She smiled up at him. “I’m delighted, too.”
Noah’s three friends who’d also done fundraising events for the island had shown up for the wedding. Along with Noah, Jerry Thompson, Harlan Owens, and Orrin King had raised over eleven-million dollars plus the money they’d donated, and Mango Island was well on its way to a full recovery.
The three billionaires had gone in together to give them a wedding gift of two JetSkis, with life vests for two humans and two dogs, one large and one small.
Noah’s cousin Sam had popped in for a brief visit. “Are you still staying with Zeke?” Noah asked him.
Sam shrugged. “It works out great for both of us. He provides the house and I order in all the food.”
In a quiet moment afterward, Noah had led her toward his old tree house. He touched the sign on the tree and began to laugh. “I love what you’ve done with the place.”
Emma’d replaced the sign with one that read NO BOYS ALLOWED. “Sorry, big guy. This is a girls-only clubhouse now.”
“Ah, come on, let me go up and check it out,” Noah teased.
She repeated his words from so many years before. “You need special permission to come in.”
“I have something that might convince you to let me in.” He took her hand and led her into the house and back toward her old bedroom.
“Oh, no, you don’t. Not here.” She laughed. “Not until we reach our hotel room, big guy.”
But then she saw the large box on her bed. A large, gift-wrapped box.
Emma studied her handsome new husband. “What have you done?”
“Consider it a wedding present from the president of your fan club.”
She smiled. “You?”
He nodded and motioned toward the box. “I remember you opening gifts much faster than this when we were kids. Tear into it, but gently.”
“What is it? A fire ant farm?” she teased.
He laughed. “No. Definitely not.”
“I don’t need anything else. I couldn’t be any happier.”
“I think this will make things even better.”
She sat on the edge of the bed and started ripping the wrapping paper off — until she saw the word Hasselblad on the box. With a gasp, she looked up at him. “For real?”
He pulled a card out of his shirt pocket and read, “A Hasselblad H5D-200c medium format DSLR and a Hasselblad 35-90mm f/4-5.6 HCD lens.”
Tears pushed against her eyes. “You spent fifty thousand dollars on a gift for me?”
“Oh, baby, we’re just getting started with the gifts.”
She hugged him tightly again and kissed him. “Thank you, thank you, thank you for my dream camera!”
She’d married the guy next door and she couldn’t have been happier.
Noah looked down at her and shot her his signature grin. “Now can I go in the tree house?”
She touched her palm to his cheek. “You just gained a lifetime pass.”
And Emma kissed him again.
Are you dying to read Sam’s story? He’s ready to settle down, if he could only find a woman who wasn’t after him for just his money and football status. Then a buddy asks him for a favor and he may have met The One. Now he just has to convince her!
What do you do when the pretty lady sells houses? You go house hunting!
When Sam Reid’s buddy Zeke asks him to help his little sister move back home, Sam has no idea how much Savannah has grown up — or how much he wants to get to know her. Savannah Jackson sells houses, and all of a sudden she has a handsome new client. Will life go back to normal after the closing? Will this prove to be a fumble or a touchdown for the new quarterback?
Waco Wranglers Reid Brothers: Heartwarming, funny, feel-good stories of rough-and-tumble football players and the sassy women who capture their hearts. These sweet, funny romantic comedies will have you laughing and loving the stories.
To read more, go to Amazon.
To see all of Heather’s series (or if your device won’t let you connect to Amazon), visit www.BooksByHeatherHorrocks.com.
Thank you!
If you enjoyed this book, a 5-star review is the sweetest gift you can give me. I always read your comments and do my best to learn from them. Even a quick “it was good” helps tremendously. Please click here to leave a review.
GET A FREE BOOK!
If you’d like to receive emails announcing my future book releases, just click here to push the Magic Button. I promise I won’t share your email address and I won’t send a flood of emails. I’ll just let you know when I have a new book ready for you to read or I have significant exciting news (for example, when a book becomes an audiobook).
CONNECT WITH ME.
