Goldie And The Billionaire Bear (Once Upon A Billionaire Book 1)

by Catelyn Meadows

  “I’ll just make sure you’re good here,” he said. “Then I’ll be on my way.”

  She swallowed her nervousness and climbed the walk to the three-wide steps leading onto the porch, which was enclosed by an iron railing. She hesitated, chockfull of uncertainty, but the numbers by the door matched what her aunt had told her. 321 Columnar Street.

  Goldie had the sudden impulse to turn around. Dash to her little truck, and keep on driving. But she couldn’t run away from this. There would always be questions. Who was her aunt, really? Why had she waited so long before contacting her?

  Why had she allowed her mom to keep her a secret from Goldie?

  Steeling her courage, Goldie hammered the knocker five loud, hard times. She waited, dwelling in the moment, in the intense anticipation and listening for the sound of footsteps within. She peered through the tall windows on either side of the door, but the glass was iced, designed to let light in and keep snoopers out.

  That was unfortunate. She so wanted to snoop.

  Goldie wasn’t sure how many minutes passed before she tried knocking again. Footsteps came this time, not from inside, but from behind her.

  “No one here?” Adrian asked.

  She chewed her lip. Fear was beginning to overtake her. Her mother’s cynical voice clanged in her head. What had she gotten herself into? She’d taken off of work, followed the breadcrumbs, only to find there was no candy cottage at the end of the road. The last thing she wanted to do was to call her mom and admit she’d been right, that Goldie should have ignored the letter and stayed in Wisconsin.

  “I guess not. I’ll try again later.”

  Even though she couldn’t see his eyes through his reflective sunglasses, she could feel him watching her. His forehead furrowed. “What are you going to do, just wait here?”

  She shrugged. There were worse things. “I guess so.”

  He ran a hand behind his neck. “Look, I’ve got to get going.”

  She fought the sting of disappointment. Honestly, what did she expect him to do? They were strangers.

  Goldie hoped her smile was passable. “Please, don’t neglect your day on my account. I’m really grateful for your help, Adrian. I’m sure my aunt will be back soon. I’ll just wait here. Or I might bebop over to that strip mall we passed. I love a good mall.”

  He didn’t immediately reply. She could sense him thinking things over. Suddenly, she wished he would leave. She felt like such an idiot. First, from getting lost on the mountain. Then breaking into his cabin only to have him find her sleeping there. Now to have no verifiable evidence that what she’d claimed was even true. For all he knew she was a huge, compulsive liar and had made up the address on a whim.

  Her throat tightened. “I’ll be fine. You go ahead. Thanks for everything you’ve done.” She had a portfolio filled with her students’ papers that she needed to grade before she returned. She could probably just camp out on the porch and pull those out.

  Sure. Camp out on the porch of a stranger’s house to grade papers on the off-chance her aunt for one, lived here, and for two, was coming back sometime soon. What was she thinking?

  He turned toward his car, then hesitated, turning back to her. “I feel really weird leaving you on your own. You don’t have a number for your aunt?”

  “She left me her email address.”

  “That’s not going to do you much good once the sun goes down.”

  “Is there a hotel nearby?” She couldn’t exactly afford to stay in a hotel, not with what the trip had already cost her.

  He kicked at the sidewalk. “There is, but with the fundraiser tonight, my guess is it’s probably already booked.”

  “Fundraiser?”

  He peered across the street. “It’s held every year, to help support the town. It’s put on by my father’s company. He did it to support the local community, and my mom wanted to make sure this year’s is the best one yet. Many of my father’s benefactors come from all over the country to support it, since he’s done so much to help others.”

  His father’s benefactors? From across the country? She would never have guessed that, not in a town this size.

  “What does it raise money for?” she asked.

  “Whatever the community needs. Help the schools, the homeless; one year we used the proceeds to build a new park.”

  “That sounds nice.” It still didn’t help the problem that she needed somewhere to stay.

