Page 62 of Heartless
The next morning, the crew came and she was the only one to greet them. I spent an entire week in the confinement of my villa.
I slept when the dog slept. Ignored Ryan’s attempts to make me go out with him. Pretended I hadn’t heard Madison knocking on the Blue Diamond’s door at dinner time the first three days. Then cursed myself for doing that because she stopped coming to look for me. Theonly person that I saw that week was the housekeeper when she came to clean and restock my fridge with premade meals.
The night before the staff would officially return and The Gem would open again for guests, I finally got the nerve to go out and walk around a bit.
The grass had suffered a great deal. Bushes had been rooted out and then replanted in new spots. The gazebo and the dancefloor looked good though. I hated them still because they made the place seem too different from the last time Franny was here, but they looked good.
Madison had done a great job with that project. And the best thing about it was that I had the luxury of lying in my bed and suffering privately while she was out there dealing with it all.
I sat on the bench I had cradled my dying wife at and stayed there until my eyes started to get used to the new scenery. Then I got back to the Blue Diamond and waited until the sun rose.
At eight a.m., I called the shop I used for sending Jessica flowers on her birthdays. Except that day wasn’t Jess’s birthday.
Chapter Twenty-One
Madison
Ihad an afternoon meeting with the impatient Sheila the day The Gem reopened. We were walking around the gardens, talking about lights and decorations, when a courier approached us with a huge bouquet of pink roses.
Sub rosa, I thought immediately.
But Parker had been giving me white ones only and these were pink. Besides, he had been ignoring me for a week. Why would he send me flowers when he obviously was done with our dinners and conversations?
Yet, the bouquet was for me. I knew it in my gut. And I couldn’t think of anyone else who would send me flowers.
“Miss Hartley?” The guy looked between me and Sheila.
“Hello,” I waved at him.
“Someone has an admirer,” Sheila squealed next to me. “Who is he?”
I flipped the card and glanced at the words written on it, my heart thudding in my chest and ears.
“Just a friend.”
“Bullshit,” she laughed in my face. “Friends don’t send you,” she eyed the bouquet with a squint, then continued, “three dozen pink roses.”
They really didn’t, did they?
“It’s not like that,” I offered with a smile. “I did something for him and that’s just his way of saying thank you.”
“Yeah, sure. Keep telling yourself that.”
After our meeting came to an end and Sheila left, I hurried to The Pink Diamond like someone was after me. The roses in my arms felt heavy, not just physically but emotionally. I needed to place them in a vase and forget about them.
It turned out that didn’t work. My eyes were constantly drifting to the roses. So I decided to distract myself by going outside to the hot tub.
Two minutes after I got in, I heard footsteps approaching from the Blue Diamond back door. Turning around, I saw Parker walking over to me in his black suit. No tie, the collar of his gray shirt unbuttoned.
I had always thought he was an attractive man but the sight of him had never before hit me with that much intensity.
The damn roses.
As he came closer he glanced down to the water surface and I felt like he was imagining my almost naked body underneath. And the fact that he was fully dressed while Daphne’s bib had a few inches of fabric more than the bottom half of my bikini didn’t escape me. But themore troubling thing was that it didn’t bother me. On the contrary. I found it extremely sexy.
Could I get away with sleeping with my boss? He was a temporary one after all.
Parker approached the edge of the hot tub, his gaze returned to mine. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”
