Million-Dollar Makeover

by Cheryl St. John

  “Oh. Well, a date, then.”

  “I try not to mix business and pleasure.”

  “Probably a wise philosophy,” she replied. “It’s really last-minute, so I’d understand if you can’t make it.”

  “I can make it,” he said after a second. “Give me the details.”

  “Can I pick you up around six thirty?”

  “Sure.” He gave her his address and she hung up.

  For half an hour she fought down a rush of panic and guilt. After that passed she told herself there was no guarantee that Phil would even be attracted to her. He didn’t have to—all he had to do was show up with her.

  She took a few antacids and sat at the kitchen table. What a laughable creature she was. Her money would do any attracting that needed done—a sad fact to look forward to for the rest of her life.

  Phil’s his friend. You’re playing with fire. You’re playing dirty.

  Oh? And what had Riley done? Played fair?

  Two wrongs don’t make a right.

  No, but this one will sure be fun.

  Revenge is not sweet; it’s wrong.

  This wasn’t revenge. It was…turnabout. And turnabout was fair play. As long as her conscience was going to throw every cliché in the book at her, she was going to counter with a few, as well.

  Her nails were already done, and she took her time straightening and styling her hair and applying makeup. She dressed in pale silver pants with a matching spaghetti-strap top and draped a sheer black shawl around her shoulders. It reminded her of the gauzy black fabric that draped over Lily Divine’s hip in the painting at the Hitching Post.

  Lily had been a self-made woman, a woman proud of her accomplishments. What would she think if she knew the Queen of Hearts was producing gold and making Lisa rich? How would she see Lisa’s actions? Apparently Lily had dealt with an overbearing Douglas, as well, so hopefully she’d be delighted to know Lisa wasn’t letting the present-day Douglases get the best of her.

  Lisa swallowed down her anxiety on the drive to Phil’s. He lived in a nice condo in New Town, and she didn’t have any trouble finding it. He was dressed in a pair of black slacks and a gray suit jacket and he greeted her with a smile.

  “This is a nice change of pace,” he said. “Going out to dinner with a pretty lady rather than a bunch of men.”

  “I learned from Riley that you wine and dine the people you want to impress,” she said lightly.

  He laughed. “Impress or coerce?”

  Phil was nice looking in a young Jeff Daniels sort of way. There was nothing threatening or intimidating about him, and she didn’t sense a superior attitude. He was just plain nice, and she wondered what he and Riley had in common.

  “Just out of curiosity, what kind of car do you drive?” she asked.

  “Business or pleasure?”

  Okay, there was one similarity. “Both.”

  “I have a nice, sensible Camry. Silver.”

  “And for pleasure?”

  “A black Chevy pickup with a bright red front bumper and red flames painted up the sides.”

  “I’ve seen it.” A vehicle that flashy was hard to miss.

  He asked her about the recent goings-on with the mine, and as they got closer to their destination she explained several details about the initial extraction.

  “Sounds like you’ve learned the business,” he said as she pulled into the parking lot at the Blue Moon restaurant.

  “I’m determined to keep up,” she told him.

  They got out and met in front of the Blazer. Lisa led the way in, glancing at her watch. Her stomach dipped in anticipation of what was to come.

  Inside, a hostess directed them to a table where Riley was seated. The expression on his face when he saw the two of them was a priceless combination of surprise and confusion. Being the Douglas he was, however, he quickly masked his bewilderment and greeted both of them as though he’d known this was the plan all along. He stood, but Phil was already pulling out Lisa’s chair.

  Lisa sat and gave Riley a friendly smile while Phil took a seat on her other side.

  With an envious look the hostess handed each of them a menu and inquired what they’d like to drink. “I’d like a bottle of wine, but Mr. Douglas will select it,” Lisa said to the young woman.

  Riley ordered a vintage cabernet, and the hostess left with a nod.

