Stranded with the Hidden Billionaire

by Elana Johnson

“No,” Holden said, turning away from his best friend, business partner, and only lifeline back to normal life after the death of his mother.

  “Why not?”

  “The paramedics on the mountain said I should, but I could probably wait if I didn’t want to go today.” He poured himself a cup of coffee and slid his eyes past Dean to get the cream out of the fridge. “And I didn’t want to go today.”

  His leg didn’t hurt that bad. They’d given him a steroid shot with antibiotics before they’d let him hike down on his own. And he sure wasn’t going to let them carry him out. The pictures the media had gotten would be bad enough.

  The silence in his too-big house felt stifling, suffocating. He loaded a plate with food, and he walked toward Dean, making sure he didn’t limp nearly at all. They both went out onto the deck, and Holden could finally breathe again.

  “You okay?” Dean asked, and Holden appreciated the concern in his friend’s voice.

  “I was out there with Eden,” Holden said very quietly. He filled his mouth with food, somewhat surprised Eden hadn’t called or texted yet. If he had money to bet—and he did—she’d gone to her parents’ house instead of going home first.

  She might even spend the night there. He hoped she would, and he vowed not to contact her until morning. Give her time to cool off a little. The sarcasm and bitterness in her last words to him still reverberated around inside his ears, no matter how hard he tried to forget them.

  “And?” Dean prompted when Holden didn’t expound.

  “And I want to try again with her.” He sighed and finished his piece of pizza. “But I screwed up. I didn’t tell her about Explore Getaway Bay, and she has this whole line of survival products….” He trailed off, because he didn’t need to repeat the story. Dean had been at the scene when Holden had come off the trail. He’d heard his statement to the press about Eden being the genius with the supplies, how Eden had saved his life, how her outdoor survival products should be in everyone’s backpacks.

  “You probably didn’t need to call in the Navy SEALs,” he added.

  “Justin’s a friend,” Dean said with a wave of his hand. Like, no big deal.

  But to Holden, it was a big deal. The SEALs had drawn a lot of attention, and yes, they’d rebuilt the path in such a way that it would probably never fall again. But it just wasn’t necessary. Not for him.

  “And he’s technically not a SEAL anymore,” Dean said. “He retired a few months ago.”

  “He’s a SEAL,” Holden said.

  Dean let a few seconds go by in silence. He watched Holden eat another piece of pizza, and then another. “Are you telling me you’re hung up on Eden?”

  “No,” Holden said. “Yes. Maybe?” He had no idea. “It was nice to be reminded that she…cared about me once.”

  “So what happened?”

  Never one to kiss and tell, Holden danced around the edges of what had really happened on Bald Mountain Cliffs. “She took care of me,” he said. “She saved my leg, and probably my life. She found food, and she got us water, and she had a phone.”

  “She should be our spokesperson for Explore GB,” Dean said, not a hint of teasing in sight.

  A light bulb lit up in Holden’s head. “You’re right. She should.” He frowned. “Do you think she’d do that?”

  “I have no idea. How bad did you leave things?”

  What a joke. Those had been her last words to him. “Not well,” he said, thinking he was probably estimating high at that.

  “And even though Eden has blonde hair, she has the temper of a redhead,” Dead said with a smile. “So maybe let me talk to her.”

  “I want to talk to her,” Holden said. “And I want to propose to the board that we buy her line of outdoor survival products.”

  Dean’s eyebrows went up. “Have you seen them?”

  “In action,” he said. “And no Swiss Army knife would’ve cut that walking stick for me.” Honestly, it didn’t matter if her inventions weren’t that great. The fact was, she’d survived out in the wilderness with them, and that alone would make them fly off the shelves.

  “Put together the proposal,” he said. “We’ll take it to the next board meeting.”

  “That’s not until next month.” He hadn’t been briefed on the one he’d missed yesterday morning, but if he knew Dean—and he did—they’d be having that talk next.

