by Lori Ryan
Reuniting with the Billionaire
The Sutton Billionaires Series, Book 2
Lori Ryan
Contents
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Epilogue
Stalker Notes (Otherwise Known as Author Notes)
About the Author
Other Books by Lori Ryan
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my wonderful husband for his patience and support. Thank you to Susan Smith for her endless brainstorming and reading and to Patricia Thomas whose editing proved invaluable. Thank you to Patricia Parent, my final set of eyes, for cleaning up after me.
I’d like to thank Dr. Kerry Weisz for her consultation on canine veterinary medicine and for her care of the real Rev. To read more about the dogs that are featured in the book, visit my website at www.Loriryanromance.com.
I would also like to thank Jocelyn Stohl for her expertise in search and rescue operations. I apologize to search and rescue handlers everywhere for taking the liberty of having my characters do everything wrong (take matters into their own hands, leave the scene, you name it). It was necessary to the story! I am always in awe of the dedication and expertise that search and rescue handlers and their dogs have and hope someday to write a novel that will truly showcase the amazing work done by these professionals.
Thank you to all of the friends and friends-of-friends who read the pre-release version for me. I owe you all so much.
To read more of Lori’s books, visit her at
www.LoriRyanRomance.com.
Author’s Note
If you love this book and want to read two novellas in the series for free, sign up for my newsletter here and I’ll send them to you!
Chapter One
Jill Walsh groaned as she watched the tan Jaguar pull up her driveway and park behind the moving van.
Crap.
She rolled her head backward, to the left, then the right. Slowly, slowly, trying to ease the tension from her body. It didn’t work. Her teeth seemed welded together as her jaw refused to unhinge.
Are you kidding me?
Jill didn’t bother to approach the car. If Jake insisted on coming today after she told him not to, he could damn well get out of the car and come to her.
Another groan escaped Jill’s lips as Jake opened the car door and did just that.
“I told you not to come,” Jill said not looking his way. She continued to watch the movers as they carried out the larger pieces of furniture. Most of the furniture would go into storage since her grandparents’ home, which she would be living in temporarily, was already furnished. Only her photography equipment, her clothes and a few personal items were going to Westbrook with her.
“I thought I should be here. Just in case you need me,” Jake answered with that pitying little smile on his face.
It irked the hell out of Jill that she still had feelings for her ex. That even though Jake treated her like a two-year-old, and even though he’d left her for his mistress after seven years of marriage, and even though he was an obnoxious jerk who just couldn’t leave her alone, a part of her still wanted to rewind the clock and go back to the way things were before Jake told her he wanted a divorce.
Jill didn’t answer him. It was a waste of breath. Clearly, if he listened to her, he wouldn’t be here right now.
“Ma’am, you said there were things upstairs you’re setting aside for Goodwill? Do you want to show us what to leave for them?” asked one of the movers.
“What? She’s not giving anything away,” said Jake. He stepped between Jill and the mover.
Jill gritted her teeth, her breath bursting out as she stepped around Jake.
“Yes, Jake. I am.” Jill turned to address the moving man who now looked uneasily back and forth between Jill and Jake.
“All of the furniture in the master bedroom is going to charity. Can you move it downstairs, please? They’re going to come take it after we finish up here,” Jill said.
“What? Why are you giving the furniture away? It’s perfectly good. I gave you the furniture so you wouldn’t need to get anything. I’m trying to take care of you and you’re giving it away?”
He loved to sound like the hero in the divorce settlement. A big man, taking care of poor little Jill.
She closed her eyes and began to count. One...two...three... Oh to hell with it.
“Yes, Jake. I’m giving away the damn furniture,” Jill said, rounding on him as the movers retreated back into the house, away from the awkward tension of watching strangers argue. “Do you honestly think I want the bedroom furniture? That I would sleep in the bed where you slept with her?” Jill swallowed hard as she tried to finish the sentence that stuck in her throat.
Jake didn’t look the least bit chagrined. “It’s perfectly good furniture, Jill.”
“You’re unbelievable, Jake.” For what felt like the tenth time since Jake arrived only a few short minutes before, Jill closed her eyes, took a deep breath and tried to center herself. Tried to let the feelings wash off her. Tried to release the tension.
“I’d like you to leave, Jake. I asked you not to come here and I’d like you to leave,” Jill said, her eyes still closed.
“I just want to help you.” He was indignant, as if Jill were being insensitive to his needs.
