The Billionaire Boys Club (Billionaire Romance Series Book 1) (17 page)

“Why are you so difficult?” Kelsey asked in exasperation.

“I didn’t think that I was,” was Tyler’s reply. “Look, Kelsey, writing a memo isn’t a big deal. We’ll just spot the issues and separate who needs to research what.”
 

“Fine,” Kelsey said. For the next half hour, Tyler and Kelsey laid out a plan for tackling the memo. Kelsey found to her surprise that she enjoyed working with Tyler. He had a very organized mind and came up with suggestions that would allow them to finish the memo quickly.
 

“So we’ll meet on Wednesday afternoon with our research?” Kelsey concluded.

Tyler nodded, and took the last sip of his coffee.
 

Kelsey put her tablet away, then said, “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” Tyler replied, looking at her.

“Do you have a condo too?” Kelsey blurted out. She couldn’t resist, she had been wondering all week.
 

Tyler laughed. “No. I certainly do not. I’m not as spoiled as Ryan,” he replied.

“You drive a nice car,” Kelsey said.

“I paid for it,” Tyler replied. “I worked before I came to law school.”
 

Kelsey was surprised to hear this. She had assumed that Tyler had attended Darrow straight out of college.

“Where?” Kelsey asked.
 

“My father’s gallery in New York,” Tyler replied.
 

“Gallery?”

“He bought an art gallery with his divorce settlement. He sells sculptures. I worked there for a year,” Tyler replied.
 

“Is your father an artist?” Kelsey asked, fascinated.

“You haven’t read my mother’s Wikipedia page?” Tyler asked. “I assume you know who my mother is?”

“I know,” Kelsey said.

“It will tell you everything you want to know,” Tyler said, grinning and standing up. “Just don’t change anything on it, or she’ll sue you.”
 

Kelsey laughed. “I’ll see you later, Tyler.”
 

“Six a.m. tomorrow, Princess,” Tyler said, and he left the cafe.
 
Kelsey pulled out her tablet and went to Wikipedia. Now she was really curious about Tyler. She looked up Tactec.

Kelsey clicked through to the founders, and found Tyler’s mom’s Wiki page. She skimmed past the corporate information and went straight to the Personal Information section.
 

Tyler had obviously been joking about his mother suing, because Kelsey was surprised by the depth of personal details on the page. As she had known from Ryan, Ms. Olsen had been an intellectual property lawyer working in Seattle, before she founded Tactec. She had represented Tyler’s father, a local sculptor, in a lawsuit and they had got married six weeks before Tyler was born.

When Tyler was two, there were rumors that Ms. Olsen and the Tactec co-founder Mr. Perkins were having an affair. Both Tyler’s father and Ryan’s mother divorced the firm’s respective co-founders. Ryan’s mother made out well in her divorce, while Tyler’s parents fought bitterly over theirs and over Tyler.
 

Ultimately, Ms. Olsen forced a settlement. A local commentator said at the time, “... the agreement meant that the sculptor Chris Davis was allowed to keep his fifteen-year-old car, while everything else stayed with his millionaire wife.”

Kelsey turned off the tablet. Tyler Olsen was more complex than she expected. She put the tablet in her bag and left the cafe.

“Hi, Kelsey,” Zachary said that night in the dining hall. “Mind if I join you?”

“Please do,” Kelsey replied. Although Zachary sat next to Tyler in class, she hadn’t really got to know him.
 

“Tyler and Ryan went to Tyler’s house for dinner,” he said, putting his tray down and sitting.
 

Jessica walked up and sat next to Kelsey with her tray.
 

“Zach, this is my roommate Jessica. Jess, this is Tyler’s roommate, Zachary.’
“You look familiar,” Zachary said as Jess picked a carrot out of her salad. “Where are you from?”

“New York,” Jessica replied. “You look familiar too. Where did you go to college?”

“Princeton.”

“No way! Me too,” Jessica grinned.

“I graduated last year,” Zachary said.

“I graduated in June,” Jessica replied.

“No wonder. I thought I knew you from somewhere,” Zachary said, picking up his fork.

“Small world,” Jessica said.
 

“What did you do with your year before Darrow?” Kelsey asked.
 

“I traveled with Ryan for a few months, then worked in my parents’ office for the rest of the year.”
 

