Reading Online Novel

Just What I Needed(50)



Yet when I tried to recall the name of anyone interesting I’d met recently, I drew a blank. The only woman in my mind’s eye was Trinity.

After exiting the shower I checked the time on my cell and swore. Now, because of my excessive brooding, I’d be late to the barbecue. Since Mom was hosting, my late arrival meant a late departure—aka, assigned to cleanup duty.

My phone buzzed and I glanced at the text. Brady reminding me to bring his gear for the family basketball game. Now I really wish I hadn’t worked out for three freakin’ hours. I’d be worthless on the court.



The courtyard at my folks’ house was packed with cars. The house I’d grown up in was enormous. I’d never really thought too much about it because it was home. While it did take a team of domestic workers to help run a household this size, I hadn’t considered them employees. They were part of the Lund collective. The housekeepers, the cooks, the groundskeeper and the maintenance man had all worked for Ward and Selka Lund for over twenty-five years.

Yet my parents hadn’t hired a nanny, not even when they had four kids under the age of seven. Since my aunts and uncles had also raised their kids the same way, I believed it was normal. It wasn’t until I’d gotten older that I discovered how rare that was for people of my parents’ social stature. They’d kept us as grounded as they could while providing us with the means to do whatever we wanted. There were no two people I respected more than my mom and dad. Somehow they’d found the balance between raising kids in a privileged environment and not allowing us to believe we were entitled simply because our Lund ancestors had been shrewd enough to amass a fortune.

My dad opened the front door and stepped out just as I was about to go in. He smiled at me and lowered the bag of garbage he was carrying to give me a one-armed hug. “Hey. You’re looking good today. Your mother will be pleased you made an effort.”

I lived and worked in casual clothes—much to my mother’s chagrin. This morning I’d dug through my closet for a pair of khakis, a polo shirt and my least scuffed-up pair of loafers. Yeah, I was totally sucking up to Mom for avoiding her, and Dad knew it.

“Walk with me, son.”

I eyed the bag of garbage. “Mom let you waltz through the house and out the front door with that?”

“She didn’t see me.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Dad. She sees everything.”

“Don’t I know it. Be hell to pay later, I’m sure, but I like her feisty.”

“More than I needed to know.”

He laughed. We rounded the corner on the far side of the house and he opened the door leading to the garbage bay. “Be right back.”

I leaned against the fence and gazed across the grounds. Fabian, the groundskeeper, did an amazing job keeping everything looking lush. In the last five years he’d redone the landscaping, removing large areas of manicured lawn and planting trees, shrubs and flowers in interesting configurations, significantly lowering the amount of water needed to maintain the green space. Since I couldn’t hire Fabian away from my parents, I’d sent him a few apprentices to learn from the best before they came to work for me.

The gate slammed shut. “Let’s cut through the garage to get to the patio.”

“Don’t you wanna drag me into the house so Mom can blister my ear about my selfish and rude behavior?”

“It can wait until after.”

When he didn’t elaborate, I said, “Until after what?”

“Lunch and . . . ah . . . stuff.”

I jogged around the Mercedes coupe and planted myself in front of him. “Level with me. Did Mom set me up with someone and she’s waiting out there? Is that why you’re acting so weird?”

He sighed. “And I thought Annika was the dramatic one.”

“She is the dramatic one. I’m the black sheep.”

Sorrow darkened his eyes. “You know that’s not true, Walker. But there was a time in my life I felt that way too.”

Like me, Dad was the middle Lund son. His older brother, Archer, was the Lund Industries CEO, and his younger brother, Monte, was a former pro basketball player and now the president of the LI Board of Directors. Unlike Dad, I hadn’t carved out a spot for myself in the family business between two super-successful brothers; I’d opted to forge a different path. If that decision had disappointed him, he’d managed to keep it to himself.

“Relax. There’s no woman lurking outside. Your mother and I have other things on our mind today.”

“That’s supposed to set my mind at ease?” Now I felt guiltier yet for my self-imposed family exile. “Everything is all right health-wise with you and Mom?”