Redeeming The Billionaire (The Sherbrookes of Newport Book 5) by Christina Tetreault Read Free Book Online

picture without her knowledge and then sold it outraged her, made her feel violated. Yet since that picture surfaced, her phone hadn’t stopped ringing. Her calendar was now booked solid with potential clients.
    “Knock, knock.” Her cousin’s voice called from the doorway.
    With the phone receiver still glued to her ear, Addie waved her cousin inside. “Excellent. I will see you next Wednesday at two o’clock. I look forward to working with you.”
    Chloe dropped into the chair near her desk and placed a white paper bag in front of her. “I thought you might be hungry,” she said when Addie hung up the phone.
    “Starved. Thank you.” Without any hesitation, she pulled out the mini calzone from the bag. “I haven’t stopped all day.”
    Chloe leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. “Business is good, I take it?”
    “Good doesn’t begin to explain it.” She raised the calzone toward her mouth, the scent of oregano teasing her nose. “I’ve had more people call me since that picture appeared in the paper than all of last month.”
    Her cousin gave her an I told you so look. “And you were all upset about it. I bet you’re not anymore.”
    Addie gave her a shrug, her mouth full of food.
    “All the bakeries have had a surge in sales, too, especially the one on Benefit Street. I think people keep stopping in hoping to see Trent Sherbrooke seated at a table.”
    “I’d still like to know who sent that picture to the paper.”
    “Who cares?” Chloe asked. “You’re benefiting from it and I’m sure Trent Sherbrooke is used to being in papers by now.”
    “I care.” Addie popped another chunk of her calzone into her mouth and glanced at her watch. She had another hour before her appointment with Phyllis Harney on the East Side. When she’d worked for Ducat and Wakefield, she helped redesign the woman’s gourmet kitchen. Right before the picture in the paper came out, Phyllis called and set up an appointment. Evidently, she’d divorced and wanted to redecorate her master suite.
    “So what did the two of you talk about that afternoon?” Chloe asked. “You never did tell me.”
    The conversation with Trent rolled through her mind. “Nothing, really. I told him a little about what I did.”
    Her cousin leaned forward. “He looked rather happy in that picture. You must have said something to him.”
    “I teased him a bit about not spilling coffee on me again.” Addie picked at the calzone on her desk.
    Chloe shook her head, a look of pity on her face. “Seriously, Addie. You had Trent Sherbrooke sitting across from you and you made jokes? Man, don’t you know how to flirt a little? If that had been me I wouldn’t have been talking about coffee.”
    Addie rolled her eyes. Her cousin was always on the lookout for Mister Right. Hopefully one of these days she’d find him. Maybe then she’d stop pestering her about it. “It wouldn’t have mattered if I flirted or not, Chloe. A man like him wouldn’t be interested in me even if I stripped in front of him.”
    “You still could’ve tried.” Chloe took a sip from the water bottle she’d brought in with her. “Since we are on the topic of men, did you and Dustin ever go out?”
    “Yes, and there will not be a second date.” Addie gathered up what she needed for her afternoon appointment.
    “Why not?”
    A close friend Chloe had met in a college night class, Dustin had been a nice enough guy. He just wasn’t the guy for her. “He was as nice as you said, but we have nothing in common, Chloe. Besides, I don’t have a lot of free time right now. Honestly, I think you and he should get together.”
    Chloe shook her head, her ponytail swinging back and forth. “No way. We’re friends.”
    “So?” Addie asked, surprised by how adamantly her cousin answered.
    “I don’t want to mess up our friendship,” she said as she checked her phone. “I need to go. I’ll talk with you later.”
    When her cousin left, she took one more bite