Chapter Sixteen #2
Tammy put a hand on her arm. “You better believe it, honey, and you need to be real careful. You could’ve been killed the other night, and whoever set the tank to blow didn’t seem too concerned about that.”
“Oh good Lord!”
“You have to tell Rhett, so he can keep an eye on you.”
“I don’t need—”
Tammy cut her off. “Promise me!”
“All right.”
“When are you going to tell him?”
“He’s on the road today with Garrett, inspecting construction sites. He won’t get home until late. I told him I’d work late too.”
Tammy frowned. “He didn’t give you a key?”
“Of course, he did. I just feel funny going over there when he’s not there.”
“You better get used to it or get your own place.”
“I’m going to look for a place as soon as the Code Enforcement meeting is over,” Lily assured her.
“Does Rhett know that?”
Lily shook her head. “No, I just wanted to be happy playing house for a few more days.”
“Sounds like you’ve got a lot to talk about tonight,” Tammy said, looking concerned. “Promise me you’ll tell him about the sabotaged tank tonight.”
“I will. Now I’m going into my office to write my defense and resolution scheme to fight against Whittenhurst’s code violations claim at the hearing tomorrow, so guard my door.” Lily got up and went toward the short hall.
“You haven’t written it yet?” Tammy squawked.
“I have all my notes and comments. I just have to put it all together.”
Tammy exhaled her relief. “Well, don’t forget to mention the fire inspector’s suspicions.”
“You can bet on it.”
~ ~ ~ ~
“Man, I take my eyes off you, and the world comes apart,” Garrett grumbled. “I only left town for three days and look what happened.”
“But I’m back with Lily.” Rhett grinned at him from the passenger seat of Garrett’s truck. “I thought that’s what you wanted.”
Garrett grinned back. “I knew that from the way you were whistling when I picked you up this morning.”
“I was that obvious?”
“I’ve never heard you whistle before.”
Rhett let out a hoot of laughter.
“Nor have I heard you laugh this much since we were in college.”
“I’m happy.”
“And I’m even,” Garrett said smugly.
Rhett raised his brows.
Garrett shot him a quick glance. “You saved me enough times in college. I finally got to return the favor.”
Rhett stared at him intently for several long moments. “So, that’s what this was all about? All your meddling?”
Garrett nodded slowly.
“Well, thank God.”
“Glad you didn’t mind.”
Rhett frowned. “Oh, I minded all right, and don’t ever try meddling in my love life again either.”
“I won’t. Believe me.”
“Hell, I ought to promote you for fixing things for me with Lily, but you’re already a senior vice-president. And the next step is my job, which I’m not quite ready to give up.”
“I’m good right where I’m at,” Garrett assured him. “I just like finally being even.” He maneuvered onto the turnpike entrance ramp. “We’re getting back a lot earlier than we planned after that late meeting in Boca canceled on us. You want me to take you by the office?”
“Nope,” Rhett said, reclining his seat slightly to accommodate his large frame. “Drop me at the house if you don’t mind. I want to grab a shower, and then go surprise Lily and take her out to eat.”
Garrett hazarded a long glance. “Man, you’ve got it bad. You never ditch work.”
Rhett smiled at his friend. “No, I don’t, and yes, I do, and not in that order. And keep your eyes on the road.”
“I’m glad you’re keeping your eyes on Lily. I don’t like that propane tank suddenly blowing.”
“I don’t either. I left a voicemail for the fire inspector, but I haven’t heard back.”
“Why don’t you hire your own investigator?”
“I did. He’ll be there tomorrow to check things out. I’ll have to tell Lily, but I don’t want to make her nervous.”
Garrett signaled and changed lanes. “She needs to be nervous, so she’s careful.”
“I’m watching over her now, Garrett,” he said. “I’ll keep her safe.”
“But you’re not with her twenty-four-seven,” Garrett argued. “Hell, maybe I’m worrying about nothing.”
“You stick to real estate, and let me worry about Lily now.”
“You want me to stick to real estate? Fine. Then listen up.” Garrett sped up to pass two tractor-trailers. “After your barbecue, Lily told Tammy that Cross had mentioned something to her about doing a development on the Intracoastal in Jupiter. Cross told her he would be close by for a while.”
Garrett frowned at Rhett. “And stop growling. Lily’s back with you. She has no interest in Cross. Pay attention.”
“I am paying attention,” Rhett grumbled.
“Last Friday, Whittenhurst told me he thought that parcel we were after in Jupiter had become a lost cause.”
“What?”
“Yeah, owner not willing to sell at all, or something to that effect.”
