Million-Dollar Makeover Read online

  She surveyed the elegant interior and marveled at over half a dozen sparkling glasses set into wells on a minibar. Absently she wondered what was a good peanut-butter chaser. Noticing then that the driver was smoothly driving out of Thunder Canyon, Lisa experienced a touch of apprehension. She tapped on the Plexiglas divider. It rolled down silently and the driver asked, “Yes, Miss Martin?”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To Mr. Douglas’s office at the Lazy D.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  The countryside was beautiful, so she enjoyed the scenery. Horses grazed behind miles of white fence, and seed-tipped hay fields waved in the sunlight. Finally they passed through a gate proclaiming the Lazy D ranch. Since Lisa looked after Adele’s dog while the couple vacationed, she was familiar with the grandeur of the home. Instead of heading for the circular drive where the main home, guesthouse, foreman’s cottage and bunkhouse sat, however, the driver took a road that wound away. Did Caleb have offices elsewhere?

  After another half mile, she was getting ready to tap on the Plexiglas again when the driver pulled to a stop before a sprawling stone house and got out to assist her.

  “Go on in, miss. Mr. Douglas is expecting you.”

  Lisa hesitantly climbed the stairs and opened the door. She entered into a huge foyer. Shiny wood floors reflected a massive hall table beneath a chandelier. Definitely not the same stuffy decor as the other place. “Hello?”

  “Miss Martin.”

  She turned, expecting the silver-haired man she’d seen on the news. Instead a younger man, tall with black hair and intense green eyes, greeted her. Her immediate reaction was that she should turn and run right back out the door, but her feet were rooted to the spot. He wore a sport jacket, white shirt, jeans and boots. Casual attire, but on this man they made her feel even more inappropriately dressed. She’d have taken off her ball cap, but her hair was matted to her head by now.

  She did slip off the sunglasses and drop them into her denim handbag. She felt exposed in his presence…vulnerable. And she didn’t like it.

  He strode forward and extended a hand. “Riley Douglas.”

  In the flesh. He was taller and leaner than she remembered from school, his features sharpened to devastating virility by the past ten years. He looked even better than he had then. “I know—I mean, yes.”

  She took his strong, warm hand for an instant, and then he released hers.

  “I was expecting…your father.”

  “He’ll be along. I handled all the security for the mine, so I thought I should bring you up to speed and answer any questions. He does want to meet you later, though. Come on back to my office. I asked you here early so we could get acquainted and go over a few things. Once the security team arrives, there won’t be much chance for us to talk privately.”

  Lisa followed him down a hall bordered on one side by floor-to-ceiling windows that let in the sun and offered a stunning view of the ranch.

  She’d been expecting dark wood, but his office was all black leather, chrome and glass. On a counter in one corner, two coffeepots were just finishing perking, but he gestured to the wet bar. “Care for a drink?”

  This was a good-old-boy operation, she surmised, and probably a good many deals were negotiated over drinks. If his associates drank in the limo, as well, how did anyone make it through meetings sober?

  “No, thanks.”

  “The wine’s been breathing for about fifteen minutes,” he said.

  Lisa glanced at the bottle sitting in a bucket of ice. Several others stood at the ready on the bar nearby. She did enjoy a glass of wine now and then, and the labels on those bottles indicated he hadn’t picked them up at the same grocery store where she shopped. And he’d already opened one, she rationalized.

  “Sure. Thanks.”

  He picked up the bottle and poured a stemmed glass three-quarters full.

  She accepted the wine with a twinge of regret, because she knew she wouldn’t drink a whole bottle, and it looked expensive.

  “Does it suit you?”

  “What? Oh.” She tasted the white wine. It was better than anything she’d ever tried. “It’s excellent.”

  He poured himself a tonic water and gestured for her to sit on one of the black leather sofas. She did, and he sat across from her.

  “I’m glad we have this chance to meet.”

