beloved cultural icon like Marvin the Martian. She was not the sort to do headstands in fancy clothes. Those parts of her were gone. It was that simple.
So, a week after the Children’s Hope Foundation gala, when she packed her bags and hopped on a plane, it was part of a planned vacation. After all, it was perfectly reasonable for her to take a few weeks of vacation after the months of grueling work on the event. And the Callahans had a condo in Tahoe that she often visited. It wasn’t as if she was fleeing from Houston because she couldn’t stand the gossip—which hadn’t actually been that bad. This was a vacation. A well-thought-out event.
And if she tweaked her travel plans just a smidge so that they included a four-hour layover in Denver, that was totally normal. She’d never liked long flights. Or airports.
And it was also normal—and not at all impulsive—for her to stop by and visit the one person she knew in Denver. Her former brother-in-law, Cooper Larson. Cooper—once the snowboarding darling in the world of extreme sports—was now a successful businessman. He was the CEO and owner of Flight+Risk, which just happened to be headquartered in Denver. He was also possibly the one person who could help her untangle the identity of the Cain heiress.
This was a slight detour in her life. That was all. Visiting Cooper wasn’t impulsive or reckless. It was smart. Of the three Cain brothers, he was the least invested in finding Hollister’s missing daughter. He had the least at stake. And he was the most likely to know where the young woman was coming from. Visiting Cooper was only logical.
The litany of logical, sensible reasons echoed through her mind as she paid the taxi driver who’d taken her from the airport to Flight+Risk’s office in downtown Denver not far from the Sixteenth Street Mall. The building was an older one that had been refurbished. It was sleek and modern inside, while maintaining the sort of informality that suited Cooper’s snowboard accessory business. It was exactly what she’d expected of his office. It suited the black sheep of the Cain family.
The only thing that threw her for a loop was Cooper’s assistant. She’d expected some young blond snow bunny type. Someone with more style than sense. Someone she could easily talk her way past.
Instead, the woman—Mrs. Lorenzo, according to the nameplate on her desk—was nearing fifty, with a humorless smile and cold, assessing eyes.
“And what did you say your name was again?”
“Portia Callahan.”
“Hmm...” Mrs. Lorenzo looked her up and down, as if Portia might be lying. Then the older woman turned back to the computer, clicked her mouse several times and started typing.
Mrs. Lorenzo must have sensed Portia’s doubts, because she raised an eyebrow and made a disapproving mmm sound.
“I’m his sister-in-law,” Portia threw out hopefully.
Mrs. Lorenzo smirked. “Mr. Larson has one sister-in-law—Laney Cain. She’s a lovely young woman. And you are not her.”
Portia swallowed, suddenly irritated by this woman’s superior attitude. She so didn’t need one more person telling her how lovely Laney was. “I’m his former sister-in-law.”
“I see.” Mrs. Lorenzo’s mouth turned down as if Portia had just admitted to being pond scum. “Mr. Larson is in a business meeting out of the office this morning. Would you like to reschedule?”
Portia glanced down at her watch. If she’d done the math right, she had about two hours before she needed to head back to the airport. “No. I’ll wait.”
“Excellent,” Mrs. Lorenzo said grimly. “I’ll let him know when he gets in.”
With a sigh, Portia picked a chair in the reception area and settled down to wait. She pulled a magazine out of her travel tote and flipped it open, but didn’t actually read any of it. Instead, she stared blankly at the brightly colored pictures, her mind racing from the lies she’d been telling herself.
Here was the flaw in her logic: if today’s visit to Denver really was logical and not impulsive, she would not have ambushed Cooper at work, hoping to talk her way past his secretary. She would have called ahead and made an appointment. Or better yet, called him and asked to meet for lunch. Or even better yet, just called and talked through this on the phone.
He was her former brother-in-law. Calling him to chat was perfectly reasonable. She’d talked to him on the phone plenty of times during her marriage to Dalton. And even since the divorce, she’d called a couple of times a year to hit him up for donations to the Children’s Hope Foundation.
But instead of just calling, she’d changed her travel plans and come to see him in person. Why?
She looked around the office, felt panic starting to choke her and fought the urge to bolt. What was she doing here? Why had she gone to these drastic lengths? And for a girl she barely knew? Based on nothing more than a pair of blue eyes and a gut feeling?
It was ridiculous. Absurd. Completely irrational.
And that was why she’d come here herself.
Because it was irrational and ridiculous. And she knew if she hadn’t jumped in feetfirst, she would have backed out. If she had called and tried to explain this over the phone, she would have panicked and changed her story. She never would have had the guts to actually talk about the missing heiress. She had come here to do it in person because now she was committed. Now, she couldn’t back out. She could only wait.
* * *
In business, as in snowboarding, talent and preparation only got you so far. After that, it was all a matter of luck. Which sucked, because Cooper Larson had never been a particularly lucky man. Ambitious, yes. Talented, smart and ruthless, yes. Lucky, not so much.
But he was okay with that. Luck was for a privileged few. It wasn’t something you could control or work for. And personally, he would much rather owe his success to something he’d done.
Still, when it came to important business meetings, like the Flight+Risk board meeting he had scheduled for the afternoon, he never left anything to chance. The meeting would be held at a hotel conference room, not far from Flight+Risk’s headquarters. He’d spent the morning at the hotel, putting the finishing touches on the proposal he’d be bringing before the board. Which left him just enough time to stop back by the office and check in before grabbing lunch and heading to the board meeting.
Except Portia was waiting to see him when he got there.
For a moment, he just stopped cold in the doorway staring at her. “Portia?” he asked stupidly. “What are you doing here?”
She stood up, looking strangely nervous. “I had a layover in Denver. And I thought maybe we could talk.”
She’d been reading a magazine when he walked in and now she rolled it tightly in her hands, clenching it as if maybe she wanted to swat the nose of some naughty dog.
He studied her, taking in the white of her clenched knuckles. The faint lines of strain around her eyes. He hadn’t seen her often since her divorce from Dalton—hell, he hadn’t seen her often during their marriage—but he knew her well enough to recognize the signs of stress and nerves.
Even though it would mess with his schedule for the day, he nodded toward his office. “Sure. Come on in.” He glanced toward his
