Crazy Love (Emerald Lake Billionaires 3) (22 page)

Nothing Nick had said was news to Holly, but Daniel had been even more shocked when he’d told them the sale price of his last painting. No wonder Holly wanted to keep their careers separate. The kind of publicity that came from having a famous father wasn’t always good.

John Fletcher had been the next person they’d called. If there was anything she should be wary of, his security company would uncover it.

Daniel turned the first page of the report over and stared at a photograph of Holly’s father—a face as familiar to him as Holly’s. There was an energy that surrounded Brian Miller, a force that would be hard to ignore.

He read the report included with the photo. Holly’s father had never remarried after leaving his wife and daughter. He had no additional children and lived a frugal, almost hermit-like existence in the Scottish Highlands. The one-page report said nothing more.

He picked up his jacket and walked out of his office. It was time to see Holly, whether she was ready for him or not.

***

Holly took the folder Daniel handed to her. “Is there anything in here I should be worried about?”

“I don’t think so. John looked far and wide for information about your father, but he’s managed to fly under everyone’s radar for the last twenty years. The only time anyone hears anything about him is when he sells another painting.”

Holly opened the folder and turned to the brief summary of her dad’s life. She read the information, not surprised by what she saw. “He told me most of this when we had coffee together. It was a shock seeing him after all these years.”

“Did you take your list of questions with you?”

“I thought I’d take them next time. We’re going out for dinner on Friday night.”

“You’ve got the weekend workshop coming up.”

Holly had a lot more than that happening in her life. Her latest painting for Randolph Dupré was taking longer than she’d expected. She had another three weeks to finish the oil landscape before it was too late. If she didn’t finish it, she ran the risk of it not being accepted into the Gagosian exhibition.

“Hannah and Claire are getting everything ready for the workshop. It will be okay.”

Daniel poured himself a coffee. “You’re working really hard at the moment. Are you sure you’re not doing too much?”

“When is anyone’s life not busy?” Holly sighed. “The weekend workshop is important to the students. They’re going to apply for scholarships to art schools. If we can help them with their portfolios, it will be worth every minute of the time we spend with them.”

Daniel held his mug in the air. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

She nodded. “Once this weekend is over there will only be a small amount of follow-up. I’ll have a lot more time to concentrate on my painting.”

Daniel passed her a cup of hot coffee. “Did you apply for a scholarship before you went to art school?”

“I did. It wasn’t a full scholarship, but it paid for most of my expenses. Mom worked two jobs to make sure I had enough money. While I was in New York, I worked as a waitress in a restaurant. When the hours became too much, I applied for a job as an apprentice hairdresser at a beauty salon.”

Daniel grinned at her. “Did you like working in the beauty salon?”

“It was the best part-time job I ever had. The staff was friendly. We could have a free haircut, leg wax, and eyelash tint each month. You don’t get that in many businesses.”

“The best I could do for my staff would be a free analysis of their laptops each month. The trouble with working with IT experts is that they generally know how to fix everything themselves.”

“You could always talk to Loretta at The Beauty Box,” Holly said. “She could provide you with some kind of bonus incentive. Your staff could have a free haircut or massage.”

Daniel didn’t look convinced that a free massage would increase his team’s productivity.

“It was just an idea,” Holly said with a shrug. “It worked for me, but I’m not a world expert on what motivates people.” She picked up a sheet of paper. “This is the list of questions I finished last night. Could you have a look and tell me if they sound okay? I don’t want to scare him off.”

“You could never scare someone off. Is your dad like you?”

Holly thought carefully about her answer. “I don’t know if he’s like me, exactly, but we do have some things in common. Dad likes the sunshine and finds it hard living in the Scottish Highlands. He says it rains more than anything else.” She looked at the photo of her father and sighed. “I don’t know what went wrong between mom and dad, but I need to know. Mom was so secretive about their relationship that sometimes I wondered if I really had a father.”

“Did your dad speak about your childhood or what happened to him after he left Bozeman?”

“He started to, but we got interrupted. Mrs. Stanley wanted me to introduce her to him. She thought he’d moved here permanently.”

“Does he plan on living here?”

“I don’t know,” Holly said. “That’s one of the questions on my list. I wouldn’t mind, but I guess I’m still unsure about why he came here. He could have called me.”

Daniel went back to reading the list of questions she’d spent half the night writing. “Do you really need to know how often your dad goes to the supermarket?”

“It’s an interesting question. If he goes to the supermarket each day, then he might be more spontaneous than someone that goes once every two weeks.”

“Or it could be that the supermarket is miles away from where he lives. It might take him hours to go shopping. If that were me, I’d probably shop for groceries every month.”

“It wouldn’t matter how often you went shopping, Daniel. You’d take a grocery list each time, mark off what you’d purchased, and place an order for the items that were out of stock. You might even shop online. That way you wouldn’t have to leave your home to restock your shelves.”

Daniel put her list of questions on the table. “Are you telling me I’m organized, methodical, and efficient?”

Holly grinned. “It’s scary how organized you are. If I had even an ounce of your organizational skills, I’d be a much better artist.”

He handed her the list of questions. “I’m impressed with the way you structured your questions. Am I wrong in thinking that some of them look familiar?”

Heat hit Holly’s face. “I might have borrowed one or two from the questionnaire that Blake sent us. There are a lot of similarities between choosing someone to date and understanding my father.”

“You think?”

Holly nodded. “I know. I tried a couple of the questions when I met my dad for coffee. They’re good questions.”

“I don’t doubt they are. Blake had a team of psychologists and relationship experts working with him.” He wrapped his hands around his mug. “What do you think about your dad?”

