“Seven—”
“And,” he continued as if she hadn’t interrupted, “since I’ll be paying cash for the house, I’d like the keys in five days. Furniture has to be delivered and arranged so that we can move in at the end of the seven days.”
“That’s highly irregular…”
He watched Lilah turn and walk across the yard, as if she’d done her part and didn’t feel it necessary to be in on the haggling. Well, he’d rather talk to her, so he wrapped this up quickly.
“Ms. Tyler,” he said quietly, firmly, “I doubt you come across many cash clients and so the regular rules may not apply in this situation. Why don’t you take care of this and make it happen?”
“I’ll do my best, naturally,” she blurted, adjusting the fit of her bright red jacket.
“Twenty percent of the asking price as a bonus above your commission.”
Her eyes went as wide as the moon and her jaw literally dropped. Not surprising since he was sure she didn’t receive that kind of bonus very often. But it was worth it to him.
He didn’t like waiting. He didn’t mind paying for what he wanted. And Reed knew that money could pave over obstacles faster than anything else in the world. In fact, the only person he’d ever come across who couldn’t be bought—or even rented—was Lilah Strong. Just another reason she intrigued him.
He walked past the stunned-into-silence Realtor and moved toward Lilah. Besides, what was the point of being rich if you didn’t use the money?
“I’ll get right on this,” the Realtor called out when she could speak again. “I’ll, uh, just wait outside in my car. Start making calls. You and your wife take your time looking around.”
He didn’t bother to correct the woman, though the word wife gave him a quick, cold chill. Instead, he walked slowly across the lawn to join Lilah as she stared out at the view.
“It’s done.”
She turned. “What?”
“I bought the house.”
She laughed and shook her head. The wind lifted her hair and flew it about her face until she reached up and plucked a long strand out of her eyes. “Of course you did. Moving in tonight are you?”
His mouth quirked. “No, I didn’t want to rush. Next weekend is soon enough.”
Now she laughed and the sound was surprisingly sexy. He moved in closer and caught her scent. Different today, he thought, and realized she now smelled like cinnamon apples. Lemons yesterday, apples today. As if the woman herself wasn’t distraction enough.
“You know,” she said, “it took me three months to find my house, then it was another month to arrange for a loan, buy it and gain possession and then move in. Most people don’t manage it in a week.”
“I’m not most people,” he said with a shrug.
“That I agree with.” She turned, leaned against the chest-high wall and looked at the back of the house. “It is beautiful.”
He never took his gaze from her. “It is.”
As if feeling him watching her, she turned her head to briefly look at him. The air seemed to sizzle between them. “What’re you doing?”
“Just stating the obvious,” he said with a half shrug.
She took a deep breath and looked back at the house, ignoring the flash of heat. That irritated. It was there. A hum of something hot, something potent, and she seemed determined to pretend it wasn’t.
“Rosie will love having this yard to play in.” She sounded wistful. “I’m glad the pool has a fence around it.”
“If there hadn’t been,” he said flatly, “I would have had one installed before we moved in.”
She shot him a glance. “In less than a week.”
He winked. “Of course.”
“Of course.” She nodded, sighed. “We should get back to the hotel and check on Rosie.”
“She’s fine. Andre personally vouched for the hotel babysitter. Apparently she’s the grandma type, great with babies.”
“I know. He told me.”
“But you don’t trust anyone but yourself with the baby.”
“I didn’t say that,” she pointed out. “I just don’t know her.”
“You don’t know me, either,” Reed said, studying her features. The sun and shadow played across her face, danced in her eyes, highlighting the worry gleaming there. “So how will you handle leaving her with me?”
“Honestly?” She pushed her hair back with a careless swipe of her hand. “I don’t know. But, I don’t have a choice in that, do I?” She shifted her gaze back to the sea. “I have to do what Spring asked me to, even if I don’t like it.”
