Chapter 20 Cole
Cole
I left the helicopter and headed for the back of the house. Voices and the distinctive soft thwack of croquet mallets drifted on the breeze. A little girl with dirt on her nose and dark hair in a messy ponytail appeared from nowhere. She scanned me up and down and wrinkled her nose.
“Are you Dick?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Mum keeps talking about Billionaire Dick. This is his house.” She pulled a crumbling chocolate chip cookie from her skirt pocket and shoved it into her mouth. “Mum’s left Paul because she says she can’t put up with his shit anymore, and now we’ve come to live with Auntie Lottie.”
Tiffany was here? Elain hadn’t mentioned it. My housekeeper gave me regular updates on how Charlotte was doing.
“Where is your aunt?”
“Everyone is playing croquet with Reuben.”
What the fuck? Elain raced around the corner, red-faced and panting. She took the little girl by the hand. “There you are. Your mum told me not to let you wander off.”
Elain’s eyes met mine. “Cole? We didn’t know you were coming.”
Rancor sharpened my voice. “Why didn’t you tell me Reuben was here?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t get round to it. It caught me off guard. Everyone arrived today.” Remorse glinted in her eyes and she wrung her hands in front of her. “I was about to message.”
She looked genuinely contrite. Enough to make me feel guilty. Elain was the only person in my employ who could do that to me. Perhaps because she reminded me so much of my mother. “I know you would have. I apologize for my tone.”
She smiled warmly. “You should join in the game. Everyone is having fun.”
They wouldn’t be having fun when I got hold of Reuben. At least I was here now. He needed reminding that Charlotte was mine. I pasted a smile on my face. “Maybe. Thanks.”
I marched away to find the adults at the back of the house.
It had been an impulsive decision to visit Charlotte.
I needed to brief her on the wedding arrangements.
It wasn’t something that needed to be done face-to-face, but her text this morning had been out of the blue.
Elain had mentioned that Charlotte wasn’t eating as well as usual.
I’d needed to see for myself that she was doing OK.
Fucking Reuben! What was he doing here? Had he come to make a move on Charlotte, or was he here to spy?
Probably both. I should have been keeping better track of his movements.
My heart pounded in anticipation of seeing Charlotte.
It was like being a teenager again, desperate to catch a glimpse after one of Roy’s revision sessions.
Charlotte had been on my mind constantly.
She was the first thing I thought about when I woke up and the last thing when I went to bed.
I could hardly concentrate or get any work done.
The highlight of my day was Elain’s report and the photos she sent me of Charlotte’s progress in the pottery studio.
I rounded the corner of the house, and a scene of chaos greeted me on the lawn. Tiffany guffawed as she swung her croquet mallet awkwardly at a ball and completely missed. She thrust the mallet at Charlotte, grabbed a champagne bottle from Reuben, and took a big swig.
Charlotte took her turn. Reuben and Tiffany cheered loudly when she finally hit the ball after several abysmal attempts.
A smile lit her lips. A genuine smile that made her nose scrunch in the way I’d always loved.
Warmth filled me, but then she high-fived Reuben, and any warmth I felt was swiftly replaced with fury.
Charlotte froze when she saw me approaching. The mallet dropped heavily from her hand and thudded on the grass. “Cole?”
She looked well. Freckles dotted her cheeks, and her hair fell in a glossy ponytail down her back.
Her patterned blue sleeveless sundress had a low, sweeping neckline.
It cinched at the waist, highlighting her beautiful curves.
It was a dress made for frolicking in meadows, weaving daisy chains, and making love in soft grass.
She looked divine, but it was her eyes that made my heart jolt. They were animated and full of life.
I smoothed my expression. “Having fun?”
Her cheeks were red. “I didn’t know you were coming.”
I let my disparaging gaze rove over the balls scattered all over the grass. “Clearly.”
Reuben lurched toward me with a daft grin and his hand outstretched. “Cole. So good to see you. I was just in the area—”
“Not now.” I turned my back on him and walked toward the house. “Come with me, please, Charlotte.”
