Billionaire's Touch(9)

At one time, he’d wondered if the woman was his now sister-in-law, Mara. His mystery emailer had started signing her letters simply with the initial “M.”—and Mara had been in Dante’s wedding. However, it hadn’t taken him long to realize that Mara was head-over-heels in love with Jared, and that she wasn’t his secret letter writer.

Would I have fought my own brother for Mara if it was actually her?

Evan shook his head slightly as he watched the town of Amesport pass him by on the way to the private peninsula where his house was located. Jared deserved to be happy, and Evan would never have stood between his brother and a woman who brought him that much happiness. Luckily, he’d felt nothing for Mara except a platonic fondness that he still had for her today. She was perfect for Jared, and Evan had pushed and tested his younger brother to the limit to make him see that he needed to snap up Mara before someone else did. If his tactics had been a little deceitful, it hadn’t mattered. His actions were a means to a happy ending for Jared.

He released a pent-up breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. Evan’s hand itched to check his email on his cell, see if he had an email from his . . . friend.

I won’t. I can’t. I don’t need to be checking email several times a day like I’m obsessed. She’s my friend, but that doesn’t mean I have to open that mailbox like a madman, pathetically hoping for a reply.

Absently, he fingered the stone keychain some crazy elderly woman had sent him several months ago with a note attached, telling him he needed the stone to clear his blocked paths to happiness. He should have thrown the Apache-tear rock away. Apparently, according to the letter that accompanied the gift, she’d stocked up on this particular crystal since she’d decided that every one of the Sinclair men and their prospective mates needed one. He’d met . . . what was her name? “Beatrice,” he whispered gruffly, remembering the senior citizen he’d met at Dante’s—and then Jared’s—wedding. She seemed harmless enough, but she was definitely “touched” or suffering from some sort of dementia.

For some unknown reason, he’d never gotten rid of the stone. In fact, he kept it on his person almost all of the time. Maybe it was the novelty of actually getting a gift from someone, or just the fantasy that the supposedly mystic woman had woven around the nature of the stone.

I’ll find Beatrice in Amesport and give it back.

It was the least he could do. Even he wasn’t hardhearted enough to offend a woman of advanced life experience by throwing away her gift. Maybe she could peddle it to someone else.

Surprisingly, he realized they were already moving through the gate to the Peninsula and getting close to the long driveway leading to Jared’s home. The miles had sped by, but his mind was elsewhere.

Damn! He’d meant to check out the progress Jared had made on restoring Mara’s old home and shop as he passed it by. It had been a mess after the fire that had almost taken Mara’s life. He’d looked forward to seeing it nearly restored, but had missed the chance by being lost in his own thoughts.

Later. It’s not like I won’t see it while I’m in town.

The former shop sat directly on Main Street.

“We need to drop Micah off at Jared’s,” Evan told Stokes in a firm voice.

“Yes, sir,” the chauffeur answered appropriately.

Micah was dropped off quickly and efficiently, Stokes never missing a beat once he had instructions. Evan waited as they approached his home on the Peninsula, forcing himself not to look at his phone for messages. If there was one thing Evan had in excess, it was control. His life ran in a very orderly fashion, just the way he liked and needed it to be.

The only two things that had even thrown him off-balance were his correspondence with the mysterious M.—and Randi Tyler. His pen-pal-type relationship with his mystery woman had been easier. He was drawn to her and her personality, but he had been able to remain anonymous, and he didn’t have the same visceral, gut-wrenching reaction to M. as he did to Randi. Maybe some of his desire to meet his email friend was curiosity, the need to find out if he’d feel the same reaction to her as he did to Randi if he met her in person. In some ways, it would really suck if he did. Then he’d want to nail two women who didn’t feel the same way he did.

Once they arrived at his home on the Peninsula and he was settled in, Evan finally checked his email, because it was the appropriate time to do so. He seated himself in a recliner in the living room, his laptop on his long, stretched-out legs as he connected to the Internet.

His heart raced just a little, and he felt the dampness of sweat on his forehead as the free email service took its damn time to appear. He might not have the visceral physical reaction to M. that he experienced with Randi, but he was always anxious to hear what she had to say. And then . . .