pro. How did he have tattoos when he was seventeen. Him telling me he got them when he vacationed in Hawaii with his parents. Cason’s decision to branch out and build his empire in the private security world. It was like seeing Kalum in a new light. A friendly light. No animosity. No judgment. It was like we were best friends and were catching up on old times. But in reality, we were trying to get to know each other. It makes it harder not to like him more than a friend. It makes it hard not to remember how he made me feel in his arms.
Chapter 12
Kalum
“How was your night in your new home?” Janine says after I walk out of the boardroom.
I had a meeting with the developers, and they are in town, and they want to have dinner.
“Good. I need you to get Aura on the phone in my office.”
I miss her voice and the fact that I need to ask her to go out with me tonight has me a bit on edge. I don’t want to take anyone else but her. I’m just hoping she will agree to go out with me.
“I’m curious. This doesn’t have to do with you needing a date for tonight’s dinner, does it?”
I walk inside my modern office with floor-to-ceiling windows on the sixty-eighth floor. “It does.”
“Are you going to ask her out on a date?”