She opened her eyes and leveled a shuttered stare at him. “I need you to leave. I need a clean break, Jake. I need you to leave me alone and let me move on. You’ve clearly moved on with Missy.” The name felt like acid coming out of Jill’s mouth. “Let me move on.”
She wrapped her arms around her body, hugging herself tight and turned back to watch the movers bring the last few boxes out of the house she’d shared with the man she’d loved with all her heart.
When the sale of the house had gone through yesterday, she had finally been rid of the last piece of communal property. She now needed to be rid of the memories and the heartache. Distance herself from her failed marriage. From the feelings she couldn’t seem to get away from.
It was several more minutes before Jill felt him move away. She really didn’t understand what he wanted. Why come around if he didn’t want to be married to her anymore? Was it guilt? Control? Was he trying to keep her waiting in the wings in case he changed his mind?
She didn’t understand his motives and didn’t care at this point. In the beginning, his continual presence had given Jill hope. Now, she didn’t want hope. She wanted thi
s over. Over and done with for good.
A moment later, she heard his car start, listened to it as it pulled down the driveway. She began her neck rolls again. Slowly rolling back, left, right.
Breathe, Jill. Back, left, right.
Nope, didn’t help a damn bit.
Chapter Two
Andrew Weston walked into the coffee shop in the lobby of the offices of Sutton Capital where he had been Chief Financial Officer for the past five years. He didn’t look like your average corporate officer, dressed as he was in jeans and a polo shirt.
He grabbed a paper cup and lid from the stack on the counter and smiled at the two women next to him as he poured much-needed caffeine into his cup.
“Morning, Margie, Donna.” Margie and Donna worked in the mailroom at Sutton. They were always together, like two halves of a whole. And they hit on Andrew any chance they got.
“Andrew, when are you gonna stop leading us on and just choose one of us? It’s not fair to keep us waiting for a decision,” Margie said with a flirty smile.
“Yeah, just pick one, Andrew. We’ve been fighting over you long enough. Put us out of our misery,” Donna said.
Andrew laughed. The two of them knew as well as any woman that Andrew never dated anyone in the office. In fact, he didn’t really date. He slept with women, but that was it.
But they teased him just the same. It had become a game.
“Sorry, ladies. How can I possibly choose between two such gorgeous women? And, if I did choose, one of you would be heartbroken and I’d feel guilty. It might keep me up at night and then I’d lose my beauty sleep. Can’t do it, ladies.” Andrew laughed as he walked to the counter.
He smiled at the balding man behind the cash register. “Hi, Pete. Put Margie and Donna’s coffee on my bill. And, I’ll take a bagel, too, please,” Andrew said. He put cash on the counter, grabbed his bagel and coffee and took off for the elevators.
When he stepped off on the twenty-sixth floor of the building, it took a split second to realize something wasn’t right. His assistant, Debbie, rushed down the hall toward him with an anxious look on her face that put him instantly on high alert.
“Andrew,” Debbie called out to him from a good ten feet away. “Lydia just called. Your grandmother fell on ice on her front walk. They’re taking her to Yale-New Haven Hospital. They think she’s broken her hip.”
Lydia was the housekeeper and cook who had lived with his grandmother since Andrew could remember. She was as much a part of his family as his grandmother herself. Lydia was in her sixties now and his grandmother was rounding eighty this year.
Andrew turned back toward the elevator without waiting for Debbie to tell him what he already knew. She didn’t need direction. Debbie anticipated Andrew’s needs before he figured them out himself.
Andrew said she was responsible for at least seventy percent of his success. He knew Debbie would have already cancelled his appointments for the day. She also would have told Lydia that Andrew would be there as fast as he could.
He raised his hand to his ear. “I’ll call you,” he said as the elevator doors shut. Andrew stared at the numbers as the elevator counted down to the garage then ran back to his car with no other thought in his mind than he needed to get to his grandmother.
As soon as his car cleared the garage, he spoke.
“Dial Debbie.”
The car’s Bluetooth system answered in its stilted computer-generated voice, “Dialing Debbie.”
“I’m here,” said Debbie, picking up on the first ring.
“Let Jack know I’ll be taking two weeks off,” Andrew began.
“Already done,” Debbie said. “I’ve got Paul and Katelyn taking over most of your meetings. I cancelled everything they couldn’t cover.”
Andrew’s breath came out with a large whoosh as relief washed over him. He had the support he needed to care for his grandmother.
