“Ah, splendid.” Paul turned and smiled at Chloe. He lifted a possessive hand to her frozen cheek. She didn’t meet his gaze. He didn’t notice. “Then your work is all done here, dearest. No doubt your editor can see to whatever it was you were worried about needing to finish.”
Everest cringed at the pet name that fell so easily from the man’s lips. There was no way that Chloe just now met the man before her. No doubt she had found herself married to him by accident and didn’t want to tell her real husband about it.
“Mr. Beaumont.” Paul didn’t offer his hand to the discourteous host again. “It was a pleasure. Chloe, get your things. We should be back in Vegas by tomorrow.”
“But I have to go to New York first,” Chloe broke in, distracted. Her eyes pled silently to Everest. He stared coldly back. Weakly, she said, “I should have a meeting with Devon.”
“We’ll discuss that in the helicopter.” Paul put his hand on her back and began to lead her to the door.
“Paul,” Chloe glanced to her fiancé. Trying not to cry, she swallowed, “Go on ahead. I just have to grab one bag.”
Paul nodded and made his way to the awaiting helicopter. Chloe watched as he stood by the door and waited for the pilot to open it for him. The pilot had to climb out of his seat and run around the helicopter before Paul would get in.
Shaking her head at the ostentatious display, Chloe slowly turned her sad smile to Everest. “Can you believe the—”
“What?” Everest interrupted darkly. His brows furrowed in a harsh line. “Can I believe you had the audacity to lie to me? Although, why should I be so offended by it? You obviously lie to your husband on quite a regular basis. But, hey, what does my opinion matter? I’m just a one night stand.”
Her smile faded. Her mouth gaped open in surprise at his outrage. She had hoped that maybe Everest would find Paul’s attitude as amusing as she had. There was no way she would be marrying the man now that she had met him. She would just have to contest the will. Devon had said it was a vague possibility. However, it was a chance she would have to take. She wondered if the people whose jobs were on the line feel the same way.
“I think I was right in my first assumption of you,” he hissed. “You might not get paid, but you are still a whore.”
Chloe felt her heart drop from her chest to shatter on the floor. Her face paled. The wide bewilderment of her blue eyes filled with tears.
“I see you have nothing to say for yourself.” Everest moved away from her in disgust. Angrily, he shot, “Get your bags and leave.”
“But,” Chloe began. She saw by his face that it was over. The pain was unbearable, burning her nose, filling her eyes. Her stomach lurched until she thought she was dying. She wanted to cry out from the pain, but couldn’t make a sound. There would be nothing that she could say to make it right. Even if it was Devon who lied to Paul, Chloe knew that she was still at fault for letting him believe the lies. With a hollow forming in the pit of her stomach, she squeezed her eyes shut and uttered weakly, “Yes, Everest. I’ll go.”
She heard the humbled words as they left her throat and knew it was the only good-bye he would allow her to say. Gazing at his handsome face, she shivered. His features hardened into an unfeeling mask, his eyes glared at her from their hazel-green depth until she could feel his hatred in every pore. A pain choked her words, making her limbs weaken with the need to lash out at the unfairness of her world. Chloe hid her tears as she ran quickly to her room. She grabbed her bag, not wanting to pay any credence to the pain she felt in her chest. Gasping, her heart refused to beat.
When she came out of the bedroom he was gone. No good-bye, no last look. He was gone. Chloe didn’t bother to call out to him. She knew it would do no good. He was too proud a man to be mixed in such business as hers. She had been a fool to dream that it might be otherwise.
Seeing Paul’s impatient face as it shone through the glaring window of the helicopter, she knew that she could never want to marry him. But if she couldn’t have Everest, did it matter? What was her unhappiness compared to the lives of so many? With each footstep she took, she heard the snow crunched underneath her boots. The footwear had just started to get worn in.
