by Elle Chance
Contents
Title Page
Josh
Sofie
Josh
Sofie
Josh
Sofie
Josh
Sofie
Josh
Sofie
Josh
Sofie
Josh
Sofie
Josh
Sofie
Josh
Sofie
Josh
Sofie
Josh
Sofie
Josh
Sofie
Josh
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THE BILLIONAIRE'S FAVORITE
by Elle Chance
JOSH
HOMESBURG WAS, AS always, a perfect little postcard town. No matter how long I lived in New York City, coming back here always feels like slipping on a comfortable pair of pajamas. Warm and safe, not very exciting but wasn’t that the charm?
Sure, I usually preferred the sleek vibes of New York City most times. But something in me unwinds just walking the streets of my hometown. Especially in August, with the whole valley giving up green leaves for the autumn oranges, yellows, and reds. It was peaceful and pretty, even as I rushed to give my brother help at the grand reopening of the Homesburg Lodge.
Cory has been renovating the Lodge for the last decade or so. He took over my father’s carpentry business a while but. But his real love has been modernizing the lodge every weekend. Even when he was just a handyman in high school, he was stalking the halls to find things to improve to the amusement of paying customers.
And the thing is, Cory may be my irritating olde brother but he’s also a hard worker and my best friend.
So when he’d called on a Friday morning and begged me to come up from the city to help him with the soft opening of the lodge, I’d gotten a day off of work. I drove from the city to Homesburg, right on the Pennsylvania-New York border, just for him.
So I stalked up the tall hill to where the Lodge perched over MainStreet a few blocks down on the banks of a river. The things we do for love, right?
“Hey, Josh took you long enough,” Cory said amiably at the front door of the lodge. “But seriously, thanks for coming out.”
Cory looked about as comfortable as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs in a suit. He was decked out in a suit and shaved up, looking stiff and nervous about the whole opening. Having him around meant I could look in a mirror and see what life could have been like as a lumberjack. More solidly muscled than me, with puppy dog eyes that the ladies loved. I still looked like a kid next to him even at 33.
“You’re welcome for bailing you out,” I said. I gave him a hug, which he gave back slowly. “I find it hard to believe that no one else in town has a bartending license.”
Cory shrugged as he walked me over to the bar by the lobby. “No one I trust for this. And listen, some rich folks have rented out the rooms early. Just feed them drinks and give them a discount, okay? But don’t bug ‘em.”
“I thought the lodge wasn’t officially open til next month.” I could have sworn I kept that shit straight. I idly shifted the order of the lemon wedges and cherries at the bar.
“Yeah, well, they’re paying quadruple our going rate to stay here while I’m still painting some rooms. They’re the reason I could even have this soft opening. So just keep them happy, all right?”
“Quadruple? Christ. Yeah, I’ll keep them happy. But how will I know who they are?”
Cory grinned at me over his shoulder. “Aw, that’s easy, man. They’ll be the ones you don’t recognize.” And with that he ambled his way over to fret over someone else’s work for the opening.
He had a good point. Part of Homesburg’s charm is that it’s tiny. Strangers stick out in the sea of familiar faces that started coming into the lobby and toward the bar.
The band were friends of Cory’s from high school who got some vodka sodas. For me, it was like serving drinks to ghosts, unlike when I worked in New York City and knew no one. I wanted to avoid all questions about me, but I was trapped behind the bar. So I had to trot out my usual replies.
“Nope, I’m still tweeting at the same company,” I told a middle-aged Homecoming Queen wearing admirably high heels for the event.
“No, no one special in my life,” I informed a recently graduated girl who told me she wanted to go to school in New York someday. I tried to end that shortly. I may flirt with a lot of women, but eighteen was way too young for me.
“You’re right, it is a waste of the journalism degree,” I bit out to an old high school buddy. George had stopped texting me back when I got my first studio in New York. “But at least I like my coworkers.”
I enjoyed coming home, but I was starting to feel trapped behind the bar. People come in two flavors after you move to the city. There’s the impressed ones who would never believe my stoop smells like urine every day. And then there are the ones who cut down even the good things about the city because they feel weird about never leaving Homesburg.
I’m not a fan of either approach, since my own opinions of New York varied so much. Sometimes it was the culmination of all my dreams. Other times it was just a backdrop for me to work my way through a series of increasingly lukewarm hookups. And at all times, it’s the city where I worked with social media quips instead of serious journalism.
“Well, I’ll let you know when I find a scoop,” George told me with a laugh. “You never know where you’ll find a big story right?”
The crowd were walking around and admiring the restoration work that Cory had done. BEveryone was impressed with the place and his work and so on even before he started talking.
“Thank you all for being here!” Cory told the crowd. “I’m happy to be showing you the renovated Homesburg Lodge — now open past Labor Day. I’ve loved this place since I was a kid. I want it to be a place not only for people to escape city life and experience our hometown. But to become a heart here, for weddings and dances and whatever else we may want to have. Thanks for joining in bringing it closer to you and yours.”