“Are you, Tyler, and Ryan all the same age?” Kelsey asked.

Zachary nodded. “We are. Tyler wanted to defer Darrow so he could spend some time with his dad, so Ryan and I waited for him so we could all come together.”

“Is Tyler’s dad a billionaire too?” Jessica asked.
 

Zachary laughed. “He’s a starving artist. It’s good, he can give Ryan and Tyler tips on how to live without money.”

“What do you mean?” Jessica asked.

“Both of their parents are giving most of their money to charity. Tyler and Ryan aren’t going to get anything until they’re in their forties, and it won’t be much,” Zach said, eating.

“Wait, what?” Jessica asked. “Are you kidding me? Billions of dollars to charity?”

“You’ve heard of the Giving Pledge?” Zach asked.

Kelsey and Jessica shook their heads.
 

“Billionaires agree to give most of their money to charity instead of giving it to their kids,” Zach continued. “Tyler’s mom and Ryan’s dad signed on.”
 

“Wow,” Jessica said. “They aren’t walking around in rags though.”

Kelsey giggled. “Their parents are still billionaires, Jess. It’s for the future.”
 

Zachary broke a breadstick. “It’s going to hurt Ryan the most. He’s not used to a budget.”
 

“I’ve seen his car. And condo,” Kelsey commented.
 

“Exactly,” Zachary replied.
 

“You aren’t a billionaire, right?” Jessica asked.

“No,” Zachary laughed.
 

“Neither are we,” Jessica replied, grinning. Kelsey giggled.

“Yeah, that’s obvious, Jess,” Kelsey said.
 

“What do your parents do, Jessica?” Zachary asked.

“They’re dentists.”
 

“It’s why you have such beautiful teeth,” Kelsey said.
 

“I’m a walking advertisement,” Jessica said, smiling broadly. Zachary and Kelsey laughed.
 

“How about you, Kels?”

“My parents run a sporting goods store in Port Townsend,” she said.
 

“Brick-and-mortar, or internet?” Zach asked.
 

“It’s a store. We don’t sell on the internet,” Kelsey replied.

“Too bad. I need some new skis,” Zachary said.
 

“I can ask my dad to recommend some for you, then you can get them at REI. We don’t sell them anyway.”

“Really? Thanks, Kels, that would be great. I’m always lost as to what to buy there. That place is way too big.”

“What’s REI?” Jessica asked. Zachary and Kelsey looked at her in surprise.

“America’s wilderness store,” Zachary said. “It’s a huge chain.”

Jessica shrugged.
 

“There’s no wilderness in New York,” she replied.

“Well, that’s a let-down,” Jessica said as she got into bed.

“What?” Kelsey asked, snuggling into her pillow. She was tired from the week.

“Tyler and Ryan aren’t billionaires,” Jessica said.
 

“So?”

“Oh, come on, Kels. Imagine having billionaire parents, and they decide that you don’t get any of it. That sucks.”

“I imagine that Tyler and Ryan have known for a while that they weren’t going to inherit,” Kelsey said sleepily. “Anyway, they aren’t exactly lacking for money. It’s probably hard to spend a billion dollars anyway.”

“Well, I’d certainly be willing to try, if someone wanted to make me the offer,” Jessica said.

“Ryan seems to be storing up as much as possible,” Kelsey noted.
 

“You said the condo was incredible.”
 

“It was,” Kelsey yawned.
 

“I looked it up. The pledge seems to be a big deal among the billionaire set,” Jessica said. “Very noble. But I wonder why you would decide to do that.”

“You care about the world? You don’t want your kids to grow up spoiled? I bet there are lots of reasons,” Kelsey replied.
 

“I guess,” Jessica said. “Oh, well, I suppose it isn’t my problem. It’s really interesting though. Goodnight, Kels.”
 

“Goodnight, Jess.”
 

The next morning in the gym, Kelsey was thinking about what Jessica had said when Tyler walked in, nodded at her, and began his routine. She wondered what he thought about not inheriting his mother’s money. Kelsey wondered if that was the reason he was so driven. She glanced at him as he worked out on the elliptical machine, in a world of his own.
 