“Thanks, Dad,” she expressed sarcastically into the slight breeze hoping he would hear her so close to the heavens. Chloe tried to smile as she approached the helicopter, but her heart didn’t feel it. Her eyes dulled and she knew she might never be happy again.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Is Paul with you?” Devon looked hazily out of her upscale apartment door. The strong smell of her French perfume was a pleasant change from the stench of the taxi Chloe had spent the last forty minutes in.
“No. Thank goodness.” Chloe walked past Devon. She set her traveling bag on the floor and sat on the expensive, yet highly comfortable, couch. “Where in the world did you dig him up?”
“Yes,” Devon drawled. “Not one of my finer accomplishments.”
Chloe laughed wryly in agreement, unable to do much else.
Devon sighed as she took a chair across from her friend. She crossed her legs and tugged the belt of her silk robe. Reaching to grab a comb, she pulled it through her wet, tangled curls. “Was it all that terrible?”
“You mean his excessive babbling about his favorite topic? Or the fact that his favorite topic was himself?” Chloe took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She leaned back to lie on the couch. She was just glad to be rid of both men right now.
“Most men are like that Chloe. You just haven’t dated enough of them to find it out.” Devon sighed. “Coffee?”
“No.” Chloe kept her eyes shut. “Can I sleep here tonight? I think Paul knows where I live and I don’t want him there waiting for me. He might try to redecorate.”
“Yeah, fine,” Devon allowed. “But I didn’t give him the address.”
“I know. I did. It was the only way I could get him to agree to let me come here alone. No doubt he will be there when I get home. Maybe I’ll never go home.” Chloe laughed childishly at the thought. “Do you think he would notice?”
“Honestly. It couldn’t have been as bad as all that.” Devon shook her head. Chloe, being a writer, was always a bit dramatic.
“Hey, I haven’t been a social outcast. Just because I haven’t dated for awhile doesn’t mean I don’t know what men are like. I write them every day.” Chloe opened one eye and shot her friend a belatedly scathing expression.
“No, you write fictional men. There’s a big difference. You write about the loser who doesn’t pay child support. Or the pimp who abuses his hos.” Devon chuckled when Chloe scrunched up her face in displeasure.
“I have never written one word about a pimp. Though I think that will be my next book.” Chloe did open her eyes that time, but only to roll them at her friend. Sarcastically, she mumbled, “Thanks.”
“Please,” Devon shot back, matching her tone. “The men in your books are the way you want them to be. People aren’t like that. They are unpredictable and they don’t always get what they deserve. Besides, I wouldn’t date any of the men you write about. If I want a good beating, I’ll join kick boxing.”
“Maybe you should tell Paul I have a history of beating my men. That should change his mind.” Chloe gave a cynical smirk. “I think I could take him.”
Devon grimaced. Chloe didn’t see.
“Devon, Paul is just,” Chloe paused trying to find the right phrase. Then, lacking anything better, she mumbled dejectedly, “not Mr. Right.”
“Mr. Right?” Devon shot back with authority. “Let me tell you something about that little number. Mr. Right doesn’t always say the right thing or laugh when he is supposed to, support you when he is supposed to. He isn’t handsome. He’s nowhere near Prince Charming. Mr. Right is just a man—a man who you get along with a little better than the rest. And sometimes, he’s the man willing to marry you to fulfill the stipulations of your father’s will.”
“I know all that,” Chloe answered, tho
ugh she didn’t agree. Her friend’s outlook was too bleak to accept. “But I don’t think that man is Paul. There has to be someone else. There has to be a way to get Paul to go away.”
“Are you sure you want him to change his mind? Did something more happen between you and Everest?” Devon’s eyes turned hopeful. “If it has, you can blow Paul off. He might be mad, but if he tries to go public we’ll just show the world how happy you and Everest are. It will only be a small public relations nightmare by that point. And maybe it will boost book sales, controversy always does.”
“How can you berate personal relationships with such cynicism and then be the optimist about this?” Chloe chuckled halfheartedly. The pain in her chest hadn’t lessened since leaving Montana. His face was painted permanently on the canvas of her mind. He thought she was a whore. She felt so retched. Chloe turned her back on her friend and curled up into a ball.
