I hurried to the door. “What’s wrong?”
Her eyes were enormous in her face as she glanced in my direction.
“This.” Laikyn waved the paper toward me. “Holy shit, Jinx. That’s …notthree million dollars.”
“Did you think it would be?”
Her forehead creased. “Yeah. Kinda. It’s the number I had in my head this whole time. Look.” She waved the paper again.
“It’s not my business.”
“Just. Freaking. Look!” She all but shoved the page in my face. “I want to make sure I’m not seeing things.”
I glanced at what looked to be a printout from an account, and yes, I’d admit, I was momentarily stunned by the numbers. That was a lot of money.
“That’s more than three million, right?” she asked, her voice still high-pitched.
I nodded. It was significantly more than three million. Hell, she wasn’t even a millionaire. She was a billionaire. More than enough for her to never have to worry about it again.
“He left my mom money, too,” she said. “It’s at the bottom.”
I skimmed the last couple of paragraphs, and sure enough, Jeremiah Montgomery had left Monica the sum of eighteen years worth of child support. Thirty thousand dollars a month. The footnote stated that Laikyn was the beneficiary on the account, and if she chose to give it to her mother, it was at her discretion how it was distributed.
I handed the page back to her.
“This is crazy, Jinx,” she said, her voice husky. “I would’ve been content with the letter.”
Suddenly, a few tears began to fall, so I walked over and pulled her into my arms.
“I would’ve preferred to have met him.”
I didn’t respond. There was nothing to be said. They’d both missed out. I was sure if her father were alive today, he would’ve been proud of her. I only hoped she had the opportunity to get to know her brother.
“Rule mentioned something about dinner,” she said as she pulled back and wiped her eyes.
I grinned. “After all that, you want food?”
“Well, yeah. Don’t you?”
“I could eat,” I admitted.
She stood up and pressed her palms flat on my chest, leaning in so her mouth was close to mine.
“You really do have a sexy voice,” she whispered. “I can’t wait to hear all the dirty things you’ve got to say when you’re—”
I crushed my mouth to hers, silencing her with a kiss. If I let her finish that sentence, there was a good chance we wouldn’t make it back to the house. For a few hours.
“I see what you’re doing,” she said when I pulled back.
“Do you?”
Laikyn giggled and took my hand. “Come on. Let’s figure out dinner. But first, I get to drop the B bomb on Rule.”
“B bomb?”
She turned and walked backward, pulling me with her. “Yeah. You know they call Knox the filthy hot billionaire, right?” She giggled. “I googled him. Couldn’t help myself.”
“I heard something about that.”
