Page 17 of The Naughty Or Nice Clause

“What?” Klaus whispered. Lyla noticed a crumb of chocolate at the side of his mouth.

“I didn’t say anything,” she whispered back, not wanting to add to the tension.

“It looks like you want to,” he pointed out, and she found herself staring at his lips. She had never noticed how perfect they were before.

Perfect? He’s the devil!

“If another neighbour is dropping off more condolence food, I swear I’ll scream. Sara found four stews and a salmon pie on our doorstep this morning before she went to the workshop,” she heard the woman say.

Klaus rolled his eyes. “My sister. Sara’s her wife,” he said to Lyla, getting up.

A woman, clearly the eldest of the three siblings, rolled herself into the kitchen. Lyla hadn’t even noticed that the small slope between the living area and the kitchen was designed for a wheelchair.

“You came back! Only took you ten years,” Klaus’s sister said to him, ignoring everyone else in the room.

“It only took you ten years to ask me to, and when Louise asks, I can hardly say no,” Klaus answered, as if she was the general of an army.

Louise didn’t look pleased by his tone, but she didn’t say anything. The tension made Lyla want to dive under the table.

Luckily, Kevin broke the silence by pushing Klaus towards his sister. All three siblings shared their mother’s blonde hair and light blue eyes.

“We’re finally together,” Kevin pointed out. “Let’s not fight.” Lyla was surprised by his sudden change in attitude.Or maybe it’s just me he has an attitude for.

“I hate when you call me that,” Louise said. Apparently that was all that needed to be said before Klaus walked over and hugged her.

“Hi, I’m Lyla,” Lyla said awkwardly as she made eye contact with Louise, who knocked her brother out of the way with her chair to get a better look at her. Klaus grunted as the footrest hit his shin; Lyla took his pain as her own little victory.

“Lou,” Louise said, extending her hand, and Lyla hurried to take it. She had kind eyes, but the same stern look as her brother, which made Lyla uneasy.I’m going to have to prove myself to her before she trusts me.“Don’t call me Louise, and we’ll get along fine,” she went on, shaking Lyla’s hand.

“Louise who?” Lyla joked, and Lou released her tight grasp on her hand.

“I like her. We might let you keep her,” she said to Klaus.

“Are you alright, Lyla? You’ve gone as white as a sheet!” Mrs Klaus said.

“Fine – just hungry. We shouldn’t let all this go to waste,” Lyla said with a nervous laugh, wanting everyone’s attention off her.

“Don’t worry, there’s plenty more. The villagers keep bringing us food,” Lou told her. Lyla thought of the salmon pie and stews. Her own neighbours had done the same when her mother passed. She’d never wanted to see another shepherd’s pie again – although the gifted meals had still been preferable to her father’s cooking, or the countless nights of takeaway.

Kevin and Mrs Klaus sat across from Lyla and Mason while Lou took the other end of the table, leaving the head of the table empty. Since everyone was ignoring the empty chair and set place, Lyla did the same.

There was an awkward minute of fork-scraping and glass-clinking before the questions were fired, sadly none of them directed at Klaus.

“How did you meet my loathsome brother?” Lou began, adding a worrying amount of maple syrup to her plate.

“Work. His office is down from mine.” Lyla glanced at him as he placed a bowl of chopped fruit salad on the table. She stared nervously at the strawberries in the bowl; hopefully she could avoid them.

“Where’s that?” Lou asked as she filled her own plate with the red fruit.

“Smurfit Toys Limited. We make children’s toys. We’re like the mother company for small businesses. We handle their shipping and PR so they don’t have to, as well as having a few of our own brands.”

“Toys? You make toys?” Lou smirked. Kevin laughed into his glass of milk; Mrs Klaus tapped his arm and the milk sloshed onto his plate.

“My great-grandfather had his own shop making toys. As the years changed, so did the business. My father ran it, and when he retired…” Lyla paused, not sure how to explain the next part.

“He left it to you?” Mrs Klaus asked eagerly.

“No – he sold his shares of the company to me,” Klaus finished flatly in between mouthfuls of bacon and pancakes. “Her father nearly ran it into the ground, so I helped right the ship.”

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