Chapter Thirteen

 

Grant watched Chelsea make her way up the drive. She looked gorgeous, as always. She was wearing a strappy summer dress. He couldn’t help letting his gaze rest on her bare shoulders or sliding down over her full breasts and narrow waist. The dress was short, leaving her tanned legs on display for him. Damn. The things she did to him.

“Hey!” He jumped as someone dug him in the ribs. “Stop it.”

Grant spun around. Antonio sounded mad, but Grant was relieved to see him smiling. “You shouldn’t be watching, you should be trotting over there, offering to help her with those trays.”

“Come on, then. You can help Mary Ellen.”

Antonio shook his head rapidly. “Do I have to?”

Grant laughed. “Yes. Come on.” He looked at Antonio as they went to meet the girls who were now halfway up the drive. “You don’t like Mary Ellen? I didn’t think there was a woman on earth you wouldn’t rush to help.”

Antonio made a face. “Of course, I like Mary Ellen. Look at her! Look at the rack, look at the ass.” He blew out a sigh. “Look at her face and her long blonde hair. What’s not to like?”

Grant shrugged. “You tell me. There’s obviously something that puts you off.”

Antonio gave him a sheepish grin. “You promise not to tell anyone?”

Grant chuckled. “I promise.”

“Okay. She scares me shitless.”

Grant laughed out loud at that. “She does? Why? I think she’s awesome.”

“Oh, she’s awesome all right. She’s amazing.” Antonio smiled as he looked at her again, then he shook his head. “But she’s too … too … real! That’s the word for her. She’s smart and practical and down to earth.” He gave Grant a helpless look. “I just get the feeling she wouldn’t stand for my bullshit.”

Grant laughed. “You might have a point there.”

They’d almost met the girls now, and Antonio spoke in a lower voice. “Do me a favor and remind me of that if I’m ever tempted?”

Grant chuckled but didn’t reply. Instead, he spoke to Chelsea. “Hi. Do you need a hand with those?”

“Please.” She thrust a tray at him, and he grabbed it. “Thanks. I thought I was about to drop one. You’re a lifesaver.” She adjusted her grip on the other one.

“Do you … can I …?” Antonio held his hands out to Mary Ellen, but she shook her head.

“I’m fine, thanks.” She nodded at Grant and then strode off toward the house gripping her two trays tightly.

Antonio looked at Grant and then Chelsea. He shrugged and raised his hands in the air. “I tried.” He turned around and went back to the terrace.

Grant met Chelsea’s gaze. He wanted to tell her how beautiful she looked, but he didn’t dare. She was smiling and shaking her head. “Can you believe those two?” she asked.

Grant chuckled. “I’m guessing there’s a history there?”

“No, but you’d think there would be.”

He nodded. “Maybe there will be?”

“Maybe, but Mary Ellen’s adamant that there won’t.”

Grant raised an eyebrow. “Why’s that? From what I’ve seen, women usually like him.”

Chelsea laughed. “Mary Ellen’s not interested in that kind of thing.”

“That kind of thing?”

Chelsea pursed her lips. “She’s not the kind of girl who just hooks up with a guy. She’d rather date someone properly.”

Grant drew in a deep breath. “What about you?”

Chelsea stopped walking and met his gaze. “What about me?”

He swallowed, hard. Was he really going to ask her? “You said you don’t do that kind of thing normally. Would you rather date properly?”

“What are you saying?”

She really was going to make him spell it out. “Would you want to date me? Can we go out sometime?”

She stared at him for a long moment. He almost took it back, almost apologized, made an excuse—anything to put him out of the misery of waiting for her reply. When she finally answered, his patience was rewarded. “I’d like that.”

He couldn’t help the smile that plastered itself across his face.

“But …”

Why did there have to be a but? “But what?”

“We work together.”

“I know, it’s not ideal, but maybe it’ll be easier than trying to keep our distance.”

She nodded. “That has been kind of difficult.”

He smiled, glad that she’d admit she’d been struggling with it, too.

“You said sometime. Do you think we should wait until you’re finished at Zosca?”

“No!” He really didn’t. He sighed. “At least, I don’t want to. Maybe it would be the sensible option.”

“Hey, Chelsea.”

Grant turned around to see a tall, built guy with gray hair standing behind him. His gray eyes bored into Grant’s. The guy was intense.

“Smoke.” Chelsea smiled. “It’s great to see you. I love that you and Laura came.”

Smoke’s expression softened. “You know she tries to get me here whenever she can. This time it was my idea.” He turned to look at Grant again, all the softness gone from his face.

“Oh, sorry,” said Chelsea. “This is Grant Dawson. Grant, this is my big brother, Smoke—or Cole Hamilton the second, if we want to give him his full title.”

That made Smoke smile again. “Yeah, let’s stick with Smoke.”

Grant held out his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He was glad to know the guy was Chelsea’s brother. The way he crushed Grant’s hand when they shook let him know there was definitely an alpha male play going on. At least it was a brotherly protection deal and not a competitor for Chelsea’s affection.

