Chapter Twelve
Garrett convinced Rhett his mansion would be a madhouse of preparations on Saturday, and he should spend the morning in his office, then arrive back just in time for the barbecue since Delia would take care of everything for him.
Rhett hated fussy caterers and party planners underfoot, so Garrett didn’t have to try very hard.
The Bloom & Grow crew was due at the mansion at eleven, and all Garrett had to do was keep Delia out of their hair.
He couldn’t risk the witch phoning Rhett, or she would blow his whole plan sky-high.
He had a good feeling about his plan as he strode down the path along the south side of the mansion.
This scheme of his was going to work. As long as Lily did her part.
She had been plenty steamed after the debacle at BDC, but that was just one more chink in Rhett’s armor. Remembering the fury on Rhett’s face when he realized Aidan was down on the third floor with Lily that morning at BDC made Garrett grin. No way had Rhett stopped caring about her.
Garrett suspected Lily had been more steamed about Delia showing up at BDC and doing her possessive girlfriend routine anyway.
He’d had a hell of a time convincing Lily that Rhett wasn’t in love with Delia and Garrett’s annuals scheme could actually work.
Lily showing up at the barbecue today with Aidan Cross would either seal the deal, or blow it sky-high.
Now all Garrett needed was a couple more chinks in Rhett’s armor, and the hole would be big enough to push Lily through.
And Aidan Cross would provide one hell of a chink. Garrett’s work would be done, and all Rhett’s past favors repaid in one fell swoop.
Garrett swiftly marked the landscape beds with colored flags according to Lily’s design.
The woman could have been a landscape architect with her eye for spacing and switching up bedding plant varieties to coordinate with the evergreens and variegated shrubs in Rhett’s landscaping.
The installation work would go swiftly. He would have the nursery crew bury the annuals in the gardens, pot and all, then tomorrow the crew would return to pull out the pots and take them down to Garrett’s Boca job to install for the finish work there.
He smiled. Waste not. Want not.
“Why are you grinning so smugly, Garrett?” Delia asked, marching across the terrace. “Rhett said you’d be out here getting his flowers planted for the barbecue.”
“That’s right.” He stuck the last flag in the bed he’d laid out next to the terrace steps and turned to face her. “Shouldn’t you be going home and getting ready?” He couldn’t let her see the Bloom & Grow truck when it arrived.
“I’m going in just a few minutes.” Her hands went to her hips. Her eyes narrowed. “You better not be up to anything today.”
He pulled his innocent face again. “What are you talking about?”
“Why was that nursery girl at BDC last week? Rhett said you bought interior plants from her.”
“That’s right.”
She pointed her perfectly manicured finger like a pistol. “You keep her away from Rhett, or else. He’s mine.”
“Why, Delia, are you threatening me?” he asked softly.
Her eyes glittered dangerously. “You bet your sweet ass I am. I worked too hard to get Rhett back, and I won’t give him up again. Don’t think I won’t or can’t make trouble for you, mister.”
“I don’t doubt at all that you’d try.”
“Good.” She smirked. “Now that we understand each other.” She spun on her expensive Italian sandals and clacked her way back inside.
“The hell we do,” Garrett muttered under his breath and reached for another handful of flags. He didn’t like Delia on her good days, of which there were very few.
Twenty minutes later, Rob and his planting crew arrived.
Without Lily.
“What do you mean you left her behind?” Garrett demanded. “I thought she was supervising the install.”
Rob shook his head. “We know what to do, and she didn’t want to risk running into Buchanan before the party. Said to tell you she’d see you at the barbecue.”
Garrett perked up. “So she’s still coming with Aidan?”
“Looks like.” Rob frowned. “But I don’t mind saying, I don’t like this.”
“You don’t want her coming to the barbecue, or you don’t like her going out with Aidan Cross?”
“Both,” Rob grunted.
“Can’t be helped.”
A couple hours later, Garrett trotted inside to grab a shower and change clothes in one of Rhett’s guest rooms. The Spring Fling barbecue started in one hour. He dialed Tammy.
“Lily will be there. Quit worrying,” Tammy told him. “Aidan is due here to pick her up in a half hour.
“Easy for you to say,” he muttered into the phone. “If my scheme doesn’t work, I could be out a best friend and a job. When are you going to get here?”
“That’s the bad news.”
“What?”
