Page 10 of A Billionaire Gentleman

I glanced at Aurelia and found her eyes on me. She wasn’t flirting with me, and I wasn’t flirting with her, but something about her drew me in, making me want to…protect her. It was an odd feeling, and not one I’d really experienced before.

As the youngest, I was always the one being looked after, protected,coddled. It was nice to have someone who didn’t look at me that way. Not yet, at least.

Who knew what it’d be like when she got to know me better? After all, if my own family barely thought I could do this, why would the Kanes be any different?

I pushed those thoughts aside and focused on the job at hand. I’d never prove my family wrong if I kept whining about it. I needed to just do the damn job.

* * *

We madeit to three of the five properties Dad had given me, taking thorough walkthroughs of each of them. Considering how many tens of thousands of square feet and at least a dozen acres in land we had to cover, we accomplished a lot. We were heading back to the car after the third property when Dad texted me, asking me to invite the Kanes to dinner.

“I think we’ve covered enough for today,” I said. “Unless you’d like to continue.”

Ronall shook his head. “No, you’re right. It’s been a long day.”

“If it hasn’t been too long, my dad would love for both of you to come to dinner at his house. He’s been looking forward to reconnecting with you.” I added the last part, but considering Dad had gone to such lengths to make sure Ronall and Aurelia found the right house, I didn’t think it was too far-fetched.

Something crossed Ronall’s face, gone before I could identify it, but I wondered if it had something to do with why I’d never heard of the Kane family before. I hadn’t asked Dad about it, but I’d been curious about it since he’d told me about them moving back.

“What do you think, sweetie?” Ronall asked Aurelia.

She nodded, brushing back some hair that had fallen across her face. It’d been like this all day. Ronall would include Aurelia in the conversation, but she barely spoke. He wasn’t mean and didn’t act like she was stupid, but I definitely got the impression that her dad treated her like she was a kid.

“That would be great,” Ronall said to me. “It’ll be nice to catch up with Walter. Will you be staying too?”

“I actually still live with my dad.” Aurelia gave me a curious look, and I added, “I just finished up my MBA and moved back here for good. I haven’t decided what sort of place I’m looking to get.”

“Is it difficult because you don’t know if you’ll be moving in alone or with a girlfriend?” Ronall asked. “Or boyfriend, I suppose. I shouldn’t assume. No one knows these days.”

“No girlfriend or boyfriend,” I said with a slight smile. He didn’t sound like he was being judgmental, just commenting on something he didn’t quite understand. “My last girlfriend and I broke up a while ago.”

“Better to break up when you’re dating than waking up one day and realizing that you married the wrong person,” Ronall said.

Neither he nor Aurelia had mentioned a wife or mom, and Dad hadn’t said anything either, so I didn’t know if Ronall was a widower or if his statement came from experience and there’d been a divorce. It wasn’t really important, but it did make me wonder about that comment.

“True.” I did agree with his statement, but I’d replied more because I was uncomfortable with the silence following it than any need to express a real opinion.

“Has your dad ever thought about getting married again?” Ronall asked.

“Not that I know of,” I answered honestly. “But he doesn’t really talk to my brothers and me about stuff like that.”

“He never was one to show what he was feeling.”

Ronall sounded more like he was talking to himself than adding to the conversation, and I wondered again at the relationship that existed between my family and his. Had my parents and the Kanes simply fallen out of touch when the Kanes had moved?

It wasn’t like they’d parted ways back when the only options for communication were phone calls and the US Postal Service. Dad might not have been the most technologically savvy person I knew, but he was hardly a troglodyte. It would’ve been easy for them to reach out to each other at any time.

“Does your grandfather still live in the same house?” Ronall asked, shifting the conversation.

At least I knew the answer to this one. My brothers and I had heard more than once how Grandad had bought the house for Grandmom a few years before she passed. I think one of the reasons Grandad loved Cynthia so much was because she never complained about his insistence at keeping the house. Grandma Rachel had tolerated it, but even I knew it had been one of the things that had always bothered her.

“He does,” I said with a smile. “It’s just him and Cynthia there now with the staff, but I don’t think he’ll ever want to downsize.”

“My father is the one who told him about the house before it went on the market. They were friends, Father and Jude. Your grandfather saw him almost like an older brother, and I called him Uncle Jude when I was a kid. I don’t think I would’ve gotten through those first few years after Father died if it hadn’t been for Jude.” Ronall unbuttoned the top button of his dress shirt. “Your family was like the extended family I’d never had.”

How did I not know any of this? When Dad had said “old family friend,” I hadn’t realized he’d meant something like this.

“My boys called your parents Auntie Cher and Uncle Wally.” Ronall’s mouth quirked into a smile. “Davin used to follow my boys around everywhere. He couldn’t say Maverick’s full name, so he called him Marick.”

---