Millionaire Hero (Freeman Brothers 4)

“Why don’t you work here with the rest of your family?” I asked as we strolled along. “Do you not like racing?”

“It’s not that,” Nick said. “I mean, I’m not as into it as the rest of them are. But I still love it. I come out and help with things sometimes, and I like going to the events. I just didn’t want to wrap my entire life around the company. I didn’t want to work for my parents, then when Quentin took over, I didn’t want to work for him.”

“But you all seem so close,” I said.

“We are,” he said. “And that’s why I didn’t want to work with them. I didn’t want it to seem like any success I got I only had because of my family. It was important to me to branch out and find something that was mine. Something that I could work toward and achieve by myself. Even though Quentin has made this company much bigger and more successful than my parents ever did, it’s still built on the foundation they made. Everything he accomplishes is still tied to them. I wanted to feel like I did something on my own. Something that was just mine. That might sound ridiculous.”

I shook my head. “No. It doesn’t sound ridiculous at all. I completely understand.” We walked along for a few more quiet moments, then stood at the edge of the pond. I looked up at him. “Thank you for letting me hang out this afternoon.”

“Absolutely,” he said. “I’m glad you came.”

We spent a little while down at the pond, and then he walked me back up to the parking lot.

“Tell your parents thank you for having me,” I said.

“I will,” Nick said. “I’ll be sure to keep you up-to-date on everything that’s going on when I get more information.”

I nodded, realizing I hadn’t thought about any of that the entire afternoon.

“Thank you,” I said. Giving into a compulsion I maybe should have resisted a little more, I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you later.”

I climbed in my car and drove away, not letting myself look back to see his reaction.10NickSunday mornings were the one time during the week when I usually let myself sleep in a bit. Burying myself in work meant I had to get up early in order to get to the office on time. Saturdays were usually about running all those errands adults have to do to keep their life rolling. And if I wasn’t engaged in such a glamorous activity as going to the grocery store or doing my laundry, I was usually doing something with the family.

There might be a race or an exhibition, or they could use extra help with one of the bikes or running practices. Sometimes it was like the day before when we all got together for a lunch to thank the staff. All that meant Sundays were my one day to try to catch up on all that sleep my body wanted but I rarely gave it. That Sunday I didn’t really get the chance.

I was in the middle of a particularly nice dream when the sound of my phone jostled me awake. I wanted to just turn it off and bury myself back under the pillows, but that wasn’t an option. My clients almost never contacted me on the weekend, much less on a Sunday, but it was always possible. If it was an emergency, I didn’t want to miss the call and cause a calamity.

And if it was one of my brothers, which was the far more likely possibility, they wouldn’t take the hint just by me not answering the phone. They would just keep calling back incessantly until I finally gave in and or the phone ran out of battery.

I grabbed my phone and looked at the screen. Just like I thought, it was my youngest brother Darren.

“Hey, Darren,” I said, rubbing my eyes.

“Were you still asleep?” he asked.

“Kind of,” I said.

“I’m sorry. I’ll call you back later,” he said.

“It’s fine. I’m awake now. What’s up?”

“I was calling to see if you wanted to take a ride this morning. The weather is really beautiful, and we haven’t gotten out on the road together in a while.”

The thought of getting on the back of a motorcycle and just letting the wind fly around me sounded pretty good. We would go out onto the backgrounds of the complex where there were roads nobody else accessed. It let us really open up the machines and push them to their limits without risk of other drivers getting in the way.

“Sure,” I said. “That sounds great. I’ll get ready and I’ll give you a call when I’m heading out.”

“See you soon,” my brother said.

I got out of bed and went to the kitchen for my first cup of coffee of the day. I was fairly impressed with myself that I had managed to carry on an actual conversation without even one sip of caffeine.