I hovered in the doorway of the pottery studio. The place was sheer chaos. An assortment of pots lined the shelf and clay splattered the worktops and floor. The mess made my skin prickle. Charlotte grabbed a filthy apron from a hook by the door and threw it over her head.
“I didn’t know they were coming. Tiff just turned up here this morning. Then Reuben. I didn’t know how to get rid of him.”
“And you decided champagne and croquet might do the trick?”
“No, you’re right. It was a mistake.” Humor edged her voice. “That’s like posh people catnip. He’ll be here forever.”
“Reuben is a snake. He can’t be trusted.”
“Give me a break, Cole. You don’t trust anyone. You’re paranoid. I think you’ve got him all wrong, anyway. He’s harmless.”
Poor little Reuben. We’d walked away from him giving one of Charlotte’s feral nieces a piggyback ride. It was all part of his lovable idiot act. “Don’t be fooled. He wants to use you to manipulate me.”
Charlotte took a lump of clay from a big tub and dropped it onto a work surface. She worked it with flat palms, pressing down on alternate sides. “Not everyone is out to manipulate you.”
“No. Not everyone.” Just mostly everyone.
I braved the chaos to drift a little closer. “And your sister? How long is she staying for?”
She lifted the clay, folded it in half, and pressed it down again with her palms. “I don’t know.”
“You didn’t think to tell me? Any changes to your living situation need to go through me. I’m not running a guesthouse.”
Her hands froze in midair, and she turned to face me.
Her eyes blazed. “People go mad, you know. If you leave them in isolation for too long. I’m not a hermit.
It’s not unreasonable for me to spend time with my family and friends.
Tiff needs me. We’re supposed to be a happy couple.
Normal couples have their family and friends over and it’s not a big deal.
Why are you here, anyway? I didn’t know you were coming. How long are you staying for?”
“I came to talk to you about the wedding. It’s booked. Next week.”
Her eyes grew large. “Next week?”
“Is that a problem?”
“You don’t think you could have given me more warning? I haven’t even got a dress.”
“Everything is taken care of. You just need to show up on time.”
“You’ve done everything? What if the dress doesn’t suit me?”
It would. I remembered the kind she liked from all those years ago. Besides, she’d look good in a bin bag. What did it matter? “It will.”
She stepped close enough that her earthy smell engulfed me. A speck of clay sat on the bridge of her nose. I longed to wipe it away. Any excuse to touch her. Heat coiled in my belly.
She folded her arms, annoyed. “You should have let me choose my own dress.”
“If you don’t like the one I chose, get another one.”
Her voice hardened. “You have to be in control of everything, don’t you?”
A wave of unwelcome excitement went through me to have her so close. My eyes dropped to her lips. So fucking plump and luscious. “No. I like to make your life simpler. I thought you’d be happier if I just got on with the arrangements.”
I wanted to kiss her. To lift her onto that work surface and fuck her, regardless of the mess in here.
Bad idea. Really fucking bad idea. What was wrong with me that it turned me on so much when she was pissed off with me?
Maybe because it was better than seeing her sad.
At least if she was angry, she was plugged into the world.
It was the numbness that hurt me. It reminded me too much of my mother.
She swiped two beige handprints down her apron. “Fine. You’re the one trying to impress people. I don’t care what the dress looks like.”
She picked the clay up again, kneading and flattening it. “I’ll see you at the church. I won’t keep you any longer.”
The sound of children’s laughter drifted from the garden. Did she expect me to walk away and leave her here with Reuben? No fucking way. He didn’t get to share air with her. The minute I left here, he’d move in on her.
I stepped close again. “You need to tell Reuben to leave. He’s not welcome in my home. If he shows up again, you don’t entertain him.”
Electricity crackled between us in the small space. She peered up at me.
“I’m not responsible for your brother’s behavior. It’s not my fault if he visits your home.”
“He’s not my brother.”
