Playing For Keeps (Emerald Lake Billionaires 2) Read online

  “Why was he surprised?”

  “I’m allergic to cats. I break out in a red, blotchy rash and have an itchy skin for days.”

  Ryan stopped playing his guitar. “When did you change your mind and decide to become a scientist?”

  Sophie thought through the other career choices that had come after the pet store owner. “I wanted to be a lot of things before I did my science degree. I guess the turning point came when I was sixteen. Dad hadn’t been well. He went to the doctor and was eventually diagnosed with bone cancer. He did all of the treatments his oncologist recommended, but nothing worked. That’s when I decided that I wanted to be a scientist. I wanted to help dad, but I didn’t know where to start.”

  Sophie curled her feet under her and gazed at the night sky. “Dad used to tell me that one day I’d find a cure for cancer and, when I did, he’d be smiling down at me from heaven.”

  “I’m sorry your dad died.”

  “You don’t need to be. Dad struggled at the end. In a lot of ways he’d found peace with what had happened, but his body refused to let go. When he died, we didn’t know how we were going to manage. It took a long time for us to get used to living without him.”

  “But you did?”

  “Eventually. Hayley and I started our degrees together. We stayed close to mom, even though we’d been offered scholarships at other colleges.”

  “Is your dad part of the reason Hayley became a nurse?”

  “No – she’s got a thing for doctors.”

  Ryan laughed at the smile on her face. “Does your sister have your sense of humor?”

  “We’re pretty similar, which is another reason it’s not a good idea for her to come here. You’d never survive two of us.”

  “You might be surprised.”

  Sophie didn’t think she would be. Ryan was one of the world’s nice guys. He was the type of person who stopped on the side of the road to help a complete stranger. He hadn’t grumbled too much when she’d converted his kitchen into a lab, and he hadn’t said no when John asked him to judge the local talent show. He was the type of man a woman would be crazy to ignore.

  She looked down at the lyrics. “Why didn’t you remarry after you divorced Cindy?”

  The smile disappeared off Ryan’s face. “You’ve met Cindy. I don’t think I could go through that kind of relationship again.”

  “But it doesn’t need to be like that.”

  “Maybe not, but I’m never in one place long enough to meet anyone normal. And then there’s my money. As soon as someone finds out I’m a billionaire they treat me differently. How do you work out whether someone likes you for your money or for you?”

  Sophie tried not to smile, but she couldn’t help herself. “I don’t know. I’ve never had that problem.”

  Ryan frowned. “I’m not joking. Some women start planning their bridal registry as soon as they meet me.”

  “What a hard life. It’s a wonder you can get out of bed in the morning with the amount of stress you’re under.”

  “Why aren’t you interested in my money?”

  “How do you know I’m not?”

  Ryan leaned forward. “I found the cookie jar.”

  Sophie felt a blush explode across her face. “Danny told you, didn’t he?”

  “He might have said something after I asked him why there was a jar full of money in my office.”

  “It was supposed to be a surprise,” Sophie muttered. “You wouldn’t take any money for letting me stay here, so I thought I’d put it in a jar. Danny was going to give it to you after I left.”

  “I don’t want your money.”

  Sophie lifted her chin. “I don’t care. You’re getting it anyway.”

  “You might as well keep it. I’ll just give it away to someone else.”

  “Fine. I’m sure there are plenty of organizations that would be grateful for the donation.”

  Ryan narrowed his eyes. “I’m not changing my mind.”

  “Neither am I.” Sophie reached across the table and slapped the lyrics to his song in front of him. “We haven’t finished writing these lyrics. Are we going to spend the rest of the night arguing or working?”

  Ryan picked up his guitar. “Give me some words.”

  “Has anyone ever told you you’re bossy?”

  “Those words won’t work with the song. Unless you want to add that it takes one to know one?”

  Sophie didn’t trust the gleam in his eyes or the words that were on the tip of her tongue. Ryan Evans was a force to be reckoned with. It was no wonder women threw themselves at him. It wasn’t his money that attracted them, but the man behind the words.

