Playing For Keeps (Emerald Lake Billionaires 2) (11 page)

“Have a good life, Cindy. I hope you get everything you want, except my money.” With that parting shot, he closed the door. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, sent a quick text to Danny, then went to find Sophie.

He didn’t know where Jamie was, but he knew for a fact that Sophie wasn’t choosing paint colors. “Sophie? Where are you?”

“Up here.”

He followed Sophie’s voice to the last bedroom off the landing. He walked through the doorway and frowned at what he saw. “You shouldn’t be doing that on your own. If you’d asked, I could have helped.”

Sophie was standing on an old wooden sawhorse in front of a window. She had an electric drill in one hand and a curtain rail bracket in the other. “If I’m going to stay here I need curtains.”

Ryan looked inside an old box beside the sawhorse. She’d brought more than curtains with her. Sheets, blankets, and half a dozen books had been crammed into the box.

He stood beside her and held the curtain bracket in place. “Thanks for not saying anything to Cindy.”

Sophie pulled the trigger on the drill and finished tightening the screw. “What are the photos she was talking about?”

“I was young and stupid. Cindy wanted to take some photos of me standing buck naked in the middle of Main Street. She took the photos to show everyone that I hadn’t chickened out of the dare. I thought she’d destroyed them years ago, but I was wrong.”

“Do you really think the people who enjoy listening to your music will be worried about the photos? Most people have done something they’ve regretted.”

Ryan held out his hand and Sophie passed him the drill. He took the other bracket off the windowsill and held it in place.

Sophie watched what he was doing. “You need to lift the bracket a quarter inch higher.”

Ryan moved the bracket and waited for her to nod before screwing it into the wall. “Have you done anything you’re not proud of?”

She shook her head. “Nope. I can’t think of anything. What are you going to do about the photos?”

“There’s nothing I can do. My lawyer has done everything she can to keep Cindy from publishing them.”

Sophie jumped off the sawhorse and took a curtain out of the box. “Are you working through Dorothy’s list of things you need to do?”

“Trying to.” The curtains Sophie had chosen were deep brown with flecks of cream, red, and black swirling in an abstract pattern.

She looked at him. “You can put some hooks on the heading tape.” She passed him a small plastic container and the other curtain. “Watch me.” Sophie turned her curtain around and showed him how to thread the hooks through the tape. “You’ll need to put one hook on every third pleat.”

“Did you buy these today?”

Sophie nodded. “I stopped by the thrift store on my way to Jake’s Hardware. Can you believe they were only eight dollars?”

It sounded like a bargain, but that wasn’t the point. “You’re going to be sleeping in a multi-million dollar house. I could have afforded new curtains.”

“I’m sure you could have, but I like these ones. When I’m gone, you can replace them with whatever you like.” Sophie didn’t seem the least bit upset about having to hang secondhand curtains. “If you’re worried about bugs and things, the lady in the thrift store said they’d been washed before they put them out for sale.”

“I don’t care if they’ve been washed. You didn’t need to buy second-hand curtains.”

Sophie ignored him. She went back to the box and pulled out a cotton sheet.

Ryan didn’t want to ask where she’d found the sheets. He looked around the room and walked across to the folding bed that Tanner had carried upstairs.

Sophie flicked the sheet open. “In case you’re wondering, the sheets were on special at Walmart.”

He could have sworn he saw a flicker of a smile cross her face. “Is there anything you didn’t buy at a discounted price?”

This time, Sophie did smile. “The curtain hooks were full price, but the man in the hardware store gave me a discount for the curtain rail and brackets. You still haven’t told me what you’ve done about Dorothy’s list.”

“You’re helping with the concert, so that’s started. Dorothy’s team have taken lots of photos of me, so she’s happy with that. The new songs are a work in progress.” He took the other sheet out of the box. “I’m not sure any of it will do any good.”

“It can’t be worse than seeing naked photos of yourself everywhere?” Sophie pulled a blanket out of the box. “I’ve got an idea, but I don’t know whether it would work.”

She waited for Ryan to move away from the bed before continuing. “I saw Tess and her friend Rachel at Angel Wings Café this afternoon. Tess makes meals for a local church group. They help people who need a meal or some company. Maybe you could use the concert as a fundraiser for them? They might have a special project that could do with some extra money.”

Ryan passed Sophie the books that were in the box. “I’m not sure I’m the right fit. I ran down Main Street buck naked. I don’t know if a church group would want me raising money for them.”

“That must have been a long time ago. People change, especially when they’re wearing clothes.”

Ryan ignored her grin. If he wanted to use the concert as a fundraiser, a local church was probably the best group to work with. “Do you know the name of the group?”

“Tess told me, but I can’t remember. I’ll find out and let you know. What did you think about Dorothy’s time frame for the concert? Can we get everything organized in two months?”

“The sooner we have it, the happier Dorothy will be. I’ll call the guys in my band. They’ll do what they can to get here, especially if they know the concert was Dorothy’s idea.”

Sophie picked up the empty box. “It looks as though both of us are going to be busy. I’m going to town tomorrow. Do you want to come with me?”

“Not tomorrow. I’m heading across to Great Falls to look at some lighting options for the house. We could catch up tomorrow evening if that works for you?”

“Sounds good.” Sophie looked around her bedroom. “I’m glad you convinced me to stay here. It’s going to be so much better than sleeping in my car.”

“You might regret saying that when we really start organizing the concert,” Ryan warned her.

“I don’t think so. It’s good to have something to focus on.”

Ryan watched her leave the room. At least while Sophie was working for him, she was safe. And for now, so was he.

CHAPTER FIVE

“Jeez. What’s that smell?”

