29. Chapter 29
”I”m an idiot,” I told Luna and Stella as we lounged by Stella”s pool in her incredible garden on the Friday evening a week after I came back from Miami.
The three of us were each holding a spoon as we indulged in a tub of rocky road ice cream.
It was a gorgeous day; and we”d spent the afternoon by the pool, yakking as we drank colorful drinks with umbrellas in them.
”We”re all idiots when we”re in love,” Luna announced, licking her spoon.
”When were you in love?” I asked, curious.
Stella guffawed. ”She”s been hung up on Dominic Calder for years.”
I raised an eyebrow. ”The Dominic Calder who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize a couple of years ago?” It was only one of the most prestigious awards in our business.
”First, I”m not hung up on him. Dom and I sort of grew up together.”
”As in, Dom”s mother was the help at the Steele Estate,” Stella explained.
”Oh my god, this is so juicy. I want to know more.”
”Nothing to know,” Luna snapped. ”Dom lives in New York, and I see him maybe once a year. He”s condescending, and I”m rude. His mother and my brother, who”s, for some reason, Dom”s best friend, try to keep the peace between us. Miss Abigail all but raised Lev and me.”
I knew Luna”s parents weren”t the cuddly sort. Her mother was a proper Southern lady who wore pearls and pantyhose at eight in the morning; and her father the proper Southern gentleman who played golf now that he was retired. Luna”s brother Lev ran the family business, which was forestry. The core of Steele Corporation was managing vast tracts of Southern pine and hardwood forests sustainably since Lev had taken over and supplied raw materials to various industries.
”She”s hung up on him,” Stella assured me.
Luna growled at her and dipped her spoon into the ice cream.
”And how about you, Stella?” I asked.
Stella was in her late twenties and single like me. ”I”ve dated but never fallen in love.”
”She”s waiting for Prince Charming,” Luna mocked.
Stella sighed. ”That”s true. I want someone who is warm and funny, loves to go dancing, wants to have a house in the country with a big garden, and wants to fill that house with children.”
”Add a white picket fence to that, and we”re set.” Luna patted her friend”s shoulder.
I arranged my sundress around my thighs. ”I don”t think falling in love is all that it”s cracked up to be. My heart hurts all the time. Every time I see him…I want to climb him like a tree.”
”I don”t blame you. Gabe Rhodes is hot.” Stella fanned herself with her hand.
”He”s been a dick to her,” Luna pointed out.
”A dick who”s all but on his knees apologizing,” Stella reminded her. ”And I hear he”s put his and his ex-wife”s house on the market and is looking to buy something new. She”s apparently telling the world that Gabe is screwing her over.”
”What nonsense,” Luna muttered. ”Everyone knows that he gave her a shit ton of money, and it”s not like she”s running low. Her family has got plenty.”
”But not her.” Stella waved her spoon. ”She apparently blew through her trust fund and she”s basically living off of Gabe. If he takes the house away, she”s going to have to buy one. She”s gonna fight tooth and nail.”
”How do y”all know so much about everyone?” I gasped.
”Honey, this is Savannah; gossip is the lubricant that oils the machine of this city,” Luna grinned. ”And the social circuit we”re a part of is incestuous. Everyone knows everyone”s business.”
”Tell me about it. Remember when Nina got divorced? Everyone knew that her husband had cheated on her with that tramp Angela.” Stella shook her head.
”When was this?” I asked. I knew Nina was divorced, but I didn”t know for how long.
”Six years ago, somethin” like that,” Luna recollected. ”That was a clusterfuck, pardon my French. Angela was his physical trainer. Talk about a cliché.”
”Nina kicked him out,” Stella continued.
”But he screwed her on money in the divorce. Which was why Stella asked her father to invest in Savannah Lace,” Luna mentioned.
I knew that Stella was a partner; I didn”t know how she”d become one.
Stella”s father was Senator Baron Hunt.
”That was nice of your father.” I scraped the last of the ice cream and then set the empty carton on the table next to my lounge chair.
Stella, who was sitting across from me on another chair, picked up the carton to look in it.
”Baron Hunt is anything but nice,” Luna snorted. ”In return for the money she now has to go to all the Hunt family events; and her father decides who”ll escort her.”
”Your father is setting up dates for you?” I chuckled.
”All asshole men who want to marry the sweet Hunt girl,” Luna laughed.
”Until they find out that maybe I”m not so sweet,” Stella smiled and fluttered her eyelashes.
But Stella was sweet. She wasn”t exactly as introverted as me, but she wasn”t bold and audacious like Luna either. She was a loner though—and even though I knew she and Luna were close, I always felt that Stella kept to herself, didn’t let anyone in to deep. I could relate.
I knew that Stella”s mother, who”d passed when she was a baby, was from Venezuela, and she, like me, was more brown than white. She wasn”t close to her father”s second wife or her step siblings I”d deduced from the ways she spoke of her family.
Despite Stella and Luna having grown up with one or two parents, they, like me, felt abandoned by them.
Maybe that”s why I felt this kinship with them, because we all understood what it meant to make our own way in this world.
”So, when”s your give-me-a-chance date with Gabe?” Luna wanted to know.
”Tomorrow. Lunch. That”s if he keeps it.” I was keeping my expectations low. He”d canceled so many dates that I was certain he”d do the same again, or he”d keep this one and go right back to it soon enough.
I was convinced that Gabriel saw me as someone he”d failed and wanted to right the wrong to soothe his ego. I didn”t think he loved me because if he did he”d never have treated me the way he did. I”d said yes to giving him a chance because I knew in my heart that he”d blow it, and when he did, I wasn”t going to let it crush me as I had that first time. This time, I”d be ready for it.
”Where”s he taking you?” Stella leaned back on her lounge chair.
Luna took her robe off and dove into the pool. They”d both been swimming by the time I got to Stella”s place. She”d said she”d lend me a swimsuit, but I was not in the mood for a swim, regardless of the heat.
”He didn”t say.” I watched Luna do the breaststroke gracefully. ”Just said, dress casually.”
”Hey, are you giving him a real chance or a pity one?” Stella asked.
”A real chance, but I know he”s going to screw it up, Stella. I have no doubt about that.”
”That”s not giving him a real chance,” Stella protested.
”That may be so, but it”s the best I can do,” I admitted sadly.