Wedding His Takeover Target / Inheriting His Secret Christmas Baby. Emilie Rose

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СКАЧАТЬ But she felt as if her parasail had suddenly been caught by a strong gust and she’d been lifted off her snowboard, off solid ground and carried up the mountain.

      She snatched her hands from the table and gripped the booth’s bench waiting for her breathlessness to ease. She scrambled to find a rational thought. “Did you have to order top-of-the-line everything?”

      “The more expensive products have better warranties. If you have problems the replacements are free.”

      That much was true. But still … the total of the supply bill had been about twenty percent higher than she’d anticipated. Luckily, she’d balanced the checkbook last night and knew the account had enough to cover the amount. The inn wasn’t hurting financially yet despite some zero occupancy days, but it was the principle of Gavin being so free with someone else’s money that bothered her.

      She sipped her unwanted coffee, grudgingly admitting the brew he’d made this morning was better than the trendy diner’s—maybe even better than hers, and she prided herself on making great coffee for the inn’s guests.

      So the man made decent coffee. Big deal. That wasn’t a reason to keep him around.

      “What do you want from my grandfather?”

      “I told you. The mine and the acreage surrounding it.” He sounded sincere, but the way his eyes turned guarded and he tensed ever so slightly contradicted his words.

      With almost fifty years between him and Pops, the men’s sudden friendship seemed unnatural and calculated. Gavin had to be up to something. That blank check he’d managed to get from Pops spoke volumes. There had to be more. She just didn’t know what yet, and the only way to figure out his agenda was to get to know him better. Not a project she relished.

      What made Gavin Jarrod tick? “Where do you live when you’re not here?”

      “I divide most of my time between Vegas and Atlanta.”

      “Why two such different places?”

      “Because Vegas is where my brother’s hotel is located and Atlanta is close enough to the Appalachian Mountains for hiking and river rafting and has a major airport hub.”

      “You’re an outdoorsman?” The breadth of his shoulders implied as much.

      “Yes.”

      “A hunter?”

      “I shoot nature with a camera these days, although I have nothing against putting food on the table through hunting.”

      Good answer. She’d have to find something else to dislike about him—other than that he was rich, he’d forced his company on her and she didn’t trust him. As if that weren’t enough.

      “What makes you think you’re qualified to be our handyman? Aren’t construction engineers pencil pushers?”

      “I’m a hands-on manager. I work with my team, and I worked part-time construction jobs during college.”

      He worked construction? That might explain the faded scars on the backs of his hands. So much for proving him unqualified for the job. “Didn’t your father pay your bills?”

      “He paid tuition, and for that I had to come back and work at The Ridge every summer. But during the academic year I earned my own wages rather than answer to him on how I spent my money.”

      So maybe Gavin hadn’t lacked responsibilities the way so many of her parents’ wealthy students had. “Why engineering?”

      “I like figuring out how things work and finding ways around obstacles that others consider impossible. What about you?”

      She startled. “What about me?”

      “Did you always want to manage the inn?”

      She bit her tongue on the automatic no. In high school all she’d cared about was getting as far away from her parents and their stilted, judgmental university community as she could. She’d had no grand goals beyond escaping. Initially, she’d been drawn to Russell because he’d been everything academics were not—big, brawny, into action more than higher learning. He also wanted out of their small college town, and he’d had a plan to achieve his getaway.

      She’d fallen head over heels in love with him and ended up pregnant. Her parents’ ultimatum—terminate the pregnancy or get out of their house—had left her with no choice. She and Russell had eloped on her eighteenth birthday—just days after her high school graduation. She’d planned to be a good military wife and raise Russell’s babies. But that hadn’t happened.

      She pressed a hand to the empty ache in her belly, then blinked to chase away the past. “Does it matter? I’m where I’m needed right now, and I’ll never let my grandfather down. Nor will I let anyone take advantage of him.”

      “What would you do if your grandfather sold the business?”

      Alarm raced over her. She’d come to love making a warm, welcoming home away from home for their visitors, the way her grandmother had always done for her. She couldn’t imagine doing anything else now, nor did she have the qualifications for anything else. “He wouldn’t do that. He knows I love Snowberry Inn.”

      Pops knew the inn was her refuge, the one place she’d always felt wanted and loved regardless of her choices. But she’d seen that blasted pamphlet and she had her doubts. However, she wasn’t giving Gavin Jarrod that information.

      His brown eyes searched her face. “What if you marry someone who lives elsewhere?”

      “I won’t.”

      “You sound certain.”

      “I am.” She’d done that before, and during her four-year marriage she hadn’t seen Snowberry Inn or her grandparents. Russell had been stationed in North Carolina, too far from Aspen to drive the distance in their old car, and she’d been too proud to tell her grandparents she couldn’t afford the airfare for a visit. During that time her grandmother had died, and Sabrina hadn’t been able to say good-bye. She’d had to borrow money from Russell’s friends to come to the funeral because her own parents wouldn’t loan it to her.

      Time to change the subject. “Why did you leave Aspen?”

      His face hardened. “My father was determined to turn us into clones of himself.”

      “And that was a bad thing?”

      “Yes. He was excessively controlling. But I escaped. We all did. Until now.” Anger flattened his lips into a thin line.

      Demanding parents and a desire to escape were two things they had in common. Her perfectionist parents had never forgiven her for failing to meet their standards. They’d considered her an embarrassment and she hadn’t spoken to them in years.

      But this wasn’t about her. “What about your mother?”

      He focused on the mug cradled in his big hands. “She died from cancer when I was four. I barely remember her.”

      Her mother may not have been the milk-and-cookies type, but she’d always been there at least physically … until Sabrina had СКАЧАТЬ