  “Gives you time to get everything in line.” Dean smiled at him. “About yesterday, we need to talk about the possibility of voting Jean out at the next election meeting.”

  Holden snorted. “That will never happen. She owns fifteen percent of the company.”

  “I think we can get her daughter to take her place.” Dean lifted his eyebrows and reached for his bottle of soda.

  “You do? And you think Jessica is a better option that her mother?” Because Holden did not think that.

  “She at least listens,” Dean said. “Joan has an agenda, and she doesn’t hear a word anyone else says.”

  “True.” Holden didn’t want to talk business. He didn’t want to think about Eden. He just wanted to sleep. So he said, “Thanks for everything, Dean,” and went down the hall to his bedroom.

  When he woke in the morning, he almost didn’t know where he was. The ground around him was so soft, and he didn’t know why. Had they found somewhere less rocky to sleep?

  He turned over, expecting to find Eden there.

  His eyes flew open, and he realized he wasn’t out in the wilderness with her anymore. And it was the next morning, which meant he’d kept his promise to himself.

  He texted her, something simple. Hey there. Hope you got home okay. He just needed to get the door open again. Get her talking to him again.

  She didn’t respond. An hour passed, and his phone remained silent. By lunchtime, he was logging into the Explore Getaway Bay employee database to find out where she’d been assigned to work.

  Maybe she’d have called in today. If he had an app, he’d know that.

  Or maybe, she’d be on the submarine tour where she’d been assigned. They left every hour, on the hour, and that meant he had forty-nine minutes to get over to the docking station.

  Eden was not at the submarine dock. Little children and families ran rampant everywhere, but the girl he talked to at the ticket window said Eden had called in sick that day. Holden was a tiny bit surprised. Eden acted like nothing fazed her, but something on that mountain had.

  He hoped it was him at the same time he prayed it wasn’t.

  He wasn’t sixteen years old, and he couldn’t just slowly drive by her house to see if her car was in the driveway. What would he do then? Go knock on her door?

  No, Holden wasn’t that kind of man, and he ended up going back to his place behind the gates in a community at the base of the bluffs.

  She still hadn’t answered him, and Holden spent the rest of the day starting a proposal for the board about Eden’s outdoor survival products. No, he hadn’t seen them all. He was sure what Eden had brought with her on a simple day hike hadn’t even scratched the surface of what she’d invented in that shed in her backyard.

  He wanted to call her. Hear her voice. See if he could get inside the shed.

  But he wouldn’t use his money and position and the possibility of her getting the funding she’d been trying to secure to get her to talk to him. That wouldn’t be fair, and Holden didn’t want that between them.

  Besides, the shareholders could say no. Joan would definitely vote no.

  Now, she might suggest they bring in Eden as a consultant, and the fact that she already worked for the company was a huge benefit.

  His phone rang, and he practically lunged for it. But it wasn’t Eden.

  “Dad,” he said after answering the call. “What’s going on?” His father usually only called when something happened.

  “I saw you made it down safely,” he said, as if Holden has just gotten off the trail an hour ago.

  “Yeah,” he said. “Yesterday.”
>
  “I thought I might see you today.”

  Holden pressed his lips together. “Sorry, Dad,” he said. “I’ve just been resting.”

  “You know, Lincoln went through something similar.”

  “I’d actually forgotten about that.” His half-brother had been lost at sea, crashed on a deserted island. Holden wondered what products Eden had for something like that. He didn’t even know what that would be like. Surrounded by water, none of it drinkable.

  He silently vowed never to get on a ship or boat again without desalination tablets in his pockets. Heck, he should probably start to carry a backpack of supplies around with him everywhere he went.

  “We’re wondering if you want to grab dinner tonight.” His dad sounded casual, but Holden heard something in the undertone of his voice.

  Holden’s first reaction was to say no. He was busy. He had a proposal to work on. Any number of excuses came to mind. But instead of using them, he said, “Sure. What time were you thinking?”

