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  Hudson

  Anderson Billionaires, Book Four

  By Melody Anne

  Copyright © 2020 Melody Anne

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Beeville is a fictional town.

  Printed and published in the United States of America

  Published by Falling Star Publications

  Editing by Lindsey Fabre, Karen Lawson, Janet Hitchcock

  Dedication

  This is dedicated to Eric who has brought me out of my writing funk, inspired me to remember who I am, and has gotten me excited to write again. Thank you for your friendship, your loyalty, and for being a man of integrity and honor. Thanks for 30 plus years of friendship. Here’s to 50 more.

  Books by Melody Anne

  Romance

  BILLIONAIRE BACHELORS

  *The Billionaire’s Dance

  *The Billionaire Falls

  *The Billionaire’s Marriage Proposal

  *Blackmailing the Billionaire

  *Runaway Heiress

  *The Billionaire’s Final Stand

  *Unexpected Treasure

  *Hidden Treasure

  *Holiday Treasure

  *Priceless Treasure

  *The Ultimate Treasure

  BABY FOR THE BILLIONAIRE

  *The Tycoon’s Revenge

  *The Tycoon’s Vacation

  *The Tycoon’s Proposal

  *The Tycoon’s Secret

  *The Lost Tycoon

  *Rescue Me

  THE ANDERSON BILLIONAIRES

  *Finn – Book One

  *Noah – Book Two

  *Brandon – Book Three

  *TBA – Book Four

  *TBA – Book Five

  BECOMING ELENA

  *Stolen Innocence – Book One

  *Forever Lost – Book Two

  *New Desires – Book Three

  FINDING FOREVER SERIES

  *Finding Forever

  TAKEN BY THE TRILLIONAIRE

  #1 Xander – Ruth Cardello

  #2 Bryan – J.S. Scott

  #3 Chris – Melody Anne

  #4 Virgin for the Trillionaire – Ruth Cardello

  #5 Virgin for the Prince – J.S. Scott

  #6 Virgin to Conquer – Melody Anne

  SURRENDER SERIES

  *Surrender – Book One

  *Submit – Book Two

  *Seduced – Book Three

  *Scorched – Book Four

  UNDERCOVER BILLIONAIRES

  *Kian – Book One

  *Arden – Book Two

  *Owen – Book Three

  *Declan – Book Four

  FORBIDDEN SERIES

  *Bound – Book One

  *Broken – Book Two

  *Betrayed – Book Three

  *Burned – Book Four

  HEROES SERIES

  *Safe in his arms – Novella

  *Baby it’s Cold Outside

  *Her Unexpected Hero – Book One

  *Who I am with you – Book Two – Novella

  *Her Hometown Hero – Book Three

  *Following Her – Book Four – Novella

  *Her Forever Hero – Book Five

  BILLIONAIRE AVIATORS

  *Turbulent Intentions – Book One (Cooper)

  *Turbulent Desires – Book Two (Maverick)

  *Turbulent Waters – Book Three (Nick)

  *Turbulent Intrigue – Book Four (Ace)

  TORN SERIES

  *Torn – Book One

  *Tattered – Book Two

  7 BRIDES FOR 7 BROTHERS

  #1 Luke – Barbara Freethy

  #2 Gabe – Ruth Cardello

  #3 Hunter – Melody Anne

  #4 Knox – Christie Ridgway

  #5 Max – Lynn Raye Harris

  ANDERSON SPECIAL OPS

  *Shadows – Book One

  *Rising – Book Two

  *Barriers – Book Three

  *Broken – Book Four

  *Reborn – Book Five

  Young Adult / Fantasy

  PHOENIX SERIES

  *Phoenix Falling – Book One

  *Phoenix Burning – Book Two

  *Phoenix Ashes – Book Three

  *Phoenix Rising – Book Four

  Chapter One

  Daisy Green was anything but fine. Her life wasn’t going the way it was supposed to, and she had no idea what she was going to do next. Everything she’d been fighting so hard for seemed to keep crashing around her, and all she’d ever dreamt about kept getting destroyed. There weren’t even ashes left for her to rise from and take flight.

  She was on the phone with her very worried grandfather, trying to hold it together. She was so close to falling apart, unsure what she was going to do. If her gramps knew how bad she felt, his impeccable radar would come out, and Daisy would be smothered. She couldn’t handle that. Right now she had to be strong.

  “Gramps, there’s nothing to worry about,” she said for what felt like the millionth time. Though, that saying had always amused her. Did people truly understand how long it would take to say the same thing over and over again a million times? If she wasn’t on the phone, she’d ask Siri that question. Siri, how many hours would it take to repeat a sentence one million times? If she didn’t forget by the end of her conversation with her gramps, she still might ask.

  Daisy was sitting in a crowded airport, her steam long gone. She’d spent the last twenty-four hours packing, waiting for public transportation, and then waiting on standby to get out of the country. As much as her gramps drove her crazy at times, she wanted nothing more than to tuck tail and go home. She had to get there first, though. If she fell apart now she’d be a mess the entire way home.

