Protecting The Billionaire (7 page)

Connor filled his plate with wings before he glanced up at him. “I hear some jealousy. If you wanted her number, you should’ve said something sooner.”

He had a date with Allison Sherbrooke this weekend, the hottest woman he’d ever talked too. Why would he want Candy’s number when he had that to look forward too? While the waitress looked good in her short shorts and low-cut T-shirt, judging by the way she flirted with the male costumers, she’d probably slept with half the men who came in there, which was something a woman like Allison Sherbrooke would never do.
Mannaggia
, he had to call her. Tonight, he’d do it when he got home. He’d told himself the same thing yesterday, and yet never got around to it. He didn’t put things off or avoid them no matter how unpleasant or painful. This phone call though was kicking his ass.

“Have all the fun you want with Candy. I told you, I have plans this weekend.”

With a shrug, Connor licked the Buffalo sauce from his fingers. “You’ll probably hear from someone this week or next,” he said, going back to what they were discussing before their food arrived.

“You might be ready for saving some spoiled heiress from a photographer who is threatening her with an extra-long camera lens, but I’m not.”

“I don’t do spoiled heiress,” Connor said, and then stopped and smiled. “Well, I would
do
one, but the firm has never assigned me the job of babysitting one.” He grabbed another wing and added it to his plate. “When they call, sit down and hear ’em out.”

His buddy had him curious. He’d known Connor a long time, and when he’d left the Corps to work as a glorified bodyguard, it hadn’t fit. The guy’s insistence now that they did more than just protect people from the paparazzi had him once again thinking about his friend’s recent career change. If nothing else, hearing what the security firm had to say would satisfy his curiosity.

“Will do.”

***

Allison ended her video conference call with Jake and checked off another item on her to-do list. With Jake out for the next two weeks, she’d promised to handle any pressing issues that couldn’t wait until he got back. So far she’d managed to cross off the first two on her list. Assuming tomorrow’s meeting with Bernstein Construction went well, she’d be able to cross off a third. Jake insisted she’d do fine, but after the rumors she’d heard about Dick Bernstein, she wasn’t as confident. According to the gossip, Dick Bernstein was old school. He’d started the business with his father in the early 1950s and believed women belonged in the home taking care of the children, not the boardroom. Somehow she’d managed to avoid dealing with men like Bernstein up until now. Growing up, her father had always insisted she could do anything her brothers could. Her uncles shared a similar view. Even when she worked for her Aunt Marilyn at the Helping Hands Foundation, she managed to avoid chauvinistic men. If the rumors were true, tomorrow her streak would come to a halt.

Pulling the keyboard closer, Allison logged into her email. She’d checked it first thing this morning, but hadn’t gotten around to it since. Now, her inbox contained two dozen new messages. She’d developed the habit of never leaving work without first emptying her inbox. Nothing was worse than starting a new workday with matters left over from the previous one. With some luck, whatever emails she’d received since this morning wouldn’t require too much work. She’d like to leave on time tonight, or at least earlier than she had last night.

The first one she opened turned out to be nothing more than message from Tasha Marshall inviting her up to a house party in the Hamptons. The Marshalls threw parties on a regular basis. From time to time, she’d attend one, but tonight she didn’t even check to see if it fit her schedule before she typed a reply thanking Tasha for the invite and letting her know she couldn’t make it.

She moved down the list, glad to see so far nothing in her inbox required much more than a yes or no reply. A knock at the door stopped her from opening the last one.

“Come in.”

“Miss Sherbrooke, Mr. Bernstein’s office called while you were on your video call. They need to reschedule tomorrow’s meeting,” Denise, the receptionist, said while walking into the office. “They said later in the month would work better for them.”

“Thanks, Denise. I’ll have Cindy reschedule the meeting in the morning when she comes in,” she said, referring to Jake’s executive assistant. If they wanted to postpone the meeting until the end of the month, Jake could handle it himself, and no one knew his schedule better than Cindy.