He watched her for a long minute, the set of her chin, her blue eyes narrowed against the glint of the sunlight on the water. Getting back to the hotel, the waiting Realtor out front, left his mind in favor of staying right there, talking to Lilah, finding out more of who and what she was.
“If you hadn’t found the letters from Spring, would you have kept Rose yourself?” He already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear her say it.
“Yes,” she said firmly. “I’d have adopted her. I would have done anything I had to, to keep her. I already love her like she’s my own.”
“I noticed,” he said, giving her a brief smile when she looked at him. “It’s impressive…letting go of what you want to fulfill Spring’s wishes.”
“I’m not trying to impress you.”
“Another reason why I am impressed,” he admitted. “So tell me. How did you and my sister become such good friends?”
Her gaze followed the clouds racing across the sky. A reluctant smile curved her mouth and for a moment or two she seemed lost in her own thoughts, memories. When she spoke, her voice was soft. “She came to my shop, looking for work.”
Still having a hard time realizing his sister had had a job, Reed chuckled a little at his own memories. “The first and only job Spring had that I know about was at the movie theater the summer she was sixteen.” He smiled at the images his mind showed him. “My father had said something about her being unemployable since all she knew how to do was spend his money.”
“That was nice,” Lilah muttered.
“Yeah, he’s a charmer all right. Anyway, Spring decided to prove to our father that she could make her own money.” He shook his head, remembering. “She loved movies and thought it would be a great way to see all the new ones when they came out. With the added benefit of making our father eat his words.” He sighed a little. “But she worked the candy counter and hardly had the time to see a movie at all. Plus, she hated what she called the ‘ugly’ uniform. She didn’t last a month.”
“People change,” Lilah said quietly.
“Not in my experience,” Reed countered.
“Well, Spring did.” Lilah set her hands on top of the wall, rested her chin on them and looked out at the ocean as if looking back in time. “Her husband had just left her. She was pregnant and alone—” she shot him a quick look “—or so I thought. She needed a job and was willing to do anything I needed.”
He frowned. “What kind of shop do you own?”
She laughed at the obvious worry in his voice. “It’s called Lilah’s Bouquet. I sell artisanal soaps and candles.”
Did that explain all the different fragrances that seemed to cling to her? Probably.
“And what did Spring do at your shop?”
“Everything.” Lilah smiled to herself. “Hiring her was the best decision I ever made, I swear. She was great with customers. Always seemed to know what they’d like and helped them find it. She took care of the stock, kept track of what was selling and what wasn’t. Honestly, she was wonderful. Before long, I made her the manager and that gave me more time to spend in my workshop, making up the soaps and candles to stock the shelves.”
It was as if she was describing a stranger. Manager? Spring? Frowning, Reed tried to imagine it and came up short. His younger sister had never been the dedicated sort—or at least that’s what he’d believed. But it seemed that he hadn’t known Spring a
s a mature adult at all. And now he never would.
“There’s a small apartment over the shop,” Lilah was saying. “I lived there myself until I could buy a house. So Spring and Rose moved in and it worked well for all of us. The baby charmed every customer who came through the door and Spring didn’t have to worry about leaving Rose with a babysitter. Everything was great, until…” Her eyes went dark with grief and memory.
A sharp stab of pain sliced at Reed’s heart. He didn’t want to think about his sister’s death any more than Lilah wanted to talk about it. So instead, he focused on the life she’d been living away from her family. “It sounds like she was happy.”
Lilah’s gaze lifted to meet his and a sad smile curved her mouth. “She was. She loved our little town and being a part of it. She had a lot of friends.”
Reed tried to picture it. His sister, born in London, raised there and in New York. She had gone to the best boarding school in the city and hung out with the children of rock stars and princes. So it was a little hard to picture her happy in a shop apartment in some small town in—“Where?”
“What?”
“Where do you live? Your shop? Your small town? You didn’t say.”
“You’re right. I haven’t. There’s just been so much going on. It’s Pine Lake, Utah. About an hour north of Salt Lake City, up in the Wasatch mountains.”