  Adrian must have read as much in her tone. He tucked his hands into his jeans pockets. “Would you like to come with me to the ranch?”

  The cement vanished from beneath her feet. “What?”

  “My family owns a bed and breakfast here in Two Pines. Well, just outside of town, actually. There’s plenty of space for you, and you can stay until you hear from your aunt.”

  Goldie couldn’t believe this. A bed and breakfast? “Seriously?”

  “Of course. Rustic Ridge Bed and Breakfast. It’s a bit off the beaten path, but that makes it a pretty popular getaway.”

  Goldie lifted her phone—fully charged once more, thanks to her car charger—and did a quick search. The website popped up almost immediately. From the look of things it was rustic, and yep, located in Montana. Matthew Bear, proprietor. Goldie wondered if that was Adrian’s father’s name.

  A bed and breakfast sounded much better than settling in on this seemingly random porch for who knew how long. She lowered her phone.

  “I don’t want to impose.”

  “Not an imposition at all. I’m sure we still have space, since we’re not as convenient to the fundraiser’s location as the regular hotel is. Though I can’t say this is completely selfless.”

  Goldie watched him. “Oh?”

  “The fundraiser is tonight, and I need a date.”

  Goldie’s pulse kicked. Did he just say the word date? “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but why me? You don’t even know me.”

  “Intuition, maybe?” he said with a shrug. “I don’t know, I get feelings about things. About people. Take the stock market, for example. I follow my gut when it comes to taking action. The same feeling I get telling me to buy or sell is telling me now not to leave you in a new town without anywhere to go.”

  “That’s not intuition,” she said. “That’s just good manners and talent.”

  He shrugged. “Call it what you will. What do you say? We’ll be going with my brother and his wife, if that’s okay. My mom wanted to set me up with someone, but the town is small and…”

  “It has a long memory?” she guessed.

  “Most of the single women around here are either girls I dated in high school or husband hunters.”

  “And you’re not ready to settle down, I take it.”

  He glanced away. “Not here, at least.”

  Goldie decided not to ask what he meant by that. She thought through his offer. A bed and breakfast sounded nice, at least until she contacted her aunt. The date couldn’t be anything more than a one-time thing, anyway. She couldn’t get into a relationship right now, not when she was dealing with her mom’s deceptions. She couldn’t risk opening her heart up to anyone. Were people ever honest?

  Still, Adrian had helped her, more than she ever thought he would. He was giving her a solution, and it wasn’t like spending more time in his company would be painful. She wasn’t sure what to wear to this fundraiser, but hopefully, dressy casual would suffice.

  “As long as I’ll be doing you a favor, then yes, I accept. Thank you.”

  He gave her the kind of smile meant for blushful encounters and melting knees. She’d pleased him by accepting, and the thought sent tingles into her low belly.

  “Excellent,” he said. “If you want to follow me? Or I can text you the address.”

  Goldie glanced at her aunt’s house a final time. Should she wait a little while longer? She wasn’t sure she was ready to leave. Aunt Bethany could have slipped away to the store, or she hadn’t yet gotten off work or something.

/>   “Hang on,” Goldie said. She opened the email icon on her phone and tapped reply to the email she’d sent before she’d left Wisconsin.

  Aunt Bethany,

  Surprise, I’m in Two Pines! I stopped by the address you gave me, but you weren’t home. I’ll be staying with a

  Her fingers hesitated. She glanced at Adrian, whose attention was still on the street.

  A friend, so please give me a call or reply to this email when you get the chance. Looking forward to meeting you!

  Goldie

  She added her phone number in for good measure, tapped send, and then tucked her phone into her pocket. “Okay, I’m good.”

  He made his way to the Hummer and she climbed into her truck, ready to follow him home. Oh goodness. Home. She was going home with Adrian.

  ***

  Goldie’s nerves crackled like wet Pop Rocks. She hadn’t been sure what to expect since she’d left Baldwin. See the sites, meet her aunt, sure. A good-looking Hummer driver hadn’t been anywhere in the vicinity of her expectations, let alone going on a date with him.

