Crushed (Crystal Brook Billionaires) by Jessica Blake Read Free Book Online

few days.
    Eager to unravel the mystery, I ripped the white envelope open. The card was thin and square, with a simple heart sketched on the front. The handwritten note inside read:
To Claire.
From Owen.
    I stared at the message… and then let out a chortle. That was it? Just ‘to’ and ‘from’? A man I had just met hoped to win me over with nothing more than a vase of roses?
    I closed the card and looked at the flowers again. On second thought, it was nice that there was nothing else written in there. No phone number. No note asking me out to dinner. With the way it stood, I could just appreciate the flowers and leave it there. I wouldn’t have to actually call Owen and turn him down.
    Though a man didn’t just send a woman flowers for no reason at all. No doubt Owen hoped that I would respond to the gift by seeking him out either online or through neighbors.
    I felt slightly bad about it. Honestly. In another time I might have gone out with Owen. He was extremely handsome and seemed pretty nice. At that point in my life, though, I didn’t even want to remember that men existed.
    Hopefully, he would take my lack of response in a good way. He would get that I wasn’t interested and leave it there. Move on. Forget there ever was a sullen girl named Claire who was incapable of even so much as smiling.
    Leaving the gift where it was, I worked on rearranging the muscles of my face into something resembling a smile and headed for the kitchen.
    “Good morning,” I chirped the second I entered the doorway.
    Four heads snapped my way, two from the table and two from the kitchen counter. Seated next to Mom, Danny brushed hair from his face and peered up at me. Out of all my family members, he was certainly the one who was the least certain about my current life circumstances. Danny was over a decade younger than me, which meant we had existed in two separate spheres for most of his life. I loved him as much as anyone could probably love their little brother, but when it came down to it, we really fell short when it came to the whole mutual understanding stuff.
    “Sup?” he asked.
    I tried not to smirk at his strained effort to be nonchalant. “Nothing,” I replied. “What’s up with you?”
    Next to him, my mother shifted in her chair. She was busy flipping through some images on her tablet. “We’re looking at options for Gwen’s wedding invitations,” she explained.
    “Oh. Nice.”
    She shook her head slightly. “Jason just doesn’t seem to care. Anything we email him, he’s just like ‘that’s nice.’ He says it over and over again.”
    Busy with something at the counter, Gwen spoke up. “Men don’t care as much, Mom. At least, he doesn’t.”
    She tsked. “I don’t know why.”
    Something clattered on the stove, and Gwen grabbed the pan full of scrambled eggs from my dad and dumped its contents onto the waiting platter.
    “Hungry?” Dad asked.
    “Yeah, thanks.” I eased down onto the nearest chair. “So I’m going back to New York today.”
    A long silence followed my announcement. In an effort to prove just what a good decision it was, I plastered a toothy grin on my face.
    “Cool,” Danny finally said.
    My mother put her tablet down and gazed evenly at me from across the table. “It’s Sunday.”
    “Yes,” I agreed. “Which is why today is a good day for me to go. I can be back at work at the regular time tomorrow.”
    She started to do that thing where she pursed her lips like she was tasting something sour. Just the idea of her arguing against my decision made me slightly irritated, if not all out angry. It was my life, after all. I was the one who knew what was best for me.
    “Jason is working beyond over-time,” I said. “It’s not fair to him.”
    Gwen immediately spoke up. “It’s all right. He works over-time anyway.”
    “No, it’s not all right.” I turned and gave her a steely look. “And besides, that’s not just it. I’m fine. I need to go back to work.” I