The Billionaire's Island Bride (South Shore Billionaires 3)

And that required him to be in New York. Not on an island in the Atlantic off the coast of Nova Scotia. The island was to be his retreat. And hopefully he could offer the same to his own executives.

The hum of the garage door opener interrupted the silence. “Tori’s home. Are you staying for dinner?”

Cole looked at his watch and then shook his head. “Naw, but thanks. I have those errands to run and then pick up the boat. I’m leaving the car at the marina garage.” He looked up as Tori came inside, a bag of produce in her hands. “Hello, gorgeous.”

“Hey, Cole. How are things on the island?”

Jeremy jumped in. “The farmhouse owner is a hottie.”

“Of course she is. Brooklyn has a really neat business, too. She runs an online store and ships all over. Knitted items but she also dyes her own yarn and sells it. And her big thing is patterns. She develops patterns and sells them. One was even picked up by some big magazine last year. She’s wicked smart. Her overhead is really low and she doesn’t have a mortgage since she inherited the house from her grandparents.”

Cole stared at her. “You knew?”

Tori laughed and started taking vegetables out of the bag. “Of course I knew. This is a small town and I’ve lived in the area my whole life.”

“You didn’t say anything in the summer, when we went over there.”

?

??Why should I? You were buying the rest of the land, not hers.” Her brows pulled together in confusion. “Why? What happened?”

Jeremy put the bottle down and put Rose up on his shoulder as he patted her back. “Cole offered to buy her out, and made her pretty angry from the sounds of it. She threatened to lawyer up.”

Tori nodded. “Good for her. That place means a lot to her.”

“It does?”

Tori seemed to hesitate, her hand resting on a large bundle of leeks. “It’s been in her family a long time,” she finally said. “And Brooklyn moved there permanently a few years ago.”

Cole thought about it. The only reason he could see for moving somewhere so isolated was if someone was running from something. He certainly was, or at least using it to shape his life differently. But what could someone like Brooklyn be running from?

“I’d better go. Thanks for the coffee, bro. I’ll be in touch soon.”

“Good luck. And stop in any time.”

“Let me know when Branson is back. I’m kinda worried about the guy.”

“Me, too.”

Cole stopped and gave Tori a kiss on the cheek, then made his way to the front door and put on his shoes.

Maybe he’d messed up the first two times he’d encountered Ms. Graves, but the third time could be the charm. And he knew just what he had to do to get past her thorny exterior.

CHAPTER THREE

THE DAY AWAY hadn’t settled Brooklyn’s thoughts, so she spent the next morning cooking. She did this every few weeks, making large quantities and then freezing in portion-size dishes. Cooking for one could be a lonely enterprise, but spending a day in the kitchen fed her soul as well as her body.

Today it was her grandmother’s baked beans, done in her slow cooker, and fish cakes. She’d do them up and freeze them, and then fry a few off for tonight’s dinner. Combined with the chow she’d just made this summer—a Maritime recipe of pickled green tomatoes—and she’d have the perfect dinner.

She was also making four small pans of lasagna, and a curried squash soup from the butternut squash in her garden.

As she put the squash in the pot, she figured she must be out of sorts indeed. This was enough food to feed her for weeks.

Her kitchen was a mess but the lasagnas were baking in the oven, the beans were bubbling, and it all smelled delicious. Two loaves of fresh bread were on the counter; mixing and kneading had helped her work out some of her frustration.

It was only eleven thirty when there was a knock and Marvin leaped up from his doggie bed, rushing to the door and barking the whole time.

It had to be Cole. There was literally no one else it could be.