“That’s never stopped us before,” Rhett said indignantly.
“Right. If a seller was hesitant, then we just sweetened the pot.”
“Damn.” Rhett stared out the passenger window. “Whittenhurst has seemed pre-occupied lately. He loses another prime parcel, and I may send him down the road.”
“I know how bad you wanted that Jupiter parcel.”
“Maybe it’s not too late.”
“You stepping in?” Garrett grinned at him.
“Yes, I am. Do me a favor. Go back through the short list of prospects Whittenhurst covered in that meeting with us a few weeks ago. Do some background checking on those sites for me. All of them. If Whittenhurst is slipping, I don’t want to lose any more parcels.
We may still be able to salvage that one in Jupiter. ”
“I’ll drop you off and go back to the office for a while, see what I can dig up. I love snooping around after Whittenhurst.”
“Maintain your objectivity,” Rhett reminded him.
“I knew you were going to say that.” Garrett glanced over his shoulder and changed lanes, then sped up to get past a convoy of three overloaded family vans.
“You’ve told me repeatedly that our time gets more and more limited the bigger BDC grows, and we need to delegate.
But I’ve thought for a long time now that we give Whittenhurst and his team too much leeway in site selection. ”
Rhett chuckled. “And you’d like nothing better than to get the goods on him.”
“You’ve got that right,” Garrett agreed and hit the gas.
~ ~ ~ ~
Rob tapped on Lily’s office door after lunch and poked his head inside. “Mollette’s delivered the Phoenix dactyliferas an hour ago, and we need to get the palms in the ground,” he said without preamble.
Lily thunked her forehead with the palm of her hand. “Yikes! I forgot they were coming today.”
“There’s too many for me to plant them alone.”
“No, I’m coming. I’m pretty much finished here anyway,” she said, rising to her feet.
Everyone at the nursery had continued on after the fire—business as usual—keeping things as normal as possible for Lily, except for the pictures that covered every flat surface in the office.
She gazed around at the two dozen frames in her private office alone.
If she found her own place, she would have room for all of them, but she had loved these last few days of cohabitating with Rhett.
A smile tugged at her mouth. The thought of their make-out session on the couch last night had left him groaning and her wanting to groan.
How long would he be patient with her? How long could she be patient?
A single touch of his finger to her cheek ignited deeply banked fires within her. Did her touch do the same to him?
“Lily?” Rob still waited in the doorway.
“I’m coming.”
“Are you going to be ready for the code hearing tomorrow?” he asked hesitantly.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” she said and followed him out the door.
By mid-afternoon, they were closing in on the last of the specialty palms. The Vermeer digger had prepared the hole for the biggest specimen in the lot.
The large palm hovered over the center of the hole, held aloft by a crane hoist, while Lily centered the burlapped root ball right where she wanted it.
Rob worked with a second crew on another Phoenix nearby.
Lily had Jason and two field growers with her. One of the field growers had splashed water into the bottom of the hole and mixed in their proprietary Bloom & Grow potting soil mix to await the lowering of the palm into the healthy black sludge.
“One little shot of water in the bottom, Charlie,” Lily told the closest field grower with the hose in his hand. “The sludge is still too dry.”
He did as directed while Lily grabbed the burlapped ball and pulled it slightly toward her.
“Drop her down a foot,” she called to the crane driver operating the hoist.
The operator promptly tugged—too hard—on the lever. The palm dropped two feet like an out-of-control boulder, then bounced hard against the chain shackling the trunk and rocked the attached hoist-arm. The burlapped ball vibrated into Lily and knocked her off balance.
Charlie grabbed for the ball to keep the chained palm from pitching Lily into the hole and inadvertently squeezed the hose grip in his other hand, shooting a spray of water over Lily and the edge of the hole where she struggled to stay upright.
Her boots lost traction in the now-slick loam, and down into the hole she slid.
Panic erupted up top as the crew scrambled to get the palm away from the edge of the hole. If the winch broke and the palm slid into the hole, Lily would be crushed.
Rob dashed to the hole, barking orders at everyone, and in seconds, the Phoenix palm lay angled against the truck a few yards away.
Lily was on her third attempt to scramble out of the mud-slicked hole on her own and had almost reached the top when the edge of the hole gave way from the recent pounding, and she slithered backward into the black sludge.
Rob peered over the side. “I can see two eyes and a mouth.”
Lily smiled, giving him a shot of white teeth, and he laughed. She swiped at the mud on her face.
“You just made it worse,” Rob hooted. “I don’t know whether to hose you down or pull you out!”