  After all, the board didn’t meet again for weeks. He had plenty of time to get the proposal polished and prepared. So perfect, even Joan wouldn’t be able to find fault with it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Eden took a few days off work, deciding she could afford to sleep in and make sure her body and mind were rested.

  Holden had texted each morning for five straight days, but Eden didn’t know how to answer him. Each message was simple and short.

  Hope you got home okay.

  Does it feel as weird to you to wake up in bed instead of on the ground?

  Finally went to the doctor for my leg. He says I’m all good. Thank you.

  Eden was glad Holden wouldn’t have any lasting trouble with his leg. She wasn’t surprised he’d waited to go to the doctor. The man was as stubborn as the day was long. And yet, he’d done what she’d asked him to as well. He’d taken the pills. Eaten her food. All of it.

  She tinkered in her shed in the mornings before it got too terribly hot. Soon enough, it wouldn’t matter what time of day she went out. The day started hot in the summer. Eden usually thrived on that, the glorious, bright sun one of the reasons she loved Hawaii so much.

  The hype from her and Holden’s experience died down. The press disappeared off her front lawn, apparently satisfied with the story they’d managed to get. She went back to work, and life marched on.

  Her house was a little quieter than she remembered. Her life a little more empty, even when she worked on the submarine.

  At least she hadn’t said anything bad about her job. About Holden’s company. Getaway Bay’s newest billionaire.

  Every time she thought of that, foolishness raced through her, hot and fast. By the second week, she’d managed to just feel disappointed she hadn’t known about him and his status. She might have had the best shot to get funding for her products through Explore Getaway Bay and Holden.

  But she certainly wasn’t going to ask now.

  Holden had stopped texting too, and while part of her wanted him to let her slip quietly away, the other part of her wanted him to show up on her doorstep and fight for her. Fight for them.

  “You’ve got a letter,” Cotton said one day when Eden stopped by the office to check her schedule. He waved the envelope at her, but Eden frowned. She didn’t get mail at the office. She came in once a week to make sure her hours got logged right and check what she’d been assigned to do the following week.

  “From who?” she asked.

  “Explore GB.”

  Eden crossed over to the bank of interoffice mailboxes. She honestly never got anything here. Maybe her tax documents in January. The slip of paper that was supposed to serve as the official invitation to the company beach bash. Stuff like that.

  But this envelope looked official, like what her paychecks used to come in before the company went digital. Her thoughts turned to Holden and the app he’d claimed the company would be getting. Maybe that had stolen his attention from her. After all, the man really worked two jobs.

  “Open it,” Cotton said when she just stood there, staring at it.

  “Did you get one?” she asked.

  “Nope.”

  She scanned the rows and columns of boxes. “Did anyone else get one?”

  “Nope.” Cotton grinned at her. “It was hand-delivered, just a few minutes ago.”

  “By who?”

  Cotton shrugged, though by the edge in his eye, he knew. “Just open it.”

  Eden wanted to do it in private, but Cotton certainly wasn’t going anywhere. So she ripped the flap up and pulled out a thick piece of paper with official Explore Getaway Bay letterhead on it.

  She read quickly, her stomach sinking with every sentence. “The board wants me at their next meeting.” She handed the paper—which probably cost as much as her groceries for the week—to Cotton.

  He read it too, his smile fading by the end. “Why do you think the board wants you to come to their meeting?”

  “It says to give an official report about what happened on Bald Mountain Cliffs.”

  “Can’t they just get the police report?”

  “Good question.” Eden turned away from him and the mailboxes and stepped over to the computer where employees checked their schedules. It would be emailed out on Sunday night, but Eden liked to know which days she had off and which tours she was doing. She’d been packing a backpack with her everywhere she went, as she sometimes drove the safaris Jeeps out into the wilderness areas of the island. And if she and some tourists got stuck out there….

  She tapped and scrolled down to the Ms to find her name. “I’m not scheduled to work?” Straightening, she looked around as if the shift manager would be there to answer her question.