  No surprise that he didn’t remember her. Having skipped fifth grade, Lisa had been a young freshman. She’d noticed Riley Douglas right away and secretly admired his good looks and popularity. She’d been his assigned tutor for chemistry, and spending two evenings a week together had afforded more than enough opportunity for her to develop a full-blown crush. He’d always been polite and friendly enough, though distant. She hadn’t been his type then any more than she was now, and he’d easily dismissed their relationship after he’d passed his class.

  It had been okay then. It was okay now. “Yes,” was all she said.

  “Would you like to go over the arrangements I had worked out with the security people? You might prefer to hire a company of your own choice, but we’ve used Weber Security exclusively for the last eight years. I can recommend them highly.”

  “Exactly what needs to be protected? I don’t have any idea.”

  “Do you remember how this whole gold-mine thing came about?”

  “Vaguely.”

  “In February the son of the high school coach disappeared.”

  “I remember that. The Stevenson boy was found in the mine shaft and rescued.”

  Riley nodded. “And a rescue worker found a gold nugget. That started the gold fever. On more than one occasion after that vandals broke into the cordoned-off mine site.”

  “I saw news reports that some of them were injured. The clinic was hopping.”

  “Things got pretty crazy. Anyway, that property had been counted as part of Douglas holdings for generations, but suddenly our ownership was questioned. Believing our claim would be verified, we secured the area. We’ve had a perimeter guard and armed security at the site round-the-clock since mid-February, in part to protect what we thought was our property as well as to prevent any more mining injuries.”

  Security guards. Oh, my.

  “Now that the investigators have proven the land belonged to Lily Divine—and, in that case, to me—all along, will you want to be reimbursed for those costs?” Lisa was beginning to question the wisdom of coming here, of talking to a Douglas without her lawyer. “I think I should call my lawyer. May I use your phone?”

  “Of course.” He gestured to the desktop. “I assure you I wasn’t thinking of reimbursement.”

  “It would seem only right,” she insisted.

  “It’s petty, Miss Martin, and I won’t entertain further discussion in the matter.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Excuse me.” She punched numbers, and Bernadine Albright took her call immediately.

  “You were wise to call me, Lisa. I’ll be right there. Don’t agree to anything until then.”

  Lisa hung up the phone. “She’s on her way.”

  Riley raised his glass. “Good decision. Until she arrives, we’ll get to know each other a little better.”

  Lisa didn’t want the wine to go to waste, so she accepted another glass. She glanced out the double glass doors that opened onto a brick patio. In the distance she saw a modern red barn. “Is this where you live?”

  “And work. Built the house a few years ago.”

  “You run the ranch?”

  “I help. My father is the hands-on rancher. I’m the financial manager. Over the past couple years I’ve devoted myself to expanding our real-estate ventures.”

  She remembered reading about him going off to college and later coming home with a degree in finance. Lisa walked to the doors and looked out over the pastureland where several horses grazed.

  “Do you ride?” he asked from directly behind her.

  Goose bumps rose on her shoulders and arms at his nearness
. “I used to ride when Mr. McKinley had his stables north of town.”

  “Poor old nags.” Riley chuckled. “They were long in the tooth and not much for looking at.”

  “Not everyone has his own breeding stock in the backyard,” she replied.

  He shrugged off her comment. “Maybe you’d like to come out and ride sometime. Anytime. Consider it an open invitation.”

  Riley Douglas was only one of the many people who’d suddenly found it in their hearts to befriend her. Funny how people who hadn’t given her the time of day a week ago were now pursuing her attention.

  She definitely questioned this man’s sincerity. She may have inherited a gold mine, but she hadn’t gotten any better looking.

  She moved back into the room and studied the pieces of artwork. Modern paintings and a few sculptures. No photographs. She couldn’t recall hearing mention of Riley ever marrying. Sometimes local gossip had him paired with one particular woman or another, all of them out of her league. Why his marital status should matter was questionable, but she sure was wondering.

