“Only the best for my girl.” He took her hand and stared into her eyes.
“Ah, that’s sweet.”
“I hope it’s enough. It’s my first time dating a billionaire.” He flashed her a crooked smile as if he were teasing, but there was a seriousness behind his words like he believed she required different treatment.
More than that though were the words themselves. She had just found out her net worth today and had told no one. So how did he know? “Who said I’m a billionaire?” Carrie asked as she pulled her hand back and took a sip of her water.
For a moment, his face held the expression of a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Then it shifted and a genuine smile lit his features. “Well, I understand business has picked up since the article on you ran, and you are such an amazing designer that I can’t believe you aren’t there already. I presume you will be soon.”
Relief flooded Carrie. Would it always be like this? Would she second guess everyone’s intentions? “That’s very nice of you to say, but I owe my success mostly to Gwen. It was her wearing my designs that got me noticed.”
He took a sip of his water. “Yes, it’s good to have wealthy friends, but you were on your way there before Gwen.”
Philippe couldn’t know that since he entered her life after Gwen had started wearing her designs, but it was sweet of him to say. And she probably would have gotten there herself, but having Gwen wear her wedding dress had shot her up the ladder faster than she had imagined. Still, she didn’t want to talk money with Philippe. Perhaps it was a baseless fear, but Carrie needed to know he wanted to be with her for her and not for her money.
“Thank you, but let’s talk of something else. How is business for you going?”
Philippe ran a computer consulting firm. They helped businesses choose the best computers for their needs, aided in setting up their systems, and repaired them when needed. Philippe wasn’t hurting for money either which was another thing Carrie liked about him. The fact that he made his own money made her less wary of him being after hers. But, she believed her worth was higher than his, and she knew that bothered some men. He never said anything, but she’d known many men in the past who hid their feelings behind calm exteriors until they finally exploded.
“Can’t complain. Business is going well.”
The waitress appeared then and placed a basket of bread in the middle of the table. “Are you ready to order?”
Carrie opened her mouth to ask for more time - she hadn’t even surveyed the menu - but Philippe spoke before her words formed.
“We’ll both have the Tour of Italy and two glasses of red wine,” Philippe said.
Carrie stared at him incredulously. He had never ordered for her before and she didn’t appreciate it now. “Um, I don’t feel like pasta tonight. I’ll just have whatever salad you recommend.” She locked eyes with the waitress to convey her seriousness.
The waitress’s eyebrow rose as she scratched the order out on her pad. “Okay. Anything else?”
“Sorry, I thought since it was a special occasion-” Philippe began.
“It’s fine,” Carrie said interrupting him. Although it wasn’t fine. She probably wouldn’t mind his ordering for her if he took her dietary needs into consideration, but he hadn’t even consulted her or asked what she wanted. “I’m simply craving salad is all.”
“All right, a salad for the lady and the Tour of Italy for me. Also a bottle of your best red wine.”
“Of course, sir.” The waitress hightailed it from their table as if she couldn’t wait to escape the tension.
A silence fell. Philippe grabbed a piece of bread from the basket. Carrie was tempted to as well, but she’d just put her foot down about pasta; she’d feel like a hypocrite if she did. Still, she wished she had something to chew on to fill the heavy silence.
Philippe finished his bite and then looked at her. He cleared his throat. “I was going to wait for dessert, but perhaps this is the right time.” His hand reached into his pocket, and he pulled out a box. “I know we haven’t been seeing each other that long, Carrie, but I love you. And my heart tells me you are the woman for me. Would you do me the honor of being my wife?” Philippe flicked open the box, and Carrie stared at the ring.
A thousand different things ran through her mind: they hadn’t been dating long enough, the ring was beautiful, why hadn’t he gotten down on one knee, did she love him? But none of them were the real reason that gave her pause. That was a secret she had told no one. Yet.