  She was luckier than many women in her profession. She still had a home to go back to. Not that any twenty-seven-year-old woman wanted to admit defeat. It was the ultimate shame to return home to her small town, especially having already traveled the world with so many more adventures she wanted to take.

  Buying a ticket from Australia to Washington state at the last minute wasn’t an easy task. She’d thought there’d be plenty of open seats with the price of the tickets, but nope, not when she was in a hurry to go home.

  “. . . so excited to see you again. And Mary Beth has been reading all of your articles and says you have such a gift. Of course, I’ve known this all of your life . . .” Gramps kept on talking, but Daisy tuned him out. How could she tell him she’d failed at saving yet another historic place? No one wanted to hear about history or how important it was. She kept writing about her adventures, but her articles weren’t getting much traction. What was she going to do? Should she give it up?

  As Gramp’s voice continued speaking in her ear buds, she looked at the sea of people surrounding her. There were some weary looking travelers, however most people seemed happy and festive as if they’d had a great vacation. But this was a long flight, and no one in the airport would be doing anything but sleeping for the next fifteen hours. With all of the delays, though, who knew what actual time they’d make it to the States?

  “Are you listening to me?” That question came through loud and clear. Daisy must’ve forgotten to murmur or agree with something her gramps had said. She looked at the floor.

  “Sorry, Gramps, they wer
e making an announcement,” she said a bit sheepishly. She’d definitely been taught to respect her grandfather, and all of her elders, no matter what. It didn’t matter how old Daisy was; her gramps would still give her hair a good yank if she wasn’t behaving. That made her smile . . . finally.

  “I guess you’re pretty busy. It’s just been too long since I’ve seen you, and I’m very excited to have you home. This time, I hope it’s for longer than a few days,” her grandfather chastised.

  Daisy had lived with her gramps most of her life. She’d been an only child and hadn’t realized what a blessing that had been. She’d gotten the full attention of her gramps, if not her parents. Sure, he’d had a life outside of her, but he’d also supported her in everything she’d ever done.

  Her gramps had attended all of her sporting events, school activities, and every special moment in her life. Considering the many people she’d met since leaving home, she realized what a true blessing that was. A lot of parents had no idea what their children did outside of the home. She’d always been able to tell her gramps anything. She should be able to now. But this time, she was failing — it wasn’t something she was used to.

  Daisy had graduated from college when she was twenty, taking so many credits in high school she’d been halfway through when she’d entered as a sophomore. Then she’d taken brutal course loads and attended through the summers.

  Most kids liked school. She’d actually loved schoolwork; she’d just been ready to move on. She’d wanted a career and had always carried visions of saving the world one building, one historic area, and one town at a time. The real world hadn’t been as kind as she’d imagined it would be.

  She’d earned enough with her writing over the past seven years to not need help from anyone, but just barely. She’d even managed to publish some material as she’d traveled the world. But she wasn’t making a difference.

  Tired of pacing the terminal, Daisy found an empty chair between a man and a woman who appeared to be together but didn’t look happy with each other. She thought about standing, but she was bone tired.

  She sat and faced forward as her gramps continued speaking.

  “The Andersons are building a new senior housing area in town that’s going to have a recreation center, a coffee house, and an indoor swimming pool. I’m so excited. I already put my name on the list. I just love the Andersons. They’re such good people, and they have a couple of new nephews who happen to be single . . .” Her grandfather kept on going, but Daisy’s spidey sense was tingling.

  She knew all about the Andersons as her grandfather had been friends with Joseph Anderson for as long as she could remember. She’d rarely seen Mr. Anderson, but her grandfather spoke kindly of him and that was all she needed to know. He was practically royalty in the Seattle area, but she’d learned long ago that money didn’t make anyone better.

  She wasn’t worried about her grandfather moving. The land he’d been on had been in their family for three generations. She’d do something beautiful with the property one day, helping others, possibly making a community center. But that would happen years down the road.

  “Gramps, absolutely positively don’t think about playing matchmaker. I’ve had one disastrous relationship after another, and I’m tired of men thinking they’re the alpha and omega. I want to figure out my path without any man holding my hand. And there’s no way I’d date an Anderson with all of their money and egos that are even bigger than their wallets.”

  Her gramps kept on going as if she hadn’t said anything. “Can’t wait for you to be home. You missed the holidays. But none of that matters now because you’ll be home for this year’s festivities. I’m so glad you’ll be back. Your parents were passionate about traveling the world too, but I love that you appreciate home. I’m an old man and only have so much time left.”

  Her grandfather had used that line on her before, but, though it did fill her with guilt to think of being away if something happening to him, her gramps was in excellent health. She knew she’d settle at home eventually, but she’d hoped it wouldn’t be quite so soon.

