The Missing Billionaire

by Christine Kersey

  Feeling bad that Samantha had been put in this awkward position, Chloe tried to hide her annoyance with Nathan. He was an important client, after all. And that’s all he would be to her. “Thanks, Samantha. I’ll reach out to him and set things in motion.”

  “I knew I could count on you, Chloe.”

  Nathan must have known that too.

  With a tight smile, Chloe left Samantha’s office and went back to her desk, all the while repeating in her mind He’s just a client, just a client, just a client.

  Chapter Eight

  This wasn’t the way Nathan had wanted to earn back his friendship with Chloe but she’d left him no choice. Anyway, he really did need a designer to help him rehab the house he’d just bought. And if she couldn’t stand to be around him, she could always walk, although he couldn’t picture her doing that.

  Now, as he waited for her to arrive for a consultation at his newly purchased house in the hills above Los Angeles, he realized he was nervous. Really nervous. Would she go through with this? Or would she give him that look that said he was a terrible person and then walk away?

  Twenty minutes later he saw her car pull into the long driveway.

  Chloe drew in a deep breath and slowly exhaled, bracing herself to see Nathan. Mentally putting on her designer hat, she tried to smother any negative feelings she had toward him. To help her get in the right frame of mind, she stayed in her car and let her gaze sweep over the house. It was nowhere near as large as his parents’ mansion, but the size was still impressive. Had he just bought it? He’d been staying at his parents’ house but it made sense that he would want his own space. He was twenty-four, after all. And, Chloe was certain, he could afford to buy whatever house he wanted. What kinds of changes would he want? A complete re-do or just a few minor changes? A mix of excitement and trepidation flooded her.

  Blowing out a breath, she opened her car door, swung her feet to the pavement, and strode up the walkway to the front door. With a confident-sounding knock—more confident than she actually felt—she made her presence known. Moments later the front door opened and there he stood.

  It had been nearly six weeks since she’d seen him, and although she’d thought about him constantly during that time—how could she not when he kept reaching out to her and sending her flowers—she’d been so focused on her hard feelings toward him that she’d forgotten how much she’d always been attracted to him. And now, with him standing in front of her, his gray eyes sparkling in his handsome face, Chloe had to take a moment to gather herself. Her professional hat was slipping and her college-girl-attracted-to-her-best-friend hat was trying to take its place.

  “Good morning,” she said brightly, forcibly crushing that unwelcome hat under her mental foot while shoving a purely professional smile onto her lips.

  “Good morning,” he said, his smile warm and friendly—so unhelpful in her struggle.

  Tearing her eyes from his, she looked at the space surrounding them, letting her gaze stop on the sad-looking front yard, which put her back partially toward him. “When did you buy this place?”

  “Just closed on it a few days ago.” Then he chuckled. “It’s kind of a fixer.”

  Knowing she was being rude—something she would never do to a client—she turned around and met his gaze. “What made you decide to get a fixer?”

  Nathan would never admit it, but he’d bought this place for the express purpose of having Chloe be his designer. If she had refused, he would have sold it and bought something else.

  Maybe, in a way, it was underhanded, but how else was he supposed to get her to spend time with him? She’d rebuffed him every time he’d reached out. And it wasn’t like she had to accept this job. So maybe, deep down, she wanted to give him a chance to earn back her friendship. At least he hoped so. Because seeing her standing there looking so professional—nothing like the girl he’d grown up with—made him want to get to know her all over again. And maybe as more than a friend. She was different than she’d been when he’d sailed away. He was too. And he wanted a fresh start. She’d always been important in his life and he wasn’t willing to let her go. Not without a fight.

  “Guess I wanted a house that perfectly fits my needs,” he said in reply to her question. “And the best way to do that, short of building from scratch, was to fix up an existing house.”

  She nodded. “The question is, what kind of house will perfectly fit your needs?”

  He opened the door wider, and with a soft chuckle, said, “Since I can’t live in a cave anymore...”

  She looked startled by his statement and it struck him that he hadn’t told her anything about his time on the island. After all they’d shared growing up it seemed kind of crazy that she didn’t know a thing about what his life had been like for the last year.

  Wanting to smooth out the awkward moment, he quickly added, “Anyway, I need help figuring out what I want.”

  She stepped over the threshold, then turned to him. “Why don’t we start with a tour?”

  He was happy to do whatever she wanted. As long as she didn’t make the place look like a dollhouse, he would be happy.

  They walked through the spacious living room, through a large adjoining dining room, and into the kitchen.

  “How big is this place?” Chloe asked as they passed into another spacious room.

  “Just over eight thousand square feet.” Which was ridiculous, as far as he was concerned. After living in a cave for a year, his needs were simple. He would have been perfectly happy living in a one-bedroom condo. But, he was sure, that would take Chloe very little time to design. Whereas, this place would take her months to do.

  As Chloe followed Nathan from room to room, her excitement at taking on this project grew. She could visualize moving walls to give the place a more open concept, replacing existing windows with floor to ceiling sliders that would bring the outdoors in, adding high-end finishes to the kitchen and multiple bathrooms. The possibilities were endless.

