Bargaining with the Billionaire (Billionaire Bachelor Mountain Cove) by Maria Hoagland

Author:Maria Hoagland [Hoagland, Maria]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Red Leaves Press
Published: 2020-06-02T16:00:00+00:00

15

The morning after Autumn’s visit with Veronica, something was different about the Looking Glass. At first glance, everything looked normal. Morning sun streamed through her father’s miniature masterpieces in the display windows, bouncing rainbows of color across the room. The room was still and quiet, but compared to the late nights she spent in the space, it felt less peaceful and more lonely.

To combat the feeling, she switched on the overhead light fixtures and then the stereo with the upbeat, happy music that would play all day in the background, but it did nothing to push away the feeling that she’d stepped into the wrong shop.

After the unexpected delivery of the missing boxes, the movement of her papers, and the flowers being pulled from the trash, almost every morning Autumn was on the alert for something to be altered, and she was pretty sure she knew who was changing it. Of all the locals she talked to, not one other person hinted that the ghost of Mafalda Capone haunted her building. Well, not seriously, anyway. There had been a few, especially that one guy—Scooby, was it?—who’d joked about it with Kian. It always went back to Kian.

Autumn leaned her back against the door, taking it all in. Maybe it wasn’t about appearances. Maybe this was about feelings. She’d been so proud to show Veronica her designs, so sure they would go over well. She couldn’t have been more wrong. Reality burned in her chest. She’d had a sleepless night, but it was time to quit feeling sorry for herself and move on.

When everything was set up for the day’s business and she’d turned the sign to Open, Autumn made her way to the workbench to brainstorming designs again. Where to begin? As she walked over, she tugged her long hair into a loose ponytail to cascade down her left shoulder. Slumping onto the stool, she expected to see her tools in front of her on the worktable, but found a line of pink and white circus animal cookies, carefully lined up on a folded paper towel instead. Lagging far behind was half a cookie, the head bitten off.

“Kian!” she half murmured, half laughed. It had to be him.

She plucked the first animal out of line and bit it in half while she pulled out her phone. She was pretty sure it was late afternoon or early evening in Italy, and time to ask her dad once and for all.

Dad, she texted, is there any chance Kian has a key to the shop? That would explain things if her father fessed up to giving his neighbor a contingency key.

While she waited for an answer, she pulled her sketchbook out of her bag and flipped through the pages. There had to be something to inspire her. She was well into it when her phone buzzed with an incoming video call.

“Hey, Dad!” she answered, thrilled to see the familiar face she loved so much. “And Angie?” Her father flipped the camera so Autumn

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