* * *
Cal stared at the piece of wood in his hands. Usually, inspiration hit him as soon as he held the block of wood, but this time it was slow in coming. It was probably the stress from the lack of money. He’d managed to get an extension with the bank, but it was simply plugging a hole to slow the leak and not stopping it entirely.
“You know, you could sell some of your carvings as a side job.” Stacy set a mug of coffee on the table next to him.
“That’s what I told him,” Jim, Stacy’s husband, said from across the room. “I’m sure I would sell a ton of them at the store.” Jim and Stacy owned the general store in Soda Spurs. She did the books for both the store and his ranching business while Jim ran the day-to-day operations.
“Plus, I bet you could make an online store and sell them there too.” Stacy sat on the other side of the couch Cal occupied. “Isn’t that what everyone does nowadays? Set up stores and sell things online?”
“Maybe some do, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin.” Cal turned the wood over in his hand again. Maybe a horse. He could whittle a horse like Ginger or perhaps a dog like Dexter.
“I bet Ginny would help you with that,” Stacy pushed, “I’ve heard she’s pretty computer savvy. Just another reason you guys would complement each other so perfectly.”
Cal glared at his sister. “Stacy, we’ve been over this. I’m not interested in Ginny, and I’m not going to use her for her money or her computer skills.”
Stacy’s shoulders pulled back in a defensive posture. “I’m only trying to help.”
“I know, but I’m not ready yet.” Cal brought the knife to the wood and scraped off a sliver of wood. He wished he was. He wanted to start a family soon, but right now his heart still belonged to the fiery red head who had stolen it six years ago. It wouldn’t be fair to date any other woman seriously until he could give her his whole heart. Cal just wondered when he would ever be able to do that.
With a sigh, Stacy turned her attention to her husband and they caught up on the rest of the day’s events. This time, after dinner and after the kids had gone to bed was their best time to share about their day and Cal often felt like he was intruding. His knife continued to scrape against the wood, and he wasn’t surprised when the image that began to appear was the heart- shaped face of the woman he could never seem to get out of his head.
Chapter 4
“Philippe proposed?” Gwen’s eyes shot to Carrie’s hand. Disbelief filled her voice.
Carrie glanced down at the large diamond ring on her left hand. It still felt foreign and not completely right. “Yeah.”
Gwen’s brow furrowed sending tiny crinkle lines across her forehead. “You don’t seem excited.”
“No, I am, it’s just that...” Carrie bit her lip. She had shared most of her past with Gwen, but there was one tidbit she had never told her - never told anyone.
“What?” Gwen asked. Concern replaced the shock and Gwen leaned across the table to give Carrie her full attention. Carrie loved that about Gwen, how effortlessly her emotions shifted.
Carrie’s eyes fell to the floor and she studied the speckled flooring of her kitchen as she tried to formulate the words in her mind, “There’s something I never told you. It happened before we met, and it… well it’s embarrassing.”
Gwen chuckled and leaned back in the chair. “Embarrassing? This is me you’re talking to, remember? I’m the one who spilled water on my future mother-in-law at a high brow gala. I
should have a degree in embarrassing.”
Carrie was glad that money hadn’t changed Gwen. She was still the same warm, caring person she had always been. “Yeah, but that was water. Nothing permanent. Trust me, this is much worse.”
An impish expression stole across Gwen’s face, and she wiggled her eyebrows. “What? Do you have some criminal past I am unaware of? Let me guess. You got caught streaking across campus your freshman year.”
“No, nothing like that,” Carrie said with a laugh. “At least I hope not. There were a few parties before I met you that are a little hazy, but I would remember that, right?”
Gwen’s eyebrow arched, and Carrie chuckled. “I’m kidding.”
“Okay,” Gwen shrugged, “so if you’re not a closet streaker, I doubt you have anything to worry about.”
Carrie sighed. She didn’t know about that, but she did need her best friend’s advice. She took a deep breath and spilled it out. “So, on my twenty-first birthday, some friends and I flew out to Vegas. We got drunk, of course, I mean that’s what you do in Vegas when you’re twenty-one, right?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Gwen said softly.