“Hardly,” Devon sighed. “Does that mean you didn’t work things out with him?”
“No. I believe his parting words were something to the effect of get out of my house—now.” Chloe took a deep, ragged breath. Her nose burned with the need to cry. She felt the tears welling up in her chest as she remembered his words. He had been so angry and not only that, he’d been so disappointed.
“Fine. Forget him. We will find someone else—if not Paul, than someone.” Devon’s tone turned professional. “How much does anyone really know about the man they’re going to marry? We can find you a husband. The way I figure, it’s a fifty-fifty chance. And I will write a pre-nup so airtight that ... well, you get the idea.”
Chloe didn’t want to think of it, but she really had no choice. Time was running out.
“First things, first. Where are the divorce papers?” Devon held out her hand. “I’ll have them pushed through first thing. I have a judge who owes me a favor.”
“Oh, no, I forgot them. I forgot my laptop, all my notes. I can’t believe it!” Chloe sat up with a jolt. “I didn’t have him sign them. He was so angry with me. Paul told him we were married and Everest must have thought I was cheating on my husband with him.”
“What?” Devon shot in disbelief. She was a firm believer in work first, play later. “You were at his house how long and they didn’t get signed?”
“I know,” Chloe sighed in dejection. The time had gone so fast, but for the most part it was the most cherished time of her life.
“How could I have been so foolish? You really are in love with him. And not just love sex love. But love love, the real thing.” Devon shook her damp curls in bewilderment.
“I don’t want to talk about it. He doesn’t care for me. In fact, I think loathe might be more appropriate a term—disgust, better.” Chloe took a deep breath. She pressed at her temple to stop its throbbing. “Is there any way to divorce him without going back for the papers?”
“No, not in the time frame we have left.”
“Then you’ll have to do it for me. You have to go back there for me. Please, as my friend,” Chloe begged.
“No, as your friend I think you should do it. Go to him. Try to patch things up. I still think that if you stayed with him it would be the easiest solution to this whole mess. You would have a husband who would be great for procreation purposes. And, as far as Paul goes, we can handle that.”
“Then go as my paid lawyer. I don’t want to see him. Ever,” Chloe lied.
“Is something else bothering you?” Devon asked. “You don’t seem yourself. Are you sick?”
“Yeah, I think I am coming down with the flu. I didn’t have the best attire with me for the mountain climate.” Chloe waved her hand in dismissal of the question, thinking of their little wet romp in the snow. “I don’t have the luxury of thinking about it now. I can spend the next ten years of my married life being sick.”
Devon nodded. She happened to agree that they lacked time. “Fine, I will get the papers for you. It’ll have to wait for two days. In the mean time you have to decide whom you want to marry—whether it’s Paul or some nobody off the street.”
“Paul told me that I can quit my career after we are married. He said that no wife of his has to work.” Chloe laughed derisively. “And he had to have the pilot help him into the helicopter. He couldn’t even get his own door.”
Devon shook her head. “I know, I already said that I was sorry. That’s what you get when you pick a husband out of a stack of financial reports.”
“As my lawyer, should I marry Paul?” Chloe sighed. “Is that my best bet?”
“As your lawyer, keep him in the sidelines.” Devon stood up and moved to place her hand on Chloe’s shoulder. She leaned over to press her hand to the back of Chloe’s head. She was pretty warm. “As your friend, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“I know, Devon, I stopped understanding this whole thing months ago.” Chloe closed her eyes as she shook her head. “I don’t understand why my father would be so unrelenting in this. He’s the one who pushed me to work hard—to travel all the time, going from book signing to book tour. It was that reason I never had a meaningful relationship. No man could ever trust me to be faithful when I was gone. And what man would wait three months for a woman he’d only just met? It was impossible so I stopped trying.”
“Chloe,” Devon began with a frustrated sigh. She pursed her lips tightly together. There was nothing else she could say.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“What?” Grandpa’s voice boomed and crackled from the old speaker. Everest strained to hear over the halting words, “How... the world... she... your... wife... you mean gone.”
