Free Despite the Gentleman's Riches: Sweet Billionaire Romance (For Richer or Poorer Book 1) by Aimee Easterling Page A

would tear down our mode of transportation, and she didn't disappoint. "I wouldn't be caught dead in that thing ," the teenager said, her nostrils flaring but a hint of a sparkle entering her eyes. I was right—the girl was drawn to adventure despite her better sense. Why else would a smart teenager steal a plane and flee from a fancy boarding school with no exit strategy?
    So I didn't take offense, and instead clattered down the front steps—no sedate walking for me until this stuffy mansion warmed up a bit and stopped being so full of itself. "Ah, yes," I agreed. "My chariot doesn't look like much on the outside, but your brother did an astonishing job last night. For example, look here."
    I knelt down beside the tailpipe and, after a glance at her previously unblemished white pants, Lena followed suit. "I can't believe I'm looking up the asshole of a car," the girl groused, and I grinned. My charge's language wasn't precisely PG-13, but she was funny.
    " This is the brand new exhaust system that your brother installed, ensuring that our chariot is as silent as she is non-polluting," I said proudly. I'd been supremely disappointed this morning when I removed the ribbon from my rust bucket, turned the key...and heard the starter engage but no additional engine noise fill the air. Only after a muttered complaint— So you're Mr. Fish Sticks, not Jack, after all —did I realize that the car was running; the vehicle was simply so much quieter than I was used to that I'd assumed the worst. In fact, when I'd jumped out of my seat and run around to the back of the car, I could see that the cause of my newly muffled ride wasn't a patched exhaust system like I'd expected, but a whole shiny expanse of fresh pipes running underneath the chassis and barely spitting out any fumes at all. Quieter and cleaner—my heart had seemed to rise up into my throat as Jack's smiling face filled my mind.
    Shaking my head to return my thoughts to the present, I dug a penny out of my pocket and waved it in front of my companion's nose. "And look at this!" I felt like a magician pulling a coin from behind a child's ear as I stuck the penny down into the grooves of the closest tire to test the tread. "It covers the top of the Lincoln Memorial! I'll definitely pass inspection this time around!" New tires had been another major perk of the Reynold's Car Repair Caper.
    Lena raised her eyebrows and said, with absolutely no expression in her voice: "Woo hoo?" But I was beginning to understand that if the girl was speaking, she was engaged, so I straightened, pulled Lena to her feet, and opened the passenger door.
    "Get in," I ordered. "We're going to visit my cockatiel." There —what I'd been looking for all along. The true animation that had entered Lena's face when she'd argued with her brother over half-sibling DNA. No teenager would have been so familiar with the statistics spouted yesterday if she didn't harbor a secret interest in science, and what scientific-minded kid could resist a bird in the hand? Lena didn't display her excitement openly the way a normal kid would have, but she also didn't complain when her elegant clothes touched my grungy seat.
    "Your lunch!" Shirley called from the front door, interrupting the moment. But that was okay—I had a feeling Florabelle would manage to knock the rest of Lena's walls down in short order. I met the housekeeper halfway between mansion and car, murmured quick instructions to tell Jack our whereabouts if he asked, then thanked her for boxing up our food so quickly. "No problem, sugar," Shirley answered. "Now get going before the girl changes her mind."
     
    ***
     
    Lena didn't know how to lower unpowered car windows, and she looked at me a bit funny when her attempt to turn on the radio resulted in the piece of equipment falling out of its slot. The car had come without sound enabled, and the stereo that I'd bought for ten bucks at the junkyard didn't quite fit into the space provided. "Just shove