“Jaden got a new job? She’s not staying on here as the activities director?” That was news to Emily.
“Oh, no. That was never the plan. This was temporary while she looked for a new teaching position.” Miss Bates swallowed and smacked her lips a few times, about to cry. “I’m going to miss her. It’s not forever, of course, but I won’t get to see her every day anymore. I’ve gotten used to her company.”
While the topic obviously hurt, Miss Bates still seemed to want to talk about it, and Emily was willing to listen. “Where will she be going?”
“Little Rock.” A good three and a half hours from Eureka Springs. No wonder Miss Bates was taking it so hard.
“She wasn’t looking for something here?”
Miss Bates picked at a thread in the hem of her blouse. “She did look here, but there doesn’t seem to be a position. I should be happy for her, though. It’s the kind of job she always wanted—a good school, great kids, the perfect position for her, more money—”
Miss Bates’s eyes caught on something across the room, and she paused. After a beat, she cleared her throat. “It really was nice of you to stop and talk to me, Miss Emily. So very kind.”
Emily looked over her shoulder to figure out what had interrupted Miss Bates’s train of thought. Having exited the elevator, her father and Grant walked toward them.
Surprised and embarrassed, Emily turned back to Miss Bates, determined not to abandon the conversation just because her father showed up. “I’m sorry that you’ll miss her, but it really does sound like a great job for Jaden. The school will be lucky to have her. How does she feel about it?”
Miss Bates didn’t respond to Emily’s question, but she greeted Emily’s father, who came and sat next to her on the couch. Emily felt Grant’s presence over her shoulder. Other than a hello to Miss and Mrs. Bates, he said nothing. Emily had to escape the thick tension. She shifted to rise, but Grant placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t leave.” His voice was husky and low, the words only for her. His eyes caught hers with a tenderness that had been missing in their last conversation. After a moment, he looked back at her father. “I’ll be out of town for the next week.” He blew out a breath. “It might be longer than that. I have business in LA. When I make it back to Eureka Springs, you’ll see me here. I hope my domino game doesn’t get too rusty in the meantime.”
He squeezed Emily’s shoulder and then pulled his hand away. Though he didn’t say it, his touch had felt like a thank you, an I forgive you, and a good job, all at the same time. Maybe she could still salvage her friendship with Grant?
Desperate to keep him from leaving, Emily quickly turned. She had to say something, had to get him to talk to her again. “What about the date for your launch?” If he was going to be gone too long, she wouldn’t be able to help with that anymore.
Grant paused in his step and turned back to face her. “Never mind that.” His voice was gentle, his expression soft. “I figured that out on my own.”
Figured it out? Her stomach fell. He had someone in mind, but who? He’d been watching Jaden awfully closely at the escape room party. But he also spent a lot of time with Hattie. Emily wasn’t sure, but the half smile he gave her felt like more of a final goodbye than he offered to anyone else. She watched until he was out of eyesight and her hopes disappeared. She’d been right. She’d blown it. Never mind high school—last night’s mistake would be the one she would regret for the rest of her life.
A couple games of gin rummy did much to smooth over ruffled feelings. Emily listened to Miss Bates, got beaten by her mother, and her father’s grumpy face eased back into his usual smile. Eventually, she was comfortable enough to head out the door. “I’m sorry I have to go.” She pushed the chair back as she stood. “I have a few errands to run and some people to talk to about upcoming events.”
“You’re working on the weekend?”
Her father’s concern was sweet, but this was actually a chill Saturday as far as work went. For once, they didn’t have an event going on. She should have taken advantage of it and run into Bentonville for shopping or spending time with Isabella and the girls. Next week.
“Only a few little things,” she assured him.
“I just don’t want to see you work yourself into getting sick. If you wear yourself out, a spring cold could sneak up on you.”
“I know, Dad.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll be safe.” Which was what he really meant. “And I’ll take a little extra vitamin C.”
He patted her hand. “Thank you.”