Reed shook his head and chuckled again. “Sorry. Just hard to imagine Spring in the mountains. She was always more for the beach.”
“People change.”
One dark eyebrow lifted. “Yeah, you’ve said that before.”
She smiled a little. “Must be true then.”
“For some people.”
She tipped her head to one side and looked up at him through serious eyes. “People can surprise you.”
“That’s usually the problem,” he mused, then took her arm. “We should go. Ms. Tyler’s probably sitting out in her car wondering what we’re doing back here.”
“Right. I want to get back to Rosie, too.”
He steered her across the yard and through the open back door. With his hand at her elbow, they walked through the house that would be his home in a little more than a week, and Reed told himself that sometimes, change happened whether you were ready for it or not.
CHAPTER FOUR
The next week was a busy one. She hardly saw Reed, who made himself scarce whenever she and the baby entered a room. He spent most of his time at work and she had to wonder if that situation was normal or if it was simply that he was trying to avoid her completely.
On the other hand, Lilah was really going to miss Andre.
She didn’t know what she would have done without him the past several days. Life in a hotel wasn’t ideal, but the amazing butler could have made her a believer.
Snooty accent aside, Andre was always ready to help. And though he was loathe to gossip, he had let a few little nuggets of information about Reed drop over the past couple of days. So now she knew that his family rarely visited, he almost never had guests—translation: women—in his suite and that he was a generous tipper.
Which told Lilah that either Reed was a determined loner or he was lonely and that he paid attention when people helped him and made sure to show his appreciation. It wasn’t much, but it was more than she’d learned from Reed himself.
Andre cleared his throat to get her attention. “I’ve prepared another list of furniture shops you might want to check,” he said, producing said list from the inside pocket of his immaculate three-piece black suit. Handing it to her, he winked. “I’ve marked the ones most useful I believe for what you’re interested in. As you’ve already ordered Rose’s things, I believe Mr. Hudson’s study is the last room on your agenda.”
“How do you remember that?” Lilah asked with a laugh. “I can barely keep up with it myself.”
“Oh,” he said, bending at the waist to wipe a smudge of banana from the corner of Rosie’s mouth, “I believe in being thorough, miss.”
His hair was steel gray but his eyes were that of a much younger man. She supposed he could have been anywhere between thirty-five and fifty. He stood at least six feet and was the epitome of a British butler.
“Why are you working in a hotel, Andre? Shouldn’t you be in London with royalty or something?”
He laid one hand on Rose’s head in a loving pat, then looked at Lilah. “I did serve an earl several years ago, but frankly, I grew tired of the cold, gloomy weather in London.” He winked again. “It’s a lovely place to be from, if you understand me.”
“Yes,” Lilah said with a smile. “I think I do.”
“I get back often to visit friends and family and enjoy myself completely on those trips.” He folded his hands in front of him and gave a heavy sigh. “Though I must say, I do miss a good pub now and then.”
“And I’m going to miss you, Andre,” she blurted out, and before she could lose her nerve, came around the table and gave him a hug.
For a second, he went stiff with shock, then relaxed enough to give her a friendly pat on the shoulder. “I shall miss you, as well. Both you and Miss Rose. But this is best for all of you. A child shouldn’t grow up in a hotel, after all.”
“No, she shouldn’t.” Lilah looked down at the baby, then thought that Reed shouldn’t be locked away in the impersonal suite, either. It couldn’t be good for anyone. And that thought brought her back to the day of shopping stretching out in front of her.
She shifted her gaze to the list Andre had given her. “I don’t know the stores here at all, so it would be a big help to me if you could tell me which of these is your favorite.”
Clearly pleased to be asked his opinion, Andre pointed to the third name on the list. “Lovely leatherwork at that shop. I believe Mr. Hudson would approve.”
“Okay, that just got easier. Thank you again,” she said as he bowed and turned to leave. She stopped him by saying, “One more question?”
“Of course, miss.” He waited patiently.
“I know it’s none of my business, but how did a British butler come by the name of Andre?”
