Waking Up with a Billionaire (The Overnight Billionaires Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

fate, but it had certainly seemed like the stars were aligned when an Englishwoman stopped by the Fisherman’s Wharf stand where Chloe sold flowers to tourists and struck up a conversation about lavender. They’d talked for a good hour, and for some reason, Chloe had done something she never did: She’d talked about the past. Not the bad parts, but the time she’d spent in her grandparents’ flower gardens and how they had taught her all about annuals, biennials, and perennials. What flowers needed full sun and what flowers needed little. Using tea or coffee grounds in the soil to acidify, and eggshells for valuable nutrients. At the end of the conversation, the woman had given Chloe a card and offered her a job at a gardening nursery she owned outside London. All Chloe had to do was get there.
    Unfortunately, tickets to England weren’t cheap. Not to mention the money she would need to live on until she got her first paycheck. Damn Grayson for losing his painting mojo and turning into such an ass. Now she would need to figure out another way to get the money.
    Her thoughts were so wrapped up in her money issues that she almost walked into a teenage girl sitting on the sidewalk. The girl was strumming a guitar with a fast-food cup of change in front of her. She didn’t look to be over sixteen and had the same desperate, hungry look that Chloe had once had.
    Regardless of her financial troubles, Chloe pulled a ten-dollar bill out of her purse and placed it in the cup. The girl stopped playing, and her eyes filled with gratitude. Which had Chloe jotting down the name of the flower stand on Fisherman’s Wharf and handing it to the girl.
    “I’ll be leaving in a couple weeks, and the owner will need someone to help her. She doesn’t ask questions, and she pays in cash.”
    The teenager took the paper, then hesitantly asked, “You were a runaway?”
    Chloe added another couple of dollars to the cup. “I still am.”
    After leaving the girl, Chloe headed to her apartment. It was a small studio, and for the rent she paid, it was quite a steal. Especially in San Francisco, where rent was as high as the Golden Gate Bridge. At one time she had lived there with Madison and Eden. But Madison had moved to a high-rise apartment downtown that went with her new top-model profile, and Eden had moved in with Nash. Now it was just Chloe who lived there.
    When she arrived, Mr. Garcia was standing in front with his little dog, Scamper. She tried to keep her distance from the other tenants. But Mr. Garcia was hard to ignore. He was a suspicious old guy who viewed himself as the building watch. He took one look at her and started his interrogation.
    “What are you doing off work? I thought you sold flowers on the wharf during the day.”
    “I do, but I took the day off.”
    His eyes narrowed. “You’re not going to start selling drugs, are you?”
    “No, sir,” she said as the terrier raced over to greet her. Chloe didn’t like dogs. They were too easy to get attached to. But it was hard to ignore Scamper’s big brown eyes. So she bent down and gave his ears a quick scratch. The dog immediately rolled to his back and exposed his belly for more scratches as Mr. Garcia continued.
    “It wouldn’t surprise me if you were into something shady. Especially with that tattoo and hole in your nose.”
    Chloe touched the side of her nose that had once held a diamond stud. Zac had called it an engagement diamond when he’d paid for it and her piercing, but really it had been more like the ring placed in a bull’s nose to control it. She had stopped wearing the stud after he’d been arrested for running a prostitution ring.
    The thought made her realize that Mr. Garcia was right. She had been involved in something shady, all because she had once been as desperate and hungry as the little guitar-playing girl. But never again. Never again.
    She gave Scamper one last scratch before she rose. “I promise I’m not selling drugs or doing