  She might be going home to a small town, but it was near Seattle. It shouldn’t be too hard to find work. She had to earn money so she could focus on saving the world, which was her passion. What was she going to do next, though? What could she do to make people care?

  She felt uninspired. No matter how much she shouted at the top of her lungs, no one seemed to listen. If she gave up on herself she wouldn’t be able to convince anyone of anything. So what could she do?

  What if she wrote a book? What if she turned an article into a work of fiction that would draw people in? What if she gave a story to these historic places? Would that make people care more?

  She heard nothing of what her grandfather said as that idea roamed through her brain. She’d authored many articles that had put money into her account, and although they didn’t get national attention, they paid her bills. She knew how to put words on paper and make them flow. How hard could it be to go from writing articles to writing an entire book? It seemed like an impossible feat, but she loved writing, and she loved research, so couldn’t she come up with a good novel-length story — to make people love a place as much as she did?

  It was an intimidating thought. She wouldn’t be able to go months without an income, so she’d need a part time job, enough to pay her bills while she worked on a great American novel. What would she call it? What place would she write about? What would people be inspired by? Where to begin?

  “It’s been raining a lot, but this is the wet season. Soon, it’ll be nothing but sunshine and summer breezes. I’m grateful not to live in a place that gets snow all winter. Some of those towns don’t get dug out until June. Can you imagine how awful that would be? No way. I’m not interested,” her gramps said.

  Daisy wondered if her gramps just needed someone to talk to. She should be grateful she got to talk to her gramps, considering so many people in the world didn’t have any family left.

  “Gramps, I have to get off the phone. They’re making announcements and I don’t want to miss this flight. We can talk for days when I get home,” Daisy promised.

  Her gramps finally paused. She could hear the smile in his voice. “I can’t wait for you to get here, sweet pea. Fly safe and don’t go off with strangers. I know you have a long layover in San Francisco. I’ll worry about you.”

  “I won’t go off with strangers. I promise,” Daisy said. It was great to be loved so much.

  After she hung up, she asked Siri, “Siri, how long would it take to say a sentence one million times?”

  “Here’s what I found on the web,” Siri answered. Daisy clicked a link.

  “Well, I guess it would take just over nineteen days without a break to count to a million, so I don’t think anyone is going to repeat a sentence one million times,” she muttered beneath her breath. Why did she look up such strange facts? Maybe because that’s just who she was.

  She sat back and the couple she was stuck between had begun to fight. She decided if there wasn’t another seat, she’d stand for however long it took. She moved across the gate area where she spotted a quiet corner with a couple of vacant seats. Her semiprivate haven didn’t last long before someone sat next to her.

  She gazed at her phone, checking her Instagram account and trying to stay awake. She refused to fall asleep and possibly miss her flight. All she wanted was to get home. She’d love to listen to her audiobook and play a game on her phone, but her battery was low and she didn’t see an outlet anywhere in sight. She hoped they had one in the coach section of the plane.

  A commotion at the boarding gate made Daisy look up. But her eyes never made it to the counter. They stopped at the man sitting one seat away from her — and he captured her full attention. He was so handsome it should be sinful. There was something vaguely familiar about him, making her wonder if he was a male model, or possibly a B-list actor. She searched her mind, trying to place him.

&nbs
p; He had dark, course hair that was mussed and sexy as hell, as if he’d been running his fingers through it for hours, or possibly had someone else mussing it. Her fingers twitched the slightest bit at the thought of doing that, shocking the heck out of her.

  She couldn’t see the color of his eyes as he was looking down at his laptop, but his straight nose and square jaw with a five o’clock shadow gave him a look of sophisticated ruggedness that did something to her insides. He wore dark jeans with a crisp white polo, the top two buttons undone, showing a tanned chest with just the right amount of hair peeking through. He was a man’s man for dang sure.

  She watched as a tick flared in his jaw, and his eyebrows dented as if he didn’t like something on his computer screen, and it took all of her willpower not to glance over and see what was there. But gazing at another person’s laptop was wrong. People’s lives were stored in a laptop. Hers always had research on her next building or her latest article.

  Taking a deep breath to calm her racing heart, she detected a spicy scent that reminded her of a forest and something else she couldn’t quite put her finger, or in this case her nose, on. Possibly ginger and some sort of maple or cedar. Whatever the smell, it fit the man. It had sex appeal written all over it.

  “Dammit!” The man’s thunderous whisper was accompanied by his clenched fist. Daisy jumped at his quieted word filled with fury.

  Daisy was confused because the man screamed of success, however his clothes didn’t match that image. His computer was top of the line. But the clothes he wore, though fitting him to perfection and certainly not box-store knockoffs, weren’t exactly business-class attire.

  Her first assessment: he was a man who went after what he wanted, and she had a feeling he was rarely denied. The researcher in her knew there was a story to him, and she was curious to find out what it was. The woman in her knew he was the type of man she wanted nothing to do with.