Nora Weston was not your typical grandmother. She was spunky and eccentric and didn’t take crap from anyone, but she was also warm and caring and the most loving person in Andrew’s life. She had always been there for him and he would always be there for her.
“Can you look into nursing care and rehab specialists that will come to the house? As soon as I know the extent of her injuries, I’ll let you know the exact care she’ll need, but for now, let’s just see where we can get the best care. It needs to be in-home though. Nora wouldn’t handle going to a rehab center or nursing home,” Andrew said.
“Got it. I think Mary Shaver’s mom needed nursing care recently. I’ll see who she used,” Debbie said.
“There’s a carriage house on Nora’s property. I’ll move in there temporarily. Can you arrange to have some things from my condo packed and sent over? It’s furnished so I just need clothes, toiletries, that kind of thing. My bike. Have them bring my bike over.” Andrew liked to ride on the days he didn’t go to the gym or play basketball with Chad and Jack, the cousins who were his two closest friends.
“Done.”
Andrew paused.
“Still there, Boss?” Debbie asked when the pause grew.
“I should have taken better care of her.” His chest tightened as he thought of Nora falling, of the pain and fright she must have felt. It hurt him to think about. “I should have realized Nora and Lydia were both getting older. Taking care of that house alone is too much for them. They need more permanent help than just a lawn guy and help with the cleaning occasionally.”
“Nonsense,” Debbie said, her tone sharp enough to cut off Andrew’s pity party. “None of us ever knows when these things will happen. Nora hides any needs she has quite well and she wouldn’t let you dote on her. You had the sidewalks shoveled and driveway plowed by a service. Nora wouldn’t accept more than that. She would have scoffed at a full-time groundskeeper. We'll just set things up differently now that we know she needs more help. That’s all we can do.”
“Okay,” Andrew said, but he still felt the guilt.
His parents didn’t believe in hugs and kisses or giving encouragement. Growing up, no one other than Nora had told Andrew she was proud of him. She’d been the one to tell him to follow his dreams.
Andrew’s parents were concerned only for their reputation and accumulating wealth. And when his parents didn’t like the way things were going in Andrew’s life, they paid people to change things.
The last payoff, almost eight years before, had resulted in Andrew cutting all ties to his mother and father. But he still had Nora. She had always been there for him as he grew up and he thought of her more as a parent than he did his true mother or father.
“I’ll call you when I know something,” Andrew said.
“I’ll start arranging things from this end,” Debbie said. He knew Debbie likely had half of the items on her list completed as they spoke.
As he navigated the quick ride through downtown New Haven to the hospital, he thought of all his grandmother had done for him over the years. He had never really understood how she was so different. His mother was her daughter, but they were nothing alike.
When his parents didn’t bother to stay in the States for Christmas or summer breaks, Nora sent for him.
She brought him home from boarding school to her estate in Westbrook so often Andrew thought of her estate as his home. She was the one who stood up to his parents when he wanted to go to sports camp instead of the academic camp his parents had lined up.
Nora went to his graduation from high school, then college, and finally Yale Business School. Andrew’s parents did not.
She backed Andrew when he decided to go to Yale instead of working at his father’s marketing firm. And when his mother and father had finally breached all reasonable boundaries, trying to control who he loved and married, Nora cut ties with Andrew’s parents at the same time he did.
His parents wouldn’t be at the hospital for Nora today. In fact, they wouldn’t even be told Nora was injured.
It might seem cold to outsiders, but af
ter what they’d done, there was no way he wanted them involved now.
Andrew pulled into the parking lot at Yale-New Haven Hospital and jogged across the covered walkway that connected the parking lot with the hospital building. He spotted Lydia at the front desk in the Emergency Room filling out paperwork.
“Lydia, where is she?”
Strain and worry lined Lydia’s face.
“They took her upstairs to x-ray, sweetheart, but the doctor is already fairly sure she’ll need surgery. If you sign here, I’ll finish her paperwork, and you can go on up and be with her.”
Andrew signed the paperwork, kissed Lydia on the cheek, then went to find the elevators to take him up to radiology. Lydia joined him twenty minutes later when he moved to the surgical waiting room. They settled in for a long wait while Nora’s hip was pinned back together.
By the time he left the hospital four hours later, Debbie had already researched the type of surgery Nora was undergoing and the aftercare that would be needed. She would have to spend some time in the hospital but Debbie had arranged for more help at the house to be sure Nora and Lydia wouldn’t want for anything.
For once in his life, the ridiculous amounts of money sitting in Andrew’s bank accounts would be put to good use.