Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
L izzie held the back door open and waited for everyone to go inside for dinner. Twinkle lights now dripped from every branch and bush they could reach around the lawn and the wedding arch. The sun had set and the lights were on, making the lawn feel like a fairy bower. “Thanks, everybody. It looks fantastic. The bride will be thrilled.”
Mark patted her shoulder. “I pulled the tent out of storage just in case, but hopefully we won’t need it. It would kill the effect.”
“I checked the forecast,” Lizzie said. “There’s a small cold front coming tomorrow, but it’s supposed to clear off fast. It should be decently warm and sunny this weekend.”
“Good. One less thing to worry about.” Mark passed through the door.
Lizzie put a hand out to stop Della before she followed the boys inside. “Della, can I talk to you for a minute?”
Della looked at her with curiosity. “Sure.”
Lizzie let the door shut so they’d have a little privacy. “Renic is staying here. He checked in this afternoon. ”
“I thought you kicked him out?”
“I did.” Lizzie pursed her lips. “Then he made a reservation under a fake name and paid the deposit.”
“Cancel it.” Della didn’t sound concerned. “Refund the deposit.”
“I can’t.” Lizzie couldn’t believe she was in this situation. How had she let this happen?
“Why not?”
Lizzie winced. “I spent the money.”
“So?” Della looked confused.
“I can’t give him what I don’t have, Della. I paid the plumber with Renic’s deposit. There’s nothing left.”
“Oh.” Della waved her hand as if that were the least of their concerns. “I’ll give him the money, then you can make him leave.”
Lizzie’s pride itched at the offer. She was supposed to provide for her sisters, not the other way around, and she wouldn’t take advantage of them, no matter how much she needed the money. “No. I told you your money is no good here.”
Lizzie opened the door and gestured for her sister to go on through.
Della didn’t budge. “Why the hell not?”
“You’re my little sister, not my bank manager. That’s why not. It’s a temporary cash flow issue, not a permanent situation. Besides, I honor my commitments. He's paid to stay, so he stays.”
“You hate asking for help, don't you. I don’t think I realized quite how much until right this second.” Della tilted her head to one side. “You’d rather let Darth Renic stay under your roof than accept help from your little sister.”
Lizzie sighed in exasperation. “I don’t care what you say. I’m still not taking your money. ”
Della brushed past her into the house. “Fine. But I’m not playing nice.”
“Trust me, I’m not either.” Lizzie let the door shut behind them and followed her sister down the hall.
Della caught up to Mark and Carter halfway to the kitchen. She hooked arms with them, and her usual bounce returned in full force, a blatant attempt to get into character before she faced Renic. “Hanging lights is a lot better than scrubbing toilets.”
Mark’s shoulders stiffened, but Carter’s chest puffed up. Carter seemed to enjoy Della’s company, while Mark always acted slightly irritated by her. He was slow to warm up, but intensely loyal once he did.
Della glanced back over her shoulder at Lizzie. “Are we doing more tomorrow? I think they’d look fantastic on the path to Lookout Point.”
Lizzie smiled. “Maybe. Not sure we have enough left. Even if we do, tomorrow is the day we spruce.”
“Spruce? Is that some kind of air freshener?” Della asked. She glanced at Lizzie for confirmation.
Carter shook his head. “She means clean. The day before the day before is always a cleaning day.”
Lizzie nodded. “Top to bottom. Every nook and cranny and toilet.”
Della groaned. “I just did that. I’ve scrubbed so many toilets my nose turned brown.”
Lizzie waved her objection away. “You did the teardown clean. Now it’s the spruce-up clean. After that, it’s the final makeready. A full day of decorating and polishing and perfecting. Setting up the chairs and the bar, getting the buffet ready. It has to be perfect.”
“You’re not serious.” Della gaped at her, then at Mark and Carter. “She’s not serious. ”
Mark barked a laugh. “She’s deadly serious. Wait until she calls for battle stations. You’ll wish you were scrubbing toilets, princess.”
