Chapter Ten #3
“Garrett actually invited me. Before the, um, altercation upstairs. But I’m still invited . . . I think.”
Her brows went up.
“Of course, I am.” He grinned. “Jupiter Island doesn’t practice do-overs. Say you’ll go with me.”
Still considering her answer, she inadvertently glanced over at the security desk. Gerald glowered at her. Now what was that all about?
“I don’t think I should—”
His finger pressed against her lips. He glanced over at the still glowering Gerald. “Let’s step outside.” He grabbed the cage cart with one hand and her elbow, gently, in the other and steered both toward the glass-entrance doors and out to the exterior landing.
Lily glanced at the Bloom & Grow truck waiting in the loading zone. No sign of Rob. Rob who was here to ensure nothing and no one out of the ordinary happened to her while she was at BDC. Boy was Rob going to get an earful later.
“Please go with me, Lily,” Aidan asked earnestly. “It will be beneficial for both of us.”
“How is that?”
“I’m just guessing here, mind you, but you and Rhett have unfinished business.”
She frowned. No way would she discuss Rhett, not with him upstairs with Delia right at this moment.
“Okay, I’ll confess.” There was that sheepish, close-to-lethal smile again. “I called Garrett and asked what happened between you and Rhett. I had to know before I made any move.”
“You did?” she asked, astounded. Boy, had her ego needed that boost today.
He nodded. “Oddly enough, Garrett was forthcoming and told me you hadn’t been exactly up front about your line of work, and Rhett felt betrayed, so you two had split up.”
He angled her cart down the side ramp at the front door and down toward the truck. Lily paced alongside. “Seeing you today helped me fill in the puzzle pieces,” he continued.
She stiffened and reached for the cart handle.
Aidan grabbed her shoulders. “I don’t care what you do, whether you work at a nursery or not.”
I happen to own that nursery.
But suddenly, she didn’t feel he needed to know that bit of information.
“You obviously aren’t over Rhett.” He let out a deep, disgusted-sounding sigh. “And if I can’t have you, I want Rhett to have you.”
Irritation roiled. “Of all the arrogant, selfish—”
“No, wait.” Again, he pressed a finger to her lips. “I said that wrong. What I meant was, I can help you get back together with Rhett.” He exhaled hard. “If that’s what you want.”
“Sorry, Aidan. I saw you two upstairs just now, and I have a hard time believing you want to help Rhett.”
“It’s true. I’m willing to help, because I know I don’t have a chance with you. Wrong timing and all that.”
He gave her a crooked, sexy little smile that had probably stolen the hearts of countless models and starlets.
“Believe me, if I thought I could win, you’d be the first thing I’ve intentionally stolen from Rhett since college.
I admit I have won a few deals away from him over the years, but it was just how the business deals shook out.
I never intentionally went after anything of Rhett’s.
At least, not since college. And I still owe him.
If I can’t have you, the next most honorable thing I can do is help Rhett have you. Er, get back together with you.”
Lily crossed her arms and eyed him intently. “Explain. And no more sort of.”
Another long and hard exhale. “Okay, here it is.”
He stared off into space for a few long moments, and she tapped her foot impatiently.
“Hard as it is to believe, I’ve tried to help Rhett when I can over the years. Call it penance.”
“For what?”
“For a hurt—a devastating hurt, I think—that I caused him years ago. Albeit unwittingly, mind you. But that’s no excuse.”
“Go on,” Lily prodded, when he stared off into space again.
“Rhett and I were rivals in college, you see—not in fortunes anyway. He came up dirt poor, and I—” He put palms up and shrugged.
“—came from old money. But the two of us shared most of our classes. Both business majors, we began competing for top grades right from the beginning. Then we competed in lacrosse and then again in golf.”
“Where does the penance come in?” Lilly interrupted.
“Patience, my dear.” He chucked her under the chin.
“I found out Rhett had been seeing a particular girl, Lucy Conover. Not a girl I would normally date. She was a snob of the first water. I also wondered how Rhett had ended up with her when she only dated guys with money or guys who could help her get ahead in some way.
“Rhett had just shown me up in a golf match against Yale, and I wanted revenge.”
Lily frowned.
“Shallow of me I admit, but I wanted to beat him at anything after that match.” He stopped to collect his thoughts again.
“Go on.”
“The three of us—Rhett, Lucy, and me—were all in an Economics class together that semester, and we had an exam the week after the golf match.” He frowned at his memories.
“Lucy, who rarely studied and only squeaked by on grades, did better than me on that exam, and I knew Rhett had helped her when she thanked him after the test.”
Lily watched his jaw clench.
“That was the last straw for me.” He caught her watching him and stared back intently. “You see, I hate to lose.”
“You and Rhett were a lot alike,” she remarked.
He shrugged. “I suppose so. And since I was young and a jerk at the time, I decided to get even with Rhett after the exam. I wanted to see if I could steal Lucy.”
Lily got a sick feeling in her stomach and somehow knew she wouldn’t like the end of this story.
