Million-Dollar Makeover

by Cheryl St. John

  “Lily and her husband’s daughter you mean?”

  “Yes. Everyone still refers to her as Lily Divine, but she lived out her life married to a Harding. Their daughter would have been your great-grandmother.”

  “That’s exciting. Did your aunt ever speak of the Harding family?”

  “Oh, my, yes. Lily Harding was a headstrong woman, ahead of her time and subject for much discussion over the years. Seems she had a sorry lot in life before she came to Thunder Canyon. Not sure about the whole of it, but the story goes that she didn’t think a woman’s plight should be birthing a baby every year or being cook and laundress to a husband and his hired men. Lily saw too much abuse and too many women treated as property, and it was her mission to help women in need of a new start.”

  “Had Lily been mistreated herself?”

  “That I don’t know. All the stories I learned about her are from after she settled here. Lily’s daughter said Lily inherited a bordello from a dear friend and turned it into a saloon and boardinghouse. When Thunder Canyon sprang up as a small mining town, she used a golden opportunity to make herself a modest fortune by selling liquor to the miners.”

  This story made more sense to Lisa. She listened with fascination.

  “Now, Nathaniel Harding was a bounty hunter, a man tired of roaming, and he hired on to clean up the town and the saloons. Nate and Lily butted heads a good many times before they fell in love and got married. My guess is they butted heads a few times afterward, as well,” she said with a wink.

  “What a romantic story.”

  Miss Emelda chuckled. “Your favorite kind.”

  “Was Lily ever truly a prostitute?”

  “I really don’t know what her life was like before she took over the Shady Lady and met Nate Harding. And if’n it was true, she wouldn’t have told her daughter now, do you think?”

  “No. I guess not. But even if that was in her past—and I might never know for sure—she made a fresh start and did a lot of good in her life.”

  “She did at that.”

  “Thanks, Miss Emelda. You’ve been a big help.” She stood.

  The older woman bustled to remove their plates. “You know I like to tell stories about the old days. Maybe you’ll be the one to pass this one on.”

  “I will.”

  “Take some cake home with you. I have too much and I don’t get a lot of company. If I put it on this plate, you’ll have to bring it back soon.”

  “I’ll be glad to do that. And anytime you need someone to take care of Dog for you, you just call me.” Lisa fished in her purse for a business card and placed it on Miss Emelda’s counter. “That’s what I do, you know.”

  “I don’t go out much, but if I do, I’ll call.”

  Lisa carried the plate of cake to her Blazer and waved to Miss Emelda and Dog. The old woman’s stories had always delighted her in her childhood, and this one had been even more special than all the rest because it revealed truths Lisa longed to know.

  Even if she never knew the complete truth about Lily, she was never going to be ashamed or embarrassed to be related to her again. The woman had been smart enough to run her own business, compassionate enough to help other women, bold enough to think women should vote and confident enough to wear a red dress.

  Lisa smiled to herself as she drove toward home.

  Among a dozen messages on her machine was one from Riley: “Lisa. Can we get together? Call me.”

  His voice affected her as it always did, making her stomach dip. Should they get together? That was the question, but she didn’t have a good answer. Lisa wasn’t about to take any chances with her heart where this guy was concerned. She had to keep her wits about her and stay one step ahead of his game. She wasn’t hoping for a happy ending with Riley Douglas. Maybe the wise thing would be a friendly ending. The sooner, the better.

  Riley tossed a signed stack of papers on Marge’s desk just as his cell phone rang. He reached in his jeans pocket and dug it out. Lisa.

  “Hey.”

  “Hi. You called?”

  Marge glanced up at him. He stepped into his office and closed the door. “Can we get together? How about dinner?”

  “We have a meeting tomorrow. We’ll see each other then.”

  “I know. This isn’t business.”

  “I don’t know, Riley.” He sensed the hesitation in her voice.