  Yet, here she was, not only going on a date with him, but following him out to his family’s rural, romantic bed and breakfast. What was she thinking?

  She hadn’t dated anyone since Tyler Hart, and that break up from his possessive nature had come two years too late.

  “One date doesn’t equal dating,” she told herself as she turned her wheel and followed him, for the second time, through the small town. Caught in an internal debate, Goldie gripped her phone with one hand. She’d missed a call from her mom, but she wasn’t ready for that conversation yet. She didn’t want to admit she’d driven all this way only to greet a closed door. Her mom was too big a fan of I told you so.

  Goldie asked Siri to dial Sadie’s number instead. They’d been roommates for the last three years since Goldie had finished her degree and started teaching at the local high school. She’d really wanted a job a little farther away from home, but at the time, the idea of leaving her hometown was too frightening—if she was being honest. Look at me now, she thought.

  Sadie’s exuberance nearly blasted out her eardrums. “It’s about time you called! I was worried when I didn’t hear from you yesterday.”

  Adrian took a left and Goldie followed. “Yeah, I got a little sidetracked.”

  “That doesn’t sound good.”

  Goldie explained everything, from her phone’s GPS going haywire and leading her completely off track, to finding Adrian’s cabin, to not finding her aunt and being invited home with him.

  There was a huge pause on the other end. Goldie was starting to wonder whether or not Sadie had heard her. “You’re going to some hot guy’s ranch?”

  “A bed and breakfast, actually. His name is Adrian Bear, and I guess his family runs it. It’ll be harmless.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “He’s nice, Sadie.”

  “That’s what women thought about Ted Bundy too, and look what happened to them.”

  Goldie laughed. “I doubt he’s a serial killer. He’s been helping me find my way around. I’d probably be lost all over again if it wasn’t for him.”

  Sadie released another strained noise. “How many people does that happen to? Travel to a distant land and be rescued by an alluring stranger?”

  “You watch too many movies.”

  “You can never watch too many movies,” Sadie argued. “What about your aunt? She didn’t give you any kind of number?”

  Adrian and Goldie were caught at a red light beside a car wash and a Subway restaurant. A brick sank into Goldie’s stomach. “Nope, nothing. I have her email. I already sent her a note, but I can send another when we get there.”

  “Call me the minute you arrive. And maybe you should call your mom.”

  Considering the last encounter she’d had with her mom, she was the last person Goldie wanted to speak with. Jacey Bybanks had demanded Goldie give her the letter, to burn it, to let the past die. Goldie had refused and had stormed back—well, she’d driven, though she felt like storming—to her apartment. She’d answered her mom’s follow up calls a grand total of once, only to find out her mom had called not to answer her questions, but to inform her she was on her way over to destroy that letter.

  Goldie hadn’t hesitated. She’d packed, asked Sadie to feed her fish, and headed out.

  “Not a chance,” Goldie said. “My mom didn’t want me going in the first place. I’m not about to let her know I’m out here up a creek without a paddle.” Not when her mother had kept such a huge secret from Goldie her entire life. Goldie knew she should be mature about things and let it go, but it was eating at her. Why wouldn’t her mother have told her she had a sister? What did her mom have to hide?

  “Okay then. Don’t get too cozy with that Adrian of yours. You know how snuggly bears can be.”

  Goldie released a little laugh and ended the call as she followed Adrian toward what appeared to be the edge of town. She didn’t know about bears and their snuggle-factor. The stuffed ones, maybe, but real bears? They were usually cause for turning and running in whatever direction the bear wasn’t.

  But the prospect of more time with Adrian at his ranch, now that was intriguing. Was snuggling a possibility? It lit a spark in her stomach. She wasn’t blind to the way he looked at her. What if he did intend to pursue anything with her, would she let him?

