Crazy Love (Emerald Lake Billionaires 3) (4 page)

“No, I didn’t. You’ve got the wrong person.” She frowned at Claire and Hannah. They were looking so guilty she almost forgot she was holding the phone. “Hang on a minute.”

She put her hand over the receiver and glared at her friends. “Is there something you forgot to tell me?”

Claire was the first one to speak. “I know you said you didn’t want to be on the trial, but we thought it would be fun. You haven’t been on a date since you arrived in Bozeman.”

“We didn’t want you to miss out,” Hannah added. “It’s not as if you have to marry the guy or anything. All you need to do is talk to him.”

“I don’t want to talk to him.”

“You might not have to,” Mia whispered. “If you keep talking to us, he’s going to hang up and never speak to you again.”

“What would be so wrong about that?” Holly said stubbornly. “I didn’t want to go on the trial.”

“It’s not his fault you’re antisocial. Talk to him. He might surprise you.”

Holly sent Mia a ferocious glare before lifting the phone to her ear. “I’m sorry. My friends are here. It’s kind of complicated.”

Mia scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to her.

Holly read the note and shook her head. There was no way she was going to ask him on a date. She didn’t know his name or where he lived or anything about him.

The man cleared his throat. “You didn’t register for the trial, did you?”

Holly sighed. “I’m really sorry. If you were expecting to go on a date, then I’m not the person for you.”

“You don’t date?”

Holly didn’t want to tell a complete stranger about her nonexistent social life. “I choose to spend my time working.”

“As an artist?”

Holly glanced at Claire and Hannah. What had they written on the questionnaire? “That’s right. What do you do?”

Another few seconds of silence settled between Holly and the mystery man.

“You haven’t read my profile, have you?”

Holly ran across to her computer and opened her email account. “I’m opening it now.” Sitting in her inbox was a message from Jefferson Technologies. She opened the attachment and stared at Daniel Sullivan’s profile. “You’re a computer programmer?”

“On a good day,” he muttered.

She clicked on the second attachment and blinked. Cornflower blue eyes stared back at her. Daniel wasn’t your run-of-the-mill computer geek. He was handsome. Too handsome to be part of an online dating program. With high cheekbones and a wide jaw, his features were the kind Holly’s fingers itched to draw.

“Are you still there?”

She took a deep breath. “I’m here. I’m reading your profile.” She looked over her shoulder and nearly groaned. Mia, Hannah, and Claire were standing behind her, staring at his photo.

Mia flew back to the sofa and picked up the piece of paper they’d left on the seat. She wrote something else on the note and handed it to Holly.

Ask him!!!

Holly shook her head and mouthed the word,
no.

Mia rolled her eyes.

Holly looked at Claire and Hannah. They wore the same expressions as Mia. Her three closest friends thought she was nuts.

Thankfully, Daniel couldn’t see what was happening. She closed the attachment with his photo and read more of his profile.

Mia, Hannah, and Claire leaned forward, eager to read what Holly had missed the first time she’d looked.

“You went to MIT?” Holly’s heart sank. He had a degree and had worked for NASA. Five years ago he’d started his own IT company. The more Holly read, the more she realized that Daniel Sullivan was the wrong man for her.

“Is going to MIT a problem?”

Holly thought about her answer. She didn’t want him to think she wasn’t intelligent because she was. But she’d barely made it out of high school with her diploma.

She ignored her three friends and tried to explain why she couldn’t go out with him. “I’m sure you’re a really nice guy, but I can’t see that we’ve got much in common. Your life sounds almost as busy as mine. It was good of you to call, but I don’t have time to date anyone.”

Mia gave a dramatic sigh. Claire sat beside Holly and frowned.

“What if we meet for coffee? No strings attached.”

Holly glanced at Claire. She could feel Mia and Hannah’s gaze on her. They were waiting to hear what she’d say. “Okay. I can do coffee.”

“How does Thursday at three o’clock sound? Do you have a favorite café?”

Holly ignored the relieved smiles on her friends’ faces. “The day and time are fine. We could go to Angel Wings Café on Main Street. They have the best blueberry pancakes in Montana.”

“Coffee and pancakes it is. I’ll see you on Thursday. I’m glad you decided not to hold MIT against me.”

If Holly didn’t know better, she would have sworn he sounded relieved. “I’m trying to keep an open mind. I’ll see you in a couple of days.” She ended the call before he heard Mia and Hannah high-fiving each other behind her.

She dropped her head into her hands. “If this doesn’t work out, I’m blaming all of you.”

Mia hugged Holly’s shoulders. “Of course, it will work out. All you have to do is talk to him.”

“We’ve got nothing in common. What on earth would an artist and a computer programmer say to each other?”

Claire nudged her arm. “It will be okay. If you get one of those awkward moments, ask him about his business. Men like talking about themselves.”

Hannah raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

“I’ve been brushing up on my dating skills,” Claire said with a grin. “That pearl of wisdom came from two hours of in-depth Internet research.”

Holly turned her computer off. She’d look at Daniel’s profile again before they met. In a roundabout way, Claire was right. If she thought about some questions she could ask him, it might make their coffee date a whole lot easier.

Hannah left a cup of hot chocolate beside Holly. “You’d better drink this. You look as though you need it.”

“Thanks. Before I totally forgive you, you’d better tell me what you wrote on my application form.”

Hannah looked at her sister. “Did you bring a copy?”

Claire nodded and handed Holly four sheets of paper. “We came prepared. We thought if we’d heard from Jefferson Technologies, you would have, too.”

Holly looked at the first page and groaned. “You used this photo?”

