Page 61 of The Thing About My Secret Billionaire

“Luke, how about you take the props inside to support the beam while we cut out this rotten section?” Dad asks, clearly thinking it best to separate us.

Luke rolls his eyes and walks off.

“Why couldn’t you have gotten local repair guys to fix this thing?” Ethan asks. “To save us from having to back up your lies? It all feels gross.”

“I have no idea who the good contractors are aroundhere,” I explain. “But I do know you guys will do an amazing job.”

“And if she sees you around your family she might think you’re even more of a great guy,” Ethan says. “And that might make her trust you enough to take your advice to accept your own offer for this land?” He shakes his head and picks up a pine plank from the pile.

Ethan’s always been the smartest one of us.

“When you put it like that, it sounds terrible.” I push my hands through my hair.

“Maybe that’s because itisterrible.” He sets the plank on the workbench and takes a measuring tape from his pocket. “She seems very nice.”

“She is very nice. And I’m repairing her barn to stop Wade fucking Skinner from threatening her.”

“Why don’t we just drop it and get on with the job?” Dad says from halfway up a ladder.

“Yes, let’s drop it.” And I turn to head back inside the barn to work on my unnecessarily elaborate replacement panel for the shed.

“That was delicious, Frankie. Thank you so much.” Dad picks up his cleared plate and rises from his chair at the kitchen table to collect the other dishes.

“No, no, Russell.” Frankie takes his plate from him. “You guys have been working hard all day. Please, sit. It’s the least I can do.”

“It was actually good,” Luke says. “Surprising since it has no meat.”

I glare at him.

“Being around the donkeys so closelysince I was a kid made me never want to eat an animal.” Frankie gets up and heads to the counter.

“Yeah, I bet being around here can change people,” Luke says. “Turn them into a whole other person.” He winks at me. “Like as if they have a new name and everything.”

Hot blood rushes to my head. He’d better not. He’d better fucking not.

Luke’s made it his life’s mission to give me a hard time since he was about three and figured out it annoyed me when he Hulk-smashed my carefully constructed Lego buildings. So even though he couldn’t actually care less about what I’m doing here, he has to try to push my buttons.

Not going to lie, my buttons are well and truly pushed.

Thankfully, Frankie’s loading the dishwasher with her back to us, so I can give Luke a hard glare.

“How long have you been vegetarian?” I ask Frankie, to change the subject.

“Since I was sixteen.”

“So just five years, then,” Dad says with a smile.

“He’s always been a flatterer.” I get up to gather the remaining plates and cutlery.

“And Mom’s always said you get your charm from him,” Ethan says.

“Yeah, Frankie,” Luke says. “You must have noticed how charming our big brother is.” He waggles his eyebrows at me as he leans back in his chair and folds his arms. “Mom always said his gift of the gab would take him far. Get him whatever he wanted.”

I bare my teeth at him before my eyes drift to Frankie’s ass as she bends over the dishwasher. The ass that I squeezed yesterday and felt so damn good. That I wouldvery much like to squeeze again, but without any fabric between it and my hand.

“He’s been very helpful,” she says, placing the plates on the lower rack. “It’s good to have the moral support as well as the physical help.”

“Physicalhelp, huh.”