The Conflicted Billionaire (The Conflicted Love Series Book 1)

by Sharon Sue Thorn

  “You have to go talk to Mr. Hot Stuff at the B&B.”

  “What? I can’t do that. I can’t just go knock on the door and be like, ‘Hey, Betsy. Can I talk to the hunk you’re housing?’”

  Sammie danced in a circle. “I don’t care how you do it, but you have to go see him and have a conversation that lasts at least ten minutes. Do that, then we’ll go to Florida.”

  Some of Jenny’s excitement fizzled. “Maybe I’ll just wait a day and tell you I did it.”

  “Ha! Like you could lie!” Sammie let her slender frame fall back on the couch next to Jenny. Reaching over, she poked Jenny in the ribs. “Find your brave! You need to talk to a living, breathing man. You know, face to face?” Sammie leaned over and stuck her face out, invading Jenny’s space. “Like this.”

  “Funny.” Jenny leaned back, but felt a little sick to her stomach. I can do this. Her cell phone rang from between the cushions, and she fished it out. “What! It’s Betsy.” She eyed Sammie. “What did you do?”

  “Nothing!” Sam put her hands up in surrender. “Not yet, anyway.”

  “Hello,” Jenny answered cautiously.

  “Jenny, it’s Betsy.”

  Jenny giggled. “I know who it is. How are you?”

  “Oh, I’m as fine as can be. I wanted to ask you to whip me up a batch of those healthy dog biscuits you bake.”

  “Sure. When do you need them by?”

  “Anytime this week is fine. I have a guest checking in over the weekend who will be bringing his dog along.”

  “Little dog or big dog?” Jenny asked.

  “Let me look. Oh, little. It’s a Bikin’ Fries.”

  Jenny howled into the phone. “You mean a Bichon Frise?”

  “Yeah, that. Some darn fancy one that has more allergies than I do, probably. So, the healthiest treat you can manage would be good.”

  “Sure thing, Betsy.”

  “Thanks, love. Oh, one more thing. Whichever day you drop them off, try to bring them in the morning, right before breakfast. If you can.”

  “Oh, okay. I can manage that.”

  “Thanks a bunch.”

  “You’re welcome.” Jenny hung up the phone and looked at Sammie. “I’m sure you heard all that. I think I’ll whip them up tonight, take them to Betsy in the morning, and see if I can get some info out of her about that guy.”

  Chapter 10

  After stuffing himself during breakfast, Owen ran back up to his room to gather his belongings. As he exited through the front door, he was greeted by a squirrel sitting on the porch railing, eating a nut.

  “Whoa. Hey there, little guy.”

  Owen stood motionless, not wanting to scare him off. He clucked his tongue, and the squirrel eyed him while it continued to chew. Moving slowly, he snapped a picture with his cell phone. There were two other little brown squirrels chasing each other up and down the tree in the yard. They had squirrels in Florida too, but not this kind, and he didn’t see them every day.

  As he moved past the tiny nut cruncher, the squirrel pivoted in his spot to keep an eye on him. Owen laughed as he got into his car.

  He drove into Topeka to take care of a few fires that had popped up. Patty had sent him an urgent text about the sellers raising their price. When he’d called her, she’d said she was suspicious that they’d found out who they were doing business with.

  Usually, Patty assigned one of the company’s reps to strike up a deal and see it through to the contract stage for this very reason. Just because the business was successful didn’t mean they should overpay for every new property they picked up. He never low-balled people, and he didn’t appreciate price hiking. It turned him off.

  He found an upscale coffee place on Fairlawn Road, located in the middle of a crowded shopping center. After securing a private booth, he ordered a green tea and prepared to join a conference call.

  Faces lined the bottom of his screen. The buyers, Mr. Johansen and Mr. Everett, Patty, and Scott, the rep who’d been trying to secure this property, were all in attendance.

  “Good morning,” he greeted everyone. “Let’s get started.”

  A long time later, after the sellers had become angry, Owen had gotten annoyed, and Patty had sighed loudly, he ended the meeting. “Please consider my offer withdrawn and know we will not be reconsidering,” he said. He caught the smirk on Patty’s face. He loved the woman, but she didn’t even try to hide her emotions.