“And this came for you.” Denise placed a brown teddy bear holding a box of her favorite chocolates down on her desk. “Unless you need something, I’m going to leave now.”

“All set. I’m leaving soon too. Have a nice evening.”

Allison waited until the receptionist left before she opened the card attached to the bear’s ear.
Thought you’d like something sweet while you worked
the typed message on the small notecard read. She could always use something sweet from Favre, a chocolate company she’d fallen in love with during a trip to Switzerland. Although well known in Europe, the company had only recently begun exporting to the United States.

Derek
. The present had to be a joke sent from her twin brother. He loved to play jokes and harmless pranks on her. And it wouldn’t be the first time he’d sent her a present and not signed his name to it. He’d done it once back in high school, only then he’d included “from your secret admirer” to the present. He knew where she worked and how much she loved Favre chocolate. Not many people knew either of those things. The present had to be from him. It was the only thing that made sense

Allison flipped the card over to see if any other information was printed on the back. Perhaps if she called whoever delivered the bear, they’d tell her who ordered it. Except for flowers printed on the back of the card, it remained blank. “They’re from Derek.” Even as she repeated the words, a chill passed through her and she dropped the card. Later she’d call him and confirm he’d sent the present. He may deny it at first, but if she hounded him enough, like a good twin sister, he’d eventually tell her the truth.

Pushing the bear and the chocolates into the far corner of her desk, she answered her final email and closed the Internet browser. Although she kept telling herself Derek sent the present, she didn’t grab it when she gathered up her things and left for the night.

Traffic remained heavy through much of the city, and when she pulled into her driveway, she couldn’t wait to get inside, slip on some PJs, and call Derek to get some answers. Once she satisfied her curiosity, she’d try her sister-in-law, Addie. Rock should be calling any day now to finalize their plans for the weekend, and when he did, she wanted it all planned out. Since she didn’t know him well, she hoped his sister would provide her with some ideas for their date.

Her entire townhouse remained in darkness until she used her keychain remote and switched on the lamp inside. Once the front hall was ablaze with light, she opened her car door. Inside, she punched in her alarm code, turning the system off, and then made sure she locked the front door behind her. She still didn’t understand how she’d forgotten to turn the alarm on the night Rock picked her up. Despite the little voice that kept telling her she hadn’t forgotten then either, logically she knew there was no other explanation.

“Come on, answer the phone,” Allison said as she waited for her brother to pick up. She’d changed, popped a mini pizza in the oven, and decided to call Derek while she waited for the timer to go off.

“Sorry I missed your call. Leave a message,” Derek’s recording said after a few rings.

Figures.
“Thanks for the chocolates. Call me when you get this.” He was good about returning her calls. Assuming it wasn’t too late when he checked his messages, he’d call her back tonight.

With one call down and dinner not ready, she pulled up her sister-in-law’s number and hoped she answered.

Like her first call, it rang a couple of times, but then Addie answered. “Allison, hang on a second,” she said.

“Sure,” Allison said, although she wasn’t sure if Addie actually heard her or not. In the background, she heard noise as if her sister-in-law moved around. Then she came back on the line.

“Sorry. I wanted to finish putting the groceries away before Trent gets home. He thinks I shouldn’t lift anything heavier than a pencil these days.”

Allison heard the annoyance in Addie’s voice and smiled. “I’d take advantage of that while you can.”

“Trust me, you wouldn’t. He’s driving me crazy. At first it was kind of sweet, but now, oh man.”

“Not too much longer.” She had a feeling Trent would be fretting over his wife even after she had the baby, but she kept her suspicions to herself. “If you’re not busy, I need some help with something.”

“Sure, I’m just waiting for Trent. We’re going out with Gray and Kiera tonight.”

Sometime soon she needed to get up to Providence and visit her brother Gray and his fiancée. She’d spent some time with them earlier in the year when they’d first started dating, but had not seen them since they announced their engagement.

“What type of things does your brother like? We’re supposed to go out Saturday night.”