  Lisa almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation. A month ago she’d never even been in a restaurant this nice, had never been seen with one handsome man, and now she was seated here with two.

  “You seem in a good mood this evening,” Riley commented. “Your vacation must have been refreshing.”

  “That’s right, you mentioned you’d just returned home,” Phil said. “Where’d you go?”

  “A little getaway place you might know of,” she replied. “Riley said you use the cabin occasionally.”

  “Riley’s so-called cabin? It has more amenities than my condo. I’d been thinking I needed a retreat of my own, but he went to so much work, and the place is used so seldom, I figure why not take him up on his offer to use it.”

  “My boys loved it,” she said. Then explained, “Three-and four-year-old golden retrievers.”

  “I’ve seen them with you in the photographs. They’re beauties. I have a black Lab myself. He’s almost five. I got him when he was six months old.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “MacGuyver. He’d been abused and was untrusting. Wouldn’t even eat if I was in the room.”

  “Poor guy. He adjusted to you and your home, though?”

  “Oh, yeah. Occasionally if I talk loud or shout—like during a Seahawks game—he starts shaking and tries to hide. But I just coax him out of it, and he’s fine. He’s a big baby, really. Sleeps on my sofa while I’m at work.”

  “Joey and Piper aren’t allowed on the sofa, but they sleep with me at night. And I only have a full-size bed.”

  “Must be a little crowded.”

  Lisa chuckled and glanced at Riley. His jaw muscle was working so hard, he looked as if he could bite through the steel table leg.

  Their server arrived with the bottle of wine, and Lisa gestured for her to have Riley taste it.

  “It’s fine,” he told her, and she poured.

  “Well,” Lisa said, extending her glass. “To pleasant and profitable business transactions and to new friends.”

  The two men raised their glasses and they drank.

  Phil steered the conversation to his investment suggestions, and Lisa listened with fascination. Occasionally Riley disagreed or had an alternative suggestion, but all in all the two men agreed on a plan for Lisa’s venture capital.

  At one point as she listened, her attention wavered to Riley and her thoughts drifted to the intimacies they’d shared.

  Charm her. Get into her pants—hell, knock her up if you have to. Just get a ring on her finger.

  Oh, he’d charmed her. More than that, he’d swept her off her ever-lovin’ feet. As for getting into her pants, well, that had been mutual—she’d accessed his pants just as eagerly.

  Knocked up? He’d wisely and safely used a condom each time they’d been together. At least he hadn’t stooped that low—not that she’d have let him. She’d been hot, not stupid.

  He’d suggested the ring. He’d gone beyond that, though, gone above and beyond his father’s demands and professed love.

  Looking at Riley now, Lisa wanted to cry.

  She excused herself and found the ladies’ room. She had no basis for self-pity, no grounds for feelings of betrayal. She’d been a willing participant from the get-go. And she’d known all along that he was deceiving her.

  She hadn’t just gone along with him. No, she’d initiated and prompted and used his determination for her own purposes. Lisa washed her hands and touched up her lipstick before heading back to the table.

  The server brought their meals, and she ate her wild rice and salmon with an uncharacteristic lack of fervor.
Even the wine lost its appeal and she declined a refill.

  They talked a while after their dishes had been cleared. Lisa ordered slices of pie for the men and a dish of sherbet for herself. When the check came, she gave the woman her credit card and signed for their dinner.

  Phil had been invited to a business dinner and seemed to take her payment of the bill for granted. Riley, on the other hand, looked decidedly uncomfortable.

  Out of doors, the warm summer air skimmed Lisa’s skin. She hadn’t realized how cool it had been in the restaurant until she noticed how good this felt.

  Phil reached to shake Riley’s hand. “Thanks for hooking me up, buddy. I’ll do a good job for Lisa.”

  Riley nodded, then glanced at her.

  “Good night,” she said.

  She and Phil walked to her Blazer. She used her remote to unlock the doors, and Phil opened the driver’s side for her.

