The Millionaire's Christmas Wife. Susan Crosby
information Gideon had and hadn’t given Joanne, plus Joanne’s interest in celebrity gossip, were dangerous for Denise. All of Gideon’s plans could be destroyed if she gave a wrong answer, a suspicious answer.
Joanne stayed behind. Denise stuffed her hands in her pockets and headed out, happy for the cold weather to clear her head. She stood in the middle of the parking lot trying to envision the hotel in the setting Gideon had planned.
A vision came to her, a perfect picture of how the hotel should look, which direction it should face, how deep, how wide, how tall it should be. Built of logs, she decided, like his cabin.
She scrounged in her purse for the pad of paper she always carried and started drawing. She was still standing there when two snowmobiles zipped down the mountain as if racing.
She used her hand to block the sun and focused on the speeding vehicles. Gideon would certainly drive at that speed, but Ed? Her question was answered when they came to a stop at the top of a snowbank near her.
Gideon’s face was red from the cold and wind. He shoved up his goggles, and his eyes sparkled. He grinned.
She climbed up the bank and hugged him, enjoying his exuberance, happy to see him, thrilled not to face any more personal questions from Joanne.
“Miss me?” Gideon asked, looking way too pleased by her forwardness.
“A little.” She’d surprised herself. She wasn’t known for spontaneity.
“Hop on,” he said as Ed took off toward the building.
She climbed aboard and set her arms at his waist, his jacket thick and cushiony. They didn’t have far to travel. Her hair didn’t even get messed up. “You owe me a real ride sometime,” she said as they climbed off.
“Deal. I have several snowmobiles for my business. We’ll plan a day trip. How’d it go?” he asked quietly as they headed into the building.
“I’ll tell you in the car.”
“It’s bad?” he asked, his voice instantly tense.
“You two want to stay for dinner?” Ed asked, poking his head out the door at them as they neared.
“We have to get back to Sacramento tonight,” Gideon said. “But thanks for the offer.”
Twenty minutes later they loaded the model in the car and headed out, with about a half hour of daylight left.
“So?” he asked.
“She might recognize me, once she thinks about it some more.” She told him what had happened. “It’s not like I was a movie star, where people might still be watching videos of me or something. I should be gone from the public’s memory. But there’s no guarantee.”
“Well, we can’t do anything about it except hope if it would make a difference to her that she doesn’t make the connection until after the deal is done.” He reached over and laid his hand over hers. “Were you in a panic?”
She sniffed. “I never panic.”
He smiled. “Good to know.”
“Even though I learned today that I’m a skiing fanatic—which I’m not, by the way—I’m extremely close to my family, I’m happiest at home and I want four children?”
He looked a little contrite. Just a little. “Did I tell her we wanted four children?”
“Apparently so.”
“Sounds like you covered well.”
“Maybe. She frowned a lot at some of my answers, so I had to backpedal. I’m sure I came across as ditzy.”
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