Chapter Eleven
Garrett and Tammy were huddled over a new plant order when Lily entered the nursery office several hours later. “Haven’t you had enough meddling yet today?”
“Holy cow! That scene at our office was really something,” Garrett said, sounding awed.
“I know,” Lily mused. “I couldn’t believe it either. Rhett didn’t yell this time.”
“That holy cow wasn’t because he didn’t yell,” Garrett assured her. “Rhett’s crazy about you.”
Lily gawked at him. “Have you lost your mind? He hates me.”
“No, he doesn’t,” Garrett insisted. “He flew off that elevator and grabbed you. Saved you, I might add before I could get near you.”
“Some story,” Tammy piped in. “Garrett told me the whole thing.”
“Rhett didn’t know it was me,” Lily rationalized. “He would have saved anybody.”
Garrett eyed her in disbelief. “Maybe not when he snatched you from thin air, but one look at me standing there with the plant cart, and he knew exactly who he held in his arms. He didn’t exactly toss you to the side then, did he? He hung on. A long damn time.”
Lily wanted to scream at the little fizzle of hope Garrett’s words had created. “So what?”
“So what? You also didn’t see his face when he was holding you.”
She just stared and waited, and God help her, hoped.
“He wants you—bad—and it’s making him nuts.” Garrett grinned. “I love it.”
“Then why doesn’t he talk to me? Or call me?”
“Because he’s mad as hell at you.”
“Garrett, you’re confusing me.”
“Sweetheart, he fell for you and then found out you were after his money. That hurt him. A lot.”
“She was not after his money!” Tammy cried in outrage. “Lily wished Rhett was poor when Rob told her who he was.”
“I know that, but Rhett doesn’t. Every woman he ever dated was after his money, but they were up front about it.
Even in college—when they thought he was a rich Princeton student and he wasn’t—they were after money.
The girls in college didn’t know better.
But when they found out he was penniless, they dropped him like a hot potato.
That’s why he never got past the first or second date. ”
“That’s so sad,” Lily whispered, remembering Aidan’s story about Lucy Conover. She had finally admitted the truth, admitted what her heart had known all along. She had fallen head over heels in love with Rhett Buchanan, probably at first sight, just like Hank had loved her mother.
“So you see,” Garrett was saying. “Now he can’t trust women. He comes from a long line of money abuse.”
“What?” Both women stared at him.
He shrugged. “Money abuse. Never being loved for oneself. Tough to get over. And then you came along, Lily. You pretended to be someone else who didn’t care about his money.”
Her shoulders slumped. “I’m horrible. I know.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. You really didn’t care about his money, right?”
She frowned. “Of course not.”
“So everything’s okay.”
“You’re confusing me again, Garrett.”
“See if you were after his money and you pretended to be someone else, he would and should hate you. You’d be rotten, and I’d be all for him hating you. But you don’t want his money, and that makes you one of a kind. We just have to find a way to convince Rhett of that.”
“I don’t think you can,” she said glumly and dropped the purchase orders she carried onto Tammy’s desk.
“Oh, I don’t know. Tammy’s and my plan has worked perfectly so far.”
Her head snapped up to see Garrett’s eyes twinkle deviously. “What do you mean your plan?”
“After I saw the way Rhett reacted when he saw you with a date on Saturday night—and more importantly, with Cross on Saturday night—I decided he was more hurt than mad. Hurt we can work with, so Tammy and I decided to throw you two together again to see if I read things right at the gala or if it was a fluke.” He grinned at her.
“The inspection on Monday and the way Rhett threw a fit over Dylan James mostly convinced me, but the delivery today made me certain I was right about him.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You and Tammy planned this whole plant delivery as part of a scheme?”
“Well, not the whole scenario. I knew Rhett was due back at the office for a meeting with Armstead and Cross this morning, and I’d hoped you two would run into each other.
But I couldn’t have planned you tumbling off the ladder, though the situation worked out perfectly, and that told me everything I needed to know. ”
“I refuse to be part of some experiment,” Lily said heatedly and turned for the back door.
Garrett grabbed her arm. “Tell me you didn’t feel anything when he held you today, and I’ll butt out.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I can’t.”
“Of course you can’t. I saw it on your face, and on his face.”
“It’s all too late.” Lily shook her head. “Rhett’s gone back to Delia.”
“No way! Delia’s been his for the having for years, and he’s never pursued a relationship with her.”
Lily frowned.
“I mean other than to take her out to parties or events when he needed a last-minute date.”