Hannah nodded. “You look cute.”

“Let me see,” Mia said.

Holly turned the picture around.

Mia looked at Hannah and Claire. “You’re joking?”

“It’s a great photo,” Claire said. “If Daniel liked your hippie outfit, then he’s going to love the real you.”

Holly looked up from reading her profile. “What if he thinks the hippie photo
is
the real me?”

“Then we might have a problem,” Claire sighed. “Just be yourself. It will all work out the way it’s supposed to.”

Mia pulled a chair out and sat down. “Is that another Internet quote?”

“No. It’s from my nana. She was a wise woman.”

A lot wiser than her granddaughters, Holly thought. Especially when they’d just made her life more complicated than it needed to be.

***

Daniel stared at the mud-splattered pickup that stopped in his front yard. Blake wasn’t the type of person who drove around in a truck, let alone one that looked as though it had been speeding through every dirt track in Montana.

“What happened to the convertible you were driving yesterday?”

Blake pulled himself out of the cab. “It’s sitting in a garage in town. There’s something wrong with the suspension.”

“Must have been all of the off-road driving you’ve been doing.”

“Scoff all you like. There’s nothing wrong with expensive cars.”

“I didn’t say there was. I thought you were going home this afternoon.”

“I changed my return flight to tomorrow morning. You haven’t shown me your home.” Blake looked over Daniel’s shoulder. “I was expecting a small cabin in the woods. You didn’t tell me you’d bought an authentic ranch house.”

“I didn’t want a house this far out of town, but when I saw the photos of Emerald Lake I knew I had to live here. Do you want a tour?”

Blake put his hands on his hips and stared at the view in front of them. “I can almost understand why you decided to move here.”

Fall was always spectacular in Montana. At Emerald Lake, the change in seasons was even more dramatic. Pine, aspen, and spruce trees crowded the mountains. They created a curtain of color against the brilliant blue of the lake and sky. It was the closest thing Daniel had found to heaven and he planned on living here for a long time.

He looked closely at his friend. “Don’t worry. You’ll soon be surrounded by your concrete jungle again.”

“Maybe.”

“You didn’t come out here to see where I live. What’s happened?”

“I told you. My car is being fixed. You’d better show me inside your home before I freeze to death.”

There was no chance of that. Blake might have developed a taste for luxury cars, but someone had the sense to tell him what clothes to bring to Montana. His designer blue jeans, thick jacket and leather boots weren’t part of most cowboys’ closets, but at least they were practical.

“You’re lucky it’s September. If you’d come here in another month you’d be standing knee deep in snow. Montana might be the prettiest state in America, but I’ve heard it’s unforgiving in winter.”

Daniel started walking across the yard. His two-story home might be rustic, but there was nothing old-fashioned about the features inside. State-of-the-art technology had been used in each room, hidden behind simple fittings.

He left his boots on the porch and opened the front door. “Welcome to my home. In case you’re planning on staying, you need to know that my sister is arriving in four weeks. Elizabeth won’t be impressed if she has to share the house with someone else.”

Blake left his boots beside Daniel’s. “What makes you think I’m going to stay?”

“You’ve been planning something since you stepped out of your truck. You can tell me what you’re doing here while I make coffee.” Daniel walked down a short hallway and into his open plan kitchen, dining, and living room. He spent most of his time in this part of the house. He loved the view of the lake, the way the mountains rose in the distance. He’d bought a large desk and set it up in one corner. He ate and worked surrounded by some of the most spectacular scenery in the world.

Blake looked around him and frowned. “You’ve been here for about six months?”

“Five.”

“Where’s your TV?”

Daniel was glad the coffeepot was hot. He poured the thick black liquid into two mugs and passed one to Blake. “I haven’t got one.”

Blake frowned. “You’re joking? I don’t know anyone who doesn’t own a TV. What do you do out here for entertainment?”

“I don’t go online looking for dates, that’s for sure.” Daniel sipped his coffee. Blake looked distracted. Something was definitely going on. “Sugar?”

Blake shook his head. “Not today.” He walked toward the windows overlooking Emerald Lake. “I didn’t understand why you decided to live here. I get it now. But no TV? That’s something I could never get used to.”

“The coverage isn’t that great even with satellite dishes. The same goes with the Internet. I do a lot of my planning from here, but anything more complicated has to be done from town. I’ve leased a building in Bozeman. Four of my team from New York will be here in the next couple of weeks.”

“You’re serious about staying here, then?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

Blake leaned against the kitchen counter. “I thought you were having a midlife crisis. Once the novelty of living here wore off, you’d come back to New York ready to conquer the world.”

“I’m not interested in conquering the world anymore. When my sister got sick it made me realize what’s important. And that’s not working long days and feeling as though my life is slipping through my fingers.”

“But Elizabeth’s okay now. You don’t need to change your life for her.”

Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t come here for my sister. I came here for me.”

Blake wasn’t giving up easily. “You won’t be able to grow your business from Montana.”

When Daniel’s sister had been going through chemotherapy, he’d made a promise to her. They’d spend more time together, get to know the people they’d become after they’d left home. It was a promise he intended to keep.

“I can operate my business from anywhere in the world. New York isn’t a great place for Elizabeth or for me. I don’t want to worry about being mugged when I go for a run. When I was in Bozeman looking for an office, I left my keys in the door of my truck. Someone brought them inside the building to me. If that had been New York, I wouldn’t have seen my truck again.”

“The people here are honest. That’s not a good reason to leave New York.”

Daniel put his coffee mug on the counter. “This isn’t about me. Why did you delay your flight?”