  “Did you do your own decorating in here?”

  He nodded. “Is it that obvious? Pretty hit-and-miss, actually. I just pick up things I like when I’m traveling.”

  The place seemed a little sparse and modern for her taste, but what did she know? She hadn’t spent money on more than a plug-in air freshener for her house in the last five years. And the only stuff she picked up while traveling was dog poop.

  There was a knock at a side door, and it opened without Riley’s consent. A thin woman wearing a dark green pantsuit carried a tray of small sandwiches into the room and placed it on the low glass coffee table. Lisa caught herself imagining setting anything edible on a table this low in her house.

  The woman turned to the counter area, where she disposed of coffee grounds and set out several glossy black mugs, each one with a fancy D on the side.

  “Do you need anything else, Mr. Douglas?”

  “This looks great, Marge, thank you.”

  After she’d gone, Riley gestured to the food. “Help yourself.”

  Lisa perched on the leather sofa and looked over the selection with interest. Riley politely waited until she made a decision, then seated himself and picked up a napkin and a couple of sandwiches.

  The thick chicken salad had chunks of walnuts and sliced grapes, and Lisa wondered how many she could consume without looking like an oinker. They sure beat her peanut-butter-and-potato-chip special.

  Riley refilled her glass, and she felt a lot more comfortable here than she had at first. If he was trying to soften her up for something with food and wine, it was working. It was a good thing she’d called Bernadine. She was going to need a designated driver.

  Her lawyer showed up a few minutes later. When Riley poured the woman a glass of brandy and offered her a sandwich, she met Lisa’s gaze with a knowing look. But she ate and drank as their discussion got under way.

  Riley showed them the contract he had with Weber Security and explained the situation. “Weber is willing to switch the contract over to your company without a hitch. Have you incorporated?”

  “Lisa and I are working on that today,” Bernadine said.

  “This is all happening so fast,” Lisa told him. “There’s so much to do and to understand.”

  “Hiring Ms. Albright was wise,” Riley told her. “And having her present when you make decisions is to your benefit. But in addition I believe you’re going to need a financial manager.”

  Emily had told her the same thing.

  “And an advisor,” he added. “Someone to help you with investments. Someone who knows the markets and can help you manage and save money.”

  Lisa glanced at Bernadine, who nodded. “He’s right. I can look over the legal stuff, but money management and investment are out of my field.”

  “Is there someone like that around here?” Lisa asked.

  “A manager and an advisor are two different jobs.” Riley eased back comfortably on the sofa. “I’m a manager, and I’d be the best man to work with.”

  “But isn’t that a conflict of interest?”

  “How so? You pay me for my services and I make money off your money. I’d be doing the best I knew how, just like I do for my own holdings and my father’s.”

  “Do you have the time? Surely you have a lot on your plate right now. I’ve read about the ski-resort project. That has to be a huge responsibility.”

  “Thinking the mine was a Douglas property, I had already cleared time to handle it. This way I’d still be involved, but in your employ.”

  Those words perked her interest more than all the others. “You’d work for me?”

  “More or less. Yes.”

  The concept was just too delicious. Riley Douglas, son of one of the richest families in Montana, working for the town dog walker, the great-great-granddaughter of Thunder Canyon’s infamous Lily Divine. Lisa wanted to giggle. She held her exuberance inside with considerable fortitude, so it came out as more of a hiccup.

  Bernadine glanced at her.

  “Excuse me.” She hid her smile behind a cocktail napkin.

  “Think about it for a day or so,” Riley suggested. “We’ll talk again. How’s that?”

  “Unbelievable,” she replied.

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s doable,” she answered. “But you said it was two jobs. What about the investment part?”

  “I work with someone who’s always on top of things. You could either hire him or ask him to recommend someone. Phil Wagner has advised my father and I for several years, and I can hook you up. He’s a savvy market man.”