Carrie blinked at her. Had the girl never had a wild side? She realized Gwen had lived a simpler life, but had she never let loose? Carrie shook her head to clear the rabbit trail thoughts. “Right, well anyway, I guess I was so out of it that I sort of… got married.” Carrie’s gaze dropped to the tabletop as the heat crawled up her neck.
“Wait, you sort of did what?” Gwen’s eyes grew to the size of quarters, and she leaned farther across the table.
“I know,” Carrie moaned as she dropped her head onto her hand. “It was crazy and wrong and and I barely even knew the man, but I guess I thought I felt something there. I agreed to marry him, and the next morning when I woke up, he was there.”
Gwen’s eyes softened. “Okay, I mean mistakes happen, but are you sure it was even legal? A lot of people think they get legally married in Vegas, but they really don’t.”
“No, I remember getting the marriage certificate before we went to the chapel. They still require a certificate, but you can get it within an hour. No three-day waiting period in Vegas.” Carrie raised her head. “Why is there no three-day waiting period in Vegas?”
A soft chuckle escaped Gwen’s lips. “Well, probably because people want to get married quickly. But, why didn’t you get it annulled? You could have done that the next morning. Claimed insanity or something.”
Carrie shook her head. “I… I don’t know. I’ve asked myself that same question many times over the years. I do remember asking him that first morning, but he said we belonged together, and he wouldn’t agree. I couldn’t convince him, so I think I just convinced myself it hadn’t happened, and then I guess I forgot about it for a while, but now it’s an issue. I won’t be able to get a marriage license as long as I’m still married.”
“Do you remember his name? Anything else?” Gwen crossed to the stove and set the kettle boiling. Evidently, she felt this conversation needed tea.
“His name is Cal Roper. He lives in a small town in Texas - Soda Pop or something like that.”
A small smile played across Gwen’s lips as she crossed to the pantry. “That seems like a lot to remember from one night six years ago. Just how do you know where he lives?”
Busted. Carrie cleared her throat. “Hang on.”
Gwen turned from the pantry, an inquisitive look on her face and the box of green tea in her hand.
Carrie rose from the table and walked down the hall to her room. On the top shelf of her closet was an innocuous red shoe box. Any person who looked in her closet would simply think it was a pair of shoes she hadn’t unpacked. Goodness knew she had enough of them, but that wasn’t what the box contained. She pulled the box down and took a deep breath before opening the lid. Inside were six plump envelopes. One for every year she and Cal had been married.
She wasn’t even sure why she had kept the letters. Maybe it was to reminisce. Every once in a while, she would pull them down and read over them. Maybe it was to remind her not to be so spontaneous in the future. Whatever the reason, she had them and she was about to share them with another person for the first time.
Carrie took a deep breath and returned to the kitchen. She set the box on the table and glanced at Gwen whose face still held a quizzical expression. “I know all that information because he writes me every year on our anniversary.”
“Is that why you get so weird around your birthday?” Gwen opened the cupboard that held the mugs. She grabbed two and placed them on the counter near the stove.
Carrie nodded and picked up a letter. “Every year, I get a card from him a few days before my birthday. He tells me it wasn’t a mistake, and he asks me to come see him.” She slipped the letter out of the envelope and scanned the slanted writing.
“Carrie,” Gwen’s voice was soft, like a gentle caress, “Do you think maybe Cal is why you can’t settle down with anyone?” She dropped a tea bag in each mug and leaned against the counter.
“What?” Carrie’s jaw dropped open, and she shook her head. “No way. I don’t belong with Cal. He’s…. he’s a cowboy on a ranch somewhere. He’s probably dirty all the time. Can you imagine me on a ranch with animals?”
“Well, I’ve never thought about it, but love can change people. I would never have imagined myself marrying a billionaire, but it happened.”