“My friend, Jared, and I approached Lucy and her friend Kersey one night and asked them to meet us at Avio’s pizza parlor. I had planned to tell Rhett all about it later while I gloated.”
He sighed and then his brows wrinkled in a frown. “We arrived, got a booth, and waited for the girls to show up. Right as Lucy and Kersey walked in, a busboy came from the back of the restaurant. Stunned, Lucy stared at the boy for so long that Jared and I glanced back for a closer look.”
“Oh no,” Lily whispered.
He nodded. “Lucy began to laugh and said, ‘At least you screwed like a rich boy.’”
Lily’s hand flew to her mouth. “Rhett.”
Aidan looked despondent even after all these years. “I felt sick. I hadn’t known Rhett worked there. I knew he worked somewhere, but I never really paid any attention.”
“What a—”
“Bitch? Yes. But, I was more the guilty party. I convinced myself it was for the best since Rhett now knew Lucy’s true colors. It didn’t work out best for me, however.”
“What do you mean?”
Aidan gave her a wry smile. “I never bested him on an exam again. He never really dated anyone again in college that I’m aware of. A girl here. A girl there. No girl got two dates out of him. He got a 4.0 every quarter and took the maximum hours allowed, finishing early before both Garrett and me.”
Lily put a comforting hand on his arm.
“If I could do it all over . . .”
“So now you help him out when you can and never let him know,” she guessed.
Aidan nodded bleakly. “If I find out he’s bidding on a property, I pull out.
Sometimes I don’t know he’s after a parcel, and those are the ones I’ve managed to steal from him over the years.
I never set out to steal one though. I only won the Ponte Vedra parcel last year because that damn lawyer of his was operating under a temporary holding company he had created, or I’d’ve backed out then too. ”
“You’re a good man, Aidan Cross,” Lily said.
“No, I’m not. Bitch or no, I should’ve stayed away from Lucy Conover. I’ll never forget the look on Rhett’s face when she pointed to his apron and laughed at him.”
Aidan shook his head, and Lily felt like crying at the image he portrayed of the young Rhett Buchanan.
“But how did the girl fool Rhett if her ploys were so obvious to you?” she wanted to know. Had to know.
“Like I said, I came from old money. My family is disgustingly rich and quite jaded when it comes to the attentions of others. We can spot gold diggers a mile away. It’s a genetic trait in our case. Rhett had to learn to spot them and only learned well after he made his fortune.”
“Rhett thinks I’m a gold digger. He accused me of being one,” Lily said suddenly.
Aidan stared in open-mouthed shock. “You jest!”
“No, I’m not.”
“Well, then the boy still has a lot to learn.”
“He certainly does,” Lily agreed.
Aidan grabbed hold of her hand. “Then help me teach him a lesson. He deserves it if he called you a gold digger. Go to the barbecue with me. If you let Delia win, it’s like me letting Lucy Conover win all over again.”
Lily tugged her hand free. “What is it with you and Garrett?”
“So he’s helping too, eh? I should’ve guessed that with me coming to BDC for a meeting the same day you’re here.”
Her turn to stare open-mouthed. “Do you think—”
“Absolutely.”
“But—”
“Garrett obviously thinks you belong with Rhett too, and he owes Rhett big time. Just like me. Garrett would have been kicked out of Princeton if it hadn’t been for Rhett who hounded the guy day and night to study instead of partying.
Because of Rhett, we both graduated with honors—Garrett from being hounded to death and me from competing against Rhett in everything.
We both owe the guy but for different reasons. ”
He grinned. “So, what do you say?”
Lily thought of Delia’s nasty smirk as she tugged Rhett away from the lobby. Seeing her hang on Rhett like a fiancée had broken Lily’s heart all over again. What could it hurt? Maybe, just maybe she would finally get a chance to explain her innocent deception to Rhett at the barbecue.
She grinned. “I say okay. I’ll go to the barbecue with you.”
“Great. I’ll pick you up at three on Saturday. Where do you live by the way?”
She laughed and pointed at the Bloom & Grow sign on her truck. “At the nursery, where else?”
“No kidding?”
“There’s a cottage at the back of the property.”
She started to turn for her truck when Aidan stopped her again.
“One more thing, Lily.”
“What’s that?”
“Dress sexy. For Rhett and for me.” He laughed hard at her open-mouthed stare and watched her primly stalk back to the nursery truck.
“Rhett’s a fool to let her get away,” he muttered to himself.
His cell phone chimed, and when he checked the readout, he almost didn’t answer, but thought better of it. Keep your friends close and all that.
“Hello, Chester,” Aidan said into the phone. “I’m on my way upstairs. Tell Buchanan to cool his jets.”
“That’s not why I’m calling,” Armstead said on the other end. “I stepped out of the meeting for some privacy. I want to ask you about that parcel on the Intracoastal in Jupiter we talked about. I think the deal is doable if you’re still interested.”
“Hell yes! I’m interested,” Aidan said and grinned as he watched Lily climb into the truck.
“Well, don’t mention the deal when you come upstairs. I’m not offering that parcel to anyone but you.”