  Riley turned away, and several seconds later she saw the headlights on his Jaguar turn on. He was ahead of her as she pulled out of the parking lot and drove toward the highway.

  His taillights disappeared in the distance, and she couldn’t help wondering what he’d been thinking as they’d parted.

  Phil talked about his Lab and asked her about Joey and Piper. It was always a joy to share stories with someone who shared her love of dogs, so they talked and laughed until she dropped him off at his condo.

  “I’ll be in touch, and we’ll set up a meeting this week,” he told her, sliding out and leaning in the open doorway.

  “Sounds good.”

  He closed the door and Lisa drove away.

  She’d shown Riley. She’d brought another man into the picture, but she didn’t feel any better. Her plan didn’t feel as rewarding as she’d imagined when she’d cooked it up. She didn’t have the coldheartedness to actually lead a man on, so this business meeting would have to be enough of a ruse to prove to Riley that she wasn’t hard up.

  She pulled into her driveway, and her headlights lit the red reflector lights on the rear of a car. The Jag.

  Riley was waiting for her.

  Chapter Twelve

  Oh, crap.

  He wasn’t going to take her rejection sitting down. Or by going home. Or by being avoided. He was going to confront her head-on.

  She parked the Blazer and got out.

  Every air conditioner on the block hummed in the summer night. Somewhere in the distance a dog barked.

  Out of habit Lisa glanced around, not seeing any news vehicles.

  Riley met her on the brick walkway to the house. “What was that all about?”

  “What was what all about?”

  “You know good and well what. We had a date.”

  Six nights ago he’d asked her to marry him. Tonight she’d brought another man to what he’d thought was a date. He was probably a little angry.

  “You assumed we had a date. I told you the other day that I wanted things to be professional between us.”

  “And then we spoke on the phone all week and I asked you out. You accepted.”

  “Well, I chose to keep things professional.”

  “So you asked Phil along?”

  “He’s a nice guy, isn’t he?”

  “I suppose you stayed to meet his dog.”

  Why hadn’t she thought of that? “Is there some point to this conversation?”

  “The point is you brought Phil along to tick me off.”

  She took her keys out of her handbag and approached her door. Not to tick him off, actually, just to wake him up. “I can have dinner with anyone I like.”

  Riley followed. “Don’t act all innocent. You had an ulterior motive.”

  She unlocked her door, then turned slowly to face him. “And you’d know all about those, wouldn’t you?”

  “What are you insinuating?”

  “Come on, Riley. I may not have been the best looking or most worldly woman you ever boinked, but I wasn’t the stupidest. I remembered you from high school, got that? You never gave me a second glance until I inherited a gold mine. Hello?”

  Insects buzzed around the light beside her door, so she stepped off the porch onto the sidewalk.

  Riley had the grace to momentarily look guilty. “I don’t think you’re stupid.”

  “No? Then you think I would really be tricked into believing you were paying attention to me for myself? I have the pictures, Riley, I know I looked awful.”

  “You didn’t look awful,” he denied without much conviction.

  She snorted.

  “Things just developed between us naturally,” he said.

  “And the fact that I had just inherited the gold mine you thought belonged to your family never had a thing to do with the attraction.”

  He looked slightly sheepish. “Maybe at first.”

  “At first? That’s bull, and you know it. We both know it. Just stop with the act, will you? Could you just be honest?”

  “Lisa, I didn’t come here tonight because of the mine. That’s honest.”

  “Really.”

  “Yes, really.”

  Behind her the dogs whined and scratched on the inside of the door.

  “You might want to retrieve your messages from your other cell phone,” she said. “The one at the cabin.”

  He blinked as though she’d changed the subject. “Why’s that?”

  “There’s an urgent message from your father. Seems you ditched a meeting, and he wasn’t very happy with you. He called that number and left an earful.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Oh, he wondered if you were losing your touch since you didn’t have a ring on the dog walker’s hand yet. He had a few helpful suggestions. Charm her. Get in her pants. Knock her up.”