  Mr. Everett’s entire bald head turned as red as his face. He reminded Owen of an angry strawberry. With a final nod to the group, he logged out.

  The meeting left him moody. The greedy sellers tried to get ten times what their property was worth, and while he’d been highly interested in the purchase as a good business move, the company didn’t need it. “Maybe they’ll learn their lesson before they try to swindle someone else,” he muttered under his breath.

  His phone buzzed. A text from Patty. Good job, boss! But I think they know the potential buyers for the Miami property. The amount they’re trying to start negotiations with is insulting.

  Owen took a sip of cold tea and grimaced. His stomach ached from eating such a hearty breakfast, then sitting for so long. He never ate that much in a single meal, but today he’d eaten like a kid on Saturday morning. He’d better take it easy, or his stomach would start looking like Jeff’s.

  A grin spread across his face at the thought of Jeff and Molly. Their life seemed so perfect. They were happy. Sitting back in his seat, he gazed out the window. Nothing was going the way he’d intended, and he’d never been more indecisive in his whole life. Was it too much to want a relationship like the one his friends had?

  If he stayed, he had no choice but to come clean, and how would that not have a disastrous result? Leaving was the best plan.

  Owen checked his watch. Almost noon. No wonder he felt achy. He’d been there for hours. Tempted to check his eMatch account for a reply from Jenny, he fought the urge and closed his laptop. After packing his belongings, he stopped in the restroom, then headed back out. He could drive back to the B&B, pack, book a flight and be home before it got late.

  The midday sun greeted him fiercely, and he thought of his surfboard. Reaching into his bag for his sunglasses case, he started the car with the remote.

  I don’t want to go home.

  Struck by his own thought, Owen froze in his tracks. It was true. He didn’t want to go home.

  As he completed the short trek to his rental car, Owen thought maybe instead of going home, he’d simply visit somewhere else. Maybe find another B&B like Betsy’s. He’d hate leaving hers, but he needed to get the heck out of Dover before he did the wrong thing.

  As he started the car, his phone rang. Owen groaned, figuring it was business. Instead, it was Jeff. Phew!

  “Hey, man!”

  “Hey!” Jeff greeted his friend. “How’s the trip going so far? Molly and I couldn’t wait any longer for an update.”

  “Ah. Yeah, it’s not. I’m going to fly out tonight.”

  “What?” Jeff nearly screeched. “No, you can’t do that.”

  “I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I just don’t see this going well. I’ve already severed contact on eMatch, so I’ll just leave tonight.”

  “You’re acting rashly, man.” Jeff’s voice held a hint of panic.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Me? Yeah, I’m great. Molly says hi. But do yourself and me a favor. Stay just one more day.”

  “I’m not going to change my mind about this, Jeff.”

  “Owen, you’ve been talking to her for so long. You care about her. You’re really going to just throw it all away because you’re too scared to tell her the truth?”

  “Ouch.”

  “Just one more day, man. Promise me.”

  “You’re being really weird. And calling me a coward—not cool.”

  “Look.” Jeff’s voice took on a solemn tone. “I know you better than anybody. Give it time.”

  “Okay.”
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  “Okay?”

  “Yes.” Owen laughed. “I don’t know what good it will do, but okay. One more day.”

  “All right. We’re rooting for you, friend. I’ll check on you again tomorrow.”

  “Talk to you tomorrow, then,” Owen said.

  He hung up the phone and stared at it. That had to be the weirdest conversation he’d had with Jeff since they were teenagers. Regret haunted him. Why, out of all the photos he could have used, had he picked Jeff’s?

  Even worse, he wasn’t sure how his best friend would react when he found out. Would Jeff be angry or think it was hilarious that Owen had used Jeff’s photo instead of his own? Maybe he’d just be flattered Jenny found him attractive. Now, Molly was a different story. Owen knew exactly how she would react, and he couldn’t say for certain that she’d ever forgive him. He needed to take his account completely down, delete Jeff’s picture, and erase eMatch’s history from his devices.

