Playing For Keeps (Emerald Lake Billionaires 2) (29 page)

“The patent office has already sent all of the information to my lawyer. All I have to do is go to Chicago, review the contract with the pharmaceutical company, and sign on the dotted line.”

Ryan took the lid off his water. “Congratulations. You must be happy?”

Sophie looked closely at him. “I am.”

“What are you going to do next?”

“I hadn’t thought past going to Chicago. I haven’t booked a flight yet, but I want to leave as soon as possible. I thought you’d be more excited about my news?”

“I’m glad it’s all worked out for you, but I’m finding it hard to be excited. I’m going to miss you when you leave.”

“I’m going to miss you, too. But this will be the chance of a lifetime. The company in Dallas have asked me to be on their development team. I’ll be working with one of the most innovative pharmaceutical companies in the world. My formula is going to change people’s perception of plant-based therapies.”

“What about us?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you see a future for us?”

Sophie looked closely at Ryan. “I do, but this is important.”

“It sounds as though you’ve got the next few years of your life organized without realizing it.”

Dorothy walked into the living room. “Sorry to interrupt, but we’ve only got ten minutes until you need to be on stage. Do you need anything, Ryan?”

“Give me another couple of minutes. We’re nearly done here.” Ryan waited for Dorothy to leave before turning to Sophie. “I care about you, but if you don’t see a future for us there’s no point going over what we could or couldn’t do. I hope your supplement helps a lot of people.”

Before she could think of something to say, Ryan walked out of the living room and didn’t look back.

***

After everyone had left to go back to the concert, Sophie met Tanner and Tank on the patio.

“Are you okay?” Tanner asked. “You look a little pale.”

“I’ve had a shock, that’s all.”

“Wait there. I’ll get you a glass of water.” Tanner disappeared inside.

Sophie sat on one of the patio chairs and thought about what had happened. Ryan wanted her to choose between her career and him, but it wasn’t that easy.

Making sure the supplement was ready for distribution wasn’t something that happened overnight. She’d spent a lot of time developing it into a product that would make a difference in people’s lives. Giving up now would be like turning her back on everyone who needed help. She couldn’t do it.

Tanner opened the doors and handed her a big glass of water. “What’s wrong?”

Tears filled her eyes. “Everything.” Crying over something that would never work wasn’t going to help anyone. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and took a deep breath. “Let’s go to the concert. I want to hear Franky sing.”

Tanner looked at her blankly. “Who’s Franky?”

“He won the local talent show a few weeks ago. He’s only ten years old, but he has an amazing voice. Would you mind if we sat at the back of the field instead of at the front?”

Tanner and Tank looked at each other.

“Sure,” Tank said. “Do you want me to get the blanket we were sitting on?”

Sophie shook her head. “No, I don’t need it.” She walked toward a group of people sitting on the grass. She found a space big enough for the three of them and sat down.

If her sister was strong enough to get through an attempted kidnapping, she could listen to Ryan’s country ballads until Franky came on stage.

For the next twenty minutes she sat silently between Tank and Tanner, listening to Ryan. By the time he’d sung his third song, she wasn’t sure she could stay.

Her heart had splintered into tiny pieces and there wasn’t anything she could do to fix it.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Ryan stared at the sheet of music on his desk. Nothing was making sense. Normally, when he couldn’t figure out which chord or lyric to use next, he’d write down the first thing he thought of and move on. When he had something he liked, he’d go back and change the parts he wasn’t happy with. But over the last five weeks he’d finished only one song — and it wasn’t going anywhere near his next album.

Someone knocked on his studio door and walked in.

“You need to be more careful with your security,” John said. “The back doors are wide open. Anyone could have come in and found you buried under this mountain of paper.”

Ryan looked around his desk. Discarded paper, full of unusable words, littered the floor. “I’m in the middle of a serious case of writer’s block.”

“No kidding? I thought you would have finished your next album by now.”

“I don’t know what gave you that idea,” Ryan muttered. “I haven’t been able to write a damn thing that makes sense. Dorothy’s calling me every second day, pushing me to finish the lyrics before my next meeting with the recording company.”

John leaned over a long black panel filled with lots of buttons and dials. “Sounds to me like you’ve got more going on than writer’s block. What’s this?”

“It’s an analog audio mixer. It changes just about anything you want in your song. That’s if you’ve got one to record.”

John shrugged and helped himself to some cookies sitting on a plate.

“Hey, hands off the food. You came out here to see me, not eat my cookies.”

John waved a cookie in the air. “I know everything you can make in a kitchen, and cookies aren’t one of them. Who’s been baking?”

“Mrs. Elliott. Hayley said it helps with her memory. Sometimes she watches Hayley and other times she joins in. They dropped these off yesterday.”

“I thought Hayley and her mom were moving back to Chicago?”

“Apparently not. Hayley’s mom is happy in the nursing home they’ve found and Hayley’s got a job at a retirement village in town.”

“What about Sophie? Have you heard from her?”

Ryan picked up the piece of paper he’d been working on and screwed it into a tight ball. “I haven’t heard from her since the concert. Hayley said she’s still in Dallas.”

“What are your fans saying about your engagement ending?”

“I have no idea. I told Dorothy I don’t want to know. It was a stupid mistake I shouldn’t have made in the first place.”

John flicked crumbs off his shirt and helped himself to another cookie. “These are good. Don’t tell Rachel I’m eating them. She’s on some kind of sugar-free diet and thinks I need to do it, as well. It’s killing me.”