  She was giving him the brush-off? His head was so mixed up, he couldn’t wrap a coherent thought around the woman. She’d shown up in that red dress and he’d lost his mind. What was wrong with him? He didn’t get involved. He didn’t lose his cool and he never, never deflowered virgins.

  In his defense, he hadn’t known she was a virgin until he’d seen the telltale signs afterward. It still made him a little weak in the knees when he thought about it. She’d waited all these years to have sex and then she’d chosen him. The fact stunned him. She didn’t want to talk about it. Hell, she didn’t even want to have dinner with him.

  He got a little defensive. “Are you giving me the big kiss-off here? If I did something, let me know what it was, will you?”

  “You didn’t do anything I didn’t want you to do,” she answered.

  “Are you talking about sex?” he asked.

  “What are you talking about?”

  He thrust his fingers into his hair and gripped his scalp in frustration. “I’m talking about you avoiding me now. Since we had sex.”

  “I’m not avoiding you.”

  “What do you call it when you hedge a dinner invitation?”

  “I’m sorry, Riley, did we make some sort of a commitment that I don’t know about?”

  Her words gut-punched him more effectively than if she’d been standing in front of him and swung a fist. He was sounding like a clingy high school girl, and she’d just given him the we’re-just-friends line. He was swimming in uncharted waters here and he was concerned his sense of direction was going to get him lost. This had never—ever—happened to him before. “Never mind. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Riley snapped his phone shut and stared at his office wall for a full minute, collecting himself. Fine. So she wasn’t enamored yet. He’d be damned if he was going to let that deter him. Her lack of enthusiasm wasn’t part of the plan.

  But he still had a plan. And he was nothing if not persistent in getting what he wanted.

  She couldn’t help herself. Lisa hung the beige suit back on the hanger and dressed in a pair of black hipster pants with a cute silver chain belt and a blouse that only buttoned up as far as her cleavage. She had these Lily boobs, she might as well show them to their advantage.

  Now the shoes took some getting used to. After living in tennis shoes, these backless little heels took some practice. But she was getting the hang of them. She’d spent an hour on her toenails last night and finally decided on red. Red went with everything and, well, it just plain looked sexy.

  The bank loan Riley had helped arrange for her had gone through, and after their meeting today she was going to buy a car. She didn’t know the first thing about car buying. Should she ask for advice? She was too frugal not to want to avoid being taken advantage of.

  She drove the Blazer to the Douglases’ downtown office, where Riley had asked her to meet him, thinking as she did that she wouldn’t be driving the familiar beast much longer. No more breakdown worries. No more dead batteries in winter or repair bills she couldn’t afford. The enormity of her new situation still took some getting used to, and she had to remind herself all the time.

  A checkbook-size folder held closed with a rubber band lay on the console. Inside were all the coupons she’d clipped and filed and saved. For days she’d been looking at it, considering throwing it out, but had been unable to. Fifty cents was still fifty cents. Lisa laughed at herself and imagined the looks she’d get if she presented a coupon at the Super Saver Mart now that everyone knew she was the millionaire heiress.

  She parked in the small lot and concentrated on walki
ng smoothly all the way inside and up to the receptionist’s desk. She did pretty well, if not breaking an ankle was any indication.

  “Lisa Martin?” The slender, dark-haired woman greeted her with a smile. “It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Connie Gray. Mr. Douglas asked me to show you right into his office.”

  Connie opened a gleaming wood door and ushered her into a room similar to Riley’s home office.

  Riley stood from behind a glass-topped desk. His gaze swept over her from head to toe and he seemed to struggle to maintain a professional expression. “Good morning, Miss Martin.”

  This was only the second time she’d seen him since the other night, and she was bound and determined not to show any reaction or weakness. “Good morning.”

  “There are drinks set up on the table over there,” Connie told her. “And I put out rolls and sandwiches. Please help yourself.” She smiled and closed the door behind her.

  “Is it just us?” Lisa asked.