Lizzie beamed at her sister’s incredulous face. “We’ll go over all that later. Go on. Dinner’s ready.”
The three younger people continued while Lizzie paused to text Jordanna. Dinner ’ s ready. Come on over.
A second later, Jordanna replied. Gonna b late. Client crisis.
“Worse than this one?” Lizzie put her phone away and followed the others to the kitchen.
“Renic,” Carrie said. “Meet my nephew Mark Tetrick, and his younger brother, Carter. Boys, this is Jackson Renic. He’s the one producing Della’s new album.”
Lizzie stopped at the door. Renic had come to dinner. She’d meant to tell him to get his own food, but now she couldn’t remember if she’d actually said those words out loud.
“Nice to meet you,” Renic said. “Hello, Della. Good to see you.”
“Hey, Renic.” Della raised her eyebrows at Lizzie. “Lizzie said you were staying but she didn’t tell me you were coming to dinner.”
Lizzie shot Renic a dirty look. “There was no need since he wasn’t invited.”
“There’s the Southern hospitality I’ve been waiting for.” Renic teased.
Carrie patted Lizzie on the shoulder and gave her a disapproving look. “I invited him. It’s my kitchen, and I feed anybody who’s hungry. That okay with you?”
“Of course,” Lizzie said through gritted teeth. She leaned close to her sister’s ear and whispered, “Don’t sit near him.”
“Wasn’t planning on it,” Della whispered back.
Carter stepped in between Renic and Lizzie. He stared the older man down with territorial passion. “You want me to get him out of here, Lizzie?”
Carrie hit his shoulder. “Don’t be rude. Wash up and then get the salad out of the fridge. Mark, you get the wine.”
Lizzie stared at Renic. Words tumbled through her brain but refused to come out of her mouth. He was invading family dinner night. He didn’t belong here. He wasn’t family. He was never going to be family. She was about to tell him exactly that when Carrie waved to get her attention.
“Lizzie? Can you get the plates, please?” Carrie flashed her a knowing look. “Della, grab the silverware.”
They all busied themselves with the tasks Carrie had given them, except for Renic, who sat on his stool like a smug, self-satisfied toad. Lizzie plopped a plate down in front of him a little too hard, then had to suppress the flash of guilt she felt at mistreating Carrie’s dinnerware.
“Careful, Lizzie, it’s not the plate’s fault,” Renic said in a low voice.
“No, it’s yours,” She muttered. “What the hell are you doing?”
Renic gave her an innocent smile. “I was told meals were included.”
“They aren’t.”
“That’s okay. I’m happy to pay extra.”
She wanted to shove him off the stool. The twinkle in his eyes told her he knew exactly what she was thinking. She gathered her patience, reminded herself she was an adult, and moved on down the island with her stack of plates.
Della followed behind her with the silverware. When she reached Renic, he looked at her with concern. “How are you doing, Della? I’ve been worried about you.”
“I’m great.” She continued around the island. When she finished, she claimed a stool as far away from Renic as possible. “ It’s really nice getting to see Lizzie and just relax for a change. It’s amazing up here. Peaceful. How did you find this place, Lizzie?”
Lizzie claimed her own seat, directly across the island from Renic. He’d rolled up his sleeves, and his five o’clock shadow accentuated the angles of his face. The effect was annoyingly sexy. “I came for the winery tour, and ended up staying a few days. Days turned to weeks. By then I was hooked, and didn’t want to leave.”
Renic caught her looking at him and smirked. She turned her attention quickly to the other end of the island where Mark was waiting with four unopened bottles of wine.
Two large pot pies had been placed in the center of the island, along with a big bowl of salad.
Carrie perched on a stool opposite Della. “So, mighty winemaker, how’d I do? Stumped yet?”
Mark scoffed at her. “Not even close.”