  Ryan wasn’t there. He arrived at nine on the dot and left at five. Eden had been at Lightning Point that day, taking people through the lighthouse there and explaining how petrified lightning was made. The popular place to visit sat around the island, a good half an hour from the main part of town, and she was definitely later than five o’clock.

  “Maybe Anna has you on private tours,” Cotton said.

  “Why doesn’t it say that then?” Eden stepped back and let Cotton look at the schedule.

  “And it says paid,” he said. “Which is like you put in for vacation days.”

  “I didn’t,” she said. “I don’t need next week off.” In fact, Eden took very little time off. “I’ll call him.” She dialed Ryan, hoping he was having a good evening. Sometimes he could be snappy, especially if his twins were acting up. Eden had no idea how to deal with two six-year-old boys at the same time, so she usually gave Ryan a lot of slack.

  “Hey, Eden,” he said, and he sounded like he could have a conversation.

  Eden asked, “Do you have a quick minute?”

  “Sure,” he said.

  “I’m not on the schedule for next week.”

  “Oh, right.” He cleared his throat. “I probably should’ve texted you.”

  “Okay,” she said, waiting for more of an explanation than that.

  “The board meets next week.”

  “On Thursday,” she said, glancing at the discarded letter on the counter. “I heard.”

  “They requested I give you the week off.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know.”

  She picked up the letter again, thinking maybe it had the agenda for the board meeting. A clue as to why she needed the whole week off for a meeting on Thursday morning.

  “You’re not losing any pay,” Ryan said. “And they said they’d comp the vacation days, so they don’t count against you either.”

  Before Eden knew Holden ran this company, she’d have been confused out of her mind. But as Ryan spoke, everything came together. “Thank you, Ryan,” she said. “Sorry to bother you at home.”

  “My fault,” he said. “I should’ve texted you.”

  Eden hung up and immediately dialed Holden. When he answered with an immediate, “Hey ther
e,” she almost lost her nerve.

  Thankfully, her mouth knew what to do.

  “You gave me the whole week off for a Thursday morning board meeting?”

  “Yes,” he said simply.

  “I don’t need a week off,” she said, rolling her eyes at Cotton. “What am I going to do all week?” She’d be bored out of her mind. Didn’t Holden know boredom was her number one fear?

  “Prepare for the meeting,” he said, his voice even and seemingly un-frustrated.

  “Why?” she asked. “What am I doing there?”

  “I’d like you to bring a few of your outdoor survival products to show them.”

  The words landed like bombs in Eden’s ears. “I have to present?”

  “You’re great at public speaking,” he said. “Just think of it as a tour out at Lightning Point.”

  So he knew where she was. He’d probably checked her schedule every week, same as she had. Eden wasn’t sure why her heart was beating so fast. Probably a warning not to get involved with Holden again. It was likely telling her to run.

  “Holden,” she said, the tiniest bit of a whine in her voice.

  “Please don’t say my name like that,” he said, and he did sound strained around the edges now. “The meeting is at nine o’clock. I’m assuming you know where the corporate office building is.”

  “Yes,” she said, because she didn’t know what else to say. Could he have real feelings for her?

  So what if he does? she asked herself. He’d stopped texting in the morning, and perhaps they simply weren’t meant to be.

  “I’d arrive a little early,” he said.

  “Okay,” she said, not sure how to end this call.

  “See you then,” he said, and the call ended.

  She let her arm drop to her side, more confused than ever.

  “What’s going on?” Cotton asked, stepping in front of her.

  “He wants me to present my outdoor survival products to the board. Says I need time to prepare, so he gave me the week off.”

  Cotton frowned at her. “Seems weird.”

  “Right?” Eden wasn’t going to argue with Holden though. It wouldn’t do much good, and she couldn’t help feeling hopeful about her and Holden. Hopeful that she might have finally found the right investor for her products.