I sent Cory a thumbs up from the bar after his speech. Even I get surprised sometimes at what a softie he is under the calluses and muscle and the stoic silences he preferred. But when Cory tried, he could really clean up well.
That was probably more than most people in the room had heard him speak. And it really was miraculous that he’d convinced the owners the Lodge should stay open year round. And it could be great for businesses around town if we could somehow become a tourist location. I scanned the crowd for my next customer. But then I saw her.
Sofie Barlow. Her white blonde head was visible through the crowd. I knew her through work and magazine covers. Her father was a multibillionaire guru who’d built a company from the ground up in the fifties. Shipping related, I think.
Her catlike face and grey eyes were famous for both her party days when she attended NYU and now when she “worked” as the “head” of a charity her father had established in the family name. Isn’t it funny how rich girls get jobs like that so easily?
Sofie was still just about the loveliest thing I’d ever seen. Even without that mythical rich person glow from being on the cover of magazines. She got slammed for having wide hips on a slender frame or something ridiculous by my coworkers. But from across my brother’s lobby, all I saw were her delicate features taking in the crowd. Her catlike eyes taking in the people I’d known my whole life.
“Hey, I’m paying you to pay attention here.” I focused in on Cory suddenly annoyed
near the bar. “Not zone out staring at paying customers..”
“Barlow’s your rich client? What the hell is she doing out of the city? Hell, out of Manhattan?” My hands were fixing him an Old Fashioned without waiting for him to request it. “And you’re not paying me, remember?”
“Don’t ask her what she’s doing here. I’m serious.” Cory glared down at me from his two inch height advantage.
I poured the bourbon smoothly, placing the drink in front of him without looking at the bar. I was trying to catch another glimpse of Sofie as people started to make their way out of the lobby. “Dude, this could be a big break for me. Why would Sofie Barlow be in Homesburg?”
Cory shook his head as he took a sip of his drink. “Maybe she had to come to the opening.”
I rolled my eyes. “That must be it. And that’s why she’s paying so much to be your first client.”
A couple other girls came over for drinks — and to leave flirty tips which, hey, I’d never turn down. Cory made the universal sign for I’ll slit your throat if you bother the billionaire. I busied myself with a good round of flirting with present company. It’s important to lean into your strong suit.
Soon, the lobby was mostly empty and I could see Sofie talking to the people sho had with her. She gestured to the bar heatedly.
It was like a dream come true to see her walking over to the stools just on the other side of the bar from me. I was sure whatever brought a billionaire to our small town would be a serious scoop. One that could get me out of the business of hashtags. It didn’t hurt that she wasn’t bad on the eyes.
“Hey there, what can I get you?” I asked.
The good part of being a bartender was that you got practiced at chatting with people. Sofie was intense up close, and her stiff shoulders told me she hadn’t been having a fun day.
“Do you have a white wine?” Sofie’s husky voice was familiar from interviews I’d seen. Recently, she’d been talking about the Barlow Foundation’s good deeds. She was forever in the news trying to smooth down her family’s layoffs, mistresses, and the other drama her brothers and father got up to.
Sofie spent a moment taking me in, which made me hide a smirk. It helps to be a hot bartender. Both with tips and hopefully finding out why she was in town.
“We sure do,” I said, and heading to the fridge behind the bar I chuckled when I saw the two boxes that Cory had gotten. No one was complaining about free booze, but it looked like he hadn’t had time for a proper wine run. “Looks like we have an award-winning chardonnay and a customer’s choice Riesling.” I tapped the boxes as I showed her the options, which earned me an amused, down-turned at the corner smile from Sofie. I counted it as a win.
“Let’s go with customer’s choice,” Sofie said, gesturing to the smaller box.
“So how did you like the opening?” I asked.
Sofie looked around the space. “It’s a beautiful building.”
I poured both of us a generous serving and then went to lean against the bar. “Cory’s been working on it for a while.”
Sofie’s eyebrow arched — surprise that I was sticking around? Annoyance? Shock at the beautiful wine glasses? “It was great. This seems like it’ll be a pretty location.”
“Yeah, it’s been around for almost a century but Cory’s just giving it some love,” I said. “We were convinced this place was haunted when we were kids. Frankly, I’m still not convinced that it’s not.”
Sofie took a sip of the wine and then scrunched her nose. “This isn’t as bad as the cardboard would make it seem. So sweet though.” She still went back for another sip before fixing me with her steely grey eyes. “And maybe don’t tell paying customers that you think the place they’re staying in has ghosts. Your boss may not like it much.”
I checked for Cory only to see him glaring at me from across the room. “Yeah, well, the boss and I go way back. I’m not too worried. So how long are you in town for, Ms. — ”
Sofie let my pause hang in the air for a moment before she filled it for me. “Smith. Cleo Smith.”
She held out a hand for me to shake over the bar. It was a solid, strong shake. But her skin was soft. And I didn’t let it go. And Sofie, Sometimes Known As Cleo, smiled at me with a goofy grin that warmed me from head to toe. Like even she couldn’t believe the crap she was telling me.
