Billionaires Dollar Series

I let my own gaze soften. “Bumped into her at an event-she was catering.”

“No way,” Dennis’s wife says. “That is too cute!”

Maddie sighs. “It didn’t feel it at the time. I’m standing in a stained chef’s jacket, my hands elbow-deep in plating food, and he walks into the kitchen in a suit.”

Everyone laughs at that, including me, my hand fitting around her shoulder. She’s a natural at this.

“You knew each other?” Rita asks. “How so?”

“We grew up in the same town, right on the ocean.”

“We were neighbors,” Maddie adds, “and good friends.”

I reach for my glass of wine, shaking my head like I’m cursing the past. “If only we’d known how we’d end up, we could have gotten together sooner.”

“You weren’t ready for me sooner,” Maddie teases, and the group breaks into laughter again. It’s delighted-they’re enjoying our little show.

I should have gotten her a more expensive ring.

I hold up my right hand, as if I surrender. “You’re probably right.”

“How was he as a kid?” Albert asks Maddie, his voice just as gruff as usual. Is this a test?

What’s the right answer?

“Brave,” she says. “He used to love jumping from the highest cliffs and racing through the forest on his bike. I did my best to keep up.”

“You always did,” I say.

She shoots me a grateful smile. “I tried,” she amends. “And he was great at math in school-he was a Mathlete. I definitely had a crush on him, but he was always so busy with life that I doubt he noticed.” She lifts her shoulders in a shrug, the fall of her dark hair shifting. Is she blushing?

Damn it all, I can’t see!

“He’s noticed now,” Dennis’s wife says.

Madison nods. “Finally!”

Laughter rolls across the table again, some genuinely amused, some polite, and some, I reckon, bewildered.

That’s mine.

Her story isn’t at all how I remembered things. Was she just playing to our audience? Embellishing the truth?

The conversation spins on around us, about Walker Steel, Seattle’s newest building projects, the restaurant Maddie works at. There’s no shortage of topics, and it isn’t until dessert that Albert brings up business, the issue that’s been running beneath the evening like a steady ocean current.

“Thank you for coming out tonight,” he says. “You can tell a lot from a man by the company he keeps.”Text © 2024 NôvelDrama.Org.

I incline my head. “Likewise,” I say. “Yours is lovely.”

Rita laughs, as does his daughter-in-law. Dennis doesn’t, but then again, he seems incapable of the emotion.

Albert puts his napkin down next to the passion fruit crème brûlée he’s just demolished. “Tell you what, why don’t the two of you come up to our cabin next weekend. It’s a large place, you’ll have a guest room all to yourself, and you and I can talk more over a day of shooting.”

I tamp down the urge to smile, meeting Albert’s gaze straight-on.

He wants to test my values, sure, but more than that he wants to test my commitment. What potential investor would commit not only an evening, but an entire weekend?

He’s checking if Porter, Park and Carter will go the extra mile. Albert Walker is playing a game of chicken, but if he thinks I’ll be the one who veers first, he doesn’t understand the first thing about me.

“We’d be delighted to,” I say, raising my glass. “To a mutually beneficial friendship.”

“To a mutually beneficial friendship,” he echoes, before looking at Maddie. “And to fiancées with excellent taste in food.”

I turn to Maddie as well, a shiver of dark delight running through me at the warmth in her eyes. “To fiancées.”

“Thanks for tonight,” I say. “I had a lovely time.”

“You’re the one we ought to thank,” Rita says, a hand on the open door to their car. “I’m not sure I’ll look at a menu the same way again.”

I smile, leaning into Liam’s arm around my waist. “Going for the unexpected usually pays off.”

“And if not, you’ve had an adventure. I’ll see the two of you next weekend.” She disappears into the car and the Walkers roll out of view.

Liam releases a breath. “That,” he says, “was excellent.”

I look up at him. “I told you they’d ask about our origin story.”

“You did,” he admits. “They bought it, too.”

“Only because we stuck close to the truth, like you said we should.”

He drops his arm from my waist. “It’s not too late for a celebratory drink, is it?”

I look down at my watch. “No, I don’t think it is. Know a good place around here?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.” Liam’s smile is crooked, like he’s laughing at some inside joke only he knows.

I narrow my eyes at him, but the look he gives me back is angelic.

“Come on, Maddie.”

Ten minutes later we’re in a rooftop bar, complete with smooth, jazzy music and intimidating decor. Seattle’s skyline unravels all around us, lights stretching as far as the eye can see.

I sink down into one of the comfortable sofa chairs, crossing my legs. “I’ve never been up here. What was this place called? Legacy?”

Liam nods, reaching for his glass of whiskey. “A lot of people overlook it. It’s one of Cole’s properties, actually.”

“Cole?” And then it clicks. “Cole Porter?”