Chapter Two #3
Garrett had been repeating himself ever since Rhett got back from the nursery, and Rhett’s mind had wandered off twice in their conference call with the Rome office that afternoon. Now Garrett knew why, or rather he could see why.
Delia’s father, Chester Armstead, had cornered their special guest Grant Horning on the far side of the room, and Rhett was slowly working his way that direction, stopping to snag a couple glasses of wine off a passing tray carried by one of the half-dozen waiters Delia had hired for the night.
“Well?” Delia hissed.
“I don’t know. Never saw her before in my life.”
“How dare he bring another woman into my home?”
Garrett wondered about that himself. The move was definitely gutsy even for Rhett.
He slanted a sideways glance at Delia and grimaced.
Men usually considered Delia a beauty with her sleek dark hair and violet eyes, but at the moment, her rage had melded her features into a mask resembling one of Grimm’s fairy-tale witches. Man, what a transformation.
She yanked his arm and spun him sideways. “You have to know something,” she pressed. “You’re his best friend. Cough it up.”
“I don’t know anything other than he met a woman at the nursery today when he went to inspect our tree shipment, and he invited her to the party.”
“My party.” She glared. “What nursery? Since when does Rhett inspect tree shipments? That’s your job.”
“Bloom & Grow is a specialty nursery in Jupiter, and it’s a long story, but the nursery requires the actual owner to approve final stock selections.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she fumed.
“Yes, that’s what Rhett said too.”
Until he got lucky.
“What’s so funny?” Her hands were on her hips now. Not a good sign.
“Not a damn thing,” he said, trying to look grim and unsure whether he succeeded.
“Well, you’re going to introduce me to her,” Delia ordered and slipped her hand through his arm.
Garrett jerked away. “Like hell I will. I’m not getting in the middle of this.”
She snatched him back, lightning fast. “Yes, you are. Or did you forget I set up this whole party just so the two of you could schmooze Horning.”
“No, Delia,” he replied calmly, “you volunteered to give the party, so you could sink your hooks back into Rhett. Now that you’ve dumped your polo player.”
“You’re horrible,” she whined, refusing to let go of him.
“No, just truthful and your father wanted to schmooze Horning as much as we did. But I’ll introduce you if you’ll leave me alone and leave me out of this. After the introduction, I’m walking away, and you’re on your own.”
“Fine,” she said curtly and urged him forward.
~ ~ ~ ~
Lily spotted a face she recognized and a surge of panic slammed her. The man who worked with Tammy picking out Rhett’s trees was walking straight toward her, and the gorgeous woman on his arm had her gaze locked on Rhett. Lily’s jig was up.
Rhett turned as the couple approached, and he reached for her hand. Was he staking his claim again? If so, Lily sure didn’t mind.
“Good evening, Rhett.” Tammy’s client was almost as handsome as Rhett, similar in height and build, blond where Rhett was dark. His smile looked positively devious.
“Garrett,” Rhett said, then nodded at the beauty. “Delia.” He turned to Lily with a tender, almost apologetic smile. “Lily Foster, this is Garrett Tucker and our hostess, Delia Armstead.”
Tucker shook Lily’s hand. “Very pleased to meet you, Ms. Foster.”
The beauty’s hand shot out, and a look in her eyes made Lily hesitate before clasping the hand in her own. Delia Armstead was either an old girlfriend of Rhett’s or would like to be his new girlfriend. Her handshake was strong and intended to make Lily wince before she tugged free.
“Pleased to meet you,” Lily murmured.
The woman said nothing.
“I’m going to go freshen my drink,” Tucker announced suddenly and scooted off through the crowd, muttering something that sounded like, “ten bucks.”
Unfortunately, the beauty didn’t follow him. Instead, she sidled around to Rhett’s other side and slipped her arm through his.
“How’ve you been, Rhett?” she asked silkily. “I’ve missed you.”
One question answered. Delia was a girlfriend. The next question was old girlfriend or still a girlfriend?
“What do you think of my redecorating in here?” Delia purred, easing into Rhett’s side. “I hired Lawson from Palm Beach to do it since I was so pleased with the work he did on the solarium.”
“It looks very nice,” he said matter-of-factly.
Lily tried to tug her hand free, but Rhett’s grip was like steel. That helped to soothe the inexplicable hurt she felt, but not much. He had escorted her to a party at his girlfriend’s house, and on their first date no less! She inwardly seethed.
“I want to go freshen my drink too,” she said, angrier still that her voice held an edge. “You two catch up. I’ll be right back.”
