Read Online The Billionaire's Bridal Bid by Emily McKay - Free Book Online Page B

off. I am a business owner, too. I understand. If someone from the diner were calling and needing to talk to me, I’d have to take the call. So, please, just answer it.”
    By now, the phone had stopped buzzing and lay silent by his hand. After a long assessing look, he nodded. Then he picked up the phone, bumped his chair back and stood. After punching a button or two on the phone,he turned his back on her, wandering to the far side of the empty restaurant.
    “Ballard here.”
    Over the faint piped-in music, she could hear his end of the conversation.
    “What?” His voice rose sharply. “How the hell did you do that? When I left you had two hours of work left. All you had to do was put the finishing touches on it, lock the door on your way out and leave it the hell alone until the shipping company came along to pick it up on Monday.”
    There was a faint babble as whoever was on the other end of the line rushed to explain whatever snafu had happened. Matt raised his other hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.
    Then he cut off the other speaker. “You’re fired. You’re all—” He broke off, sending her a quick look. Like he didn’t want to cuss in front of her. “You’re all freakin’ fired.”
    She heard another flurry of chatter from the other speaker.
    Claire felt laughter bubbling up inside of her. His exasperation was palpable. She got up, crossed to where Matt stood and gently pried the phone from his fingers. She put her own ear to the phone and interrupted the speaker.
    “Excuse me—”
    “But the converter was working fine when—” a male voice continued.
    “Excuse me,” she repeated.
    “Matt?”
    “No. This is his date. Claire.”
    “Claire? Oh, damn! That’s where he was? I am so fired. I—”
    “You’re not going to be fired. I promise.” Matt tried to take the phone from her, but she swatted him away. “No, no. I promise.”
    “He’s gonna kill me.”
    “He’s not going to kill you.” The voice on the phone was silent, but she could hear other voices in the background, a chorus predicting doom to them all. “Can I assume that whatever’s wrong, you need Matt there to help you fix it?”
    “I… Look, he’s not going to leave his date. If I’d known he was out with you, I never would have—”
    “Tell me your name.”
    “Dylan. Jeez, he is going to—”
    “Just let me handle Matt. Don’t worry. We’ll be there soon.”
    She pulled the phone away from her ear. Matt tried to grab it back from her, but she dodged his grasp, and after finally spotting the end call button, hung up on Dylan’s protests.
    Matt stood watching her with a scowl on his face. She extended the phone back to him. “You should have let me fire him,” he muttered as he took the phone.
    She smiled sweetly. “Are you kidding? Dylan got me out of the most awkward date ever. He’s my knight in shining armor.”
    “I’m definitely firing him.”
    She just laughed. “Come on, let’s go. The limo can drop you at FMJ and then take me to the hotel.”
    Matt put a hand on her arm to stall her. “Wait here, I’ll have Suzy box up dessert.”
    “But—”
    “You can eat it at FMJ while I sort this out. I’m not carting you off to the hotel yet. As soon as I fix thismess, we’ll finish the date. We still have a lot to talk about.”
    She suppressed a shiver as she watched him head for the kitchen. But the truth was, she’d love to visit FMJ, get a glimpse of the kind of projects they worked on. But underneath her excitement, she felt a tremor of dread. For the first time since Matt had waltzed back into her life two weeks ago, he seemed like the intense, passionate guy she remembered. And that made him very dangerous indeed.
     
    Dylan turned out to be a scrawny twenty-two-year-old intern working at FMJ for the semester. He’d been given the job of getting a hold of Matt while the rest of the team worked on the problem. After the forty-five-minute drive from San Francisco to Palo Alto where