Playing For Keeps (Emerald Lake Billionaires 2) (24 page)

***

Ryan put his guitar down and leaned back in his chair. The sun had set behind the towering mountain ranges, casting shadows across the pine and aspen trees surrounding him. It was one of the most awe-inspiring views he’d ever seen, and he still couldn’t believe that he owned this slice of heaven.

His gaze turned toward his driveway. A trail of dust followed a black SUV as it drove toward the main road. Tanner and Jason had left a few minutes ago, still embarrassed that five goats had outwitted them.

“I wondered where you were.” Sophie walked onto the patio and stopped beside his chair. “I was just about to make a cup of coffee. Would you like one?”

“No, thanks. But feel free to join me when you’ve made yours.”

Sophie smiled and disappeared inside. When he’d arrived home this afternoon, Tanner, Jason, Tess, and Sophie had been running around, trying to herd five runaway goats into a makeshift pen. He wasn’t much of a rancher, but even to his eyes the roped-off area wouldn’t have kept the goats away from anything.

“I brought you a glass of water.” Sophie handed him the glass and sat in a chair beside him.

“This has become a habit.”

Sophie nodded. “A good habit. The view is amazing.” Ryan cleared his throat and Sophie smiled. “Your company isn’t too bad, either.”

“Glad to hear it. Did John call?”

“About the goats?”

“No, about your mom and sister.”

Sophie sipped her coffee. “They’re fine. I don’t know about John’s daughter’s goats, though. This is the third time he’s had to rescue them from a neighbor’s property. They escaped to Jacob and Molly’s home last week.”

“Maybe it’s true what they say. The grass must be greener on the other side of the fence.”

“It is for the goats. They must have walked for miles. Your homes aren’t exactly beside each other.”

“As long as the goats don’t get near our washing line, we’ll be fine.”

Sophie put her coffee down. “They were more interested in the wildflowers.” She looked across the lake and frowned. “I have a question to ask you. I know we agreed that I’d leave after your home was finished, but I’m wondering if I could stay for a few extra days? The patent for my supplement should be approved soon. My lawyer thinks that once we’ve secured a contract for manufacturing it, everything else will stop.”

“What does John think?”

“John’s more cautious.”

Ryan knew that was the understatement of the year. “I’d listen to John.”

Sophie scowled. “I can’t stay here forever.”

“You won’t need to, but you do need to be safe. You can stay here for as long as you want to.” The smile that Sophie sent him made his heart leap in his chest.

She blushed and looked into her mug. “How did you get used to everyone knowing what you’re doing?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been comfortable with it. Before anyone knew who I was, I could go anywhere and do anything. It didn’t matter if I stayed out all night or fell asleep at a bus stop. No one cared. But that doesn’t happen now. The media promote my albums. Without them, I’d sink into obscurity. That’s where Dorothy comes in handy. She could navigate through shark-infested waters and come out the other side smiling.”

He put his glass down and looked more closely at Sophie. “Are you finding it difficult being engaged to me?”

“We’re not engaged.”

“There are only four people in the world who know that. Everyone else thinks we’re deliriously happy.”

Sophie wrapped her arms around her waist. The sun had sunk below the mountains and the temperature had dropped.

“Do you need a sweater?” Ryan asked.

“I’ll be okay. I should go inside. I’m going to see Maggie tomorrow to get more ingredients for the supplement. Anything she doesn’t have, I can get in town.” She stood up and held out her hand. “I’ll take your glass inside if you’ve finished with it?”

“I’ll take it.” He stood up and moved closer to Sophie. “If being engaged to me for the rest of the week is too much, let me know. It doesn’t matter what Dorothy says. You’re more important than losing face in front of my fans.”

“Ryan, I…”

Her eyes shone with something more than a simple goodnight. He felt the pull of attraction, the spark of something they’d both been hiding from each other.

He leaned forward and kissed her. He tried to keep it sweet, a gentle beginning to something that could be more. But as soon as their lips touched, he stopped thinking.

Sophie wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him close. She opened her mouth and devoured him with an intensity that melted his bones. He didn’t know how long they stood there, wrapped in each other’s arms, but it wasn’t long enough. He wanted her more than he’d ever wanted another woman, more than anything he’d ever known.

She trembled in his arms, sighed when his lips left her mouth and traveled along her jaw. He needed to slow down, give her time to say no. Give himself time to work out what was going on. He felt Sophie pull away, heard the sigh that was as much a part of him as it was her.

She rested her head on his shoulder and took a deep breath. “This is getting complicated.”

“It’s only as complicated as we want to make it.” Ryan wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “Are you going to stay in Bozeman once the patent comes through for your supplement?”

Sophie stiffened in his arms. “Coming to Montana was a temporary solution to my problems. I was always going to leave.”

“What about us?”

She stepped away from him. “There can’t be an us. Dorothy said that you travel around the world all the time. I need to be in a lab. I’m a scientist, not a groupie. I have a life outside of Bozeman.”

She didn’t need to add what both of them were thinking. She had a life outside of him, outside anything they’d seen or done together.

Before he made an even bigger fool of himself, he picked up his guitar. “I’ll see you in the morning. Make sure you take Tanner into town with you.”

“I’m sorry, Ryan.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he muttered as he went inside. He didn’t understand why Sophie’s words had cut so deep. She’d been honest with him, told him exactly how she felt. It was more than he’d done for her.

He headed into his studio and sat behind the piano. Sleep wouldn’t come easy, so he might as well do what he was good at — pour his heart into his music and hope that, at the end, something made sense.