She gave each of the three a quick hug before she left. “Thanks for the card game,” she said, when she really meant so much more.
She’d smoothed things over with most everyone, and despite feeling better about Miss Bates, her heart couldn’t let go of Grant. He was gone—physically and emotionally gone—and it was her fault. Sure, he said he was leaving for work, which of course was true, but then why did she get the feeling he might not come back as soon as he was done? She’d done all she could to repair the damage, but it wasn’t enough.
She was halfway down Spring Street, struggling to shuffle one foot in front of the next, when Hattie ran up to her.
“Did you . . . hear?” Hattie’s words were punctuated by ragged breaths. Had she run up the hill to find Emily?
Panic pulled her from her ruminations on Grant, and she grabbed Hattie’s arm. “Hear what?” The question came out like a croak. All sorts of scenarios ran through her head, most of which revolved around work—events ruined by the slightest glitch in the cogs of preparation.
“Finn and Jaden,” Hattie panted. She blew out a long breath, steadying herself. “They’re dating! Have been since the bike ride.”
Confused, Emily blinked. She hadn’t been ready for that one. Yes, Grant had tried to warn her. She’d even started to believe it after last night, but since the bike ride? That was almost two months ago. Why in the world had they kept it secret? Why had Finn given Emily every reason to believe he was interested in her, not Jaden?
Yet he hadn’t been. She let memories of their interactions flicker through her mind like a movie reel. Finn had never been interested in Emily.
She weighed the rumor in a balance, testing it for truth. Even if her brain hadn’t recognized it, her heart had known. Not that he was interested in Jaden—no, that was as much of a shock as ever—but that he’d not really been interested in Emily, and she hadn’t been interested in him. When they’d first met, she’d pictured dating a man with Finn’s charisma. She’d enjoyed the easygoing, carefree fun they had together, but it was surface level, like a passing fantasy that faded with time.
Suddenly feeling conspicuous and holding up sidewalk traffic, Emily started walking toward the chamber of commerce office again. It still didn’t make sense. “Why—” She formed the words slowly, trying to figure it out without having to ask. She couldn’t come up with an answer. “Why did they keep it a secret?”
“I know, right?” Hattie raised both palms in a shrug. “Something about them both being up for school district jobs—her as the high school music department chair and him for superintendent. They didn’t want a relationship to hurt their chances of getting the jobs. Now that they’ve been offered contracts independently of each other, they’re making their relationship public. Now they want everyone to know they were a couple before he becomes her boss’s boss.”
Maybe it was the way Hattie explained it, or maybe it was getting the information third- or fourth-hand, but Emily didn’t understand why the job search made Finn and Jaden keep their budding personal relationship secret. It hadn’t been fair to anyone else involved—not for Grant, because Emily had been working to set him up with Jaden, and not for Hattie, who’d fallen for Finn. This was a mess. Or was it? Emily searched her friend for evidence of the heartache Hattie had to be feeling. She saw nothing but concern.
“Well, I wanted to make sure you knew.” Hattie’s gaze made Emily squirm. “Are
you okay?” Hattie turned the question on her before Emily could ask it.
“Am I okay?” Emily paused till the answer came to her. “Wait. You thought I was interested in Finn?” Why would Emily encourage Hattie to pursue Finn if she liked him herself? Emily wouldn’t get in the way once Hattie told her she was in love with him, and he with her.
Or had she? They’d avoided saying the name.
“Okay, wait.” Emily held her index finger up. “Help me wrap my head around this. I thought—” She stopped to search Hattie’s micro expressions. No indication of a broken heart whatsoever. At the Regency ball, Hattie practically fell apart in her disappointment over Elton, so chances were she wasn’t masking her feelings now. “What about you? Are you okay?” There was no change in Hattie’s demeanor, not even the twitch of a frown. “I thought you and Finn . . . After he rescued you?”