Her pretty eyes narrowed. “What is it with this jealousy? Why? How is it going to look if I ban your own brother from setting foot on the property? That’s not what a secure marriage looks like. Can’t you see you’re putting me in a difficult position?”
“He’s not my brother.”
She chuffed out a humorless laugh. “You’re impossible sometimes. You know that? You put me out to pasture here all alone, as far away from you as possible. Why are you so worried about Reuben? What does it matter to you who I spend an afternoon with, as long as it’s discreet?”
“Your little drunken game of croquet is hardly discreet, and you’re not out to pasture. There are plenty of people to keep you company: Elain. Clive. Lauren.”
“They’re paid to do jobs here. They don’t have time to play croquet or sit around for a chat.”
“I can pay someone to play croquet with you.”
“That’s the answer to everything for you, isn’t it? Something’s bugging you, throw money at it.”
She was mad with me, and drunk, from the look of her shiny eyes and the way she was going at that clay like she had a personal vendetta against it. You could never get sense from drunk people. A memory forced its way into my consciousness.
My mother sprawled on the bathroom floor of her New York penthouse, with an empty vodka bottle and a tub of pills spilled across the tiles. I hauled her up in my arms and over the toilet bowl.
“Mum? Can you hear me?”
Her voice slurred. “You’re the only one . . . he doesn’t care about me.”
Panic threatened to undo me, but I had to stay calm. This had happened so many times before. It would be fine. I just had to act quickly. “What did you take?”
“You’re too good to me.”
“You’re not going to think that in a minute.” I forced my fingers down her throat.
Charlotte’s sigh brought me back to the studio. “If we’re done here?”
“We’re not done. I’ve booked Rome for the honeymoon.”
“Rome?”
The shock in her voice held me at the door. I couldn’t tell if it was good shock or bad shock. “Yes. Is that acceptable?”
She shook her head in disbelief. “Is that acceptable? Are you kidding me?” Her eyes softened. “I can’t believe you remembered.”
I’d booked Rome because Theo had informed me that Gabe Rivers was known to spend time training with his team in the football offseason. Since I couldn’t pin this bastard down to a meeting, I’d have to “accidentally” bump into him at his hotel.
She gazed at me with a more tender expression than I deserved. “Dad studied in Rome when he was a postgraduate. He talked about it all the time. This is a dream. I can’t believe it.”
A sliver of guilt ran through me, but if she was happy, then this worked well. “I’m pleased you’re happy.”
That part was true, anyway. Charlotte’s nose always scrunched when it was a genuine smile, and I couldn’t get enough of that.
She beamed and wrapped her arms around her middle, hugging herself.
“I have so many things I want to see. Oh my God. I’m going to get to see the Sistine Chapel.
I’ve always wanted to visit the Vatican.
” She gave a little squeal of delight, bounced on her heels, and clapped her hands in delight.
“It’s going to be so special. Thank you, Cole.
I mean it. Thank you so much.” She ripped off her apron and darted past me out of the door. “I have to tell Tiff.”
My chest filled with warmth. If I’d have known it would make her happy, I would have taken her to Rome on day one.
“Wait.” She spun on her heel. “Is it OK if Tiff and the girls stay here for a while? You’re right.
This isn’t a guesthouse. I should have asked.
And you’re just going to have to put up with Reuben popping by if we’re going to pull this off.
I’m not frog-marching your relatives off the property.
It looks suspicious. You have nothing to be jealous about.
He’s not my type, anyway.” Her eyes darted to me and she looked away.
“You said he was handsome.”
“That just means I have eyes. It doesn’t mean I’m going to do anything about it. You’re going to have to trust me if we have any hope of making this arrangement look convincing.”
I’d always prided myself on my unyielding approach to negotiations. I never gave ground. Things always went my way in the boardroom, except none of that seemed to apply with Charlotte. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t give this woman, and all she’d have to do was ask.
I nodded. “Fine. I trust you. You don’t have to turn Reuben away, but he better not make a habit of stopping by. Your family can stay as long as they need. Let me know if you need anything else.”