He glanced toward the house. His breath was white in the frosty air. “I’m touched by how important your sister’s happiness is to you.”
His words hung in the air. He was being sarcastic.
“She loves Mark.”
“So what are you so worried about? Surely she has some time for an old friend,” he said.
“Because she’s…she’s Carly. And Mark may not be so understanding.”
“It sounds like perhaps they shouldn’t be getting married.”
“I’m asking you as a…as a friend. Please go.”
“I’m sorry, Meredith. As a friend,” he said, as if he found the word distasteful, “I can’t do that.”
This was the man she dreamed about? The one with whom she compared all others? “I’m sorry, too,” she said. She spun on her heels and began to walk away.
“Meredith,” said Josh.
She stopped. But she did not turn around.
“Please tell Carly I’ll see her tomorrow.”
She stood still for a moment and then walked slowly back to the house, her head held high.
How dare she?
Josh sat on the bench, taking a few moments to compose himself. He had heard the rumors. Meredith Cartwright was so desperate to save her company that she had sold her sister. And, unfortunately, it appeared to be true. Meredith wanted Carly to marry Mark Duran so that she could get her hands on Durasnow.
And she thought that he, Josh, might interrupt the deal. She was right, of course. But he had not come back to steal Carly. He had done something much worse.
He had returned for Durasnow.
He had wanted Durasnow for years—he’d been the first to express an interest. But once Carly and Mark became engaged, the Durans had informed him that they’d felt obligated to entertain bids from Cartwright Enterprises. When Josh had read that Meredith had publicly declared her intention to buy Durasnow, he’d known the Durans had been less than honest. The writing was on the wall: the Durans would play Josh against Meredith, bidding up the price. In the end, neither would win. So Josh had come back to broker a deal. Perhaps he and Meredith could join forces and buy Durasnow together.
But Meredith was right in a way. He had come tonight because he’d wanted to see Carly. After all, he had not spoken with Meredith since their night together. He had tried to contact her several times but she’d never returned his phone calls. But her reputation was well-known. She was a stubbornly independent woman. So he had hoped that perhaps Carly might act as go-between, brokering a deal between Europrize and Cartwright.
Meredith, obviously, had no idea who he was. She assumed he was still the same playboy that had left Aspen.
The mere thought of his former lifestyle was enough to put a smile on his face. How things had changed.
It had not been an easy transition. Shortly after his night with Meredith, his aunt died. He had been surprised to learn that she, a waitress of seemingly meager means, had managed to save fifty thousand dollars. The instructions she’d left in her will had been simple. Make me proud. His friends had encouraged him to use the money for travel, to continue his life uninterrupted. But he’d had no intention of frivolously spending the money for which his aunt had worked.
His aunt had given him a new chance at life, a chance to remake himself. And he preferred not to have any reminders of the boy he once was.
Not that his life growing up had been all bad. Without the experience he’d gained, he never would have started his business. He knew his old friends had been surprised to learn that he’d been able to utilize the skills he’d learned in his former life and turn them into a multi-million dollar business that had made him one of the richest men in Europe.
His company, Europrize, had developed several interactive video games that had been sold to a major technology company, leaving him with more than enough money to buy out the richest men in Aspen. But he was just getting started. His newest venture, buying and renovating ski resorts, was already bringing in revenues. But their earning capability was limited to the season. If he could stretch out the season a month or so on each side, especially if his was the only ski resort open, the business would boom.
Which is why he wanted Durasnow. He had been following the Duran company for a while, his eye on their product. He’d approached them about buying the rights and they had seemed interested. But Wayne Duran reminded him of many of the men he had known from Aspen. A seemingly friendly but ultimately untrustworthy guy. Although Josh had been promised the rights, he’d had nothing in writing. He hadn’t been surprised to learn that a major conglomerate had suddenly gotten involved.
But he had been surprised to learn it was Cartwright Enterprises. It seemed odd to be up against a family he had known for years. He and Carly had once been good friends, but through the years they had lost touch, corresponding less and less. And Meredith…he had not spoken with her since their night together.
His fingers tightened around the edge of the bench as he thought of her. Meredith had not been like the other women in Aspen. She’d been quiet and intellectual, a girl who seemed to always have her nose in a book. Whereas Carly had been with a different boy each week, Meredith had never seemed to go out at all.
Most of the girls had just ignored her and the guys hadn’t been much better. But they were not just being cruel. Meredith had a way of speaking to people that was extremely off-putting. She’d handled her peers as if she were a queen dealing with mere commoners. Her behavior had become a running joke between his friends, who had dubbed her “Princess,” short for Ice Princess. It wasn’t that she was a typical snob, thinking that she was better than everyone else because of her family money. Not at all. Meredith, with her mismatched outfits and tights with holes, cared little about money. Meredith was an intellectual snob.
She’d always been the smartest person in the room, and she’d known it. Still, there was something about her he’d found appealing. He realized later that in an odd way he related to Meredith. Meredith had suffered the loss of a parent and had had a troubled relationship with the man who had taken her father’s place. Josh’s own family history was similar. His mother had died when he was young and his father had married a girl just out of high school when Josh was eleven. He had not gotten along with his young stepmother. His father later divorced her and married another—a woman who was even worse than the first. The situation had gotten so bad that Josh had moved in with his mother’s sister.
Although he’d enjoyed living with his aunt, she’d never really been his parent. In a town where family and money determined one’s success, Josh had had neither. He may not have looked the outcast that Meredith was, but inside, he’d felt like her.
One night he’d attended a party and stumbled upon Meredith sequestered in the library. She’d been sitting at a desk, reading intently. She’d removed her thick-lensed glasses, and her long, curly hair—usually pulled tightly back—had been loose around her shoulders. In that moment he’d thought her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
She had looked up at him and smiled, a rare thing for Meredith. Encouraged, he’d struck up a conversation. It was as if she was a different person. They’d spoken for hours, rambling about everything