Heather Horrocks Author on Facebook, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn. If you’d like to be on my Street Team and become an official Scathingly Brilliant Reader, click here.
DID YOU SEE ANY (GASP!) ERRORS OR TYPOS?
Though this book has gone through numerous edits, by myself and others, including two professional editors and numerous beta readers, we are human. If you spot any errors or typos, please email me at [email protected] and let me know! I want my books to be as clean as possible, both in content and in format.
THANKS AGAIN...
For your time and interest, and for telling your friends about my books. If you’d like to know more about my other books, that section is just a page or two away.
Happy tales, Heather Horrocks
www.BooksByHeatherHorrocks.com
Author’s Note
This book was formerly published as The Guy Next Door Billionaire.
It was such a fun book to write. It was also challenging, for several reasons. One is that my primary computer died for the entire deadline week which added lots of excitement. Plus working in the book’s conference workshop schedule was interesting to figure out. But maybe the biggest challenge for me was trying to think big enough. I had to continually pull myself out of my story to ask, “But what would a billionaire do?” Billionaires are in a totally different league than mere millionaires.
As for the chocolate-covered dog biscuits, when my family lived in Kuwait decades ago (my father was an oilman), there weren’t many chocolate treats. So my sister and I did actually cover dog biscuits with chocolate and feed them to my father and one of his friends. They seemed to like them.
If you’d like to watch masters at work creating a zombie face, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhB6NYPo2Sw to watch the makeup artists from The Living Dead do their amazing thing.
About the Author
Heather Horrocks is the USA Today bestselling author of numerous sweet, light-hearted, funny, feel-good books (Moonchuckle Bay paranormal romances, Chick Flick Clique and Christmas Street romantic comedy series, Who-Dun-Him Inn and Sisters in Crime cozy mysteries, as well as works on important topics, such as the Women Who Knew inspirational series, A Patriot’s Guide series, and #North Star to Freedom series.
Raised overseas for her first seventeen years, she hid under the bed with her mother during a South American coup, waterskied through an oil slick in the Persian Gulf, partied with a Kuwaiti princess classmate at her palace, flew in and out of the blacked-out Cairo airport mere moments before it was bombed during the Six Day War, rode a camel (and ate a camel steak), crossed the finish line first at Utah's Miller Motorsports Park, and walked on hot coals — without getting burned! — at a firewalk workshop!
She loves anyone who can make her laugh, which explains why she adores her witty husband, her funny friends and sisters, Anne George mysteries and Molly Harper romances, and her cute little dog Gus. She loves to cook for friends, siblings, and especially her children and their families. She and her husband reside in Utah. You can find her online at www.BooksByHeatherHorrocks.com.
Series by Heather Horrocks
Flirty romances and mysteries with love, laughter, a little snark, and a touch of magic!
If you get an error message (We’re sorry. This
operation is not currently supported) when you click on any of these, just go to www.HeatherHorrocks.com and click on the series you want.
WACO WRANGLER REID BROTHERS Sweet Romantic Comedies:
Knox, Noah, Sam
MOONCHUCKLE BAY Paranormal Romantic Comedies:
Jingle Belle (FREE here), The Artist Cries Wolf (FREE Amazon, B&N, KOBO) , The Bridesmaid Earns Her Wings, The Director Gets a Grip, The Prince Has a Bad Heir Day, The Fireman Finds His Flame, Elvis Gets His Groove Back, The Hacker Pushes Her Luck, The Contestant Flies Off the Handle, The Dog Designer Ruffles Some Feathers, Cupid Misses the Mark, The Composer Changes Her Tune, The Healer Kisses the Big Bad Wolf, The Gambler Plays Djinn Rummy
MOONCHUCKLE BAY Paranormal Monster Movie Shorts:
The Scientist Takes the Bait (first published in anthology Spell or High Water)
The Librarian From the Black Lagoon
The Fruitcake That Saves Christmas (first published in anthology Spells and Jinglebells)
HUNGRY CAT CAFÉ Paranormal Cozy Mysteries:
The Hungry Cat Café (first published in Hexes and Ohs), Poisonberry Pie
CHRISTMAS STREET Romantic Comedies:
Bah, Humbug! (FREE Amazon, B&N, KOBO), Kissing Santa, The Naughty List, Love on Christmas Street (#1, 2, & 3), and Deck the Malls.