  He still had the entire afternoon to fill. Knowing there wasn’t anything pressing workwise, he decided to stay in Topeka. Still full, he didn’t need lunch. He searched parks and found one called Gage Park not too far away. Following the app’s directions, he arrived without issue. Topeka seemed to be an easy city to get around.

  As he pulled into the park off Tenth Street, he saw he could go either right or left. He chose left and followed the curve to a stop sign. To his right was a dog park. He didn’t know what had possessed him to go check it out, but he parked the car and got out. Maybe because he still thought about his dog Dax so often, or maybe because of Jenny. He wondered if she’d doctored any of these dogs. Probably not. Surely, a city this size had its own vets. After a few minutes of watching from outside the gate, the ache pushed him away from the fence.

  Wandering around the massive park alone and on foot, Owen encountered a small theatre and a zoo. It had been a while since he’d visited one, so he purchased a ticket and roamed through the exhibits. While the zoo was small, it had some unique features. The two baby giraffes were his favorites—Abi and Konza. He could have watched them gallop around their yard forever, but being alone with no one to wander with or discuss the animals with made it a lonely stroll. He was done in less than an hour. On the way out, he stopped at the concessions stand and bought a bottle of water before checking out the rest of the park.

  About a five-minute walk away from the zoo, he saw several cars turning down a small road. Curious where they were going, he cut across the grass. Within a few minutes, he could see a large pond with a dock on either side. As he neared it, a gaggle of geese caught his attention as they rushed toward a child holding a bread bag.

  Ugh. Jenny had told him stories about the harm bread could bring to these birds. The lack of public education was unfortunate.

  The little girl giggled wildly as the geese came closer. Not too far behind the geese were Muscovy and Mallard ducks. Some squirrels hung out at a distance, waiting for the chance to run in and snatch a piece of bread. Several birds did the same.

  “Greedy little monsters,” Owen muttered, smiling. They were just as bad as seagulls. Once, when the granddaughter of one of his tenants visited, she made the mistake of taking her chips to the beach. Within thirty seconds, the gulls had swarmed and stolen every chip, knocking the bag right out of the little girl’s hands.

  Owen found an empty bench in the shade. He could see the entire pond from where he sat. This is peaceful.

  A warm breeze picked up and blew over him, tousling his hair. He ran a hand through it. Time for a haircut. He considered leaving to find a barbershop but thought it better to wait until he returned home so he could let his personal barber Fletch do it. Not that he got prissy about his hair, but he did have an image to uphold.

  Bringing a hand to his face, he felt the stubble coming in and decided he’d wait to shave too. He was in Kansas, after all. Why not go a little rugged? Besides, maybe after he left the next day, he’d go back to Texas, or to Wyoming. It had been a while since he’d taken in a skyline with mountains. Jeff had said he would be checking in the next day—he’d wait to decide until after he had spoken with him. Maybe Jeff and Molly would want to come along if they could take a few days off.

  Owen checked his watch and was shocked to see he’d been sitting there for over an hour. He decided to head back to Dover. He had a few things to take care of online before dinner, like deleting his eMatch account.

  Chapter 11

  “Ouch!” Jenny nearly swore after she bumped her head on the cabinet door she’d just left open. “Stupid small kitchen,” she said, rubbing her forehead where the corner had gouged her. She loved to cook and bake but didn’t do too much of it, mostly because her apartment had the smallest alley kitchen she’d ever seen. Really, she needed to move, but every time she thought of what moving entailed, she let it go. Whenever she had dinner plans with her family or even with Sammie, she usually went to them, especially for the holidays. Besides, her oven was barely big enough for a small cookie sheet. No way would it handle a turkey unless it was cut up into bits first.

  As she stirred, an urge to check her eMatch account for the fiftieth time nagged her. Tonight, since she was making those dog treats for Betsy, she decided to do three different kinds and take some of them to work. Also, she made a batch of peanut butter oatmeal for her elderly neighbor Frankie. He and his wife had been married for over fifty years and were the sweetest couple. Fortunately, all the treats she made were not only fit for animals but for humans too. Frankie had no shame in forcing his dog Lucky to share his treats with him.