  Or would this all result in regret that she’d ever stumbled across his cabin the first place?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ADRIAN CHECKED HIS REARVIEW MIRROR to make sure Goldie was still behind him. Her small Toyota flashed its blinker, copying his. He exhaled. Nothing like taking a perfect stranger to the fundraiser.

  It wouldn’t be a blind date, necessarily, not when he knew who was going. Just blind in the sense he knew pretty much nothing about her. Oh well. This was an opportunity to get to know Goldie better, that was all—and to dodge a Danica-shaped bullet.

  At least Goldie trusted him enough to take this chance with him. He’d wondered what she’d thought of his offers of help. He was only being decent, nothing more. Or so he told himself. It had nothing to do with the fact that her hair draped down her back like thick silk, or that he’d wanted to ease the flashes of worry in her beautiful, brown eyes.

  The fundraiser was in honor of his late father, after all, and his mom was the one who had insisted Adrian couldn’t show up dateless. Not when it was black tie. Adrian considered the dating pool within Two Pines’ 15,000 population. The swimming was shallow, to say the least. His mom had repeatedly suggested he ask Danica Foster to accompany him, but he’d wanted to go with her about as badly as a man wants to slit his wrists and do pushups in salt water. Now it was one less phone call he had to make.

  Goldie would be the perfect date for him. No one knew her. For all the townspeople would think, he’d met her in Chicago. She could be the perfect excuse for him to escape once the necessaries were over.

  However, he couldn’t believe he’d invited her to stay at the bed and breakfast. The logic within him reminded him it wasn’t crazy or unconventional to invite a beautiful but complete stranger to his family’s home. It was new business, that was all; except he couldn’t allow himself to think of her that way.

  He’d meant what he’d told her. He had a gut instinct about investments. It was what had helped him rise to the top as quickly as he had, and the reason his bank account had continued to accumulate zeroes. The same gripping instinct had flared as he’d stood beside her.

  Regardless of what Goldie had said, it had been intuition. He’d pushed through business school with the veracity of a tycoon, not waiting to apply what he’d learned until school was finished unlike so many others in his program. He’d invested money inherited from his grandfather and started studying stocks. One good play led to another. The risk was a rush, and it only took another ten years until he welcomed himself into the three comma club.

  This was no different, in its own bizarre way
. Something inside of him had told him not to let her go. Which meant he had a few other things that needed to be ironed out before the fundraiser that evening.

  Adrian told his phone to call his assistant’s number. His assistant picked up on the second ring. “Hey, boss.”

  “Rita, how are you?”

  “Fine, sir. Your jet is all ready to go for the morning. I’ve arranged for a car to meet you at the airfield when you get in. Hamlin Brothers called. Mr. Hamlin would like to meet with you about the quarter score deal, perhaps over lunch tomorrow—”

  “That all sounds amazing, Rita, but I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

  A pause. “You aren’t coming back tomorrow, are you, sir?”

  Regret pinched at him. Between the funeral, the emotional meltdown his mom had had when she’d found out how quickly he’d been planning on leaving, and the revelation that his father’s will and trust had been released, this was the fourth time he’d had to put his assistant off from the original plans he’d given her.

  “No, I’m not. Sorry you went through all that trouble. Please cancel my appointments and delay my flight.”

  “Do you have a different date you’d like me to set it for?”

  Adrian paused, considering. His mom would be tickled pink that he, yet again, wasn’t leaving. She’d managed to convince him to stay plenty of times since the funeral, what with guilt-tripping him over leaving her so soon and enticing him with the will and trust being read. His mother had no other hold over him now, not once this fundraiser was over. Irrational as the notion was, he didn’t think he could invite Goldie to stay at his family’s ranch and then abandon her.

  He also couldn’t leave when he hadn’t found the lockbox. He’d been so sure it would’ve been stashed away at the cabin somewhere. Where had his dad left it?

  “Just hold off on the flight, Rita.”

  “Will do, sir. Just let me know and I’ll get everything lined up for you.”