“You’re the guy dad brought in?”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

Smoke nodded slowly then turned to Chelsea. “And you’re still speaking to him outside of work?”

Chelsea laughed. “He’s not as bad as I thought he’d be.”

Grant shrugged. “What can I say?”

“I don’t know,” said Smoke. “But I can tell you that if Chelsea doesn’t hate you, then my father probably won’t be impressed.”

“No, it’s okay,” said Chelsea quickly. “Dad and I have an agreement that Grant’s only observing for now. He’s going to tell us what could be done, and then we’re going to decide what happens from there. I think I’m going to end up trying to buy Zosca and run it my way.”

Smoke smiled through pursed lips. “I like that idea.”

Chelsea grinned. “Good, because I need to pick your brains about how I can raise the money. I think I’ll have to sell my shares and …”

“Don’t you need to get those cakes to the kitchen?” Grant was pretty sure that Smoke cut her off because he didn’t want her talking about selling shares in front of him.

“I can take them.” He already had one tray. He took the other from Chelsea and headed in the same direction Mary Ellen had gone, hoping he’d find the kitchen. He understood that Smoke wouldn’t want him to overhear that conversation. He just wished Chelsea had answered him about going out. He’d have to wait.

~ ~ ~

Chelsea shook her head at her big brother. “Way to get rid of him, Smoke. That wasn’t exactly subtle, was it?”

He smirked at her. “Sorry, I don’t do subtle; I don’t know how. Just ask Laura, she’ll tell you.”

“I’ll bet. I guess you were right, though. I shouldn’t really talk about selling my shares in front of anyone.”

“No. Especially not someone like him.”

“He’s a good guy. I think you’d like him.”

Smoke pursed his lips. “Maybe, but I don’t like him sniffing around my little sister.”

Chelsea laughed and hoped it might cover her guilt. If Smoke didn’t like Grant sniffing around her as he put it, she doubted he’d be thrilled to know how the two of them had started out. Cam hadn’t had a problem with it, but then he was the laid-back brother. Smoke had always been more intense, and he was also very protective of her. “Whatever. That’s really not what he’s doing, we were …”

Smoke gave her a dark look. “I do my best not to worry about you. I usually succeed, because I know that in your own strange way, you’re fairly street smart. But I’m second-guessing myself now, because if you can’t tell that that guy’s got a boner for you …”

Chelsea laughed. “Don’t. I’m not dumb. I was just hoping that you were. I was hoping you wouldn’t notice because I don’t want to get into the whole story.”

Smoke raised an eyebrow. “There’s a story?”

She nodded.

“Okay. I’m not going to interfere, then. You can tell me all about it when you’re ready.”

Chelsea leaned her head against his arm—she couldn’t reach his shoulder. “Thanks, Cole. I will. It’s a bit confusing right now. It might turn out to be a very short story.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her into his side. “Short or long. I hope it has a happy ending. You deserve that.”

She burst out laughing and looked up at him.

He shook his head with a chuckle. “Not that kind of happy ending!”

“Okay, good to know. Anyway, what can you tell me about selling my Hamilton-Groves shares?”

“Are you sure you want to do that?”

She shrugged. “Not really, no, but I am sure that I want to buy Dad out of Zosca, and I don’t see any other way I could raise the money.”

Smoke nodded slowly. “There might be a couple of ways you could do it.” He looked up at the yard. “We should probably get up there and see everyone. Let me wrap my head around it, okay? I’ll see what ideas I can come up with for you, and we can talk about it tomorrow.”

“Okay, great, thanks.” They made their way into the yard to join everyone.

Chelsea smiled when she saw Mary Ellen standing with Cam and Piper. She’d seen Antonio off in no uncertain terms. It made Chelsea laugh that he seemed almost scared of her. Normally he could sweet-talk any woman into doing whatever he wanted—usually him—but his charms just didn’t work on Mary Ellen—despite the fact that she found him totally swoon-worthy.

She spotted Rita standing by herself. “You should probably go and rescue Laura,” she told Smoke. “I’m going to go and say hi to Rita. I’ll catch up with you both in a little while.”

By the time she reached Rita, her parents had joined her. She kissed them on the cheek and gave Rita a hug. “Thanks for inviting me, Rita.”

Rita smiled. “As if we wouldn’t. It’s been a while since we got everyone together, and I thought it’d be nice for Gene to have everyone around. You know we see you as family.”

“And you know we see you that way,” said Chelsea’s mom.

“I do,” said Chelsea. “I’ve always thought of you and Gene as an honorary aunt and uncle.” She looked over her shoulder to where he was standing at the grill with Grant. “How’s he doing?”

Rita’s smile faded. “He’s holding up. He’s enjoying coming over to Zosca and helping you out. I don’t know what he’d do with himself otherwise.”

Chelsea’s dad smiled at her. For a moment she felt defensive, wondering if he was going to make some comment about her needing the help. She felt bad when he spoke. “You know what Chelsea’s like, she’s always the one to want to help out, to find ways to make people’s lives a little better in whatever way she can.”

Chelsea raised an eyebrow at him. Was it a veiled dig at her?