“One of our biggest customers just called and wants to pick out a truckload of trees, and he needs them today.
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope. Sorry. But I’ll want a full report when the barbecue’s over. How does the place look?”
“Fantastic.”
“Well, good luck and don’t let anything happen to Lily.”
“I won’t,” he said and clicked off.
He glanced back at the terrace. Lily’s floral designs did look fantastic, and the nursery installation crew had performed miracles in no time at all.
He had been right about Bloom & Grow, and he loved congratulating himself.
The terrace and backyard pathways were awash with color from buried pots of annuals.
Rob had the idea to pyramid-stack pots of annuals in the shape of trees, and he brought along multi-variety hanging baskets for the terrace.
Vinca, impatiens, salvia, portulaca, garden mums, and gerbera daisies painted the landscape with a vivid palette of color.
Lily had left nothing out, and Rhett’s barbecue guests would go crazy over the show.
Maybe, just maybe, this screwy scheme of his would work.
~ ~ ~ ~
Rhett spied Delia’s Jaguar behind him when he turned into his driveway. At least she couldn’t complain if she was as late as him. He had been pleased to see the riot of color lining his driveway, so at least Garrett was on top of things, but then he always was.
This whole mess with Lily Foster had made Rhett second-guess his best friend, something he had never done in his life.
Garrett knew how Rhett felt about Lily, but she kept ending up in Rhett’s path.
It seemed so intentional. He shook his head.
Maybe he was just being overly sensitive where Lily Foster was concerned.
Guys didn’t play matchmaker and certainly not Garrett.
Hell, the man had dated some of Rhett’s former model girlfriends—and with his blessing.
Still, the coincidental run-ins with Lily Foster had seemed so contrived.
Yet for a split second that morning last week when he grabbed Lily off the tumbling ladder, he had reconsidered taking up with her again.
Only this time without any heartstrings, now that he knew she was like all the other women in his life.
He had squashed that idea almost as soon as it had popped into his head, but Lily had felt so different in his arms. Hard to ignore a feeling like that.
Even after discovering her real motives, he had been amazed he could still feel that way when he held Lily close.
A feeling he could only describe as a sense of belonging in his arms, a sense of coming home.
He shook his head in consternation, and that strange tug and pull started up near his heart again. He rubbed his chest over the spot.
Holding Lily in his arms that day had set off an explosion of desire that rocked his frame. No woman had ever . . .
He growled at the image, then jerked open the door of his Navigator and unfolded his long frame as Delia approached.
“Why the scowl, handsome?” she asked, using what she liked to call her Mae West voice. “There’s a party going on.”
Rubbing her palm across his chest, she dallied her fingertips right where she guessed his nipple to be. She guessed right, and Rhett felt the skin pull taut.
“No scowl,” he said and tried unsuccessfully for the mood she wished to create.
Ever since he had booted Lily out of this house, he had tried to dredge up some desire or lust for even one of his old girlfriends. And failed. Even with Delia, who had once guaranteed an earthy lust, he had failed miserably.
“Just wondering why you’re so late,” he added.
She jerked back indignantly. “I’m late? I pulled in behind you.” She tossed her hair back over her shoulders. “And besides, I was here all morning.”
He felt a wave of relief. He sure as hell didn’t have time to get the place ready.
He had been hesitant to accept her offer to prepare for the barbecue—knowing he had to let her keep his key for now—which would give her unlimited snooping time.
But he didn’t really have anything secret here at the house, and he had no idea how to get ready for a party.
As it was, he had a half-hour to change and little time for anything after that. He would get his locks changed later.
“The caterers?”
“Here and all set up,” she said and eased back close.
“Looks like Garrett did the flowers.”
She paused and made a face. “He’s been underfoot all morning.”
“Good. Does the back look as great as the front?”
She shrugged. “I suppose. You need to find a new best friend, Rhett. Garrett’s irritating.”
He frowned. “Irritating? How?”
She threw up her hands. “In every way. And he’ll try to break us up, just like he always does.”
Rhett had wondered how long it would take Delia to sing this old song. She and Garrett had never gotten along.
He sighed. “Well, you better get used to him, because he’s sticking around. Let’s get inside. I need to shower and change.”
He started for the back door and realized she wasn’t beside him. Impatient, he stopped and turned. “What?”
She made a rather unladylike noise. “You didn’t say one word about the way I look.”