Her Billionaire Heartthrob: Billionaire Bachelor Mountain Cove Read online

  She pulled back suddenly and stepped away from Liam. His breathing was as ragged as hers. “We can’t do this.”

  “Why not?” His voice was hoarse, his gaze intent. “We clearly have feelings for each other. Viola, I’ve never felt like this for anyone in my life.”

  “Then why did you leave?” she asked. “I can’t trust you.”

  “I won’t leave again like that.”

  “You can’t say that. Your life isn’t here.”

  “It could be. It is right now.”

  “But not forever. You have homes around the United States, and a company that takes you around the world for months at a time. And I’ll never leave,” she said.

  “We can make this work. I want to try.” He took her hand in his and pressed their palms together, lifting her hand to kiss her fingers. Her heartbeat ratcheted up to racing.

  It would be so easy to say yes. So easy to give in to these feelings.

  And get hurt again when he leaves? She couldn’t go through that. Not again. She unhooked their hands and opened her car door. “I’m sorry, Liam.”

  He watched as she backed out of her parking spot and drove away. She managed to keep her emotions together until she arrived back at the house. Grandma was already home, and Viola could see her through the open window, sitting in her rocking chair, most likely waiting for Viola, though she’d deny it if Viola called her out on it. She’d changed from her detective costume into a nightdress, and the light of the television flickered against her face.

  Viola opened the door and tried to paste on a happy smile.

  “How did it go?” her grandma asked.

  And before she could stop herself, Viola burst into tears.

  ✽✽✽

  Viola awoke the next morning, still feeling like she’d made the right decision, despite the reservations on her grandma’s face the night before when she’d explained her justification for turning Liam down.

  Love always means risking hurt, she’d said.

  Well, I’ve been hurt enough, Viola had replied.

  Grandma had gotten up early to make Viola’s favorite breakfast: a bacon, cheddar, and avocado omelet.

  “You didn’t have to do this,” she said as her grandma slid the plate in front of her. She usually had a bowl of cereal or a piece of toast, if she had breakfast at all.

  “I know. I feel bad I missed seeing you get your award and wanted to do this for you.”

  Viola ate her breakfast while her grandma told her all about the night before. Dane Lowbridge was even more handsome in person than he was on the show, apparently. They’d hit it off, and Grandma had somehow managed to snag his phone number. “I told him about that Billionaire Mountain Cove place up in the mountains,” she said. “I think I’m going to try to set him up with Naomi.”

  “Grandma,” she warned. “Naomi has enough on her plate. She doesn’t need you setting her up.” Naomi was a single mom of two little kids, and she had catered the gala the night before. “Don’t meddle.”

  “It’s not meddling. It’s presenting an opportunity. They can both turn it down, if they’re dumb.”

  Viola rolled her eyes, but laughed. She’d been the recipient more than one of her grandma’s “opportunities” and was glad she wasn’t on the Dane Lowbridge blind date short list.

  She stood and rinsed off her plate, then grabbed her jacket and keys to head out. Normally, she didn’t work Saturdays, but she couldn’t sit around the house, thinking about Liam—or worse, kissing Liam—or she’d go crazy.

  When she opened the door, she saw a gold-embossed box sitting on the mat. She picked it up, reading the name of an expensive, handcrafted chocolate store in Bentonville on the box.

  A folded over note was taped to the top, and she flipped it up.

  To Viola,

  A gift from one business associate to another.

  Liam

  PS. I’m really so very, very sorry.

  She snort-laughed, and despite herself, she felt her heart thawing toward him again.

  “What’s that?” her grandma asked, seeing the package in her hands.

  “Chocolates. From Liam.”

  “Ohh, this place is amazing. Me and the ladies have been trying to get a tour for ages, but they’re always booked out.”

  Viola opened the box and took out a chocolate at random. One bite in, and she nearly gagged. “Oh my gosh, these are the worst.”

  Her grandma looked at her like she was crazy as she finished the chocolate she’d snagged over Viola’s shoulder. “They’re incredible.”

  Viola set her chocolate piece down and rushed to get a drink. “I have never had anything so bitter. Is he trying to kill me?”

  Her grandma raised an eyebrow. “You need a refined palate to enjoy this, I guess.”

  “Well, call my palate unrefined then, because I prefer my chocolate to be sweet.” She slid the box across the table toward her grandma. “Here, you can have the rest.”

  Her grandma ate another chocolate, making Viola’s nose scrunch. How in the world could she eat that? She left her house, smiling though, all the way to work, both at the gesture and how terrible it turned out to be.

  When she got to the office, she sat in her car another minute to text Liam. I told you to stop telling me sorry, but I’ll accept the apology for subjecting me to that chocolate.

  His reply came moments later. Subjecting you?

  Have you ever heard of sugar? Cream?

  He sent a GIF of someone pantomiming a stab to the heart. That is from one of the best chocolatiers in the entire United States. When I learned they were here, I was even more excited to come to Arkansas.

  She laughed and sent a GIF of someone in a chef’s hat pouring copious amounts of cream and sugar into a mixing bowl. As she did, she realized he hadn’t looked at his phone once the night before. For all she knew, he hadn’t even brought it with him. The thought made her smile, until his next text came in.