  “Stop thinking about Jeff,” she commanded herself as she rolled out the batch and used a dog-bone-shaped cookie cutter to shape each cookie and place them on the sheet. When she was finished, she slid the cookie sheet into the oven and started mixing up a batch of apple carrot dog biscuits that she would use a heart-shaped cutter on.

  Familiar with the recipes, she had the apple carrot treats ready to go in when the peanut butter oatmeal cookies came out. She left them on the cooling rack as she used a spatula to place the pumpkin and banana treats into a container. She left just a couple of each out to put in Betsy’s batch. An airtight container would be fine for work, but the ones for Betsy’s guests always went into a fancy decorative box her guests could keep if they chose.

  As she waited for the last batch of banana and flax treats, she gave in and checked her eMatch account. A yawn broke free as she navigated to her account. She glanced at the time on her phone. How is it nearly nine already?

  Since her phone had her login info saved, all she had to do was hit a button. The red notification next to the mail icon stood out like a school bus in the desert. It had a ‘1’ next to it. One was all she needed. Her heart stuttered in her chest, and she sucked in a breath as she touched it to get her message. Her reply to Jeff’s last message had been a little on the harsh side, but she’d wanted him to know how badly he’d hurt her feelings.

  As she read the message, confusion clouded her mind until she got to the end. The message was from a new guy. Not Jeff. Tears sprang to her eyes. Pathetic, for her to cry over a guy she’d never met. With angry taps, she went to her dashboard. She wanted to look at Jeff’s profile one more time before she sent him the last message ever. Why would she have considered going to Florida to find him, anyway? If he wanted to meet her, he would have accepted her invitation instead of sending a rejection.

  “Stupid!”

  Growing more incensed by the second, she couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t on her dashboard. Thoughts racing, she typed Jeff Morgan into the search bar. A page of results came up, and she scanned them all. Not one of them was him. She tried again with Jeffrey Morgan. Eight profiles came up. She paced from the kitchen into the living room. Once again, no luck.

  “What the heck?” she cried out, hurling her phone into the couch. With a stroke of luck that could only be hers, the phone hit the back cushion of the microfiber couch, bounced off, and hit the corner of her small coffee ta
ble, cracking the screen.

  “Aaaaaahhhhh!” She clenched her hands at her sides and threw her head back. “Why? Why me?”

  Jenny fought back tears and picked her phone up off the floor. It was only cracked at the top, so she would be able to dial if the stupid thing still worked. Dialing the number for the vet’s office to test it out, she hung up after she heard her own voice pick up. She recorded all the messages for the office. Jean said she sounded like a ray of sunshine. Oh, if Jean could only hear her right now, she would know Jenny could be thunder, too. Grateful for having the next day off work since she had worked the previous Saturday, she added securing a new phone to her list of things to do.

  An unwelcome scent drew Jenny from her thoughts. “No, no, no,” she repeated as she sprinted the short distance to the kitchen. “Aw, no!”

  Tiny puffs of smoke escaped through the crack at the top of her oven door. Yanking the door open, she let it flop down. Smoke rolled out of the belly of the stove. She grabbed a pot holder and used it to wave the smoke away before pulling the cookie sheet out. She’d forgotten to set the timer on the last batch, and all the banana treats had a lovely black ring around the edges.

  “I am going to Florida. I’m going to find you, Jeff, and give you a piece of my mind.” Jenny glared at the cookie sheet of crispy critters. “And make you eat these dog cookies!” Resting her back against the counter, she crossed her arms over her chest. “Right after I go and chat with Betsy’s guest for ten minutes tomorrow.”

  Chapter 12

  Owen tied his sneakers using the lace-lock method to keep them from slipping off his heels. After his lasagna and garlic bread dinner last night, he figured he’d better do something to burn off at least a few of yesterday’s calories before he started in today. He had an hour before breakfast. Plenty of time for a nice jog and a quick shower.

  Besides Betsy’s meal, he needed to do something to relieve his stress. If the ocean and his surfboard had been nearby, he’d battle some waves, but allowing his feet to pound the pavement would have to do.