A Beauty For The Billionaire. Elizabeth Bevarly

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СКАЧАТЬ A job like that would suffocate me. But Travis Amherst probably would have loved it.”

      “Possibly,” Chloe said. “But maybe not. Travis might have liked working with his hands, too. It’s impossible to know for sure.”

      “And pointless to play ‘what if,’ I know,” Hogan agreed. “What’s done is done. And the idea that I would have never known my mom and dad or have the friends I’ve had all my life... The thought of all the memories that live in my head being completely different...”

      Chloe winced inwardly at the irony of their situation. They both grieved for the unknown. But with him, it was a past that hadn’t happened, and for her, it was a future that would never be.

      “I need to cook,” she told him. She pushed her glasses into place with the back of her hand and took a step backward. “I’m sorry, but...” She took another step back. “I need to cook. If you’ll excuse me...”

      “Sure,” he said. “No problem.” He didn’t sound like there wasn’t a problem, though. He sounded really confused.

      That made two of them.

      When Chloe turned to head back to the kitchen, she saw Mrs. Hennessey topping the last stair. Hogan’s housekeeper reminded her of her grandmother in a lot of ways. She wore the same boxy house dresses in the same muted colors and always kept her fine white hair twisted into a flawless chignon at her nape. She was no-nonsense and professional, the way Chloe was. At least, the way Chloe was before she came to work for Hogan. The way she knew she had to be again if she wanted to keep working here.

      And she did want to keep working here. For some reason. A reason she wasn’t ready to explore. It was sure to be good, whatever it was.

      Mrs. Hennessey announced to the room at large, “There’s an Anabel Carlisle downstairs to see you. I showed her to the salon.”

      That seemed to snap Hogan out of his preoccupation with what might have been and pull him firmly into the here and now. “Anabel is here? Tell her I’ll be right down.”

      “No, Mr. Dempsey, she’s here to see Ms. Merlin.”

      Hogan’s jaw dropped a little at that. But all he said was, “Hogan, Mrs. Hennessey. Please call me Hogan.” Then he looked at Chloe. “Guess she refigured her budget and wants to hire you back.”

      Chloe should have been delighted by the idea. Not only did it mean more money coming in, but it also meant she would be free of Hogan Dempsey and his damnable heartache-filled eyes. She should be flying down the stairs to tell Anabel that she’d love to come back to work for her and would pack her bags this instant. Instead, for some reason, she couldn’t move. “Tell Anabel we’ll be right down,” Hogan told Mrs. Hennessey.

      The housekeeper nodded and went back down the stairs. Chloe stood still. Hogan gazed at her curiously.

      “Don’t you want to hear what she has to say?”

      Chloe nodded. She did. She did want to hear what Anabel had to say. But she really needed to cook. Cooking was something she could control. Cooking filled her head with flavors and fragrances, with methods and measurements. Cooking restored balance to the universe. And Chloe could really use some balance right now.

      “Well then, let’s go find out,” Hogan said.

      Chloe looked at him again. And was immediately sorry. Because now he looked happy and eager and excited. And a happy Hogan was far more overwhelming, and far more troubling, than a conflicted one. A happy Hogan reminded her of times and places—and people—that had made her happy, too. And those thoughts, more than anything, were the very reason she needed to cook.

      * * *

      Hogan couldn’t understand why Chloe looked so unhappy at the thought of seeing Anabel. Then again, Chloe hadn’t really looked happy about anything since he met her. He’d never encountered anyone so serious. Even cooking, which she constantly said she wanted to do, didn’t really seem to bring her any joy.

      Then he remembered she’d never actually said she wanted to cook. She always said she needed to. For most people, that was probably a minor distinction. He was beginning to suspect that, for Chloe, there was nothing minor about it at all.

      “C’mon,” he told her. “Let’s go see what Anabel wants.” And then, because she was standing close enough for him to do it, he leaned over and nudged her shoulder gently with his.

      He might as well have jabbed her with a red-hot poker, the way she lurched away from him at the contact. She even let out a soft cry of protest and lifted a hand to her shoulder, as if he’d struck her there.

      “I’m sorry,” he immediately apologized, even though he had no idea what he needed to apologize for. “I didn’t mean to...”

      What? Touch her? Of course he meant to touch her. The same way he would have touched any one of his friends, male or female, in an effort to coax them out of their funk. People always nudged each other’s shoulders. Most people wouldn’t have even noticed the gesture. Chloe looked as if she’d been shot.

      “It’s okay,” she said, still rubbing her shoulder, not looking like it was okay at all.

      Not knowing what else he could say, he extended his arm toward the stairs to indicate she should precede him down. With one last, distressed look at him, she did. He kept his distance as he followed her because she seemed to need it, but also because it gave him a few more seconds to prepare for Anabel. He’d known he would run into her at some point—hell, he’d planned on it—but he’d figured it would be at some social function where there would be a lot of people around, and he’d have plenty of time to plan. He hadn’t thought she would come to his house, even if it was to see someone other than him.

      What Mrs. Hennessey called a “salon,” Hogan thought of as a big-ass living room. The walls were paneled in maple, and a massive Oriental rug covered most of the green marble floor. A fireplace on one wall had a mantel that was dotted with wooden model ships, and it was flanked by brown leather chairs—a matching sofa was pushed against the wall opposite.

      Three floor-to-ceiling arched windows looked out onto a courtyard in back of the house, and it was through one of those that Anabel Carlisle stood looking, with her back to them. Either she hadn’t heard them come in, or she, too, was giving herself a few extra seconds to prepare. All Hogan could tell was that the black hair that used to hang in straight shafts to the middle of her back was short now, cut nearly to her chin.

      And her wardrobe choices were a lot different, too. He remembered her trying to look like a secondhand gypsy, even though she’d probably spent hundreds of dollars in Fifth Avenue boutiques on everything she wore. Today’s outfit had likely set her back even more, despite merely consisting of sedate gray pants and sweater. But both showcased lush curves she hadn’t had as a teenager, so maybe they were worth the extra expense.

      As if he’d spoken his appraisal out loud, Anabel suddenly spun around. Although she looked first at Chloe, she didn’t seem to be surprised by Hogan’s presence. But whether the smile on her face was for him or his chef, he couldn’t have said. “Hogan,” she said in the same throaty voice he remembered. God, he’d always loved her voice. “Good to see you.”

      “You, too, Anabel. How have you been?”

      She began to walk toward where he and Chloe stood in the doorway. She still СКАЧАТЬ