Evan steered the SUV through traffic and said, “Are you sure you’re ready to marry me? Because we’ve only been dating, like, what? Six weeks?”
“Sounds about right.”
“I think I know of a place we could get married today.”
Sadie reached over and punched him in the arm. “We are not getting married in a little chapel with an Elvis impersonator. I know there are plenty of people who don’t mind that, but I need a bit of a different story if I’m going to survive as a wedding planner.”
“How about this weekend? We’ll get the license and find a quiet place and go from there.”
“Done. I think that was easier than you trying to pick out appetizers for your sister’s wedding.”
Evan reached over the center console and interlaced her fingers with his, just like he did as often as possible. It was as though just that act alone assured him she wasn’t going anywhere. “You’re probably right.”
* * *
The next few days passed quickly, and Evan was more excited than he thought he’d be at the thought of another wedding. He’d gone all out on the arrangements, making sure to notify the IBC that their retreat to Bermuda was going to be a little more exciting than just a reunion.
He’d brought Aubrey in to help Sadie find a suitable wedding dress from one of the shops under his hotel, telling her that there was no budget on this, and he was excited to see what she’d picked. He was excited just to have her by his side as they pledged their lives to each other.
It had taken some doing to keep the secret of their destination from Sadie, but when he’d picked her up and blindfolded her, he had to laugh as she asked question after question about what was happening.
“Why are we going on an airplane?” she asked once they were on board and ready for takeoff.
“It’s a surprise,” he said, unable to wipe the wide grin off his face. He took off the blindfold when they were airborne, and he just hoped she’d love it as much as he did.
Just over six hours later, the private jet landed, and Sadie looked at him in awe. “Where are we?”
“Bermuda.”
The look of shock on her face was pure gold, and he hoped everyone else was in place.
They got into a car and drove a ways, right up to the sandy beach with the clear light-blue water stretching out before them. He ushered her over to the small building and handed the woman there the bag holding the wedding dress.
“Get changed. I’ll meet you out here.”
He changed on the other side of the building, donning a white shirt and a pair of khakis, his feet bare as they’d be walking through the sand.
A group text came through, and all it said was, We’re ready.
Evan’s heart raced, hoping Sadie would be okay with his planning. She was the planner after all, but he figured she could use a break on her own wedding. Since it would take place outdoors on the beach, there were only a few flowers and then the few rows of their immediate family and friends.
His father would meet up with Sadie after she’d changed into her gown, allowing her a father-like figure to walk her down the short aisle. He moved into place just as the rest of the group took their seats. All nine of his IBC brothers were there, his family—minus Darren’s kids—and Sadie’s younger sister, Natasha. It had taken some investigative work to track her down without Sadie knowing, but he at least wanted her sister there to represent the Gibson family since their parents could not.
Aubrey approached him, using her fingers to comb his hair to the side. She even went so far as to lick her thumb and wipe something on his cheek.
Evan chuckled, the nerves getting to him. “We need to find you a guy. You’re already way too much like Mom.”
“That’s not always a bad thing.” She turned and moved to sit on the front row in front of his frat brothers.
Evan saw his father first, dressed in a simple suit. Holding onto his arm was Evan’s bride. Sadie was dressed in a simple lace dress with a short veil pinned into her curls. As his father escorted her up to him, Evan fought tears.
Once Sadie stood next to him, Evan’s father took a seat by his wife. Turning to Sadie, Evan pulled back the veil and saw tears in her eyes as well.
“You planned all this?” she asked in a loud whisper, her hand waving at the rows of chairs. “I can’t believe you brought my sister here.” The elation on her face eased his fears, and he couldn’t believe that today he would be marrying his best friend.
“I figured I you deserved a more elaborate elopement. Besides, I didn’t want to just do something in Vegas. I wanted this to be the beginning of our travels together.”
Her smile made his pulse jump as the minister began. He turned to the officiator, ready to take this next step.
“Evan Pearson, do you take Sadie Gibson to be your lawful wedded wife—”
“Yes.” Evan said it with a grin, never breaking eye contact with the beauty in front of him.
“Sadie Gibson, do you take Evan Pearson—”
“Yes.” She smiled.
Evan barely heard the man say the words “husband and wife” before he pulled her to him. Brushing his lips against hers, he paused a second before sealing it with a deeper kiss. He was finally married to his sister’s best friend—his best friend—and that kiss held the promise of the future, a future where he had her by his side.
Chapter 1
Love, Austen
Meg Austen heard the computer humming its startup song as she sorted the envelopes at her desk. A couple pieces of junk mail and several bills. Twisting a piece of her blonde hair, she considered leaving the envelopes untouched. Maybe if she blinked fast enough, they’d disappear.
She knew what the letters said. Past-Due in red ink. The costs of remodeling and renting a physical building weren’t things she’d had to worry about before, but her growing matchmaking business had stretched her bank account thinner than she’d ever seen it.
