The Billionaire Shifter's Curvy Match (Billionaire Shifters Club #1)

The Billionaire Shifter's Curvy Match (Billionaire Shifters Club #1) Read Free Page B

Book: The Billionaire Shifter's Curvy Match (Billionaire Shifters Club #1) Read Free
Author: Diana Seere
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reached down and tickled him behind the ears.
    “We need to feed him,” Lilah said. “Do dogs drink milk? Did you buy some in that luxurious bag of groceries over there?” She craned her neck around Jess to take a look at the bag on the table.
    “Lilah, you can’t. You’ll never get rid of him.”
    “Maybe I don’t want to,” Lilah said.
    Jess grumbled all the way to the fridge. “We’re going to regret this.” Jess put the groceries away quickly. She got out a hunk of mozzarella and their last slice of turkey breast from the deli, set it on one of their four mismatched plates, and carried it over. “Man, what a day. I haven’t even told you about Mom yet.”
    Lilah frowned at her sister as she took the plate from her. The pain in her head was still a steady, rhythmic pounding, and she didn’t want to deal with any more stress today.
    “I’m afraid to ask.” She lowered the plate to the futon. Smoky inhaled the scraps of food so quickly that the plate was empty before she’d let go of it.
    “It’s her hip,” Jess said. Lilah didn’t need more details. She knew them already.
    “She has to get the operation. I know she’s scared, but she just has to do it.”
    “She’s worried she’s going to lose the house.”
    “But she owns it outright,” Lilah said. Their dad, a late-in-life father, had died suddenly fifteen years earlier. Luckily, he’d been a hardworking, thrifty man who had paid off the mortgage on their two-bedroom ranch house, the one where both Lilah and Jess had grown up, before his heart had given out. Not so luckily, it had given out while he was in bed with another woman. Their mother still lived there.
    “She took out some kind of loan on it. And after she gets the operation, she won’t be able to do everything she used to do for a while, and she’s afraid we’re going to put her in a home, or the bank will throw her out on the street.” Jess picked up the empty plate and walked over to the sink. “Like a dog.”
    Lilah’s blood pressure spiked. “A loan? She had to take out a loan?”
    “It’s been a rough few years. The roof needed replacing, and there was something about the furnace, a utility tax, a medicine she needs that isn’t covered—”
    “How long has this been going on?” Lilah asked. “Why didn’t she tell me? We could move in with her and help out.”
    “Oh God, you know she’d hate that. She’s too proud. And she loves the idea of us being out on our own, pursuing our dreams. The last thing she wants is to add to your worries. She knows you’ve had trouble of your own, starting a career, paying for college.”
    “She didn’t want to worry me,” Lilah repeated to herself, closing her eyes. Poor Mom. Guilt washed over her. She should’ve found a steady job by now. She should’ve majored in something practical, like software engineering or rocket science. Hospitality management was what she loved, but...
    She should’ve moved to Fargo to take that hotel job that paid less than she made waitressing at the twenty-four-hour diner she worked at through college. At least then she’d have a job.
    She should’ve been born with a multimillion-dollar trust fund to pay for school.
    No point dwelling on the past. Right now she had to do whatever she could to get a real job. One that paid enough to get out of the shithole where they lived, one that would give her the resources to help the people—and dog, she thought, petting Smoky’s scruffy head—she loved.
    As soon as possible.
    Worst case, she’d go back to waitressing. That’s how she’d paid for part of college. It wasn’t so bad, but it felt like a step backward.
    Then again, it was a step that had a paycheck.
    Smoky let out a sigh and closed his eyes.
    “He’s kinda cute when he sleeps,” Jess said.
    I’ve got to figure something out , Lilah thought. But what?

    * * *
    T he first thought that crossed Gavin’s mind as he came to, long legs stretched out before him on the leather

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