“Lovely to meet you, Ms. Smith. I go by Josh. So, you’re afraid of ghosts? It’s a good thing you’ll be out of town by Halloween. That’s when things get scary.” I wiggled my fingers and continued sipping my wine.
“Who said I was leaving by then?” Sofie replied.
That piqued my interest.
But before I could dive more into her story, Cory came over to me. “Josh, can you get everything closed up on your own? I can give you a key.” Cory’s glare said that if I didn’t get to cleaning and stop bothering his lodger, he’d murder me with the key instead. He warmed when he turned to speak to Sofie. “And ma’am, always great to see you. The housekeepers will come by just two times a week until September, I just confirmed.”
“That’s fine, Cory,” Sofie said. “Thanks again for taking us early.”
“Our pleasure. And you have my number, right?” Cory did that thing women loved where he was giving her those sincere puppy eyes and ran his hand through his beard. So annoying, but a good move to try when I got back to New York.
Sofie wasn’t taking his charming oh-gee-whiz bait, which relieved me more than it should have. “I definitely do. I hear I might need you to scare off some ghouls.”
I smiled innocently when both Cory and Sofie looked at me at this. “Just some banter,” I said.
“This is why I’m not paying you,” Cory said to me flatly. And then to Sofie he added, “Watch out for him. He thinks he’s a real charmer with the ladies. Have a good night.”
Sofie’s smile was much cooler at me after that. I saw her team walking over. I’d lost my chance to find out why she was in town. But more than that, I was losing my chance to keep talking with her at all. I wanted to yell at Cory for calling me a womanizer in front of a gorgeous woman. Not that he was entirely wrong, but just because, well, I’d liked the conversation.
“Well, that’s my cue to head out,” Sofie said. She smiled and reached for her purse for her purse. I waved off her offer to tip me. “Are you sure?” she asked. “Cory said he wasn’t paying you.”
“I think I owe him big time for the ghost thing, Tell Cory if you need my bartending services. I’m around all weekend.”
Sofie gave me another of those catlike, inscrutable looks. A muscly guy who I’d bet was a bodyguard appeared as she gathered her things.
“It was nice to meet you, Josh,” Sofie Or Maybe Cleo said. I waved goodbye to them.
“You too, Cleo,” I said.
To his credit, her bodyguard didn’t react to my calling his boss by a different name. Maybe that was her move — flirt with hapless rednecks and lie about her name. I couldn’t imagine a Barlow doing that once, let alone enough for it to be her move.
I broke down the bar.
Most of what Cory had bought would last until they needed someone at the bar more often in the fall. I moved more slowly than usual, playing back the conversation with Sofie in my mind.
I’d been planning on heading back to the city tomorrow. Instead, I postponed my return until later in the weekend. I bet that whatever had her in Homesburg would require more alcohol. Even if it didn’t, I could hang around and try to cross paths with her sometime.
SOFIE
“SO, WHAT’S THE deal with the cute bartender?” my personal assistant Patty asked. She was smaller than me, with sharp eyes that would make this little burg more exciting that it was.
“Just some local boy,” I told her airily. As though I hadn’t felt a spark at a simple handshake. Like I didn’t just give him a fake name so he wouldn’t Google me and ask too many questions. Instead, I brushed those thoughts aside as we headed back through the lobby and upstairs to
our rooms.
Patty eyed me suspiciously before diving in to talk about my brothers. “So what do you think, should we follow up with them?” Patty asked as we reached our floor.
“Definitely,” I told her. “Maybe Tom and Lou just don’t know how serious this is.”
Patty’s face, usually the picture of smooth indifference, puckered like she’d eaten a sour lemon. “Mmm, yes, well. I’ll think of better ways to convey to them the seriousness of the situation.” She made a note on her phone. “All right, well, I’ll see you tomorrow if you’re still up for going to visit him.”
“We might as well jump right in,” I said. I was dreading seeing my father out here for the first time. “If we don’t get started right away, I’m afraid he’ll just insist he doesn’t need any company.”
Meaning, really, that I was afraid that I would go. I love my father, but I still couldn’t believe I was bedding down outside the city like this.
“Sounds good,” Patty said. “Let’s meet at noon and then we can drive over and be there by 1.”
I waved goodnight to her and Rocco before escaping to the suite I’d rented in the lodge.
And back to my thoughts, which circled back to Josh the bartender. A local guy was tight with the owner of the Lodge I was staying at. I felt like a schoolgirl thinking back to his dark eyes and that easy smile. The last thing I wanted was to get attached to anything — or anyone — out here in the middle of nowhere.
I’ve never been the swooning type. Maybe it was because my mother was a true blue trophy wife who’d taught me to always assess any potential boyfriends for their income potentials. Or maybe just that my fiance of a few years ago had drunkenly confessed he’d already started his first affair just two months after he’d proposed. For whatever reason, I’d gotten good at being the frosty, standoffish woman people expected from me. Even the dress I was taking off was a crisp white.
And so, mulling over Josh was trouble. Even if it was only while my assistant Patty prattled on and on about my brother’s miniscule plans to come to Homesburg and the multitude of excuses they had for not visiting.