One envelope stood out, its square shape sticking up next to the rest. These were the letters she wanted to receive. Pulling the sharp letter-opener from her desk drawer, she sliced open the envelope, and pulled out a wedding invitation.
Meg skimmed past the names of the bride’s parents to find Rebecca Ann spelled out in a swoopy script. Her husband-to-be was Richard Story, one of the three matches Meg had picked out for her. Included was a picture of the happy couple sitting on a park bench gazing into each other’s eyes.
This. Everything about this validated why she did what she did. That look on his face as he stared at her. Rebecca’s wide smile. Totally worth the hours of research it took to find people their best match.
And for some reason, a sharp pain hit her chest, and she felt envy trickle through her. Her life was great, near perfect. She owned a business she adored, had amazing friends, and all the Nutella hot chocolate she could drink from the creperie around the corner.
She glanced at the envelopes again, knowing she’d have to tackle them before lunch or they‘d sit there for weeks. With a push, she arranged them on the corner of her desk, and clicked on her inbox. Several new emails from current and potential clients waited and as she scanned the headlines, her eyes stopped on one of them.
Her stomach did a flip as she read: INVESTMENT REQUEST. With a quick click, she scrolled down faster than she could even comprehend. She hadn’t learned anything from her attempt at speed reading and rolled the page back to the top.
Dear Miss Austen,
We thank you for your application to the Boston Investor’s Alliance. We have gone through your profile and request more information about your company before moving forward.
Not one to object to reading the end of a book, her eyes slid to the last paragraph.
Please give our office a call between 9:00 am-5:00 pm in the next day or two. Ask for Mark Allred.
Hovering her hand over the receiver, she stared at the wall in front of her.
Should I call them now?
She glanced back to see
what time they sent the email. Forty-seven minutes ago. Was that too soon? Would they think she was desperate?
What was a little humiliation? It had almost killed her pride to send in the application in the first place. She’d made a goal to depend on herself for any need, business or otherwise, the day she found out her mother had taken half of her college savings.
After a coaxing debate from her assistant, Tiffany, she decided that getting a business loan, or taking on investors, wasn’t like robbing a bank. Besides, people had the guts to convince investors on TV that their product would make millions. Sending in an electronic application made her grateful she didn’t have to do that.
Nervous energy bubbled in her stomach and she shook her hands to calm herself for a moment.
They can say no. I’ll just find another way to do things. Just breathe. She picked up the phone, dialing the number at the bottom of the email.
“Boston Investor’s Alliance. How may I direct your call?”
“Um... that’s a good question.” The name already escaped her and she skimmed the email and saw the info she needed. “May I speak to Mark Allred, please?”
“One moment, please.”
Meg heard the click and then that awful trumpet, trying-to-be-jazz type music filled her ears. She pulled the phone away and rolled her eyes. If they were going to play music why couldn’t they play something most people listened to?
Once the call connected, the ringing tone echoed in Meg’s ear, sending her mind into doubt. She’d gained experience in the time she’d been running Love, Austen, but the thought of some unknown person deciding whether or not to give her money based on a few questions on an application formed knots in her stomach.
Her finger hovered over the disconnect button, giving herself to the count of ten. When she reached eight, a male voice answered, causing her mind to scramble as it focused on his words. Her stomach rumbled, and she craved a cup of Nutella hot chocolate.
Chocolate. She’d need some of that when this call finished.
After quick introductions, the raspy voice on the line said, “I’m looking at your file now. With all the information in your profile, your business plan, and everything else you’ve submitted, you’ve passed the first stage of the review process. We feel it’s important to vet each client before handing out money.” He paused and Meg hoped it wasn’t to drive the point home. She wasn’t giving up now. “The board requested a phone interview to discover why you want people to invest in your company. There’s only so much we can learn on paper.”
The line went silent and Meg pursed her lips, unsure what to do. Was he waiting for her to answer? Or was this another pause? Her heart raced, and she placed a hand over it, hoping to calm it enough to breathe in a few mouthfuls of air without sounding like she’d just run a 5K.
“Well, sir, I’ve been working on Love, Austen since my senior year of college, so almost five years. In that time, we’ve been able to grow our clientele each year, many coming from referrals of past clients. Our success rate of couples still together after the first year has been steady for most of that time and in the last year rose another six percent.”
Mr. Allred said nothing and an awkward silence hung thick in the air. Twisting the cord at the base of her receiver, Meg tried not to breathe loudly into it.
“What will our investments go towards?”
She visualized the online application where she’d detailed her answer to that exact question. Her eyes drifted closed and she said, “Well, sir, we’ve just opened our first physical location on Beacon Street, giving us the adequate room for meeting potential clients as well as bringing in some of the locals. But my overall vision for this company is to go global. After meeting with a business analyst, he suggested we increase our online footprint. My first priority is to design an app allowing people to benefit from all the conveniences of our company from anywhere around the world.”
