Billionaire's Surprise Blind Date: The Jackson Brothers, #4

By Rachel Foster

Billionaire Jonas has over 60 car shops in America and he is opening a new one in Iowa. After the grand opening, he hangs out with a friend that lives there. The friend tells him about a blind date he has set up for Jonas that night. Jonas doesn't really want to go but decides to since he'd probably never see the woman again. Things don't go to plan because she is gorgeous and everything he wants… He can't go home now… Not until he has her. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: 3rd Publishing
• Release date: Mar 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215625927

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Billionaire's Surprise Blind Date

Rachel Foster

Copyright © 2018 by Rachel Foster

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Contents

Billionaire's Surprise Blind Date

Billionaire's Surprise Blind Date

1

Rachel

I

swear, I had just picked up my fork to take a bite of my salad when my pager sprang to life, and I knew that I was going to have to drop everything to deal with whatever disaster had just started to unfold.

I got to my feet and grabbed my coat from where I had dumped it over the back of the chair of the café that I had been eating at – I stifled a yawn as I checked the pager, trying to work out what might have happened to call me back in again so soon. I had been planning to head home after covering a ten-hour shift, but it looked as though I wasn’t going to get out of it that easily.

An accident. Car wreck, apparently – they needed all hands on deck down there as soon as possible, and that included me. I threw some money down on the table and gathered my shit, and headed for the door. Thank God I hadn’t gone home after all. These people needed me.

I made it back to the hospital in less than ten minutes, and Irina, the doctor on call, ushered me through to the staffroom so I could get scrubbed up to help treat the injuries that had just come in.

How bad are we talking here? I asked her. She pulled a face.

Pretty damn bad, she replied, shaking her head. Can you handle the superficial injuries? I need to look over everyone and see who we’re going to need to get into surgery.

Of course I can, I replied, and she nodded to me in thanks, and then dived out the door and picked up where she had left off before I had arrived.

The floor of the hospital was buzzing with energy, as nurses and doctors and orderlies ran back and forth to take care of everyone who was being brought in. From what I could pick up from the conversations that were happening around me, there had been a bus involved in the crash, which was why there was such a stack of people being wheeled through the door right now. I took a deep breath, and promised myself that, no matter what happened, I could handle this.

I helped the new arrivals get into the relevant rooms for their injuries – there was a serious mismatch of intensity here, some people not even concious, others basically okay apart from a few bumps and scratches. But it was clear that they were in shock, and they needed someone right now to tell them that they were safe, that they were where they needed to be, and that nothing bad was going to happen to them. That was where I came in.

Can I take a look, honey? I asked a young girl, who had a large graze over her left eye. She was still shaking hard, but she didn’t protest as I went to move her hair out of the way so that I could get a better look.

That looks like it must hurt, I remarked to her, as I quickly disinfected the cut and covered it with a sterile cover. How are you feeling?

I don’t know, The little girl replied. Her voice sounded hollow, and I wished that I could give her a hug. I knew that I had other things to be taking care of right now, but the urge to just sit here and tell her that everything was going to be okay was almost overwhelming.

Well, I didn’t have a hug, but I could give her some of the candy we kept in the drawer, mostly for the sugar rush that the nurses would need to get through the rest of their shifts. I grabbed a sucker and handed it to her.

Here, I murmured. This will help. Nurse-approved.

You mean it? She asked, and I saw the quirk of a smile at the corners of her lips. I nodded. That was what I needed to see from her.

Yeah, I do, I replied. You sit here and eat your candy, okay? I’ll be back to check on you soon.

And, with that, I stepped out of the room to see what else needed doing. The chaos was still filling the floor, but it seemed to have slowed a little, thank God. Most of the people with serious injuries were being checked over my doctors who knew what they were doing, and the more minor ones were in nurses’ stations.

I stuck around for another hour or so, until I was sure that there was nothing left for me to do – I knew that, at a certain point, I would just be getting under the feet of people who needed their space, and I was ready to head home and get some sleep, anyway. The adrenalin of arriving and seeing everything that was happening had been enough to carry me through some of the way, but now, I was ready to start resting up.

I felt like I had hardly had time to sleep since I had arrived here, a couple of weeks ago. I knew that starting over was always tough, but this had been even more difficult than I had imagined it would be. Getting all my shit here had been one thing – I had been moved into this studio apartment that was covered by the hospital through the summer, as they always needed new employees to help cover the uptick in cases that they had to handle over the course of the hotter months. But unpacking my stuff had been the easy part. It was everything that came next that I struggled with as badly as I did.

I felt like I had been non-stop at the hospital since I had gotten here, too. I knew that they wouldn’t have hired someone like me if they didn’t need the extra coverage, but I hadn’t been prepared from the jump from fresh-graduate to travel nurse trying to keep up with an influx of injuries and minor disasters. This wasn’t even the first major auto accident that I had been in attendance on – given that we were so close to the highway, it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, but handling something as heavy as that was never easy.

I thought back to the little girl with the graze on her head as I made my way back to my apartment. I hoped that she was doing a little better now. And I hoped, more than anything, that whoever had been with her was going to come out of there in one piece, too. I knew how hard it could be to lose someone like that, someone who was meant to take care of you. The hole that it left in your soul, no matter how much you tried to fill it...