Hattie lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the sun. “Finn rescued me? Don’t you mean—” They passed a couple more storefronts while Hattie thought about it. “Oh. At the chamber.” She shrugged. “That is true, but no. When I said I was interested in the man who rescued me, I was talking about someone else.” She blew out a soft sigh, a dreamy look glazing her eyes. “Mr. Robbins—Grant. When he asked me to dance.”
She sighed again like a lovesick schoolgirl, and that was when Emily understood. Grant had been so kind to Hattie from the start. True, he hadn’t focused on her, but then he’d been trying out Emily’s matches. Though she hadn’t meant to set them up, snippets of memory came to her, images of the two of them together. If she had any question about his regard for Hattie, she only had to recall the moment she’d seen them head to head in the escape room the night before. Emily hadn’t thought much of it then, but he’d given his charming smile, the one that made a woman feel like the only person in the world.
Like a heavy cloud passing over the sun, this realization eclipsed any hope she’d previously had. Maybe she and Grant could repair their friendship, but it wouldn’t go any further.
“Of course.” She bumped Hattie’s shoulder in a gesture of friendship. “I’m so happy for you.” She hoped her tone matched the words, because when she tried to swallow, her throat was too sticky. “I guess it’s a good thing I already assigned the Books in Bloom event to you. Grant would make an attractive—” She stumbled on the word, but hurried to cover it up. “—keynote, and since apparently you have some influence . . .”
Hattie blushed—pleasure stamped on her cheeks, and her lips in a permanent smile.
When Grant said he had a date for the grand opening figured out, he’d been referring to Hattie. But picturing her friend at Grant’s side in London’s new escape mansion was impossible. It wasn’t right. Hattie didn’t climb rock walls or kickbox or shoot a gun, and she’d never even read a Grantham Robbins book. Hattie was not a match for Cruise Donnelly, let alone the creator behind the empire.
The rest of their walk to the chamber of commerce, Hattie prattled on about the weather, their friends, and goings-on around the town, but it all faded into the background of Emily’s noisy mind. She’d learned a lot today, had been surprised by much of it, but nothing hit her so completely as the realization why she hadn’t pushed to find Grant a match. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Grant to find love; it was that she’d wanted him to find it with her.
The truth struck her with such force, she had to stop a moment. She caught her breath. Everything around her came into sharper focus. She’d never been in love with Finn; she’d been in love with Grant the whole time. And now she couldn’t have him, because she would not break her friend’s heart.
18
Bestselling novelist Grantham Robbins—known for his rough-and-tumble character Cruise Donnelly with his sharp wit, quick decision making, and solid physicality—was not known for his romantic side. In fact, he’d been told specifically to work on that part of his writing. And now, after two months of focus, it seemed Grant couldn’t set that part of his life aside.
A few months ago, he’d eagerly anticipated the events lined up this week in Southern California, but the way he couldn’t get his matchmaker out of his mind, items on his itinerary were an annoyance—items to be endured so he could check them off and return to the business of romance.
The roundtable read-through of the next Cruise Donnelly movie script should have been the highlight of his week. Yet he hadn’t been able to kick back and enjoy hearing his words come to life through the voices of these talented actors. He couldn’t turn off the inner editor who dickered over word choice that, in the end, would make little difference in the overall quality of the movie. He barely held back the urge to slash through whole sections of dialogue with arbitrary “corrections,” and marked up the margins instead.
“Something on your mind, Mr. Robbins?” The director, Oliver Nguyen, pulled him from his introspection. Oliver’s elbow rested on the table, hand in the air, halting the opening scene of Attack Pattern Alpha. “Something wrong with the tone?”
All eyes rested on Grant, curious if the screenwriter would make changes to the script they’d just gotten into. Now was the time, before they memorized lines, but Grant had been over the screenplay multiple times. It wasn’t the script; it was him.
“I was just making sure there’s enough hook to pull in audiences.” He scanned over his doodles. In the left margin, a catapult flung an anatomical heart over the top of the script to the right margin, where it smashed into smithereens. “Short of throwing in a trebuchet, I’m sure it’s fine.”