“I don’t believe that. The two of them looked serious to me today.”
“Trust me. I know what I’m talking about. In fact, I’ll bet my next truckload of thirty-foot clear-trunk Phoenix dactyliferas he’s not going to get serious over Delia. Just give me a little time.”
Garrett had already tricked her once today, and she didn’t intend to let it happen again. “And why are you at the nursery now? Up to more shenanigans?”
Both Tammy and Garrett grinned at her. “Buying plants, what else?” he said.
Her hands went to her hips. “Out with it. What are you two cooking up now?”
Tammy laughed. “Come on, Garrett. We have to tell her. We won’t be able to keep her in the dark on this one.”
His gaze darted back and forth between the girls. “You’re right. I’m here to buy annuals.”
Lily raised one authoritative brow.
“For Rhett’s annual Spring Fling barbecue this weekend.”
She remembered Delia mentioning centerpieces when she showed up at Rhett's office, and Lily's sadistic side forced her to ask, “Is Delia planning it for him like she did the cocktail party?”
At the chagrined look from Garrett, Lily felt her stomach twist into a painful knot. Rhett had indeed gone back to Delia.
“Don’t look like that. It doesn’t mean anything,” Garrett insisted. “Anyway, I have a plan.”
“It means everything!” Lily cried. “A man let’s his girlfriend plan his parties, not some on-again, off-again date.”
“He does if she’s one hell of a party planner,” Garrett argued, “and in this case, Delia is.” He stared intently. “I mean that. She’s a pro.”
Lily felt herself wavering. She couldn’t afford to get her hopes up again. Her relationship with Rhett was really over, and she had to face that fact.
“No, I blew it by being deceitful,” she insisted. “There are no second chances for me.”
“He really does have a plan, Lily. Listen to him,” Tammy pleaded. “It’s a good plan, even for a guy.” She winked at Garrett’s appalled expression.
Lily glanced between them. “What is this plan?”
She still wanted to bolt for her cottage and lock herself in for a good cry. The thought of Rhett holding Delia like he once held her was almost too much to bear.
“Forget about Rhett and Delia for a minute,” Tammy ordered, reading her mind. “Pay attention to Garrett.”
“You are going to design the most incredible annual display you’ve ever done,” he said confidently.
“I have Rhett’s original landscape design and plot plan for the mansion right here for you to use.
We’ll doll up the front and back. Wow the guests on the way in and knock their socks off when they go out back, like a stroll through Butchart’s Garden. ”
“Isn’t that like poking the bear with a stick, putting more of my plants right under his nose?”
“I prefer to think of this as putting the girl of his dreams under his nose.”
Lily started shaking her head before he finished. “That won’t work. He’ll suspect and put a stop to the whole thing.”
“No, he won’t,” Garrett argued, “and for two good reasons. One, he doesn’t know you grow annuals, and he doesn’t suspect the extent of your design capabilities.
He’ll think the design was mine.” He grinned devilishly.
“And I’ll be happy to reel in all the adoration of his guests under false pretenses. I’ll consider it my consulting fee.”
He waggled his eyebrows, and the girls laughed.
Lily’s smile immediately faded. “What is the other reason Rhett won’t suspect?”
“Two, the man is operating in a fog and won’t even realize what’s going on around him. He has been in a fog since the day he came over here to inspect trees that very first time, and his focus didn’t improve one bit when you two broke up.”
“Really?” Lily felt that sharp twinge of hope again, and if she was honest, a twinge of satisfaction that if she was miserable, maybe he was too. She could hope, couldn’t she?
“Who’s paying for these annuals?” she suddenly asked.
“Who cares?” Garrett and Tammy cried in unison, and they both laughed.
“Okay, okay. The annuals are on me,” Garrett said.
“So how is this annual display going to help?” Lily asked.
“While Rhett may not notice what’s going on,” Garrett said soberly, “Delia won’t miss a thing.
Party planning is her forte, and she is a perfectionist. When she sees all those gorgeous annuals going in, she is going to make sure everyone notices, even Rhett, and make sure everyone thinks they were her idea.
She’s sees this shindig as her job interview with Rhett, so she wants no hitches. ”
Lily gasped. “Job interview!”
“Girlfriend interview is probably a better term. That’s what she thinks,” Garrett quickly reassured her, “that’s not what Rhett thinks.”
“You hope,” Lily muttered glumly.
“I know,” he said, narrowing his eyes at her. “You forget I’ve been his best friend since our freshman year in college.”
“Go on with your plan,” Tammy urged.