“Ah, those applications my grandkids talk about. I’m lucky I know how to text. Don’t get me started about those smiley faces.” The man chuckled and a pity laugh escaped from her lips.
Great. My future rests in the hands of a man who doesn’t understand technology.
The thought sparked an idea, and she said, “Yes, but we want to make it user-friendly. Something people can use no matter their skill-level with technology. We match couples from age eighteen up as high as eighty so far. We at Love, Austen believe that everyone should have a chance at love, and for some, even a second.”
The man let out a sigh. “That’s a great sentiment and I’m interested to see the inner-workings of your business. My question for you, Miss Austen, is how much do you trust in your matching program?”
“Excuse me?”
“Do you have a boyfriend, husband, or significant other?”
She opened her mouth but found the air too thick to swallow. The closest thing to a boyfriend was the stock photo in a silver frame Tiffany had given her for her last birthday. Her family was almost non-existent and her life was her business, making it difficult for picture-worthy moments.
“Boyfriend? I have a... boy-friend.” She smacked herself on the forehead, hoping he hadn’t heard it. Liquid slurping echoed from the other end and she frowned. She was here sweating over a simple word and he was smacking his lips in her ear.
Mr. Allred cleared his throat and said, “Perfect. We look forward to meeting him.”
Another pause on the line sent Meg’s mind into overdrive. Why did she say she had a boyfriend? Did they expect her to run the numbers and matching tests for said boyfriend as well? She pictured some men she’d met in the last few months and found herself cringing to think of even holding their hands. Even the ones she’d dated sent the question, “What were you thinking?” through her mind.
Sound came from the other line again, pulling her back to the present. “For our company to get an overall picture of your business, we’ll send someone to take a look at the place, your processes, and any other details we might need to consider. If you have any special events coming up, please notify our office. Client experiences are valuable to the final decision and we weigh those considerably higher than the basic information. We hope to have an answer to you in the next thirty days.”
“You’ll come to my office?” Why was her brain moving in slow motion?
“Yes, like I said before, we prefer to get the overall picture rather than just the numbers on paper.”
Thirty days. One month. She picked up the unopened envelopes. They symbolized money lost. An urgency to start development on the app right away hit her, just as it had every day over the past six months. Her account balance showed little of her scrimping habits and as she thought about it, thirty days was much better than having to save for the next ten to twenty years.
“Okay. Call me when your people will stop by.”
Hanging up the phone, Meg laid her head on the desk, lifting and dropping it, repeating the action a few times. Who said doing something she loved wouldn’t feel like work?
Also by Britney M Mills
International Billionaire Series
The Australian Billionaire
The French Billionaire
The British Billionaire
The Vegas Billionaire
The Italian Billionaire (Preorder link)
Love Austen Series
Love, Austen
Austen, Party of Two
Austen Unscripted
Matched, Austen
If you liked this book or any of the books in the series, please leave a review. It totally makes my day and helps other readers see them.
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About the Author
Britney Mills was born in Utah but parts of her heart lie in Boston, Washington D.C. and Germany. Her love of writing began with the third grade book her teacher assigned her to write and she spent hours hidden behind her mother's couch writing pages and
pages about knights and castles. Now she writes about romance. Go figure.
When she's not mothering her four small children, writing or reading, she's probably out playing a sport, going on a hike, or binge watching a murder mystery series. The way to her heart is through homemade chocolate chip cookies and five minutes peace.
Acknowledgments
Thank you so much for reading this book! I hope you enjoyed it and make sure to leave a review!
You, the reader, are the one I think about as I work through these novels and thank you for continuing to support me. Starting a new series gets a little scary because it’s new and I just hope you love these characters as much as I have.
Thank you, Max, for taking the kids every Thursday so I can pour my heart out on the page. I’m a better mother and a more sane wife when I have those small breaks.
Julie L. Spencer, Elizabeth McCay, Shannon Symonds and Deborah Goodman. Some of the best and funnest romance people I could associate with. I love our Thursday night chats and the late hours talking about whatever is going on in our lives. The long Facebook threads and the fun laughter as we work through our bad first drafts down to the final edits.
To Christina Schrunk for her patience in working with me on these books. Her ideas and insight help to spark those last final puzzle pieces to help the book come together and I am so grateful for her.
To Krista Burdine for proofreading this book. She keeps me sane so I don’t have to reread the book 100 times before publishing to hopefully get all of the errors out.
To Blue Valley Author Services, AKA Victorine Lieske and her awesome sister for making the cover. Especially for the last minute change of the guys eyes.
If you want news on when the next book comes out or my progress on the series, make sure to subscribe to the list so you don’t miss anything.
The Vegas Billionaire: An International Billionaire Club Series Page 16