“Grandpa, you’re breaking up,” Everest returned with a push of the handset button, “I can’t hear you.”
For a moment there was crackling silence. Everest grimaced as his grandfather’s voice boomed over the speaker.
“I said, what do you mean she’s gone?”
Everest frowned at the irritation in the old man’s voice. He knew his grandmother would be standing right behind Grandpa listening to every word. With a sigh, he answered, “Grandpa, she has two husbands. Her real husband came and picked her up.”
“Real husband?” His grandmother’s shocked voice revealed her presence. Everest chuckled without amusement.
“Yeah, grandma,” he replied. “Our marriage was a mistake.”
“I never,” his grandmother’s voice began to rise in outrage before the speaker went dead. Everest frowned. He knew his grandfather had taken his finger off the button so he wouldn’t hear them arguing.
When the sound came back, Grandpa said, “Quiet Gladys. You don’t mean that rich feller who was here looking for her do you, son?”
“Paul,” Gladys chimed in helpfully.
“Yes, yes, Paul.” Grandpa affirmed to quiet his wife.
“Yeah, Grandpa, that’s him,” Everest put forth with a firm click of the button. “That’s Chloe’s husband. He flew a helicopter up here to rescue her. She told him that I was her editor.”
Everest refused to tell his grandparents what else she had said about him. With a frown deeply embedded on his brow, he growled, “Boyfriend my ass.”
“What?” Grandpa hollered.
“Nothing,” Everest said back with a boyish grin of mischief.
“Oh,” Grandpa began.
“Here, give that to me.”
Everest listened. There was a struggle for the handset on the other end. He shook his head with a smile. His grandparents had finally answered his call, though he had dutifully tried every day since the avalanche.
“Hey, son, it’s grandma,” Gladys said unnecessarily. “Paul can’t be her husband.”
Everest froze. The smile of amusement that had begun to line his lips at hearing his grandparents argue faded. His heart stopped.
“Everest,” Gladys inquired when her grandson didn’t respond.
“Yeah, I’m here,” he stated. “What do you mean he’s not her husband?”
“That Paul was here in Miner’s Cove a few
days ago. He was here with this red-haired attorney from New York.”
“That’s Chloe’s lawyer friend,” Everest clarified.
“Well, this Paul, he kept asking a lot of questions—too many questions for a married man to be asking about his wife.” Gladys shushed her husband when he tried to interrupt. “No one but Betsy told him anything.”
Everest forced a chuckle for the sake of his grandma, before saying, “What? That she wanted to go with him?”
“He took her, son,” Grandpa stated. Gladys shushed him again.
“Yeah, Everest, Betsy’s gone to New York with him. He bought her a first class ticket. She said they were going to get married and live in LA.” Gladys paused. “So he can’t be married to Chloe and marry Betsy.”
Everest frowned. Something was not right. Just want kind of marriage did Chloe have anyway? No wonder she was more than happy to get snowed in with him. Her husband was as unfaithful as she was. He swallowed down his regret, before saying, “Grandma, did you ever think that maybe he was lying to Betsy to sleep with her. Or that maybe Betsy didn’t want to tell you the truth. That she was finally leaving the diner on her own.”
“I saw him give her the ticket,” Gladys asserted. “Besides, Betsy would have no reason to lie to me. I’ve been telling her to go for years.”
Everest sighed knowing that with the girl gone his grandma would be losing her only help in the restaurant. “All right, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. I’m still snowed in. I drove by the pass this morning, it looks as if it might be several more weeks until I can make it out of here.”
“Yeah, I estimate about the same,” Grandpa put in.
“Do you want me to contact her?” Gladys offered. “I can give her a message for you.”
“No.” Everest thought of the divorce papers he had found in his bedroom near her laptop. He had finally sat down and read them. They were quite generous terms that included a one-time check settlement of fifty thousand dollars. She had forgotten to get them when she left. With a confidence he didn’t feel, he claimed, “I’ll see her soon enough.”
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