“He’s letting
you
plan the date?” Addie’s disbelief filtered over the phone.

“I asked him, so it seems like I should plan the night. Do you think he’ll mind?”

“Probably not, and I’m glad you asked him. Give me a second to think.”

The oven timer buzzed, and Allison pulled out her dinner while she waited for some suggestions and tried to come up with a few ideas of her own.

“He likes football, but the season is over.”

Sports, she should have thought of that. “What about baseball?” She understood enough about baseball and could sit through a game.

“The season doesn’t start until the beginning of April. You’d have to check the exact date.”

Well, assuming their date this weekend went well, maybe a baseball game was something they could do next month together.

“He likes hockey. The regular season ends sometime in April, so there might be some games Saturday.”

She didn’t know the first thing about hockey other than the fact it was played on ice, but she’d give it a try. If there was a team in the area, she’d check and see if they had a home game this weekend. “I’ll look into it. Anything else? Does he like the theater?”

“The only play I think he likes is
A Christmas Carol
. Again, wrong time of year. But maybe I’m wrong.”

Planning this date was turning out to be more difficult than she anticipated. “What about music?” Numerous venues in the area featured live bands on the weekends.

“He likes the big hair bands from the 80s or anything that sounds like that and classic hard rock similar to Trent.”

Finding bands, which fit Addie’s description playing on Saturday, would be a breeze. “I’ll check for any hockey games first, and if there aren’t any, I’ll look for concerts. How about restaurants? Does he have a favorite type of food? Anything he absolutely hates?”

While her sister-in-law listed Rock’s favorite types of foods, Allison did a search for professional hockey teams on her tablet. She vaguely remembered a team called either Virginia or DC home, but she had no idea of their name. The list of professional hockey teams was much shorter than she expected. Scrolling through the names, she found the link for the team based out of DC and clicked on it. Immediately, the team’s website popped up providing her with their entire schedule.

Perfect
. They had a home game on Saturday. “Looks like we’re heading to a hockey game,” Allison said when Addie finished her sentence.

“Rock will love that. Can I help with anything else?”

“All set for now. Thanks for your help.”

“Okay. Trent’s home now, so we’ll be going soon, but call later if you need me,” Addie said. “If you don’t mind, call me on Sunday. I’d like to hear how the night went.”

After promising she would, Allison ended the call and turned her attention to eating dinner and planning out her and Rock’s date. The game started at seven o’clock according to the website. That should give them enough time to grab a quick dinner before the game if they ate at a nearby restaurant. Or should they eat after the game so they didn’t need to rush. How long was a hockey game anyway? With a search engine already open on her tablet, she typed the question in and right away a list of sites providing the answer came up.

The average hockey game lasted two-and-half hours. If they stopped for dinner after the game, it’d be closer to nine or nine thirty before they ate. She’d prefer to eat earlier than that. When Rock called, she’d ask if he could pick her up around five so they could stop somewhere before the game. If he couldn’t, she’d plan for dinner after the game and make sure she had a snack before he picked her up.

Speaking of snacks, she wished Derek would call her back soon. More than anything, she wanted to be right about the bear and chocolates being from him. Deep down, she couldn’t accept it. Only once had he sent her something without his name on it, and it had been so long ago. Why would he do it now?

As if merely thinking of him conjured him up, Derek’s ringtone erupted from her phone. She loved talking to Derek but couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so happy he called her back.

“How’s my little sister?” Derek asked once she answered the phone. Although only five minutes older than her, he loved reminding her he’d been born first.

“You might be the older twin, but don’t forget I’m the smarter one.” It had always irked Derek that she’d scored eight points higher on her SATs than him and had graduated college with a higher GPA.

“Anyway, what’s up? I got your message. Did you say something about chocolates?”

Another chill spread through her body, making tiny goose bumps appear on her arms. So he was denying he sent them. She’d expected that. “Knock it off, Derek. I know you sent the teddy bear and chocolates from Favre to the office today.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t send anything. Didn’t it come with a card?”