He opened the first bottle and poured a tasting portion in each glass before handing it to Carrie, who passed it down the island to the next person until they all held a glass of white wine in their hands.
“I did have to dip into my own reserves for this one. Seriously? Pot pie? We might as well be at the county fair.”
Carrie looked unapologetic. “Everybody loves chicken pot pie. It’s a fair test.”
“Right. Well, tonight I’m pairing chicken pot pie with a fantastic 2016 Tetrick Chardonnay.” Mark held up the glass, peering at it as if it were a diamond before glancing around the table. “Who’s first?”
Della picked up her glass but looked at Mark, confused. “First for what?”
Lizzie sniffed her wine. “I detect notes of licorice with a side of bacon and a steel finish. ”
Renic barked out a laugh.
Lizzie shared a smirk with him, forgetting for half a second that she hated him.
Mark looked at her with mock irritation. “Be serious. There’s a free sundae on the line. So far, Carrie’s up by three.”
“Do we have to do this every time we have a meal?” Carter rolled his eyes.
Carrie poked Carter in the shoulder. “Not every time. Just family dinner time. Besides, you need to know this stuff, oh nephew of mine. You’ll be helping to run this place soon. How’s it going to look if the guy who does the business doesn’t know the first thing about the product he’s selling?”
“That’s what Mark is for,” Carter said. “He’s product development. I’m distribution and marketing.”
“Does anybody else want to take a stab at it?” Marks said. He eyed Lizzie. “A serious stab?”
She winked at him. She hadn’t known a thing about wine when she first came to the Finger Lakes. Now that she’d been here three years, she knew just enough to really tease the wine snobs. Mark was fiercely proud of the wines he produced, and she knew they were excellent. She didn’t know the right way to describe them, and the wrong way was so much more fun.
Everyone raised their glass and sniffed.
“Pear?” Carrie glanced at Mark for confirmation.
He nodded. “Yes, and…”
Renic took a small sip of the wine and rolled it around in his mouth before making an appreciative noise of approval. “Apple.”
“Exactly right. And one more…” Mark glanced around the table. “Anybody?”
They all sniffed again, but nobody said anything until Della piped up. “It’s lemony underneath the apple. ”
Mark raised his eyebrows at her, clearly impressed. “Very good.”
Carrie nodded her approval. “Well done, Della. You know something about wine, don’t you.”
Della shrugged. “I go to a lot of parties.”
Mark’s expression darkened a little.
Lizzie stepped in before the two started arguing again. They’d been doing it practically nonstop since Della arrived. Della really seemed to touch all of his buttons. “Dig in, everybody, before it gets cold.”
“Yes, and be prepared to judge the pairing after,” Carrie said. “I was so sure I’d stump him with this one.”
Everyone busied themselves, heaping servings of pot pie and salad on their plates. Conversations broke out in low mumbles as they started eating. Carrie asked Della about wines she liked, while Carter grilled Renic about the latest musicians in his stable.
Lizzie took a bite and contemplated her next move. Renic was here so he could pressure Della. She really didn’t want to give him that chance. Whatever was going on with Della, this time she’d make damn sure the career choice she made was entirely her own.
To keep Renic away from Della, she’d have to get him out of the house. How?
She sipped the wine, savoring the way it set off the thick cream sauce of the pot pie, while she studied her sister and Renic.
He watched Della with a thoughtful expression. Della avoided his gaze, focused instead on Mark and Carter and a lively discussion of where they should hang more twinkle lights for the wedding.
Twinkle lights. That gave her an excellent idea. If they were going to decorate more they definitely needed more twinkle lights.
Lizzie smiled to herself.
Renic looked at her questioningly. She covered the smile with another bite of pot pie and plotted out her attack. Renic had five days at Belhurst Castle. There was nothing she could do about that. He could try his best to infiltrate her new family every bit as much as he had before, with all his formidable charm and charisma as weapons.
But she had her own weapons. She would make sure he didn’t have any room to manipulate or maneuver and nip his little scheme in the bud before he broke up her new family too.
