The Tycoon's Perfect Match Read Online Free

couldn’t just walk away. They needed him. Besides, before his mother died he’d promised her that he’d take care of the family. He made that promise, thinking that she wouldn’t suffer any longer if she knew that everyone would be okay.
    Finally after several years, everything and everyone was stable. Everyone had something that made them happy.
    Except him.
    When had he become complacent? Where had his ambitions gone?
    Maybe now was the time to rekindle his dreams.

Chapter Three
    S herwood Lodge was as beautiful as Mari remembered. The wide mahogany floors gleamed in the late-afternoon sun, and she could see the deep, blue, spring-fed lake through the arched, beveled windows.
    There was natural, beaded fir on the cathedral ceiling, accented by arched cherry trusses. This style carried through in the six bedrooms throughout the house: one on the first floor, four on the second floor and one on the third. Each bedroom either had its own screened porch or an arched, open porch.
    The nearest neighbors were five hundred yards away in each direction. She’d have more than enough privacy.
    Mari ran up the stairs to the turret, which had been her favorite room growing up. On rainy days, she played dolls and pretended that she was a princess in a castle, waiting for her Prince Charming—who looked remarkably like Brian Hawkins. Or she’d read a book, or write in her diary. Many times, she’d sit on the window seat and watch for someone to come over and ask her to play.
    Every summer, her parents came to Sherwood Lodge for a month. Her mother and father still talked about work, and were constantly on the phone to the office, but the three of them would still find time to picnic outside and swim together. When she was younger they’d hold her hand and go for walks.
    But after the month was over, her parents would return to Boston, and Grandma Rose would come and stay with her for the rest of the summer at Sherwood Lodge.
    But things changed during the week of her sixteenth birthday when her father announced that they wouldn’t be coming back to Hawk’s Lake anymore. He’d said that he was selling Sherwood Lodge to the Hawkins family.
    Mari’s world came crashing down, and she’d been inconsolable. She’d barely left the turret room, and wrote endlessly in her tearstained diary. She’d constantly asked her parents why they had to sell, even begged them not to, but they held steadfast to their decision.
    She remembered her father’s words. “We don’t really need Sherwood Lodge, Marigold. We just don’t have the time to spend here. It’s a simple business decision. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices.”
    A business decision? Her cottage wasn’t a business. It was home. She wasn’t alone at the lodge all the time, like she was in Boston. She was part of a family. She had parents who paid attention to her for once. Well, anyway, way more than usual.
    The truth was, they’d rather work than be with her.
    Because it hurt too much over the years, Mari hadn’t responded to any of Melanie Hawkins’s attempts to keep in touch. She and Jack hadn’t really been that close, so she really didn’t expect him to contact her.
    But Brian was another story. He’d been her pal, then her first crush. Brian was the first boy she’d kissed. And her young heart had shattered into a million pieces when he never even said goodbye.
    As time passed, the more strange it seemed to reestablish contact with any of the Hawkins kids—especially Brian—so she’d never bothered.
    Looking down, she saw Brian leaning against his sporty convertible, waiting for her. He was still so handsome that she almost forgot to breathe when she looked at him.
    She remembered how they used to hang out by the lake and dive off the dock. Even now, she could imagine Brian stretched out on the small piers, his sculpted body all wet and glistening in the