  “What’s your budget?” she asked, suddenly realizing that he might not want to spend a crazy amount of money.

  They’d completed the tour, ending back on the main floor, and were standing beside a window that had a sweeping view of the nearby mountains.

  “However much you need,” he said without blinking an eye.

  A sly grin curved her lips. “Are you sure about that? I have a lot of ideas.”

  He laughed. “Yeah. I’m sure.”

  More excited than ever to take on this project, for a moment she forgot that she’d been reluctant to agree to this. But that reluctance had only been because she wasn’t sure about being around Nathan. Somehow though, her excitement completely overrode the bad feelings she’d been harboring. Or maybe it was because she was beginning to accept that Nathan was home even if Lisa was gone.

  Not wanting to think about that right then—it only brought back the dark cloud that she’d been working to rid herself of—she turned to Nathan. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to spend some time here on my own to take pictures of the space and sketch out ideas.”

  A look of relief swept over his face as if he’d been worried that she might turn down this project, which reminded her of the precariousness of their relationship.

  “No problem,” he said with a smile. He handed her a key. “Spend as much time as you need.”

  She took the key from his hand. “Thanks.”

  “No. Thank you, Chloe. I…I wasn’t sure you’d be willing to work with me on this.”

  “Why did you want me to do it?” she asked as she dropped the key into the purse slung over her shoulder. “I know you’ve been gone a while,” she began as she tried to hold down the hostility that wanted to push to the surface, “but you must know I have limited experience. So, why did you choose—no, insist—on me?”

  He stared at her a moment. “I thought this arrangement could be mutually beneficial.”

  Tilting her head in question, Chloe waited for him to elaborate, but when
he simply said, “I’ll leave you to it,” before striding to the front door and leaving, Chloe was left wondering what his motives truly were.

  Chapter Nine

  First thing the next morning, Chloe returned to Nathan’s house. Wanting to avoid him, she hadn’t told him she was coming. Eventually, though, she’d have to spend great amounts of time with him—approving plans, picking out colors and finishes, inspecting the progress. Unless he was going to give her carte blanche on the project and not show up until it was done. But she highly doubted that was in his plans.

  The day before she’d taken pictures of all the rooms and sketched some ideas. Now though, after taking time to digest what she’d seen, she was ready to do a deeper dive into each room and begin more solid design plans.

  Two hours later, standing at the kitchen counter immersed in her work, when she heard the front door close, she was startled. Had she left the door unlocked?

  “Hello?” she called out as she took her cell phone out of her pocket, ready to call 911.

  “Hello,” Nathan said with a smile as he walked into the kitchen. He had two large cups in his hands with the logo of Chloe’s favorite smoothie place imprinted on the sides.

  “Shouldn’t you be at work?” she asked, then immediately wanted to edit herself. It wasn’t her place to question a client about his schedule.

  “Probably,” Nathan said as he set the cups on the counter. “But I wanted to see how things were going here.”

  “How did you know I would be here?”

  He chuckled. “I didn’t, but you’ve always been a go-getter so I figured you would be. And,” he said as he pointed to the cups on the counter, “I got your favorite smoothie flavor. Chocolate strawberry.” He squinted at her. “It is still your favorite, isn’t it?”

  It was, but she wanted to deny it. How was she supposed to hold on to her bad feelings toward him when he kept being so thoughtful? First the flowers, then hiring her for a major project, and now thinking of her and bringing her just the right treat. “Yeah,” she said with some reluctance, although she added a smile to show she was grateful, even if her heart wasn’t completely in it. He’s a client. Treat him that way. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” His gaze went to the laptop open on the counter. “How’s it going? Have you designed the whole house already?”

  Smirking, Chloe said, “Not quite, but I’m making progress.”

  “What do you have so far?”

  Thinking about all of her ideas made it easy to put a bright smile on her face. She turned and gestured toward one of the walls in the kitchen. “I propose that we take out that wall and open the space up. Really give it an open concept.”

  Nathan could see the excitement in Chloe’s face as she explained what she wanted to do. It made him feel good to see her happy. And to know he had something to do with it warmed him.

  She turned toward the window over the sink. “We can put in a huge picture window here to really take advantage of the view.”

  Trying to act like he had a clue, he said, “Won’t I lose a lot of storage?” He narrowed his eyes as if he was concerned about where he would put his non-existent dishes.

  “You’ll actually have more storage,” Chloe said, clearly on top of things. “We’ll push this other wall out and add cabinets there.”

  He was starting to catch her vision and found himself becoming genuinely excited. “I like it.”

  “I want to reconfigure several of the bathrooms as well, so if you have time, we can go over that now.”

  He was in no hurry to leave. Not as long as she was there. They walked together to the master bedroom on the second floor, and after she explained all the changes she wanted to make, he made a couple of suggestions. She nodded in agreement and then they went to one of the five guest bathrooms where she had ideas about how to better use the space.