At 6:30 the next morning, Lizzie stood outside the Rose Room door ready to do battle with the enemy. She’d promised her sister she’d keep Renic off her back, so that was precisely what she was going to do.
She pounded on the door and shouted, “Renic! Rise and shine!” Her voice was that of someone who’d been up for two hours and had three cups of coffee.
When Renic didn’t respond, she pounded again, longer and louder. “Come on, Renic. The sun is shining. It’s a beautiful day. Time to get up and get the day going.”
She thought she heard a muffled swear word. She smiled and pounded a third time. “Rise and shine, shine, shine,” she said in the singsong voice her sisters hated.
“…minute,” Renic said.
A few seconds later, Renic yanked the door open and squinted at her. He’d wrapped one of the thicker dark green blankets around him like a kid on Saturday morning, and he still wore his socks. They were a cheerful bright blue with giant red dots.
A cold draft rushed past her into the hallway, making her shiver.
She frowned. “Did you sleep with the windows open?”
She’d told him to yesterday, but she hadn’t expected him to actually do it. It was fifty-two degrees outside but felt colder.
Renic leaned against the door. He looked exhausted. “What do you want, Lizzie. What time is it?”
He squinted down at his bare wrist as if a watch might materialize.
“It’s 6:35. You need to get dressed. We have places to go, and the contractor will be here in twenty minutes. Unless you want to lay there while they put up drywall?”
She smiled sweetly at him.
He rubbed his face with both hands as if he thought he was hallucinating. “What?”
“The longer you stand here talking, the less time you’ll have to get dressed.”
He made a noise suspiciously like a growl and turned his back on her, leaving the door open. She took that as an invitation and entered the room.
While Renic tugged a change of clothes out of his suitcase and dropped them in a pile on the dresser, Lizzie snooped surreptitiously around the room. The trash in the bathtub was gone. The marks on the bathroom floor were scrubbed away, the toilet gleamed as if just polished, and the room smelled fresh.
He’d made the bed with several layers of blankets, and she’d been right about the windows. They were still wide open. The room was frigid even though the fireplace was going. He’d probably spent the night shivering instead of sleeping.
A tiny dagger of guilt stabbed her chest.
“Nice of you to run up the heat bill,” Lizzie said. She hadn’t meant to say it, but for some reason being around Renic brought out the snark in her.
Renic dropped the blanket he’d wrapped around his shoulders onto the bed. He wore a thick navy sweatshirt and gray boxer briefs that left nothing to the imagination. “It was that or suffocation by stench.”
“If you’re unhappy with the room you should find someplace else to stay.”
Renic looked at her as if he was about to argue, then the corner of his mouth twitched. He pulled the sweatshirt off and tossed it onto the bed.
Lizzie blinked, a little shocked at the sudden display of bare flesh, then stared because she couldn’t help herself.
She’d never seen Renic with his shirt off before. A part of her that she’d been ignoring for a long, long time had wondered what he’d look like. That long-forgotten part was definitely paying attention now.
He looked like someone who took out his frustrations through exercise.
The man had a body that belonged in a magazine, with well-defined abs and pecs. It was the kind of chest she associated with the farm boys in the town where she’d grown up. They built muscles by lifting bales of hay and shoveling manure, which made said muscles rock hard and pretty to look at.
It struck her how very different Renic was from her ex-husband. The Pogo Stick, as she’d taken to calling him, was tall, wiry, and wore a smaller pant size than she did. She’d always felt clunky around him .
Renic was a little shorter than the Stick, broader at the shoulders, and more substantial. His arms would make her feel petite and protected.
She shouldn’t be thinking like that.
She should look away, or better yet, leave the room to give him some privacy, but she didn’t.
Her face heated when she realized he was watching her assess his body with interest. He raised an eyebrow as if waiting for the judge’s score and expecting a solid ten out of ten.