A smile flitted across his features quickly, then disappeared. “My mother’s father was French. I’m named for him. Caused me quite a bit of trouble as a child, I’m not ashamed to say.”
“I’ll bet you handled it just fine.”
“I like to think so, miss.” He bowed again. “Do enjoy your shopping.”
When he left, Lilah turned to Rose again. “Oh, yeah, really going to miss him.”
* * *
A couple of hours later, she was at the furniture shop Andre had recommended and she could silently admit he’d been absolutely right. Reed probably would like what she got here and if he didn’t he had no one but himself to blame.
That one brief moment of closeness with Reed at the back of the new house hadn’t been repeated and maybe, Lilah told herself, that was just as well. She was caught in a trap—she had to honor her friend’s last wish, to have Reed raise the baby, but she wanted Rosie for herself. Basically, she and Reed were standing on opposite sides of a wall and any attempt to breach it—except for dealing with the baby—would be a waste of time.
As if he knew it, too, Reed had been avoiding her as much as possible. It wasn’t easy, since they were sharing a hotel suite that, despite its size, seemed to shrink daily. He left for work early every day and didn’t get back to the hotel until later in the evening. Usually about the time Lilah was tucking Rose into bed. Accident? Or design? She was willing to bet that Reed deliberately chose to arrive late enough to miss the whole bath time ritual. Then he could claim since the baby was now tucked in and asleep, he wouldn’t go in and wake her.
And in spite of all of this? The attraction Lilah felt for him stayed at a slow simmer. The man was clearly uninterested, yet she couldn’t seem to convince her body to stop lighting up whenever he walked into a room.
Lilah found it almost impossible to get a read on him. It was as if he’d acce
pted his duty in taking Rosie in, but he wasn’t going to put any more into it than he absolutely had to.
Not since that first night when he’d scooped Rose out of Lilah’s arms to cuddle against his chest had he even once touched her. Held her. Talked to her. Lilah couldn’t bear thinking about the kind of life Rosie would have if Reed were simply unable to love her as she needed to be loved. But how could he, when it was clear from everything she’d learned that he and his siblings had grown up without that kind of affection.
Her heart torn, Lilah went through all the motions of what she was supposed to be doing—helping Reed prepare for Rosie being thrust into his life. But furniture and houses and all the money in the world wouldn’t make up for a lack of love. She didn’t know what she could do, though. She couldn’t fight him in court for the baby. Not only was he as rich as Midas, he was a lawyer. She wouldn’t stand a chance.
So the only hope she had was to somehow break through the wall of ice he’d erected around himself.
“Shouldn’t take more than ten or twenty years,” she assured herself.
“I’m sorry?”
Lilah flushed, caught talking to herself while her mind wandered. Smiling at the store clerk, she said, “Nothing. Are we about finished here?”
In the past week, with the assistance of the ever-helpful Andre, Lilah and Rose had visited every store she needed to furnish a house she wouldn’t be living in. Of course, she had no idea what kind of furniture Reed might prefer, but since he hadn’t bothered to give her direction, she’d picked what she liked.
Except for one room, a study that would be Reed’s territory, Lilah had chosen comfortable furniture, soft colors, all of it coming together to build a warm, safe spot for a little girl to grow up in. Alone, but for a man who wouldn’t allow himself to love her.
At that thought, Lilah’s heart felt as if it were being squeezed in a cold fist. Soon, she’d be leaving, going back to Utah. She wouldn’t be the one taking care of Rosie. Wouldn’t be the one to see her walk, hear her first words. She wouldn’t be there to dry her tears or hear the baby’s giggle first thing in the morning.
She felt the sting of tears in her eyes and quickly blinked to clear them. If she started crying now, the clerk selling her a matching set of twin leather chairs and a sofa for Reed’s study would think she was worried about the price. And truly, for the first time in her life, she hadn’t even looked at the price tag on any of the furniture.
The Baby Inheritance (Billionaires and Babies) Page 5
