Free The Billionaire's Gamble by Ava Miles Page A

hung.
    On Friday as he was leaving for work, she slid him a slice of the freshest rye bread he’d eaten since Berlin and asked if he thought he could handle hanging her sign once he finished painting. Of course, he agreed. He helped her set up a few things in the dining room for the cinnamon roll tasting later that night, and then they were off.
    When she dropped him at the bakery that morning, he headed to the local hardware store. Wayne Smith was quickly becoming his handyman chum. For every question he asked, Wayne had an answer, so when Evan asked what kind of screws he’d need to hang Margie’s sign, Wayne led him to the screw section in the bowels of the hardware store.
    When he returned to the bakery to begin painting the kitchen, he’d barely stepped inside before he heard a knock on the front door. While curious spectators had stopped and peered into the shop before, no one had ever rapped on the glass door before. He swiveled on his heels. Rhett Butler Blaylock and Jane Wilcox were outside. He jumped to his feet and walked over to the door to open it.
    “I’m afraid the bakery isn’t open yet,” he said dryly. In truth, he was surprised they hadn’t come to see him sooner.
    Jane gave him a look and handed him a long white paper bread bag. “Funny. We thought we’d drop by and give you one of Brasserie Dare’s baguettes in case you were homesick.”
    Now he really knew they had something on their minds. “Thanks,” he said, taking the bag. “Good to see you.”
    “How about you let us in for a spell, Evan?” Rhett said amiably.
    “Sure.” He stepped back, giving them room to enter, and then closed the door behind them. Nerves were tickling at his belly all of a sudden.
    “How’s it going?” Rhett asked, hooking his thumbs in the pockets of his cargo shorts.
    “Good,” he answered easily, setting the bread on his backpack. “Margie’s been great, and I’ve found a new calling in painting.”
    No one laughed.
    “Dare Valley is a wonderful town,” he continued, trying to sense their mood. “It’s been good…to find a new routine over the last couple of weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I hate to lose at poker, but I’m really glad I ended up coming here.”
    Jane studied him as intently as when she’d sat across from him at that fateful poker table. “We’re happy to hear that, Evan. According to Margie, you hang the moon.”
    He could hear the question a mile away. “Something on your mind?”
    Rhett kicked at the plastic on the floor. “We don’t think you’ve gotten fresh with her.”
    Evan rolled his eyes because the man’s voice didn’t ring with certainty. “I haven’t. I made you a promise, and I’m keeping it. If Margie says I hang the moon, it’s because the feeling is mutual. We’ve become…well…friends in our own way. It won’t go any further than that while I’m here.”
    Of course, he wasn’t about to tell them that Margie had become the main feature of his daydreams, alongside a cast of inventions working its way through his subconscious—mostly about painting. Oh, and rainbows made out of paint.
    “But you like her,” Jane said baldly.
    He went for the truth. “What’s not to like? She’s smart, funny, kind, and beautiful. Let me say again, I’m not coming on to her. Okay?” Crap, they made him feel like a high school kid getting called before the principal. Not that that had ever happened to him.
    “Okay,” Rhett said, nodding in that slow Southern way of his. “We just wanted to make sure.”
    His gut burned a moment. “Margie trusts me. Why won’t you?”
    “She doesn’t know you, Evan,” Jane said, worrying her lip. “When we made this side bet, neither Rhett nor I envisioned you—”
    “Living and working with someone you know?” he finished.
    “Exactly,” she said. “It doesn’t sit well, keeping things from her.”
    He wasn’t ready for Margie to know about him, wasn’t ready to see if it would change her reaction to him.