“Yeah, but that’s totally different, Gwen. You’re in love with Drew. You two belong together. I was young and stupid and-”
“And you’ve never done anything about it.” Carrie opened her mouth to protest, but Gwen held up her hand. “I’m just saying that maybe there is a reason you never did anything about it. Maybe there’s a reason you don’t stick with men very long. Maybe there’s a reason you’ve kept every letter he mailed you. Maybe this Cal holds more of your heart than you want to admit.”
“But, but it was just one night.” Even as she said the words, Carrie wondered if Gwen might be right.
Her longest relationship after that night in Vegas had been two months until Philippe. She always found some reason to stop dating the men. They were too stiff, they were too free-spirited, they didn’t make enough, they worked too many hours. But she couldn’t really be comparing them to Cal, could she? What did she even remember about Cal?
She remembered twinkling green eyes and a charming smile. She remembered the cutest dimple in his right cheek and the way his arms felt around her as they danced across the floor. Oh, dear. Did she really have unresolved feelings for Cal? No, those were just physical characteristics. He had been handsome, but so what? Philippe was handsome too, and she loved him. Didn’t she? She glanced down at the diamond on her left hand, but suddenly she wasn’t so sure.
“Sometimes one night is all it takes,” Gwen said with a slight shrug of her shoulders. “I knew after one night with Drew that something was there. I was just too stubborn to do anything about it at first.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Perhaps stubbornness is a trait we share.”
The tea kettle whistled then halting the conversation for a moment as Gwen turned off the kettle and poured the water into the two mugs. She handed one to Carrie and blew softly into her own. “So, when are you going down there?”
“Soon,” Carrie said with a small sigh. “I have to remedy the situation. Hopefully Sierra can run the store while I’m gone.” Sierra had been her assistant for three months and knew her way around the shop. In addition, Carrie had hired Lilly to answer the phones and take orders and Devyn who was a whiz with the sewing machine and could whip out Carrie’s designs in a few days.
“I’m sure she will have no problem doing that,” Gwen said. She set her cup down on the table and picked up an envelope.
“Yeah, this just isn’t how I thought I’d be celebrating,” Carrie said.
“Well, you can still celebrate. Have you told Philippe?”
“No, and I’m not sure I want to.” Carrie had been
pondering what to tell Philippe since the night before. How did she tell her fiancé that she had to go get divorced before they could marry?
Gwen pulled the letter from the envelope and scanned the contents. “If you don’t tell him the truth, what will you say?”
Carrie didn’t miss the disapproving tone in Gwen’s voice. “I don’t know. Maybe just that I have some business to take care of. It certainly wouldn’t be a lie.”
Gwen set the letter down and fixed Carrie with a knowing stare. “No, but it wouldn’t be the whole truth either, and you know how things can spiral out of control when there’re secrets.”
“I know. I know,” Carrie said shaking her head. She’d figure out what to say to Philippe later. Right now, she just wanted to change the conversation. “The engagement wasn’t really what I was talking about celebrating though.”
“You have more to celebrate?”
Carrie chuffed softly glad that the letters had been forgotten for now. “I made it into the billionaire’s club.”
Gwen’s mouth fell open. “What? That’s terrific, Carrie. I know you’ve wanted it for ages.”
“Well, I have you to thank. That article and the picture of you wearing my wedding dress got me noticed. I didn’t think it would happen that quickly, but I got the notice from my accountant yesterday that I’m officially a billionaire.”
“That’s wonderful, Carrie.” Gwen’s eyes sparkled as she set her mug down and squeezed Carrie’s arm. Then her features shifted. “Did you… did you tell Philippe?”
“Not exactly. The paper came before he picked me up and I didn’t say anything about it, but he did mention dating a billionaire at dinner.” She narrowed her eyes at Gwen. “Why do you ask?”
Gwen’s eyes slid to the ground. “I don’t know. I don’t want to speak ill about him as I don’t know him as well as you do, but I just wonder at the timing of it.”
Anger flared within Carrie. “You think he’s only asked me to marry him to get my money?”
The Billionaire's Cowboy Groom (Sweet Billionaires Book 4) Page 3
