Cinderella Busted (The Cinderella Romances #1) (3 page)

As gracefully as she could, she twisted her legs and sandals into the low-slung vehicle.

“Nice to have met you, Lily. Very nice.” Rhett winked, then closed the door.

One little wink made her heart race. She gulped, nodded, and cranked the powerful engine. She waited a few seconds in the hope Rhett would walk back inside, but he didn’t move. She positioned one sandal on the clutch pedal and the other sandal on the gas pedal, and with three inches of cork heels on her espadrilles, she couldn’t feel either pedal. Shoving the gearshift in reverse, she eased up on the clutch, gave some gas, and bucked the sleek sports car into a stall.

Okay, sorry for fibbing, Lord. Now please help me!

She kept her eyes on the dashboard, recranked the engine, and tried again—with another brief prayer to keep Rob from strangling her later. Three hard jerks and she managed to back the Porsche out. Lily finally glanced at Rhett and knew for a fact her cheeks and neck had a lighthouse-bright flush.

She buzzed down the window. “I just got the car, and I’m still getting used to a stick.”

He grinned. “I figured.”

She pulled out of the front entrance, drove around the north end of the property to the shipping entrance, and turned in, then veered to the driveway at her cottage where Rob appeared moments later.

“Figured you’d end up here,” he said and crossed his arms over his chest. “Start talking, Cinderella. And when you’re done, I’m giving you pumpkin-coach-driving lessons.”

Chapter 2

Rhett noticed that Garrett Tucker eyed him warily when he strode into his office.

“You’re smiling.”

“Why shouldn’t I be?” Rhett dropped his briefcase on his desk and gathered up some files. “Are the lawyers here?”

Rhett kept a handpicked team of real estate attorneys on retainer for BDC. He needed them with his worldwide development projects, and the legal-team leader was Carstairs Whittenhurst, III, summa cum laude Harvard law. Rhett considered the lean, weasel-faced attorney to be arrogant, obnoxious, argumentative, and the sharpest attorney he had ever met. The last attribute was the only reason Carstairs still shadowed the halls of BDC’s worldwide headquarters in Palm Beach. Rhett deplored any necessary meetings with the man. He set Rhett’s teeth on edge the minute he opened his mouth.

“Of course they’re here, and Whittenhurst is antsy. The meeting started at four, and it’s ten after. You’re never late, so tell me why you’re late
and
smiling.” Garrett frowned.

“I had a great afternoon.”

“Before or after you went to Bloom & Grow? You
did
go to the nursery, right?”

“I did.”

“So where did the
great
part occur? Before or after the nursery? Because you sure were mad about doing the inspection.”

“At.” Rhett shoved two briefs in a manila folder.

“Huh?”

“
At
the nursery. I met an incredible woman there. She took my breath away.” Blond hair and sapphire-blue eyes flashed in his line of vision, then faded.

Garrett gaped at him. “You mean Tammy?”

“The sales manager? No, not her. I met a customer in a sexy yellow sundress.”

“Women don’t take Rhett Buchanan’s breath away,” Garrett argued. “You’ve got that backwards.”

Rhett shook his head. “No, I don’t. It took some work, but I got her to agree to go out with me tonight.”

“Some work? This is like a nightmare. You’re my idol. You can have any woman you want, and you’re telling me you had to work at it like the rest of us do? You’re bursting my bubble.” Garrett dodged the wadded up paper Rhett threw at him.

“Cut it out. I’m serious.”

Garrett grinned deviously. “So am I, and you have to reschedule your date. We have to go to Delia’s cocktail party tonight, or did you forget? She invited Horning to her party, and we get to schmooze him for backing on the San Antonio project. Remember Horning Oil?”

“I remember, and I’m taking Lily to the party.”

“What?” Garrett stared incredulously.

“You heard me.” Rhett tucked two folders in his leather folio.

“Have you lost your mind?”

“Nope.”

Garrett took two strides forward. “We’re talking about Delia Armstead, your on-again, off-again girlfriend-slash-fiancée.”

Rhett glared. “I never asked—”

“No, but she thinks you will,” Garrett interrupted. “The woman turns into a barracuda when you get within five feet of another woman. Delia will eat this Lily alive.”

“I don’t intend to leave Lily’s side.” He tucked the leather folio under his arm. “Let’s go. The lawyers await.”