  And whether he liked it or not, he’d be a few hundred dollars richer by the time she left.

  CHAPTER SIX

  It had been four days since the contractors had finished polishing the wooden floors in Ryan’s home. Each day they’d opened as many windows as they could, hoping the fresh air would get rid of the lingering smell of varnish.

  He knew Sophie was as happy as she could be. There hadn’t been any strange phone calls or visitors asking about her. John’s security guards were never far away, hovering in the background like the well-trained soldiers they were.

  Ryan lifted the end of a sofa off the back of a truck. “Why didn’t you ask the delivery company to unpack the furniture?” he moaned to Jamie. “It’s taking more time than I’ve got to help you.”

  “Unless you’re working on a top secret project, we’re almost up to date with construction. Are the three women inside making you grumpy?”

  “I’m not grumpy, I’m annoyed. Dorothy and Sophie were up to no good before Tess arrived. With the three of them plotting my demise, I’ll be buried up to my neck in PR campaigns. I’ve got no idea what crazy ideas they’ll come up with.”

  “You might find out sooner than you think.” Jamie nodded toward the house. “Dorothy’s walking toward us and she’s got her cell phone out. You know what that means?”

  Ryan knew exactly what that meant. Dorothy lived and breathed by the information stored on her phone. Whether she was at the beginning, middle, or end of a project, her phone was always with her. She updated everything with the tap of a finger and drove him insane with her short, blunt, texts.

  Ryan kept his eyes on Danny. “How bad is it?”

  “She’s smiling.”

  “Damn.” A smiling Dorothy was worse than anything she could have thrown at him. She only smiled when she was up to no good.

  Jamie laughed. “Do you think she’s decided to marry you off to a rich woman with a vacation home in the Bahamas?”

  “Don’t say things like that. It might give her ideas.”

  Jamie grunted. “I need to stop for a minute.” He adjusted his grip, then scowled at Ryan. “Why did you have to buy furniture that weighs a ton? My back feels like it’s going to snap in two.”

  “Serves you right for sending the furniture truck away without getting them to unpack everything.” Ryan wasn’t worried about Jamie’s back. His project manager was built like a machine. Two truckloads of furniture wouldn’t make any difference to Jamie’s back. But Dorothy might.

  “What’s Dorothy doing now?” Ryan asked.

  “She’s right behind you,” Dorothy said in clipped tones. “I know you’ve been avoiding me for the last hour. I’m willing to put that down to mule-headed stubbornness, but the time for juvenile behavior has gone. We’ve got two excellent PR opportunities to plan. If you want to know what you’ll be doing, you’d better come with me.”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  Jamie smothered a laugh with a cough.

  Dorothy’s eyes narrowed.

  “Okay. I’m coming.” Ryan kept moving toward his front door. “I need to get this sofa into the living room before Jamie’s back breaks.”

  Dorothy swept her gaze across Jamie’s broad shoulders. “I don’t think there’s any chance of that happening,” she said sweetly. “Besides, we need Jamie as well.”


  Jamie stumbled. Ryan grabbed hold of the edge of the sofa and tried to stop it from tipping over. “You need to warn us when you’re going to say something we won’t like.”

  Dorothy rolled her eyes. “If I did that, I’d be warning you all the time. Where would the fun be in that?” She glanced at Jamie and gave her best impression of being concerned about his safety. “I have a much better way of putting all your lovely muscles to use. Where did Danny go?”

  Ryan didn’t want to tell her that he’d left as soon as he heard Dorothy was on her way. It wasn’t the type of thing a high-achieving publicist wanted to hear.

  “Danny had something to do in town,” Jamie said as they put the sofa in the living room.

  Dorothy took her shoes off at the door. “It will only take a few minutes to tell you what we need. I’m sure Danny will want to help when he finds out what we’re doing.”

  Ryan glanced at Jamie. It wasn’t the first time that Dorothy’s brainwaves had ended up being a lot of work for someone else.

