Trouble: A BWWM Bad-Boy Billionaire Romance by Alyse Zaftig Page B

smiled. “I grieved pretty hard when Chris was a newborn. She brought me out of my depression. That’s why I call her Sunshine. She took my grief and made me a better man.” He cleared his throat. "But Trouble's father, after Trouble's mother died...he didn't react the same way. He hired a nanny, too, but he scheduled as many business trips as he could. Trouble, if he hadn't been such close friends with Chris, would have been completely raised by a carousel of foreign housekeepers. I wanted him to know that somebody loved him and cared what he did, you know?"
    He looked at his hands. "It hasn't been easy. I'm not his father. But we've made it work.” He squeezed my hand. “But I want you to know that I am fine with what happens now. You know that you can come home and talk to us whenever you want.”
    “Okay, Daddy,” I said, jumping out of the car. “I’ll call you sometime this week.”
    Dad drove away with a quick smile and wave.

28

Missing Her
    Trouble
    THREE WEEKS LATER
    I logged onto Facebook and zoomed in on the page that I always ended up on: Laila’s Facebook profile. I clicked to her photos, and I felt like a massive creep. I wouldn’t let myself see her, though. I knew that I had absolutely violated a line, and on Thanksgiving I had lost both my best friend and my girlfriend in one shot.
    Laila had texted me and messaged me, asking me to meet up and talk, but I ignored her.
    I logged onto Facebook and zoomed in on the page that I always ended up on: Laila’s Facebook profile. I clicked to her photos, and I felt like a massive creep. I wouldn’t let myself see her, though. I knew that I had absolutely violated a line, and on Thanksgiving I had lost both my best friend and my girlfriend in one shot.
    Laila had texted me and messaged me, asking me to meet up and talk, but I ignored her. This was my penance for being a complete ass and fucking my best friend's younger sister.
    I looked through her photos, and this time I looked all the way back to years ago, when we were still in high school.
    I clicked on a picture of the pool party that Chris and I had thrown at his house before the start of senior year.
    There was a candid picture that Laila had been tagged in, but Chris and I hadn't. I hadn't seen it before. It was totally new.
    I looked at it. She was wearing a simple black Speedo one-piece with a racerback. Even though she wasn't showing any skin, she was sexy as fuck, with every bit of her curvy body on display and tantalizingly draped in fabric.
    I was staring at her, like I always do. Chris was in the corner, staring at me staring at her.
    A light clicked. This is why he made me promise to keep away from her. He knew that the two of us were going to the same college, and he wanted to make sure I didn't jump on her.
    He knew all along.
    My phone buzzed. I saw Chris' picture come up on my phone. It was a picture of us standing on top of a car, our fists in the air.
    I accepted the call. "Hey."
    "Hey, man. I'm outside of your dorm. Can we talk?"
    He must have driven, because I didn't hear the roar of his motorcycle. "Yeah. I'll come down."
    I came out on the street. "Go ahead and come up." He didn't look like he was in the mood to pound my face some more.
    I pulled out two Heinekens from my fridge. One of my roommates was 21, and we didn't even need fakes. Yeah, it was underage drinking, but we'd been drinking since we were in elementary and sneaking alcohol from our parents' liquor cabinets.
    "Don't make a shiv out of that, okay?"
    Chris laughed. "I'm not here to fight with you man. You won the last one, anyway." He took a pull of his beer. "I have to talk to you about Laila."
    "Man, you are fucked up. I saw this picture," I pointed to my laptop, where the picture was still on the screen. "You knew all along that I wanted her."
    "I did."
    "Tell me why I shouldn't be beating your ass right now."
    He sighed and scrubbed his face with one hand. "Did you know that Laila was premature?"
    "Oh,