Adrian took a left and Goldie followed. “Yeah, I got a little sidetracked.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
Goldie explained everything, from her phone’s GPS going haywire and leading her completely off track, to finding Adrian’s cabin, to not finding her aunt and being invited home with him.
There was a huge pause on the other end. Goldie was starting to wonder whether or not Sadie had heard her. “You’re going to some hot guy’s ranch?”
“A bed and breakfast, actually. His name is Adrian Bear, and I guess his family runs it. It’ll be harmless.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“He’s nice, Sadie.”
“That’s what women thought about Ted Bundy too, and look what happened to them.”
Goldie laughed. “I doubt he’s a serial killer. He’s been helping me find my way around. I’d probably be lost all over again if it wasn’t for him.”
Sadie released another strained noise. “How many people does that happen to? Travel to a distant land and be rescued by an alluring stranger?”
“You watch too many movies.”
“You can never watch too many movies,” Sadie argued. “What about your aunt? She didn’t give you any kind of number?”
Adrian and Goldie were caught at a red light beside a car wash and a Subway restaurant. A brick sank into Goldie’s stomach. “Nope, nothing. I have her email. I already sent her a note, but I can send another when we get there.”
“Call me the minute you arrive. And maybe you should call your mom.”
Considering the last encounter she’d had with her mom, she was the last person Goldie wanted to speak with. Jacey Bybanks had demanded Goldie give her the letter, to burn it, to let the past die. Goldie had refused and had stormed back—well, she’d driven, though she felt like storming—to her apartment. She’d answered her mom’s follow up calls a grand total of once, only to find out her mom had called not to answer her questions, but to inform her she was on her way over to destroy that letter.
Goldie hadn’t hesitated. She’d packed, asked Sadie to feed her fish, and headed out.
“Not a chance,” Goldie said. “My mom didn’t want me going in the first place. I’m not about to let her know I’m out here up a creek without a paddle.” Not when her mother had kept such a huge secret from Goldie her entire life. Goldie knew she should be mature about things and let it go, but it was eating at her. Why wouldn’t her mother have told her she had a sister? What did her mom have to hide?
“Okay then. Don’t get too cozy with that Adrian of yours. You know how snuggly bears can be.”
Goldie released a little laugh and ended the call as she followed Adrian toward what appeared to be the edge of town. She didn’t know about bears and their snuggle-factor. The stuffed ones, maybe, but real bears? They were usually cause for turning and running in whatever direction the bear wasn’t.
But the prospect of more time with Adrian at his ranch, now that was intriguing. Was snuggling a possibility? It lit a spark in her stomach. She wasn’t blind to the way he looked at her. What if he did intend to pursue anything with her, would she let him?
Or would this all result in regret that she’d ever stumbled across his cabin the first place?
CHAPTER FIVE
ADRIAN CHECKED HIS REARVIEW MIRROR to make sure Goldie was still behind him. Her small Toyota flashed its blinker, copying his. He exhaled. Nothing like taking a perfect stranger to the fundraiser.
It wouldn’t be a blind date, necessarily, not when he knew who was going. Just blind in the sense he knew pretty much nothing about her. Oh well. This was an opportunity to get to know Goldie better, that was all—and to dodge a Danica-shaped bullet.
At least Goldie trusted him enough to take this chance with him. He’d wondered what she’d thought of his offers of help. He was only being decent, nothing more. Or so he told himself. It had nothing to do with the fact that her hair draped down her back like thick silk, or that he’d wanted to ease the flashes of worry in her beautiful, brown eyes.
The fundraiser was in honor of his late father, after all, and his mom was the one who had insisted Adrian couldn’t show up dateless. Not when it was black tie. Adrian considered the dating pool within Two Pines’ 15,000 population. The swimming was shallow, to say the least. His mom had repeatedly suggested he ask Danica Foster to accompany him, but he’d wanted to go with her about as badly as a man wants to slit his wrists and do pushups in salt water. Now it was one less phone call he had to make.
Goldie would be the perfect date for him. No one knew her. For all the townspeople would think, he’d met her in Chicago. She could be the perfect excuse for him to escape once the necessaries were over.
However, he couldn’t believe he’d invited her to stay at the bed and breakfast. The logic within him reminded him it wasn’t crazy or unconventional to invite a beautiful but complete stranger to his family’s home. It was new business, that was all; except he couldn’t allow himself to think of her that way.
He’d meant what he’d told her. He had a gut instinct about investments. It was what had helped him rise to the top as quickly as he had, and the reason his bank account had continued to accumulate zeroes. The same gripping instinct had flared as he’d stood beside her.
Regardless of what Goldie had said, it had been intuition. He’d pushed through business school with the veracity of a tycoon, not waiting to apply what he’d learned until school was finished unlike so many others in his program. He’d invested money inherited from his grandfather and started studying stocks. One good play led to another. The risk was a rush, and it only took another ten years until he welcomed himself into the three comma club.
This was no different, in its own bizarre way. Something inside of him had told him not to let her go. Which meant he had a few other things that needed to be ironed out before the fundraiser that evening.
Adrian told his phone to call his assistant’s number. His assistant picked up on the second ring. “Hey, boss.”
“Rita, how are you?”
“Fine, sir. Your jet is all ready to go for the morning. I’ve arranged for a car to meet you at the airfield when you get in. Hamlin Brothers called. Mr. Hamlin would like to meet with you about the quarter score deal, perhaps over lunch tomorrow—”
“That all sounds amazing, Rita, but I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
A pause. “You aren’t coming back tomorrow, are you, sir?”
Regret pinched at him. Between the funeral, the emotional meltdown his mom had had when she’d found out how quickly he’d been planning on leaving, and the revelation that his father’s will and trust had been released, this was the fourth time he’d had to put his assistant off from the original plans he’d given her.
“No, I’m not. Sorry you went through all that trouble. Please cancel my appointments and delay my flight.”
“Do you have a different date you’d like me to set it for?”
Adrian paused, considering. His mom would be tickled pink that he, yet again, wasn’t leaving. She’d managed to convince him to stay plenty of times since the funeral, what with guilt-tripping him over leaving her so soon and enticing him with the will and trust being read. His mother had no other hold over him now, not once this fundraiser was over. Irrational as the notion was, he didn’t think he could invite Goldie to stay at his family’s ranch and then abandon her.