  If it had been daylight, she’d probably have seen a new color of green as yet unnamed by Crayola. But as it was, she simply read dismay at having been discovered in the tightening of Riley’s lips and his tense stance.

  “I have to give you credit, though,” she said, gesturing with one hand. “You didn’t try the latter suggestion.” A flutter of panic battered her chest. “Unless you did something to the condoms beforehand.”

  “Of course not!” He threaded a hand into his hair and tilted his head back as though praying for deliverance. When at last he looked back at her, he said, “Lisa, I can explain.”

  “Of course you can. You’re a master at getting what you want. It takes a strong person to resist your coercion. A smart person.”

  “May I please explain?”

  “Do you deny you had a plan to get into my good graces?”

  “No.”

  “Or that your plan included wining and dining and making me pliable?”

  “No.”

  “Did it ever seem to you that I played along a little too easily?”

  “I thought we were connecting.”

  “Did it ever occur to you that I was giving back to you as good as you were dishing out?”

  He swallowed. “Were you?”

  “Hello? The whole makeover, the dresses, the…underwear?”

  “You’ve been leading me on? But…but you were a virgin.”

  “The word is not a synonym for ignorant.”

  “Lisa, don’t you feel something for me?”

  An ache swelled in her chest, but she fought it down to salvage her pride. What did he want from her? “Yes, I do feel something,” she declared. “Sorry. Because now you have to go tell Daddy your scheme blew up in your face and that there won’t be a wedding.”

  She turned and walked into her house, firmly closing the door and locking it.

  Joey and Piper sniffed at her pant legs and licked the hand which still held her keys. She dropped them beside her purse on a table.

  A light knock sounded on the door, as though he knew she was still on the other side.

  “Lisa, let me in so I can talk to you. Please.”

  “Go away or I’ll call the police and tell them I’m being harassed by a stalker.�
��

  He must have taken her threat seriously, because a minute later she heard his car start and saw headlights as he carefully backed out around her Blazer in the drive and left.

  Well, there. That was it. She hadn’t lost anything because she’d never had anything to lose. Rather, she’d saved her pride and her heart and had an experience she’d wanted in the meantime. No feeling sorry. No turning back. If anything, she’d come out ahead because she’d learned her strengths and discovered her sexuality. She’d held her own against a formidable deceiver.

  If all that was true, why did she feel so empty?

  “What do you say we go for a run tonight, boys? We’re still in reprieve from the media and it’s a pretty night.”

  She could buy a dishwasher. She’d always wanted one.

  There really wasn’t a place for one, so the cabinets would have to be redone.

  Maybe it would be easier to just hire someone to do the dishes. And cook. Not a concept she was comfortable with.

  She could buy a new house with a dishwasher and a housekeeper already built in.

  Lisa shifted the heavy gold nugget from one hand to the other and set it back on the kitchen table.

  The phone rang. She’d bought one with caller ID and had the phone company adjust her service. Riley again. He’d tried to call seven times that morning.

  It had been three days since she’d seen him. Three days since she’d told him she was wise to him.

  The doorbell rang. The dogs were out back, so they weren’t underfoot to bark and trip her on her way to the front hall. Through the leaded-glass door she could see the brown uniform of the delivery man.

  “Lisa Martin?”

  “That’s me.”

  “Sign here, please.” The package he leaned up against the porch wall was six inches thick and about four foot by four foot square.

  “Who’s it from?”

  “Um, Kincaid Restorations?”

  “Never heard of them.”

  “Well, it’s for you, miss.”

  She signed the electronic clipboard and carried the surprisingly heavy box into the house.

  She had to get a knife to slice the strapping tape and cut open the end. She slid the packing material out on the floor. Between two thicknesses of foam and several layers of tissue and bubble wrap, she discovered a stained-glass window.