CHICK FLICK CLIQUE Romantic Comedies:
Pride and Precipitation (FREE Amazon, B&N), A Hound Dog Named Elvis, Regally Blonde, A Pink Dog Named Fluffy (formerly titled Puppy Love), My Spare Lady, , A Bulldog Named Desire, Fifty Shades of Greystoke, While You Were Stranded, Romancing the Clone, Davidson and Goliath
WHO-DUN-HIM INN Cozy Mysteries:
Snowed Inn, Inn the Doghouse, Inn the Family Way
BAD MOTHERS CLUB Cozy Mystery Series:
Murder is Misunderstood #1
INSPIRATIONAL:
Women Who Knew the Mortal Messiah, Men Who Knew the Mortal Messiah, Women and Men Who Knew the Mortal Messiah
I AM ABLE FABLES:
Suzie Q-That-Stands-for-Wonderful
HISTORICAL WESTERNS:
Old Money, Violet: Bride of North Dakota, Colorado Dreams
LDS:
How to Stuff a Wild Zucchini, Old Maid of Honor, Baby Mine
Receive a FREE STORY for signing up for Heather’s New Release Newsletter at www.BooksByHeatherHorrocks.com
Acknowledgments
Thanks for the amazing help with plotting to USA Today bestselling author (and my dear friend), Diane Darcy.
Thanks to all my readers, from intensive to proofreaders and in between. You’re amazing! Christine Jensen, Desiree Taggard, Katherine Ward, Lori Carson, Rocky Palmer,and Tabitha Valencic.
Rights & Copyrights
Copyright © 2019 Heather Horrocks
www.BooksByHeatherHorrocks.com
Formerly published as The Guy Next Door Billionaire
Cover Pictures & Design
Design of series logo: Deborah Bradseth at Tugboat Design (www.tugboatdesign.net/)
Images: Depositphotos.com and Istockphotos.com
Word Garden Press
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.
All Rights Reserved
This includes the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions.
Work of Fiction
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Receive a free novella and updates on new books released by Heather Horrocks at www.BooksByHeatherHorrocks.com
Book Club Questions
1. If you had tons of money, what three extravagant vehicles would you buy? I’d love a $4.5 million Lamborghini Veneno. Candy-apple red, please.
2. It’s hard to even imagine the lifestyle of a billionaire. In this book, I had trouble thinking big enough. Would Noah fly commercial, or would he have a private jet?
3. Can you imagine how much a billion dollars is? It is a thousand million dollars. If you spent $100,000 every single day, it would take you 10,000 days to spend it all. That’s nearly 30 years! Okay, what would you spend your first day’s $100,000 on?
4. Who was your childhood crush? Do you have special memories about that person?
5. Do you have an older brother? What is your relationship like?
6. Have you ever visited an island resort? One in Fiji? What is your favorite memory from the trip? Your least favorite part?
7. Which real-life actor do you like best, Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) or Jason Momoa (Aquaman)?
8. If you could earn a speaking part in a movie, would you go to an acting conference in Fiji? Even if the price was high because it was a fundraiser?
9. If you could donate to the cause of rebuilding Coconut Island, how much would you donate? (It’s not a real place, so I’m not asking for actual donations.)
10. What would be the activity you’d most want to do on an island resort? Snorkeling? Diving with sharks? Visiting the reef? Taking a cruise? Or something else…? Which island would you like to go to?
Thanks again!
You’re amazing!
Heather Horrocks
www.BooksByHeatherHorrocks.com
NOAH: A Childhood Nemesis Sweet Romantic Comedy (Waco Wranglers Reid Brothers Book 2) Page 11