  As Nathan listened to Chloe explain her vision, her arms swooping around in grand gestures to explain where things would go and how things would change, Nathan found himself becoming captivated by her. Growing up, and even as college students, he’d always found her to be loads of fun and a really good friend. But that’s all she had been—a friend. Now though, ever since that first brief meeting over drinks, he’d found it hard to get her out of his mind.

  “What do you think?”

  He’d been so caught up in watching her speak that he’d hardly heard a word she’d said. “Uh, yeah. That’ll be perfect.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “Really? No suggestions?”

  He hoped he actually liked what she’d proposed. Then again, it was a guest bathroom so he really didn’t care. “Yeah.”

  She stared at him for several seconds and he wondered what she was thinking.

  “I’ve taken up enough of your time,” she finally said, then with a small lift to her lips, she added, “I’d better go incorporate the changes we discussed in the master bathroom.” A moment later, she walked out of the guest bathroom.

  Nathan watched her go, wanting nothing more than to continue his time with her. Moments later he joined her in the kitchen where she was typing on her laptop.

  “I’d like to take you to dinner, Chloe” he heard himself say, which was something that wouldn’t have been a big deal to suggest. Before.

  She looked at him sharply, her fingers still poised over the keyboard. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why’s that?” They’d gone to dinner so many times that he’d lost count. But he knew things were different now—tense and unresolved.

  She straightened. “You’re my client. I don’t…” She looked away from him and at her computer screen. “I don’t date my clients.”

  In all the times they’d gone to dinner, it had never been as a date. It had always been as friends. So why was she suggesting that’s what it would be?

  Then he knew. It had been in his tone and in the way he’d asked. Before, he would have tossed it off as a casual suggestion, like, Let’s grab some food. He should have done that now. But with the way things were between them, it would have been disingenuous. Besides, he wanted it to be a date.

  It wasn’t too late to turn things around. “This wouldn’t be a date. It would be a business dinner.” Chloe’s eyes narrowed as if she thought he’d just made that up, which he totally had, but he powered through it anyway. “I need to discuss some things about the house with you.”

  She cupped her hip with her hand. “Like what?”

  He hadn’t thought that far ahead, but he should have known she wouldn’t easily fall for his ploy. She knew him too well.

  “Like, uh, the budget.”

  “Yesterday you said I could spend whatever was necessary to get the job done.” Her head tilted. “Has that changed?”

  Pretending like this had been on his mind all along, he said, “I’ll need a detailed breakdown of expenses.”

  She folded her arms across her chest and gave him a look that asked if he was really that dense. “I’ll be happy to, but that information is nowhere near ready. I only started yesterday.”

  “Right.”

  Her lips pursed and he knew his game was up. “Let’s be clear, Nathan. I’m your designer and nothing more. I have no interest in going out with you or spending time with you outside of this project. Okay?”

  Disappointment, sharp and unexpected, pierced him. As much as he wanted to earn back her friendship, as it turned out, he wanted much more than that.

  Once Nathan left, Chloe was finally able to relax. When she’d given him her I’ll never go out with you speech, she could tell he’d been hurt. Regardless, she knew it was the right decision. And even though deep down she maybe did want to rekindle her friendship with him, and even though her attraction to him hadn’t waned at all, she knew she had to keep her distance. Things could never go back to how they had been, not with Lisa gone. And it didn’t seem right to try.

  Softly sighing, Chloe packed up her laptop and sketches and scribbled notes, and headed to
the office where she could stop thinking about Nathan Hewitt and focus on fabrics and tiles and designs.

  Chapter Ten

  It was time to get Nathan to sign off on the plans she—with some help from Samantha—had developed. It had been over a week since she’d seen Nathan, and now, as she waited for him to answer his phone, she felt a mix of anticipation and trepidation.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Nathan. It’s Chloe.”

  “Oh, hey. How are you?”

  She could hear the smile in his voice, and without conscious thought, she smiled as well. “Good. I, uh, I need to get together with you and go over the design I’ve worked up.”

  “Okay.

  “Can you meet at the house today?”

  “I’m actually pretty slammed today. To be honest, the only available time I have is tomorrow during lunch.”

  Was he playing her? Was he trying to get her to go out with him without calling it a date? With a suppressed sigh, she realized it didn’t matter. He was the client and she was the designer. She had to meet with him when he was available—whether or not the time he suggested was truly the only time he could meet. Even so, she could keep it on a professional level.

  “All right,” she said. “I can meet with you at your office tomorrow during lunch. Does that work?”

  He hesitated, like that hadn’t been exactly what he’d had in mind. Like maybe he’d been hoping to take her to a restaurant.

  Checkmate, Chloe thought.

  “Yeah,” he finally said. “That works. I’ll have lunch brought in and we can go over your plans.”

  “Perfect.” She hoped she didn’t sound too triumphant to have bested him, but deep down—okay, maybe not deep at all—she was pleased that she’d outsmarted him.