  Come with me to take a tour of the chocolate shop. Let me try to change your mind about dark chocolate.

  Her stomach jumped, but she typed back, I’d better not. Work.

  I can schedule it for after work hours…

  Liam, I can’t.

  He didn’t respond, and after a moment, she left to go to her office. He definitely didn’t feel like the business associate she needed him to be, not after last night. She’d have to keep busy today, or she’d forget why keeping him at a distance was a good idea.

  Chapter 12

  Liam threw the ball as hard as he could, and Darcy and Jax flew after it. Darcy edged Jax out for the catch—she was younger and definitely had more energy of the two, but it never kept Jax from trying.

  Callie and Xander were getting home from Seattle late tonight, and that would be the end of Liam’s dog watching career for now. He’d learned that although he loved playing with the dogs here and there, he definitely wasn’t in the market to get his own full-time dog to take care of.

  He was in the market for a new chair, though, since Jax chewed one of his up.

  His phone buzzed, and he pulled it out, surprised to see a text from Viola.

  He hadn’t expected to hear from her again since she’d turned him down for the chocolate tour. Once again, he wanted to punch Past-Liam in the face for leaving Viola waiting for him on the beach.

  What had he been thinking? The problem was, he hadn’t been thinking. His mind had been so focused on work that he’d had no space for anything—or anyone—else in his thoughts. Since unplugging for real—he hadn’t checked a single work-related account or device since Viola chucked his phone down the vent at the theater—it felt like the sun had finally come out over a cloudy day. He was getting more and more glimmers of the lightness he’d felt while he was in Hawaii. The bands around his chest were loosening every moment, and for the first time, he was realizing how stressed and unhappy he’d been for the last few years.

  Scaffolding starts Monday, she said.

  Thanks for th
e heads up, he replied back.

  Also, is it too late to take you up on that after-hours chocolate tour?

  His heart skipped. No, the offer is still good.

  Good, because my grandma near about kicked me to the curb when I told her I’d said no.

  It was too much to hope that her grandma, who had never met him, was in any way rooting for him. Especially if Viola told her about Hawaii. She loves chocolate?

  She thanks you, whole-heartedly, for the box of chocolates.

  That made him laugh out loud. Would she like to come on the tour?

  Three little dots appeared, and he waited for her response.

  Oh my gosh. She said her plan was to tie me up and stash me in the closet so she could go with you herself, but just coming along is better overall.

  She sounds fun.

  Viola sent him an eye roll emoji, followed by a heart. Just let us know when.

  Let me call and set it up, and I’ll message you.

  He pulled up the chocolate shop’s website right away. Apparently their day-tours were booked out for the next month, and they didn’t do after-hours tours. After asking to speak with the owner—and offering to pay double everyone’s hourly pay if they stayed late—he had a time set up Friday evening.

  Grandma’s excited, she replied when he sent her the time.

  And you?

  I’ll have my Hershey’s in my purse.

  He laughed again. Even if he couldn’t win her over to artisan chocolate, he was glad for any excuse to spend time with her. And meet her grandma. Nerves swirled through him as he wondered what Viola’s grandma might think of him already.

  ✽✽✽

  Callie and Xander gathered their dogs and headed back to their house, completely beat from a day of traveling. Callie was already missing Cole, but she said he was definitely thriving at his school, which made it a little easier to leave him there.

  The house was quiet without the dogs. Liam itched to text Viola again but knew it was too soon. He didn’t want to be in her space, especially when he knew he was barely welcome in the little bit of space she’d allowed him to have.

  After swimming a thousand meters, showering, and practicing a few of the meditation techniques the therapist had shown him, he was still struggling to fall asleep. Instead of fighting his body, he got up and turned on his computer.

  All day, his mind had been on the history of the old theater. What in the world had possessed someone to up and leave it? And why the doll?

  The purchase records showed that the theater had sold in December, almost twenty-five years ago. Liam went to a newspaper archive for Eureka Springs and bought a subscription so he could look up old editions.

  An hour later, his diligence was rewarded in the obituary section.

  Jenny (Tripp) Samuelson (32) and Lily Samuelson (9), daughter and grand-daughter of Marcus Tripp were killed in a plane wreck on New Year’s Day. Marcus Tripp, a frequent flier of his Cessna, was also in the crash, and is in the hospital in Little Rock. The funeral and interment will be held in Montgomery, Alabama, where Jenny lived with her husband. “They will be missed,” said, Marigold Nightingdale, a very close childhood friend of Jenny Tripp, thoughts which reflect most of the town. A quiet and reserved woman, Jenny loved updating the murals on the Old Grand walls when she came to visit. Her daughter, a budding artist herself, created many of the window displays the town loved. “The more color, the better, she used to say,” said Marigold Nightingdale.

  Flowers and cards can be sent to Morgan Mortuary in Montgomery, Alabama.

  Liam’s heart dropped. Marcus Tripp had been flying the plane that had killed his daughter and granddaughter. He continued reading paper after paper, his eyes scanning for any information about the Tripps.