  “I saw that look, Ryan Evans. This is for your own good. We need to keep our PR momentum going with positive stories about your life. Living in the middle of nowhere isn’t good for your career. At least, if you were living in New York, you could visit plenty of low-risk events.”

  Jamie laughed. “The most low-risk thing around here is our neighbor’s cattle.”

  Ryan’s gaze locked on Dorothy. “Don’t even think about it. I’m not riding a bull just for the sake of it. I’ll leave that kind of publicity to cowboys.”

  “I promise there’ll be no bull riding,” Dorothy said. “Sophie’s been working hard to organize your concert. What we need is some construction advice, which is why Jamie is here, too.”

  Ryan didn’t need to look at Jamie to know that he was worried.

  “We need a stage,” Dorothy said in her usual no-nonsense voice. “The only question is what type of stage do we build? Sophie called a couple of people I’ve used in the past and we’ve got their quotes for you to look at.”

  Ryan left his shoes in the living room and followed Dorothy into the kitchen. Tomorrow morning the kitchen joiners would work their magic on this area. Before the concert, they’d have a fully functioning kitchen.

  Tess and Sophie were sitting at the small round table overlooking the lake.

  Tess looked down at his socks and smiled. “Nice choice.”

  Ryan wiggled his toes. The bright red socks with white candy canes had been a gift from Bella, John Fletcher’s daughter. He was getting so low on clean clothes that he’d had to resort to Christmas gifts for something to wear. The sooner his house was finished, the happier he would be.

  “Our washing machine broke down. The store can’t send a new one for another couple of days.”

  Tess frowned. “How are you washing your clothes?”

  Sophie shrugged. “We’re hand washing almost everything. I’m going into town tomorrow. I’ll take a few loads of washing to the laundromat.”

  “You don’t need to do that. After we finish the meeting, I’ll take a couple of loads home with me. It won’t take long to put them in the washing machine and dryer.”

  Dorothy picked up a spoon and tapped it against the side of a glass. “We’re not here to discuss dirty laundry. Well, not the type you’re talking about, anyway. Sophie, could you show Ryan and Jamie the two quotes we’ve received?”

  Sophie opened a folder and passed Ryan four pieces of paper. “Steelfort and Stagehands have sent us their quotes for setting up and dismantling a temporary stage. We don’t know which one to choose.”

  Tess pointed to the second page of each quote. “They’ve included different things. Dorothy thought Steelfort was the best.”

  Ryan looked at one of the quotes then passed it to Jamie. He ran his eye down the second quote, checking that it had a similar number of people helping to set up the stage. It wasn’t something that any company could do overnight. Ryan was worried that they’d underestimated the time it would take. “What do you think, Jamie?” Ryan asked.

  “As much as it pains me to agree with Dorothy, she’s right. On paper, Steelfort are providing much more labor to help with getting the stage up and down. It would still be worth talking to them in person. They need to come out here and see where you want the stage built.”

  Sophie wrote something in her notebook. “What about lighting? I’ve called the person that Ryan suggested, but he’s not available when we need him. Is there another company in Bozeman that we could use?”

  Jamie rechecked the quote in his hand. “Ask the stage company if they can recommend someone or quote for the work themselves. It’s a lot easier to organize something like this if you’re only dealing with a few contractors.”

  Ryan suspected it would be a lot safer, as well. Jamie, Tess and Dorothy didn’t know anything about Sophie’s background. And he planned on keeping it that way. “Is that all?”

  “Not quite,” Dorothy said slowly. “Your ex-wife has started phase two of her character assassination.” She glanced at Ryan and gave him enough time to let her words sink in. “We need to do something fast to offset the bad publicity. The concert is too far away to make a good news story. But the first round of Tess’ talent show starts tomorrow. Even though you’re judging the final round, it won’t do you any harm to make an appearance at the preliminary heats. The children will love it and so will my photographer.”

  “I’m not good with children,” Ryan said. “Every time a toddler sees me, they burst into tears.”