All weekend, Kelsey worked on the writing assignment. She wanted to do a good job on the project. One thing she had to admit, she didn’t have to worry about her legal writing partner not doing any work. She walked through her notes as she sat in the library, headphones in her ears to block out the occasional sound in the room. Kelsey only left the library for meals, sleep, and her Sunday morning workout. Jessica spent her weekend working on her Civ Pro outline, and just a small portion of it on her legal writing assignment. Jessica didn’t feel that she needed to work that hard on a pass/fail assignment and she certainly didn’t feel driven to prove anything to her partner. Kelsey did.
 

Monday morning, Kelsey, Jessica and Dylan sat through another impenetrable Civil Procedure class. After a quick break they spent comparing notes and realizing that none of them had understood what the morning’s lecture had been about, they moved into their assigned seats for Torts.
 

Tyler sat next to Kelsey and took out his iPad. She turned to him.
 

“Have you worked on Legal Writing?”

Tyler glanced at her.
 

“A little,” he said. “I was busy this weekend.” He didn’t elaborate, but since Kelsey knew he had gone home on Friday, she wondered if it had something to do with his mother or Tactec. “Are we still on for Wednesday?”
 

“Sure,” Kelsey said, as Professor Wadsworth walked into the room.

Monday afternoon, Kelsey and Jessica sat in the library working on Civil Procedure. Dylan had complained of a headache and had gone back to the dorm.
 
At six, Ashley messaged Jessica and they met her for dinner at the dining hall.
 

“Where’s Dylan?” Ashley asked them when she arrived. She was wearing a pink sheath dress and pink kitten heels, and was quite a contrast to Jessica and Kelsey, in their usual uniform of jeans and fleece.
 

“Headache,” Jessica said.

“Too bad. I’m going to get a salad,” Ashley said, walking off.
 

“How does she not freeze to death?” Jessica asked.
 

“No idea,” Kelsey said, taking a bowl of mashed potatoes off the line.
 

“She’s as cute as pie, though,” Jessica said. They paid for their food and walked over to a table.
 

Ashley sat at the table with her salad a few minutes later.
 

“Kelsey, I have a question for you. You’ve known Dylan for a while, right?”

“Since college,” Kelsey said, taking a forkful of chicken Kiev.
 

“Does he have a drinking problem?” Ashley asked quietly.

“Okay, that’s out of the blue,” Jess commented.

“Matthew says that he drinks quite a bit,” Ashley continued softly.
 

“Dylan isn’t much of a drinker,” Kelsey said, shaking her head. “At least he wasn’t in school.”
 

“You might want to ask him,” Ashley said, taking a slice of cucumber out of the salad.
 

“More slander from Matthew?” Jessica asked, when they were back in their room. “What do you think? Do you think Dylan’s been drinking a lot?”
 

Kelsey frowned. “I don’t know. We haven’t seen him much lately.”
 

“He hasn’t been drinking around us when we have,” Jessica commented. “Then again, they don’t sell liquor at the dining hall.”
 

“That’s a strange thing to say if it isn’t true,” Kelsey said.

“Yeah, but it’s Matthew. He’s always got something to say.”

“I suppose,” Kelsey said, thoughtfully.
 

“Maybe we should talk to him?” Jessica said.
 

“Well, we know we’ll see him on Saturday,” Kelsey said. “We can talk to him at the concert.”

“That’s a good idea. They’ll have alcohol there, so we can see for ourselves,” Jessica replied. “Now that we have a plan, I won’t worry.”

Tuesday, Kelsey, Jessica and Dylan attended Civil Procedure again and faced the usual confusion. They walked over to the cafe in the Student Center after class.
 

“I’m not sure how much more I can take,” Jessica said, putting her head in her hands.
 

“We’ll understand it at some point,” Kelsey said.
 

Dylan sat silently.
 

“Are you okay?” Jessica asked him. His eyes were red and he looked tired. “You look like you have the flu.”
 

“I’m not feeling great,” Dylan said.
 

“Better rest up. We have Property this afternoon,” Jessica said.

“I know. I’m barely understanding that,” Dylan replied. He rubbed his head and drank some coffee.
 

“Maybe you should go back to bed,” Kelsey said.
 

“Maybe,” Dylan said. He took another drink of coffee.
 

“It might help,” Jessica said.