  Finally, about six weeks later, Marcus’s name popped up again in a short article under the Local Interest section. It more aptly could have been named, The Gossip Column, as he learned who had a baby recently, who was deployed, and who got which scholarships to which colleges so far. Near the end, he spotted Marcus’s name.

  Marcus Tripp has returned from an extended stay in the St. Vincent Hospital in Little Rock. In a phone interview, he stated that The Old Grand Theater will be closing as of this moment. “I should have closed it ages ago and moved to Montgomery to be with my daughter while I could.” Christmas won’t be the same without The Old Grand, but for a man missing his daughter and granddaughter, Christmas will never be the same again.

  Liam sat back in his chair, the air whooshing out of him. He hadn’t imagined something so sad when he’d set out to see what had happened. Businesses failed every day, and he’d assumed that for this theater it had been the same.

  Except for that doll. He pulled up the first picture he’d found, weeks before, of Marcus with his wife and daughter. Jenny clutched the doll in her arms, and he swore it had to be the same one. Perhaps he couldn’t bear to take it with him. Or bear to look at it, where ever he’d gone.

  After buying another online subscription—this time to a family roots researching site—Liam entered Marcus’s full name and found a picture of his grave. He had been buried in Montgomery, Alabama, near his daughter and granddaughter, twenty years ago. From a posted family story, Liam learned he’d died of lingering effects from the accident. In a faded photo of the man in the hospital, he saw that his arm, chest, and neck were burned, and his leg was in traction.

  The death certificate stated heart failure as the cause of death.

  Weighed down with this man’s tragedy, and feeling as though he were peering into private sorrow that wasn’t his business, he powered down his laptop, and sat in the dark, thinking.

  His own father had died of a heart attack, not long after Xander’s wedding. In some ways, he’d been a hard man, always driven, always measuring a person by their work ethic and success. Xander had gotten close to their grandfather when he had rebelled, but Liam had always been the solid one. The responsible one. The one who proved again and again that he could succeed, but still recognized the small frown of disappointment on his dad’s face that pushed him to try even harder.

  Life could end in an instant, and what did he have to show for it?

  He shuddered at the thought of losing his mom or Xander. He and his mom weren’t close—he’d always been too busy to get close to her—something he regretted now that she was getting older.

  He’d always prioritized money and the expansion of his company over every other thing in his life, but what if he had chosen the wrong things? Was it too late to change? Could he change?

  He went to bed, his mind whirling with thoughts, and when he finally fell asleep, it was to the vision of a lone doll in a theater seat.

  Chapter 13

  “I like the spider,” Liam said when Viola opened the door to his knock Friday evening. He hooked his thumb behind him to where the spider had been decked out as a Thanksgiving pilgrim.

  “That’s all Grandma,” she replied. “Let me grab her. Come on in.”

  He stepped into her house, and she tried not to feel self-conscious as he peered around. Their house was over a hundred years old and perfectly fit her and Grandma in its small space. She could only imagine the luxury homes Liam was used to.

  “So, you’re the one who stood my granddaughter up in Hawaii.”

  “Grandma!” Viola’s cheeks burned. Grandma stood in the hallway, her arms folded over her stomach, her eyebrows raised in challenge. She’d put on dark black slacks and a white silky shirt with tiny black hearts scattered across it, and her white hair had been styled, just that morning, in loose curls around her ears and neck.

  “It’s okay,” Liam said. “That was me. I don’t know what I was thinking, but it was wrong, and I’d never do something like that again.”

  Something about him was different tonight, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Maybe it was how serious he was. He was always serious, but tonight, it seemed like his smiles might be more challenging to come by.

/>   Grandma studied him for a beat too long to be comfortable and then nodded firmly. “I believe you,” she said. “Don’t let me down.”

  And with that, she swept past them both to head outside toward Liam’s car.

  “Tonight’s going to be a wild ride,” Viola muttered.

  “I like her. She reminds me of you,” Liam said, the twinkle she’d been missing back in his eye.

  He’d come by once the week before, while she was up on the scaffolding at the theater, to check on things. She’d realized then that she missed him. The feeling had scared her, so she’d refused to come down from the scaffolding. After a few minutes of shouting to each other to be heard over the traffic at that distance, he’d left. But instead of feeling relieved, she’d felt disappointed.

  He held out his arm, and she took it and let him lead her outside to the car. A delicious zing went through her at being tucked up right beside him. This close, she could smell the fresh soap from his shower. It looked like he’d just shaved, as well. Grandma was already sitting in the front seat, so Viola slipped into the back, reluctant to let Liam go.

  Grandma didn’t waste any time quizzing Liam on his family as soon as he backed out of the driveway. Viola couldn’t be embarrassed, because she was curious as well. She’d met his parents briefly at the wedding, but otherwise, didn’t know much about him. During most of the forty-five minute drive, he told them about moving all over the United States, opening up one store after another, and then landing in L.A. He had a master’s degree in business and he had graduated at the top of his class, which didn’t surprise her. He seemed like the kind of person who tried to do the best at everything he put his mind to.

  There was a lull in the conversation, and Liam spoke, somewhat hesitantly, “Do you remember Marcus Tripp, The Old Grand Theater owner?”