  “Contestants have to be more than five-years-old to be in the talent show.” Tess stood up and poured herself a coffee from their makeshift kitchen. “You’ll probably make a few adult hearts flutter, but I think you’re safe with the children.”

  Ryan squirmed under the scrutiny of four pairs of eyes. “What about the work I need to do around here? The kitchen joiners are arriving tomorrow and Jamie wanted me to give them a hand.”

  Dorothy waved his concerns away. “Don’t worry about that. I’m sure Jamie can do without your company for a morning.”

  Jamie’s lips twitched. “I don’t know how you found Dorothy, but I wouldn’t mind her working for me. I might get a few more of my bills paid on time with her management expertise.”

  Ryan leaned back in his chair, balancing on the two back legs. “You wouldn’t want Dorothy working for you. Her management expertise can cross over into bossiness at the drop of a hat.”

  “Sometimes it’s the only way to get things done.” Dorothy glared at Ryan before consulting her phone. “You’ll need to be in town by ten o’clock sharp. Tess will be waiting for you in the library auditorium. The first round of the competition will be finished by one o’clock. That should be enough time for Molly to take the photos I need.”

  “Molly? Is Molly O’Donaghue taking your photos?” Tess asked.

  “She is,” Dorothy said. “Do you know her?”

  Tess nodded. “She’s my friend and one of The Bridesmaids Club Members. Molly is a professional photographer. Her exhibitions are incredibly popular.”

  “What happened to your last photographer?” Ryan asked. “Don’t tell me he didn’t want to work with you?”

  Dorothy looked indignant. She tilted her nose in the air and gave Ryan one of her signature withering looks. “I am not going to respond to that statement. I’m a fair and equal opportunities employer. Deal with it.”

  Dorothy was also incredibly good at what she did. No matter how snappy she became, Ryan always took notice of what she said. “Okay. I’ll meet Tess at the library tomorrow, but I’m taking Sophie with me. She can run interference with the children. If anyone looks as though they’re going to burst into tears, she can distract them from whatever’s scaring them.”

  Sophie shook her head. “I haven’t had a chance to catch up on my office work. I was going to spend most of tomorrow paying the bills that arrived this week.”

  Ryan decided to take a leaf out of Dorothy’s book. �
��If I have to go to the library, then so do you. Another couple of hours isn’t going to make any difference to the people we owe money to.”

  Sophie sighed. “It could make a big difference for a small company. Not everyone has lots of spare cash.”

  “I didn’t mean to insult anyone. It’s only for a few hours. What do you say?”

  Dorothy handed Sophie a sheet of paper. “I’ve listed the types of photos that I want. Give this to Molly when you arrive. She’ll know what to do.”

  Sophie looked at Dorothy. “It looks as though I’m going to a talent show tomorrow.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Dorothy said. “Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?”

  Ryan didn’t have to read Sophie’s mind to know that she was as unimpressed with Dorothy’s plan as he was. He just hoped the contestants were happy to see them.

  ***

  “You’ve got to be kidding?” Ryan looked at the long line of people waiting to go into the library auditorium.

  Sophie glanced at him. “What did you expect?”

  “I didn’t think there’d be so many people wanting to be in a talent show.”

  “I called Tess to let her know we were on our way. She said that as soon as she posted a message on Facebook to say you’d be here, people started arriving by the busloads. You’re lucky your sunglasses and hat cover most of your face. No one’s recognized you.”

  Ryan ignored the curious glances following them along the sidewalk. “Luck only lasts for so long.” He deliberately looked away from someone who took more than a passing interest in him. He didn’t know whether they knew who he was or were annoyed that they were walking to the front of the line. He glanced over his shoulder. The security guard following them moved closer to Sophie.

  Someone in the line pointed to Ryan. A high-pitched squeal rang out across the sidewalk. Before he knew it, a group of teenage girls was surrounding him, asking for his autograph. Cell phones appeared out of nowhere and everyone started taking photos.