  “Yes. You look great.”

  “Thanks.” She made her way to the long table and placed two of the delicate sandwiches and a cinnamon roll on a gold-edged white china plate. “Ever heard of disposable plates?”

  “Connie takes care of all that.”

  “Like Marge does at your other office.”

  “Yes.”

  “Do they know each other?”

  “Yes, why?”

  She seated herself at a table and tried a sandwich. “Mmm, awesome chicken-and-walnut mixture.” Then answered him with, “Just wondering. What are we deciding today?”

  He brought a couple of folders and an envelope from his desk and sat across from her. Within half an hour he’d explained financial details regarding the mine’s initial operation and advised her on the best courses of action. “You do still trust me to advise you, don’t you, Lisa?”

  “Do I have reason not to?”

  “I give you my word I’ll consider each action as though this was my own money. I’ll use the best of my ability to steer you toward decisions that will benefit your corporation. I intend to show you every penny of income and expense and to offer you my best advice on generating profits.”

  “Your word is good enough for me,” she replied easily. It was in his best interest to make her money since he wanted to share in it. She’d been born at night, but it hadn’t been last night.

  A roll and a cup of coffee later, their business was concluded. He was good at this money-managing stuff.

  His intercom beeped and Connie said, “Mine foreman is on line one, Mr. Douglas. He says it’s important.”

  Riley got up and stood beside his desk to push the speakerphone button. “Douglas here.”

  “Mr. Douglas.” The man’s voice was clear. “I couldn’t reach anyone at Miss Martin’s number. The two of you might want to be here when we haul this car out into the sunlight.”

  Riley met Lisa’s eyes. “We’ll be there.”

  He clicked off the phone and pressed the intercom button. “Connie, have the driver bring the car around, please.”

  “What’s going on?” Lisa asked.

  “This is it. The first of the ore. It’s been right there waiting for us to have everything in place. Let’s go.”

  “Oh, wow! This is exciting.” Lisa pointed to the table. “Let’s grab a few of those sandwiches for the road. They’ll tide us over.”

  He watched her pile several sandwiches on a plate and cover them with a cloth napkin.

  “What?” she said. “I’ll return your napkin.”

  “Take all the napkins if you want. I don’t care.”

  “Then what are you looking at?”

  “You.”

  Lisa looked away, momentarily flustered. “Let’s go.”

  They headed out past the receptionist and onto the street, where the chauffeur waited beside the Town Car. “Where to, Mr. Douglas?”

  “The mine.”

  They got in and got settled. She placed the plate of sandwiches on the seat between them, and he looked out the window with a grin.

  “Great picture in the paper. The one of you in the red dress,” he said.

  She hadn’t minded it. She gave him a sideways glance and grinned. “It was okay.”

  He looked back. “Did you know the AP picked it up?”

  “Associated Press?”

  “Uh-huh. Chad Falkner made himself a pretty penny selling it to People.”

  “No way!”

  “I’d watch for the next issue.”

  “Stop it.” He was putting her on, and she wasn’t falling for it. The thought of plain-Jane Lisa Martin’s photo beside Jennifer Aniston’s was ludicrous.

  “So, we’re on our way to see gold, is that right?”

  “That’s what’s excavated from a gold mine.”

  “It’s going to be real now.” She looked out the window at the passing scenery, excited now in spite of herself. “What do you have on your schedule this afternoon?”

  He thought a minute. “Paperwork for the ski resort.”

  “Anything you can work around?”

  “Yes, why?”

  She looked at him. “I want to go buy a car. Maybe you could advise me. I don’t want to pay more than I should.”

  “Do you know what you want?”

  “Not really.”

  He tapped his fingers on his knee. “Were you thinking of going to Billings? Are you ordering or buying from a showroom?”

  She shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  “I’ll come with you. We’ll stop by the ranch to get my car on the way back,” Riley said. “I rode in with my dad this morning.”