Sophie added four tablespoons of Ginkgo powder to the liquid simmering on Ryan’s stove top. “It’s a dietary supplement. Once it’s cooled down, you won’t smell a thing.”

She glanced over her shoulder and sighed. Ryan looked every bit as devastating at seven-thirty in the morning as he did at night. If they were going to live together, she was going to have to build some kind of super immunity to him. With his sleep-tousled hair and unshaven face, he could easily make her wish that her life was different.

“It smells like something a cat might have dragged in.”

Sophie blinked back her confusion. “You don’t have a cat, and even if you did, they wouldn’t find anything that smelled like this. In half an hour you won’t even know I’ve been in the kitchen.”

Ryan yawned and walked closer to the stove. He peered over her shoulder into the brown bubbling liquid. “Will it keep crazy ex-wives away from me?”

Sophie took a small step sideways. “No, but it might make you remember that you’re supposed to be in Great Falls by nine o’clock.”

“I’ve got plenty of time.” He held his nose and looked inside the pot again. “What do you do with it?”

“You drink it. It helps you remember things.”

Ryan walked across to the toaster. “Like my appointment in Great Falls?”

Sophie breathed a sigh of relief. Her brain short-circuited when he was close to her. It was almost like a huge magnetic field surrounded him. When she stepped into its path, all logic and common sense disappeared.

Last night she’d thought long and hard about what she’d tell Ryan when he asked what she was making. There was no way he wouldn’t ask. The first time she’d made her supplement, she’d wondered what on earth she’d done. The smell had been horrendous. But each of the ingredients had healing properties that had been used for hundreds of years. She still didn’t fully understand what it was about this particular combination that worked, but it did.

Ryan leaned against their makeshift counter. “Have you got a problem with your memory?”

Sophie checked the temperature of the liquid. “My memory’s fine. It’s for someone else.” She could have lied and told him it helped people sleep, or lose weight, or cleanse their liver. Any of those things would have worked, but it was one more lie to remember, one more detail that could trip her up and blow her cover.

“How do you send it to them?”

“I leave it to cool down, then pour it into plastic containers. The courier collects the containers and delivers them to where they need to go.”

Ryan opened the fridge door and pulled out the butter. “Did you learn how to make the potion at the university you worked for?”

“No, not really. And it’s not a potion.” She frowned at him and he smiled. She picked up a wooden spoon and stirred the liquid. It was better than staring at his slow, easy smile and grinning back like a star-struck teenager. “I was looking at the use of medicinal plants for something else and found a combination that helps with memory loss.”

Two years ago, the team she’d been working with had been researching the similarities between Down syndrome and other genetic disorders. She’d been looking at alternative plant-based therapies and comparing their effectiveness with current drug-based treatments. After she’d reviewed the results of successful trials against those that weren’t, she’d started to dig deeper.

It was the differences between the combinations of herbs and medicinal plants that intrigued her. After another three months of research, she’d presented her preliminary findings to her professor. She’d waited for him to be as excited as she was, but that hadn’t happened. He’d been unimpressed with her research and had reassigned her to another team.

Sophie had felt so strongly about what she’d discovered that she’d kept working on her project. Most of her evenings were spent in the university lab, trying different combinations of plants and testing them on a group of students.

After months of trial and error, the results had been incredible. Within two weeks of taking the latest formula, the students had shown a dramatic increase in their sensory, short-term, and long-term memory. After two months, the results had continued to improve until,
at four months, their memory function plateaued.

What had amazed Sophie the most wasn’t the initial trial, but what happened afterward. Once phase one of the treatment was complete, the students required only
one cup of the liquid per week to retain memory function at optimum levels. With no noticeable side-effects and incredibly low costs to produce, Sophie’s dietary supplement could help many people. It wasn’t until later, when her mom started using the supplement, that she knew it could help people with Alzheimer’s disease.

“What are you doing in town today?”

Sophie dropped the spoon she’d been holding and frowned at Ryan.

He bit into a piece of toast. “The fumes might be bad for your health.”

Sophie pulled herself together. Her mom was almost out of the supplement and needed this batch before the end of the week. A charming musician with a deep voice wouldn’t distract her from what she needed to do.

She took one last look in the pot before checking her watch. “The fumes are fine. If anything, they’re probably good for you. To answer your question, I’m starting to organize your concert. I called Tess last night. I’ve made an appointment to see her and speak with Pastor Steven. He runs the group I told you about. I called Rachel and we’re having coffee at John’s home after she finishes work. Dorothy is waiting to hear back from us. Once I’ve spoken to Pastor Steven, we could look at dates for the concert.”

“You’re going to be busy.”

“No busier than you’ve been. You ordered a huge amount of furniture yesterday.”

Ryan looked surprised that she’d noticed. “Did you look at any of the catalogs? I circled the furniture I’m buying.”

“Jamie left two of the catalogs on the desk in your office. I had a quick look.”

“Do you think what I’ve chosen will look all right with what the architect had in mind?”

Sophie took a clean bowl out of the dishwasher. “The furniture looks great. I don’t think it matters what the architect would have chosen. It’s your home, you can do what you want. Have you seen the cereal?”

Ryan handed her a box of Raisin Bran. “Can I tell you a secret?”

Sophie nodded.

“I’ve never bought new furniture before. The apartments I’ve rented have all been fully furnished. I’m worried that I’ve chosen the wrong things.”

She tipped some cereal into her bowl. “Ask the stores if they’ll deliver the furniture on a trial. If you don’t like anything you could choose something else. But for what my opinion’s worth, I love what you’ve chosen. The colors are lovely and warm. I could imagine sinking into the sofa with a cup of hot
chocolate on a cold winter’s night.”