The scene was fine. The elocution was fine. Everything was fine. And if he repeated it enough times, maybe it would be. Everything had been before he went to Arkansas, before Emily meddled in his life, and it would be again if he backed off and focused on work. “It sounds great.” He gave his best reassuring grin and two thumbs-up. Probably overdoing it.
The director shrugged and waved his hand. “From the top, everyone.”
Mostly explosions, a hand-to-hand fistfight to introduce the leading lady, and speeding cars, the opening scene was light on dialogue, but after one particularly pithy comment, Gavin Stone, the actor who played Cruise Donnelly, gave Grant a head bob and the smile that had made him an international star. After the read-through, he approached.
“Another great script, man.” He offered a fist bump, which Grant reciprocated. “I don’t know how you do it, but you make me look good.”
Everything the guy said in that Australian accent of his made it that much cooler, and after the first two movies, Grant found he wrote Cruise with Gavin in mind. “Right back at ya.” Grant fell into step with him as they left the room.
“I’m throwing a filming kickoff at my house, if you want to come tonight. Mostly cast and crew—you know, the best way to get the chemistry going.” Gavin’s eyes flicked toward his co-star, a beautiful blond actress new to the Cruise Donnelly films. She looked a little too much like Emily for Grant’s tastes.
His heart yearned for Emily, looked for her in every 5’7” blond woman he saw on the street—which there were a lot of in LA. But Emily was one of a kind. Tenacious and tough, she’d been strong enough to face what she’d done, and seeing her with Miss Bates that morning had melted his heart. She was a good person; she just needed to be with someone who brought out the best in her. And Finn Weston was not that person. For all their talk about matchmaking, when would she see that Finn wasn’t right for her?
“Wish I could, but I’ve got work.” It was a lame excuse, and while not completely true, it wasn’t untrue either. He could always put in a few words towards his next deadline, because one always loomed.
“Sounds like a babe problem to me.” Gavin eyed Grant.
The truth of the matter was that Grant didn’t think he could spend any more time looking at Lana Devereaux. As the two principal actors, Gavin and Lana occupied the prime chairs across from the director, the screenwriter, and the producer. If Grant was going to have to look at her every time there was a fight scene—and there
were many such scenes—he’d have flashbacks to sparring with Emily. Enduring the read-through was excruciating enough. He wouldn’t compound it after hours.
Grant sighed and decided that was enough of an answer.
“You don’t think a party would be a good distraction?”
“Maybe.”
What could it hurt? He’d come to LA for work, and this was part of it. Networking with those involved in his films was important, and it beat sitting at home pining for someone he couldn’t have.
Movie script read-through, check. Cast party, check.
The next day, Grant tried not to watch the clock count down the minutes toward lunch. Today’s meeting, with his agent, his PR person, and the CEO of Cruise Donnelly Escape Rooms, dragged along like the sagging middle of a book that needed a good editor. With the London launch two weeks away, they were going through a last-minute review of the details, and they had to be almost done.
Grant leaned back with a relief. Launch plans, check.
“Oh hey, Grant, do you have your final invitation list?” Roman Cantu said.
Or not checked. The CEO of the escape rooms still had more on his agenda.
“My VP over security wants to get all the background checks done ASAP.”
Grant bit back a groan. “Annalise has that list and can shoot it over in an email right now.” She raised her finger over her tablet to show she was on it, while Grant continued. “As long as my PR guru doesn’t mind that I’m not bringing a date.”
Said PR guru, Shay, raised an eyebrow.
“Fine,” he grumbled. He looked back to Roman. “I’ll get that final name to you in—” He didn’t want to put a deadline on something impossible.
“No more than a week, Grant.” Roman was insistent, and Shay nodded.
A text flashed across his screen from a number he didn’t recognize, but he saw it as the lifeline it was to pull him out of the mire of the meeting. He pushed his chair from the conference table and stood, phone raised in his hand. “I’m sorry. I need to take this.”
The Matchmaker's Billionaire (Billionaire Bachelor Mountain Cove Book 2) Page 16