Rhett had no choice but to let her go now or be rude to his hostess. Lily scooted free this time and headed straight for the bar without a backward glance. She couldn’t bear to see the woman’s hands on Rhett.
And already too. Boy, had that infatuation hit fast.
Lily closed in on the bar and noticed a double set of open French doors leading out to the patio. An exit. She immediately formed her plan. Quick stop at the bar in case anyone was looking, then out to the patio, around the side of the house, and grab a valet to find Rob’s Porsche.
She felt like an absolute loon. She had known Rhett all of seven hours, and she felt crushed by the fact he had another girlfriend.
“A chardonnay, please,” she said, after the hired bartender handed off a requested scotch rocks to the gentleman in front of her.
“We have a choice—”
“Any is fine,” she said, cutting the bartender off.
“Delia’s famous for her wine collection,” a deep baritone voice said from her left. “You shouldn’t’ve been so quick.”
Lily slanted a furtive glance from beneath her lashes. Had Scotch Rocks said that? The man hadn’t moved far, and he was turned slightly toward her, so just in case, she said aloud to no one in particular, “I didn’t feel like making choices tonight.”
Scotch Rocks ignored her and shifted away, so Lily refocused on the bartender. “Thank you,” she said and accepted the glass of chardonnay he handed over.
She took her first step toward the terrace doors when the baritone stopped her again. “We didn’t get introduced yet.”
Etiquette held her in place. She half-turned, looking for Scotch Rocks, when she saw a large tanned hand extended her direction.
“Aidan Cross,” the baritone offered.
She stared down at the hand for the span of two heartbeats, then followed the hand up a well-muscled arm to broad shoulders and finally to a brilliant, devil-may-care smile—mentally noting the man must be dangerous in the ladies’ competition with a smile like that, to say nothing of the blond-streaked curls and dark eyes.
She took the proffered hand, intending to give it a swift shake and be on her way. “Lily Foster.”
Cross appeared to have other ideas however. He kept her hand in a tight grip and tugged it up to his mouth where he brushed a light kiss across her knuckles.
“Very pleased to meet you, Lily Foster.”
She gently pulled at her hand, wanting to get free and not wanting to attract attention, and his dark eyes twinkled devilishly.
“Does that bit of gallantry normally work well with the ladies?” She tugged again.
“Normally.”
He grinned and her breath caught for a second. That grin should be registered as a concealed weapon. Too bad she’d lost her heart once already that day. No way would she be fooled twice. These Island people were definitely out of her league.
“But evidently not with you,” Cross said and released her hand.
“Well, it was very nice to meet you, Mr. Cross,” she said and turned for the terrace doors.
“Please, call me Aidan,” he said and stepped alongside. “Headed out to the patio?”
She slammed to a halt. “Yes, I just wanted a quick turn through the gardens. Alone. I’m into . . .” Careful, Lily. “. . . flowers and such.”
She didn’t look directly at him. If he turned that smile loose again, someone may think the two of them were flirting.
“Well, that’s blunt enough.”
She did glance at his handsome face then. Had she hurt his feelings? She hoped not. What she did find was genuine concern in those dark eyes.
“Are you sure you want to leave Rhett alone in here with Delia while you traipse about the gardens? Might not be wise.”
“You’re a good friend of Rhett’s?”
“I’m not so sure I’d go that far,” he said, the devilish twinkle reappearing in his eyes.
“How far would you go?” she asked, suddenly very curious about this guest.
“Now that’s a question you should be careful asking a single man.” He grinned. “Or any man for that matter.”
She huffed. “You know what I meant. You were talking about Rhett.”
“And I’m just teasing you. In answer to your question, I’m Rhett’s chief competition in most things.” His eyes sparked, and Lily suspected he meant more than business ventures.
“If you’re not friends, then how did—”
“I never said we weren’t friends. I’d like to think we are, but we’ve butted heads quite a lot in recent years.
As for you, I saw you two walk in together, and I also saw Delia make a beeline for Rhett the minute she spotted you.
” Aidan chuckled. “She must have had a heart attack seeing Rhett walk in with a beautiful woman on his arm.”
Lily opened her mouth, couldn’t think of a thing to say, and promptly closed it. Could this be more embarrassing? Bad enough Rhett had brought her to his girlfriend’s cocktail party, but everyone here knew it. The sooner she made her escape the better.
Aidan’s smile faded. “Aw, hell. You didn’t know about Delia, did you?”
Lily shook her head, refusing to look at him so he couldn’t see her flushed cheeks. She thought she heard him mutter, “Damn Rhett,” and wished a hole would open up underneath her, so she could just disappear.