She’d give him a fifteen.
An evil grin spread across his face. “Why are you here, Lizzie? You said something about places to go?”
“Uh…we need…” Lizzie took a breath and tried again. “We need twinkle lights. For the path to Lookout Point.”
“That definitely sounds like something we should do at the crack of dawn.” He flexed his chest muscles. “And you need my help for this because?”
“I need a ride.” She needed to get a grip. She’d lost complete control of the situation. “They need the truck to move the chairs. For the wedding.”
“Uh-huh.” Renic sounded like he didn’t believe a word she was saying.
“And I thought we could talk. You said you wanted to talk. I’m not saying I’ll agree with you, or let you push us around. But…” She was momentarily distracted by Renic’s backside as he folded his sweatshirt and placed it in the top dresser drawer. “…I’ll listen. You know, to what you have to say. If you want.”
Renic paused with his back to her as if thinking over what she’d just said. “You want me to pitch to you while we shop for twinkle lights. I have to say, Lizzie, that’s a new one. If I say yes to this, you have to listen without arguing, or blaming me for anything, until I finish. Deal?”
Lizzie crossed her arms. His blatant attempt to manipulate the situation to his advantage helped her get control of her thoughts and her hormones. He just had to have the last word. Well, not this time. “I haven’t blamed you for anything you didn’t deserve.”
“Hmmm.” Renic launched another attack on her senses by pulling off his boxer briefs. In two seconds, he was standing in front of her bare-assed naked, except for the socks.
She made a sound that was meant to be some sort of outraged cry, but then stunned silence took control of her mouth. His back side was just as…damn, it was as fine as the front.
She swallowed hard and willed herself toward the door, but for some reason her body refused to cooperate.
Renic turned around.
Her eyes widened and her pulsed kicked into overdrive as she took in the rest of him. He was not as cold as she thought he was. She stared, unable to pull her gaze away.
He tossed his underwear onto the bed and smirked. He picked up the fresh clothes he’d pulled out of the suitcase and sauntered up to her. “Mind if I shower and get dressed? I know it’s a lot to look at, and I hate to deprive you of the view until you’re ready. I’m happy to wait as long as you want.”
“I…you…what…,” Lizzie stammered.
“Waltz into a man’s room first thing in the morning, and he’ll take it as a request to see him naked.” He went into the bathroom. “If you’d like to see more of the show feel free to join me in the shower.”
He grinned maliciously and shut the door .
Lizzie quickly moved away from the bathroom, as if putting distance between herself and the naked man on the other side would somehow erase the image of him that had burned into her brain. She went to stand in front of the open windows to let the cold air hit her hot face.
What the hell was she doing? She should have just stayed in the hall. She should have just called to wake him up. It wasn’t like she didn’t have his phone number. Hell, she should have just refused to let him stay, period.
Cold air from the open window penetrated the flannel shirt she wore, making her shiver. She couldn’t believe he’d actually stayed here all night. She shut the windows, then turned, feeling awkward. Her plan to whisk him away early and keep him away from Della for most of the day now felt childish and stupid.
Could she really spend that much time with him?
Would she ever be able to look at him again without picturing him naked?
Flustered, she straightened the blankets on the bed, then let her hand linger on the warm spot he’d left behind. She could imagine him lying there, naked against the sheets. The fantasy swirled around her, despite the anger she felt toward him.
He was a jerk.
He ruined her family.
Yet…
The bathroom door opened. She jumped and snatched her hand away from the bed while heat rose in her cheeks.
Renic had put on jeans and a maroon sweater that set off his dark blue eyes perfectly. His socks were now bright red with yellow dots, she noticed. He’d brushed his hair and shaved, which left her feeling vaguely disappointed.
Renic raised his eyebrows at her. “Thinking of going back to bed? You might want a different room. It’s a bit drafty in this one.”
“No.” She shook her head. She gathered her scattered thoughts and stalked toward the door. “We need to get going.”