  “What about the Blazer? Won’t I need it for the trade-in?”

  “Lisa.” He cocked a brow. “Get serious.”

  “What?”

  “You’re not going to get a trade-in on that thing. Besides, it won’t make it that far.”

  “What will I do with it, then?”

  “Call a scrap-metal dealer? Have a bonfire?”

  She gave him a sideways look. It was fine for her to belittle her own vehicle, but she didn’t like the verbal degradation coming from him. “I’ll have you know that Blazer got me where I needed to go for the last ten years…most of the time.”

  “So it has sentimental value?”

  “Some.”

  He tilted his head. “I hear you can have a vehicle smashed down into a coffee table.”

  “Now there’s an idea.”

  They shared a laugh just as the driver pulled up to the last security point.

  When they reached the mine, the flurry of activity amazed Lisa. There were workmen and trucks and all manner of tools and apparatus she’d never seen before.

  The foreman dashed out to meet them. “It’s up. Wait till you see!”

  He led them to a metal cart filled with chunks of ore taken from the mine’s interior.

  “There you go, Lisa,” Riley said, urging her forward.

  “There’s your gold.”

  She stared at hunks of rock with gleaming fissures and exposed nuggets. Sunlight caught the exposed veins and gold glittered.

  Riley asked for a hammer and knocked off a piece. Turning to Lisa, he held it out, then dropped it into her extended palm.

  The chunk of gold he’d given her was as big as a plum and heavy. She held it out so the light caught it, then glanced at each person in the gathering. Smiles creased every face.

  Someone let out a whoop, and the rest joined in. Lisa found herself swept into Riley’s arms and spun around in a circle. When he set her down, the men crowded around her with excited congratulations. The whole thing still seemed surreal.

  “Now do you believe you’re wealthy?” Riley asked sometime later as they walked back to the car. “You owned the gold all along, but now you’ve seen it.”

  “It’s more real, that’s for sure.” She still held the nugget.

  The driver took them to Riley’s, where they got his car. She dropped the piece of gold into her purse and sel
ected a CD. Riley showed her how to load the unfamiliar machine and press Start.

  “I think I’ll get a car with one of these players.”

  The sandwiches ran out long before they reached Billings, and Riley drove through a fast-food place on the highway to order a burger and a soda. Lisa got a shake.

  When they reached the city, he pulled onto the first car lot he came to, which happened to be a BMW dealership.

  A young salesman spotted the red Jaguar and nearly ran out to greet them. “Hi! Are you looking for anything in particular today?”

  “I just want to look,” Lisa told the salesman pointedly.

  “Go right ahead.” The young man handed Riley a business card. “I’m Jamie. I’ll be glad to help you if you have any questions.”

  Lisa test-drove half a dozen cars, but felt her eyes bug out of her head when she asked how much the price was on the one she liked the best.

  “It’s a car,” she said to Riley, but the salesman was within hearing distance, so she lowered her voice. “I could pay the national debt with that much money. Or build a children’s hospital.”

  “A hospital.” Riley raised a brow and studied her.

  “Well, a clinic. Hey, an animal shelter. Why on earth would I want to spend that much money on a car?”

  “It’s not just a car, Lisa, it’s a BMW. Like mine is a Jag. It’s going to cost more money than a midsize family sedan or an economy car. People buy them because they can afford to. A car like this is about image. You’re a wealthy woman now. The cars you choose reflect you and the way you want to be seen.”

  “Afford it or not—image or no—it’s a waste of money. I want to go somewhere where I won’t feel like I’m throwing money away.”

  “It’s not throwing money away, it’s an investment.”

  “No, a stock is an investment. A car is transportation.”

  “Why’d you bring me, then? To make me crazy?”

  “No, I read somewhere that a man can negotiate for a better deal than a woman. Did you notice he gave his card to you, when I’m the one who said I wanted to look?”

  He tilted his head to indicate he had.