***

Sophie opened the trunk of her car and put some medicinal herbs against a box of dried walnuts. She turned around and took another box of supplies from Maggie Stevenson.

“Call me when you’re getting low. I can easily deliver what you need to Ryan’s house.”

“Thanks Maggie,” Sophie said. “I’m hoping that the patent for my supplement will be approved soon. When that happens, the pharmaceutical company will take over manufacturing the supplement.”

Maggie planted her hands on her hips. “Be careful with those companies. They’ve been known to twist the wording on their contracts around. Make sure your lawyer triple checks everything before you sign on the dotted line.”

Sophie walked around to the driver’s side of her car. “I’ll do that. Have a good day.”

Maggie waved at her as she drove out of her property. Sophie wondered what kept Maggie in Bozeman. She had a science degree from Harvard. She’d worked with two of the most respected pharmaceutical companies in the world. But five years ago she’d left city life for the country and never looked back.

Most of Maggie’s organic produce stayed in Bozeman, but a growing percentage was sent around the country. Even though her business was successful, her income wouldn’t have been anywhere near what she would have earned in the private sector. But for Maggie, that didn’t matter. Her heart was firmly attached to her life in Montana and, some days, Sophie could understand why.

When she reached the main road, Sophie turned right and headed into Bozeman. Maggie didn’t have one of the ingredients she needed. Instead of waiting a few days for it to arrive from another supplier, she’d decided to buy it from a store in town.

She looked in her rearview mirror. Tanner was following her. He did his best to give her some space, but she still felt overwhelmed by his presence. It was hard enough fitting into a town who thought you were engaged to a billionaire. It was even harder disappearing into the background when you had a bodyguard with you.

Sophie thought about her first impressions of Bozeman. It seemed like half a lifetime ago that she’d driven into town beside Ryan. After the streets of Chicago, Bozeman seemed quaint. Its red brick buildings and paved streets reminded her of a movie set. The business community had restored the stores for tourists. They wanted people like Sophie to come to Bozeman and stay.

Except Sophie wouldn’t be staying. Even with the breathtaking scenery around her, she couldn’t see herself making Bozeman her home.

She parked her car outside Commonsense Organics. As soon as she walked through its doors, she smelled turmeric and cinnamon. Speckled organic fruit sat beside organic vegetables. The color, texture, and imperfections of the fruit and vegetables brought back memories of her granddad’s garden.

“Welcome to our store,” a bubbly young woman said. “How can I help you?”

Sophie looked at the shelves of carefully packaged ingredients. “I’m looking for ginseng dried root powder.”

The young woman showed Sophie where to find what she wanted. “Let me know if you need more help.”

Sophie didn’t want to spend too much time in the store. She took two packets off the shelf and walked toward the checkout desk. Halfway across the room she bumped into a man who suddenly turned in the middle of the aisle.

“Oops. Sorry about that,” she said as she veered out of his way.

His smile sent chills down her spine. “You need to be more careful. You could get hurt.”

Sophie stared at him, not quite sure whether she’d heard him correctly. Before she could look for Tanner, the man left the store.

Tanner walked toward her. “Is everything all right?”

“I don’t know. I think that man was trying to scare me.”

“Wait here.” Tanner ran to the front of the store and looked along the street.

By the time he came back inside, Sophie had paid for her powder and was waiting beside the front counter. “Did you see where he went?”

“No, but I’ve got some ideas about how we could identify him.” He asked the sales assistant if they had security footage inside the store.

They didn’t, but security cameras did monitor the street. She gave Tanner the name of the company that monitored the cameras and wished him all the best.

Tanner called John and told him what had happened. After he’d finished speaking, he took the parcels out of Sophie’s hands. “Are you ready to go?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” Sophie followed him to her car. Her hands were shaking as she opened the door and slid into the driver’s seat.

“Go straight home. Don’t stop for anything. I’ll be right behind you.”

Sophie looked up at Tanner. “Maybe he didn’t mean what he said. I could have taken his words out of context.”

“I don’t think so. Drive safely.”

Sophie reversed out of the parking space and drove down Main Street. She was so close to having her patent approved she thought no one would be interested in her or the formula.

She’d been wrong.

***

Ryan leaned against the kitchen counter and glared at Sophie. “You can’t come to the concert. I called Tess and Logan, and they’re happy to have you stay with them. Tanner will take you there this afternoon.”

“But I’m organizing the concert. I’ve got a list a mile long of the things I need to do.”

“You’ve been working with Dorothy. I’ll call her and ask if she can come to Bozeman and manage the concert. You’ve been given a warning and we’re not going to ignore it.”

Sophie measured out the next ingredient for her supplement. “This is ridiculous. For all we know, the man who spoke to me doesn’t know anything about what I’m doing. He could just be weird.”

“I’m not prepared to take that chance and neither should you.”

“But people are expecting me to be at the concert. Reporters have been calling Dorothy and asking for interviews. The concert will be over and done with in under two hours.”

Ryan watched Sophie add more ingredients to the water boiling on the stove. “Why are you so set on being here for the concert?”

Sophie slid the last cup of herbs into the water. She tested the temperature and put the lid on the pan. “The supplement will change people’s lives. I won’t let the person following me see how worried I am.”

“So this is all about you and making sure you don’t look as though you’re running away?”

Sophie slowly turned toward him. “No. This is all about my mom and dad. They taught me to fight for what I believe in. They taught me that the only way to defeat a bully is to look him in the eye and tell him he’s a coward. I refuse to be intimidated by a man who thinks he can scare me. I’m going to the concert and it’s going to be a success. Have as many security guards as you need around me, but I’m going, with or without your support.”