  Riley did seem to have the know-how and the contacts she needed. His willingness to participate was flattering but a little unnerving.

  Caleb arrived next, dressed in a western-cut sport jacket and a beige Stetson. He hung the hat on a rack inside the door and joined them.

  “Dad, this is Bernadine Albright.”

  “We’ve met,” Bernadine said, and extended a hand.

  Caleb leaned forward to greet her.

  “And you’re Lisa Jane Martin,” Caleb said before Riley could introduce her. He took in her appearance with keen interest. “I guess the cap is your disguise?”

  “It must not be working. You knew who I was.”

  “I’ve seen you on television. Is my son being a good host?”

  “As hosts go, he ranks right up there with the best I’ve known.” No man had offered her heavenly chicken sandwiches or plied her with wine before, so Riley was the best so far.

  The security team arrived then. Lisa was disappointed that the rest of the time would be devoted to actual business, but the hard edges of Weber Security’s facts and figures were softly rounded by the incredible buzz she’d acquired.

  Craig Murphy headed the organization and had a manner of making people feel that he was in charge and that things were taken care of. Lisa liked and trusted him immediately. He showed her the initial police reports, maps detailing the whereabouts of his people at all times and a list of the men working the mine and explained the success of their plan thus far.

  “These are the arrangements you made with Mr. Douglas?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he concurred. “And if this strategy works for you, we’ll continue without change or interruption and simply switch the contracts over to you.”

  “We’re not sure exactly how that’s going to work yet,” Bernadine told him and explained their need to incorporate. “There are a lot of things still being worked out.”

  “Tell you what,” Riley said. “Let’s leave it the way it is for the time being. I’ll pick up the tab. As soon as Miss Martin has her corporation set up and some money in her accounts, we’ll do the new paperwork then.”

  “And reimburse you then?” Lisa asked.

  “Only for services from this date forward,” he answered.

  “We’ll need a simple agreement in writing,” Bernadine added.

&nbs
p; “Fine by me,” Craig said.

  Lisa and Bernadine concurred and accepted Riley’s offer.

  The meeting ended, and Lisa was one of the last to walk out of his office behind Bernadine. Riley and his father accompanied them.

  “I’m glad we had this opportunity to meet,” Caleb said.

  “Likewise.” She pulled out her sunglasses and slipped them on. “We meet with the Montana Mining Association this afternoon.”

  “Feel free to call me anytime if you need an opinion or advice,” Riley told her. He gestured to the limousine at the curb. “Your ride.”

  “I’m riding with Bernadine from here, thanks.”

  She got into the lawyer’s crème-colored New Yorker and glanced out the window at the two men who watched the car pull away.

  “What kind of feeling did you get?” Bernadine asked.

  Her feelings for Riley Douglas had been adolescent yearnings she’d outgrown years ago. “Why? What did you see?”

  “Well, with Caleb I’m not sure that what you see is what you get, and I suspect the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

  “You don’t trust Riley to manage us?”

  “That’s the odd thing. He’s a hell of a financier, and we’d be missing out on using his genius brain for handling money if we didn’t hook up with him. I would trust him as your manager. He knows what he’s doing. But he probably has an ulterior motive, and we’d better have our loins girded for whatever that may be.”

  “What might his motive be?”

  Bernadette cocked a brow at her. “Hello?”

  “Money.”

  The woman merely nodded as she drove.

  “Forewarned is girded, right? We let him do his money thing, and we watch for anything fishy.”

  “Watching is good,” Bernadine replied.

  Lisa thought about all the times she’d watched Riley Douglas. Watched him frown as he struggled with chemistry homework; watched him stroll the halls with that distinctive swagger; watched him on the football field as cheerleaders swamped him. Watching Riley was no hardship.

  The interesting thing this time was that he was actually paying attention to her, knew her name, had sought her out. She didn’t have any illusions that his interest was in anything other than the glittering gold mine she’d inherited, but the attention was, to say the least, flattering.