“I’m so proud of her,” he added.

“Aww, thanks, Dad.” She gave him a hug.

“It’s true. I am. Just because we don’t see eye to eye on the business, it doesn’t detract from anything else.”

Chelsea smiled at her mom, who nodded. “Don’t look so skeptical, Chelsea. He brags about you all the time.”

She looked up at him wide-eyed. “Seriously?”

He shrugged. “Maybe.”

She laughed. “That’s awesome. You just made my day.”

“I don’t know why you’re so surprised.”

“Because of the business.”

“As I said, the business isn’t everything.” He looked up. “And how’s it going having him around?”

Chelsea followed his gaze to where Grant now stood chatting with Antonio and Smoke. “It’s going well, much better than I expected.”

Her dad smiled. “Do you think you’ll be able to do as he says?”

“Probably not.”

Her mom laughed. “I told you, dear. I think you’re both counting on the other compromising further than they will.”

Chelsea gave her a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”

“You think you can sit tight until Grant’s gone and then go back to running things your way. Your dad thinks that you’re really going to toe the line. All you’ve achieved with this deal the two of you struck is to delay the showdown.”

Chelsea met her dad’s gaze. “I don’t think that’s true. Do you?”

He shook his head slowly. “Not entirely, no. I don’t expect you’ll ever be able to toe the line—any line. Though, I believe your mom may be right about delaying the inevitable.”

Chelsea smiled. They did understand each other then. “The inevitable being?”

“You buying me out.”

She nodded.

“Really?” Her mom and Rita both turned to look at her.

“Yep. Much as we’d like to work together, we’re too different in some ways, and too similar in others, right, Dad?”

He smiled. “I believe we are. You know, I’ve been wondering if Grant’s going to be able to earn his fee.”

Chelsea’s heart started to race. “What do you mean?”

“Well, since it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to buckle down and abide by his recommendations, I’m not sure I should keep him around to make them.”

“Oh, but I thought …” Chelsea frowned. He was giving her the out she’d hoped for just a few weeks ago, but now she didn’t want Grant to leave. “I never said I don’t need help. He’s coming up with all sorts of useful recommendations. Things that will help, no matter what.”

Her dad raised an eyebrow. “So, you don’t want him gone? I thought you’d be glad to have him out of your hair.”

“No, I don’t. I mean … I …” The way he was smiling at her made her uncomfortable. It was almost as if he knew how she felt. “I’m going to need some time to figure out how I move forward. I think it would be useful for Grant to keep doing his job, as we planned.”

“Very well.” He gave her a knowing smile. “Let him do his job then.”

She nodded. “Look, Gene’s all by himself. I haven’t said hi to him yet.” She hurried away from them. That exchange had been a little confusing. She was surprised at her dad, but more surprised at herself. Why hadn’t she jumped at the chance to get Grant out of Zosca? And why was she refusing to let herself think about going out to dinner with him?

~ ~ ~

Madeleine put a hand on her husband’s arm. “Are you toying with her?”

Cole smiled. “Would I do such a thing?”

Rita laughed. “Yes, you would. What’s going on?”

“Perhaps nothing, but perhaps something,” said Cole.

“Don’t talk in riddles,” said Madeleine. “What are you playing at? I thought you brought Grant in because you were determined to bring Chelsea into line, but ever since he got here, you’ve had something else in mind, haven’t you?”

“What makes you say that?”

Madeleine narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t play the innocent with me. You were going to have Grant turn things around from day one. Then you came home from that first meeting saying you were going to let him and Chelsea figure it out between them. What’s going on?”

Cole jerked his chin to where Chelsea was standing talking to Grant. She hadn’t made it as far as Gene and the grill.

“Oh.” Tears pricked Madeleine’s eyes as she watched. Grant was so tall and handsome, and Chelsea looked small and delicate beside him. They were leaning toward each other as they spoke. Grant was smiling; Chelsea’s eyes sparkled. Madeleine turned to look at her husband again.

He nodded. “You just saw the same thing I saw that first morning in the boardroom. There’s something there. Something between the two of them that I don’t want to get in the way of.”

Madeleine smiled. “I thought we agreed never to interfere in our children’s lives again.”

He chuckled. “I’m not interfering, that’s the whole point. When I saw sparks like that flying between them, how could I pit them against each other? How could I allow him to be the ogre who came in to tear her beloved Zosca apart?”

Madeleine took hold of his hand and squeezed it. “And you don’t think she gets her big heart from you?”

He chuckled. “I remember you telling me I didn’t have a heart.”

Rita laughed. “I remember that, too.”

Madeleine smiled. “That was a long time ago.”

“It was, but I learned the lesson well. When it comes to choosing between love and business, love comes first.”

Madeleine looked back at Chelsea and Grant. “You really think there’s a chance for love there?”

Cole nodded. “I might be wrong, but I do. I like Grant. He’s a good businessman, but more importantly, he’s a good man. He’s the kind of man I’d choose for Chelsea myself.”

Madeleine laughed. “And you’re prepared to lose Zosca to see her with the right man?”

“Absolutely.”