“That’s what you get for listening to a woman. Misery.”

John’s jaw stopped moving. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”

“I made an even bigger mistake than getting engaged. I didn’t follow Sophie when she went to Dallas.”

“What’s stopping you from going there now?”

“She’s doing a job she loves. I can’t barge in and ask her to change her life for me. The supplement is too important.”

John smiled. “I wondered when your kitchen would outrun its usefulness. What about Montana State University? They must have a science faculty?”

“She wasn’t interested in working from Montana. I guess it doesn’t have the same equipment as the pharmaceutical company.”

“Does she know that for a fact?”

Ryan helped himself to a cookie. “I don’t know. All I know is that I miss her.”

“She sent me a letter the other day.”

“Who?”

“Sophie. She wanted to know how much it cost for all of the security work my team provided. When I told her it had been taken care of, she called me on the phone.” John took an envelope out of his pocket. “Here’s a check for the money you paid me. Sophie settled the account in full.”

Ryan dropped his head into his hands. “She wouldn’t even let me do that for her,” he muttered. “Do you know what she left in my office?”

“No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

He took an old cookie jar off the shelf behind him. “She put lots of money in here. The notes almost popped out when I took the lid off.”

John looked inside the container and smiled. “What was going on out here?”

“You can get your mind out of the gutter because nothing happened. Sophie wanted to pay me something toward the cost of her staying here. I wouldn’t accept any money, so she hid it in the jar. When I got home after the concert, she’d left the cookie jar in the middle of the table with a thank you note attached.”

“At least she’s polite.”

“Unlike me.”

John looked closely at Ryan. “I’m no psychologist, but I’d say that Sophie has a hard time accepting help from anyone. Do you think that’s got anything to do with what’s happening now?”

“It’s got everything to do with what’s happening now. At least with her mom and sister staying in Bozeman, she might make it back here a few times a year.”

“I guess you have to work out if that’s enough.” He didn’t wait for Ryan to reply. “I came out here to give you the check. Make sure you put it in the bank.”

“Why didn’t you deposit the money electronically?”

“Because I wanted to see your face when I told you Sophie had paid the bill.”

“Can Sophie afford to pay you? It was a lot of money.”

“Maybe you should call her and find out.”

Ryan stared at his friend. He hadn’t spoken to Sophie since she’d left Bozeman. He wasn’t even sure she’d answer the phone, but anything was worth a try. “I’ll have to find her cell phone number.”

“I wrote it on the back of the envelope. Don’t mess up this time.”

When John left, Ryan looked at the envelope and frowned.

He needed to think carefully about what he wanted to say to Sophie. He’d already made a mess of their relationship and he knew he couldn’t afford to make things worse.

He sat down at his desk and pulled out a clean sheet of paper. He’d make a list, prioritize what was important, and call her when he had everything organized.

If she didn’t answer her phone, he’d fly to Dallas and see her. Anything had to be better than missing her from a distance.

***

Sophie sat in Angel Wings Café and gazed through the window. When she’d flown in last night she realized how much she’d missed Bozeman and the friends she’d made here. It was good to be back.

“Hey, stranger. I hear you ordered the biggest hot chocolate on our menu?” Tess stood beside her table with a hot chocolate in one hand and a plate of cake in the other. “Mind if I join you?”

Sophie smiled at her friend. “It’s good to see you.”

“You, too. What brings you to the big metropolis of Bozeman? I thought you weren’t due back for another week?”

“I wasn’t, but I’d had enough of Dallas.”

“Is the pressure of being famous getting to you?”

Sophie sighed. “You saw the stories?”

“Who hasn’t? You’ve made the headlines of most of the major news agencies in the world. For the first time ever, there’s going to be a treatment that will halt or cure Alzheimer’s disease.
The Scientific Journal
has called it a modern-day miracle and you, my friend, invented it. You’re the golden girl of the moment.”

“I don’t want to be a golden girl.”

A waitress brought over a cup of coffee for Tess. “Thanks, Kate.”

Tess smiled at Sophie. “Make the most of your fame. I’m surprised no one’s linked the ground-breaking scientist with the ex-fiancée of a country music superstar.”

“I can thank Dorothy for that. She refused interviews with any reporters who mentioned my name alongside Ryan’s. So far her strategy has worked.”

“How is she finding working with a scientist?”

“Frustrating.” Sophie laughed.

“She’ll get used to it.”

Sophie had no doubt that Dorothy would. The publicist was in her element and Sophie was happy to hand over all media queries to her. It would have been even better if Dorothy didn’t keep telling her what Ryan was doing.

She scooped the thick, creamy froth off the top of her drink and smiled at Tess. “This reminds me of the first time I met you.”

Tess nodded. “A lot has happened since you first came into the café. Are you enjoying working with the pharmaceutical company?”

“It’s great. We should have a more workable solution for dispensing the supplement by the end of next month. Producing the supplement in a capsule will make it more stable.”

“Do you still think it will be available for sale in the next six months?”

“I hope so. A lot of people are working around the clock to make it happen.” She put her spoon down and smiled at Tess. “We had an endorsement from Oprah Winfrey yesterday.”

“You’re kidding?”

“Nope, Dorothy sent me the link.” Sophie pulled her cell phone out and showed Tess the story. “Dorothy was over the moon. Apparently the customer care team at the pharmaceutical company has been answering so many calls they had to employ more staff.”

“What does this mean for Sophie Elliott?”