“He’s nice.”

“You don’t seem too happy about that.”

“I don’t want to like him,” Holly said softly. “He hurt mom and he left me alone. How can someone who seems so nice be so cruel?”

Daniel pointed to the list of questions. “You’ll find out soon.”

***

After talking with Holly, Daniel drove out to the airport to collect his sister. Elizabeth’s flight was still on time, despite the bitter cold and snow.

This weekend wouldn’t be the quiet wind-down time he’d imagined spending with her. With a group of teenagers descending on his loft, it was bound to be noisy, chaotic, and busy.

By the time he’d found somewhere to park and made his way into the terminal, the arrival of Elizabeth’s flight was being called over the speaker system.

He waited with all of the other passengers’ friends and family. She’d caught a connecting flight from Cedar Rapids to Denver, then up to Bozeman. Half-way through the mass exodus of passengers, Elizabeth walked through the arrival doors.

The grin on his sister’s face made all the worries of the last few days disappear. He hugged her tight, smiling when she hugged him even tighter.

“It’s good to finally be here.” Her voice was muffled against his jacket.

Daniel stepped back and stared at her. “Are you tired?”

“Don’t turn into an over-protective little brother. I’ve been flying for four-and-a-half hours, so I’m a bit tired. With the amount of snow that’s falling, I didn’t know if we’d even make it to Montana.”

“Our pilots are used to landing on frozen lakes. A little ice and snow won’t slow them down.”

She sent him one of her,
you’ve-got-to-be-joking
looks. “It’s more than a little. They’re forecasting that there’ll be a blizzard by tonight.”

“I doubt it. Let’s find your luggage.”

By the time they’d loaded Elizabeth’s suitcases onto a cart, he was glad he had a big truck. “Is this everything or are you hiding another case somewhere?”

Elizabeth gave the cart a shove to get it moving. “I decided to travel light.”

He nudged his sister out of the way. “I’ll take the cart. Make sure I don’t clip anyone’s ankles. What did mom and dad say when you told them you were coming here?”

“Mom gave me a lecture about cowboys, then did so much baking that I had to put it in its own bag. Dad bought me a hat and scarf and told me to keep warm.”

The cart bumped over the mat separating the arrivals lounge from the main terminal. “You’re going to need your hat and scarf when we go outside. Did you bring another jacket with you?” He looked at her hip-length jacket. It would have been okay earlier in the year, but it would barely work as a windbreaker in winter.

“I’ve got another jacket in one of my bags. Pull over and I’ll find it.”

Daniel angled the cart across the room and parked beside a wall. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“So am I. Even if it is snowing.”

Elizabeth’s lopsided grin made him regret not spending more time with her. They’d gone their separate ways more than ten years ago. Christmas and family events were about the only time they made an effort to be together. In all the years she’d been living in Cedar Rapids, he’d visited her four times. He’d always used the distance factor as an excuse. It took too long to fly from Florida or New York to where she was living. He was too busy. Their schedules didn’t match.

All of those reasons came back to haunt him when Elizabeth had been diagnosed with breast cancer. He’d dropped everything and spent three weeks with her while she started her first round of chemotherapy. He’d worked from Cedar Rapids, relying on his team in New York to handle the day-to-day issues while he focused on his sister.

When he did go back to New York, he called her every second day, making sure she was okay and following her doctor’s orders.

Elizabeth pulled a bright purple jacket from one of her cases. “This one was guaranteed to keep me warm on the ski slopes. What do you think?” She slipped it onto her small frame and held out her arms.

“You look like Frosty the Snowman, but purple.”

Elizabeth laughed. “That’s what you get when you’re five-foot-three. If you’ve finished insulting me, we’d better head to your place. I trust the weather report on TV more than I do you.”

“I know what I’m talking about. The local radio station calls a rancher each morning for his weather prediction. Apparently, he hasn’t been wrong in twenty-five years.” Daniel hauled his sister’s luggage cart toward a set of automatic doors. He looked over his shoulder when she didn’t follow. “Are you coming?”

Elizabeth looked like a startled deer.

He turned the cart around and headed straight back to her. “What’s wrong?”

“I thought I saw someone I know.” She looked around the terminal and frowned. “I must have been seeing things. Let’s go before the blizzard hits.”

Daniel followed her gaze to see if he recognized anyone, but most of the people looked like tourists. “If you see the person again, let me know. But in the meantime, your chariot awaits.”

Elizabeth put her carry on over her shoulder and followed him through the doors. “Have you upgraded your truck, yet?”

“Nope. It’s a piece of American history.”

His sister groaned. “As long as Henry Ford put a heater in your rust-bucket, I suppose I’ll survive.”

“I’ve got more than that,” Daniel joked. “There are enough holes in the bodywork to give you natural airflow.”

“We need to have a talk about what billionaires do with their money,” Elizabeth grumbled. “You could afford to buy a fleet of Lamborghinis but you choose to drive around in a twenty-year-old truck.”

“It’s got sentimental value.”

“So does a purple sweater mom knitted me, but I don’t wear it every day.” When she saw Daniel’s truck, she sighed. “I thought you might have been joking.”

“When have I ever joked about my truck?” Daniel opened the passenger door and bundled her inside. “Keep out of the cold. I’ll be back soon.” He stacked Elizabeth’s luggage in his truck and took the cart to a collection point.

He still had to tell her about the art workshop, but that could wait until later. He’d take her home, let her see what this billionaire did with his money, then explain about Holly and the Bozeman Arts Collective.

If his sister wasn’t tired now, she would be by the end of the weekend.