As soon as I stepped back inside my house, my phone rang. For a moment, I thought that it was the hospital calling me back yet again, and I had to stifle an exhausted groan – but then I checked it, and saw that it was Michael calling. Okay, Michael, I could handle right now. Mainly because I knew that he wasn’t going to call me in to do another few hours on shift before I got to go to sleep.

Hey, Mikey, I greeted him as I flopped down on the bed in the center of the apartment.

Michael, he replied playfully. You know I hate it when you call me that.

I sure do, I replied brightly. Why do you think I keep doing it?

Why do I bother with you? He sighed, and I laughed.

Because you love me, I replied at once, knowing it was the truth. Michael and I had met when we were in college, when we were both studying medicine, and he had gone on to become a big-shot doctor in our hometown. I was seriously proud of him, and he was about the only thing I missed from the life that I’d had back there.

Yeah, you’re lucky I do, he replied. So, how’s life in the new city?

It’s good, I replied. Tiring. It’s way busier here than I thought it would be.

You coping okay? He asked. I nodded, forgetting for a moment that he couldn’t see me.

Yeah, I’m going to be fine, I replied at once. Just...need some time to figure out what I want to do next, that’s all.

How long since you last got some sleep? He asked me. I cast my mind back.

I’m not actually sure, I replied. But you know I don’t sleep well at this time of year...

Yeah, probably not helped by the fact that you’re bending over backwards to make sure that you impress your new boss, he remarked. He had a point. But still, that didn’t mean that I was going to concede it to him.

Probably not, I replied, as brightly as I could. So, what’s up with you guys? You and Mel doing okay?

Mel was his wife – they had been high school sweethearts, and they were about the only thing that convinced me that marriage might have been worth doing in the first place. She was just as lovely as he was, and she had been so welcoming and sweet to me. She was never one of those women who got uptight about her partner having friends who weren’t men, but then, I supposed, it wasn’t like Michael had given her any reason to be, either.

Yeah, we’re fine, he replied. Missing having you around, though.

Oh, I’m flattered, I replied.

And we’re worried about you, he continued, bluntly. One of the best things about Michael was knowing that he always said just what was on his mind. Even when I would have preferred that he kept it to himself, that was.

No reason to be, I replied, trying not to let him hear the sadness in my voice. I knew that he had good reason to be worried – I knew that they both did. That I had come here to run away from something, and that anyone who knew anything about me could have seen that from a million miles away.

You know that you’re always welcome back here, he remarked. You can stay with us, anything you want-

I’m not ready to come back yet, I told him, and I meant it. The thought of being in that town again, without my parents, without the people who had been the only ones to make me feel better – no, I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t handle it. Better to be here and be all alone that to be all the way back there and distinctly aware of it.

He sighed. I knew that he was just trying to help, but he couldn’t push me to do anything that I didn’t want to. The last thing I needed right now was someone to get in my way, and I knew that nothing he could do would change that right now.

Come on, tell me what’s been going on back there, I told him, trying to change the subject. You must have something interesting to report, right?

With that, I laid back on my mind, and listened to him tell me everything that I had missed since I had left. And, though I felt a pang of sadness knowing that there was so much that I was missing out on, I knew that this had been the right choice for me. I needed to put as much space between myself and the memories of what had happened as possible. I had already lost enough as it was – the last thing I needed was the constant reminder that all of this had happened, and that there would be no way to escape the results of it.

My life had changed, completely. And that meant that I had to change to match it, too.

2

Jonas

"Y

es!" I called out, punching the air as the white and blue racer whipped by in front of us. Over the line, first – another winner in the bag.

That was your one, right? Liz asked from beside me, sipping on the beer in the plastic cup that we had picked up from the vendor. I nodded.

It sure was, I replied. Come on, let’s go down and see the driver – I bet he’ll want to celebrate.

Like you don’t do enough celebrating already, Jake teased me lightly. He and his new girlfriend, Liz, had agreed to take a day off from their work at the farm to come and watch one of our cars racing, and I had been keeping everything crossed that this was going to be another day where we won. And, sure enough – I had proved once again that I had nothing at all to worry about. I was on to another winner. And that was that.

I loved the smell of the air when I was down here, the diesel fumes and the buzz of the crowd as everyone pulled for their favorite driver or their favorite vehicle. Of course, my line of mechanic shops had sponsored the driver that had won today, so I had already been given a favorite before I had so much as walked through the entrance to the track that day.

Usually, I came out here alone, but it felt good to have some company for a change – and I knew that Liz and Jake would never have taken time off if I didn’t make them, so I was doing them a favor just as much as they were me. I threw back the last of the beer that I had been working on over the course of the race, and then headed down the stands. I could feel a few people staring at me, probably wondering if my jacket – branded with the same logo as the winning car – rendered me part of that team or not. I felt like turning around and telling them that, yeah, actually, it did, but I doubted that they would have believed me. That didn’t bother me. I knew the truth, and that truth was that I had pulled off another win for my company once again.

Back in the day, I had been sure that I would be the one driving these cars. If my parents hadn’t been so dead-set against the thought of it, I would have been the one whipping around that track at hundreds of miles an hour, instead of sitting in the stands drinking beer and watching from afar. I had settled for sponsoring my own national company of mechanic shops, and I knew that we were a