“Don’t do it, Rhett. Take the girl out tomorrow.”

“No!” he said sharply. “I told you I met with some resistance. If Lily has another day to think about it, she might change her mind. Contrary to what you think, not every woman wants to go out with me.” He strode for the door.

“I'll bet you ten bucks right now that you decide taking Lily was a big mistake,” Garrett said, right on his heels.

Rhett stopped to scowl at him. “I am not betting on my date with Lily, and it's not going to be a mistake. Good Lord, you'd bet on anything.”

"Only when I'm going to win."

Rhett and Garrett strode into the ornate, cherry-paneled conference room across the hall where six attorneys impatiently waited around a dark cherry wood conference table that took up most of the room.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” Rhett greeted the group as he took his place at the head of the table. Garrett slid into the chair always left open for him to Rhett’s right. “I apologize for my tardiness. A previous meeting held me up.”

Whittenhurst sniffed, and Rhett ignored him. “We’re meeting to discuss parcels on the East Coast of Florida, which you—” He nodded at Whittenhurst. “—are trying to acquire for my next golf resort development.”

“Yes,” Whittenhurst cut in, “and we’ve pared the list to three parcels and feel a site visit to be in order.”

Rhett held up a hand to stop him. “Carstairs, I haven’t toured sites with you at this preliminary stage in four years, and I don’t see a reason to start now. I’m too busy. These are golf resort parcels, BDC’s bread and butter, and you know exactly what I want and need. You’ve been with me for eight years. Every property you secured in that time has met our needs perfectly, both physical and financial. So let’s move on.”

Whittenhurst’s lips pressed into a hard line, and he prattled on. “I didn’t know if you wanted to purchase one parcel at a time or all three together.”

Pompous ass
.

“Can we afford all three?” Rhett matched his icy tone. “Yes, we can. If we don’t develop them right away, we can always sell them later, so press forward. What’s the timeline on the closings?”

“Two immediately, the third will be delayed.”

Rhett raised his brows.

Whittenhurst gave a resigned sigh. “The third property is the last open parcel of coastline facing Jupiter Island that is big enough for a golf resort community, and we’ve met with a few roadblocks, but we’re working through them.”

“Roadblocks big enough to squelch the deal?”

“I don’t believe so, but one never knows.”

“I’ve wanted to do a golf course community in Jupiter since I moved here,” Rhett said eagerly. “Find out, Carstairs, and do it quickly. And I better not hear that Aidan Cross stole one of the parcels out from under us like he did last year. Got it?”

The ass gave an imperious sniff. “As you wish, Mr. Buchanan.”

Tammy appeared on the nursery path to the cottage and joined Rob and Lily in the driveway. Lily crossed her arms and awaited the interrogation.

“She wanted to wait for you to get started,” Rob told Tammy as she caught up to them.

“I’ll bet.” Tammy grinned and stopped alongside Lily. “So?”

“Nuh-uh. I go first,” Rob complained. “Is my Porsche all right?”

Lily rolled her eyes. “It’s fine, I think.”

She hoped so. After the first half-dozen jerks and bucks, the remainder of the ride had been smooth. She shoved in the clutch at her driveway entrance and coasted to a stop.

“You
think
?”

Tammy swatted him. “What do you care? Lily’s more important than some old car.”

Rob arched a brow, and Lily took up for him. “It
is
a Porsche, Tammy, and I did just jump in and take it without asking.”

“It’s all right. You were just trying to impress the guy,” Rob said grudgingly. “I’m just dying to know why.”

Lily smiled at her head grower and best friend in the whole world. He could afford a dozen Porsches with his trust fund and never miss the money.

Rob had disowned his family, which amounted to his parents since he was an only child, when they refused to bless his horticulture career and subsequently cut him off without a cent. Lucky for Rob, his grandfather had left him a small trust fund. Though access to said trust fund came with the single proviso that he had to hold down a forty-hour-per-week job. Somewhere. Luckier still for Rob, his grandfather’s idea of a
small
trust fund could buy and sell corporations.

Rob had snatched his trust fund out of his father’s bank, secured a horticulture internship at Bloom & Grow with Lily’s father, and even moved into the little blue cottage with the Fosters until he eventually secured a place of his own. Rob had never left. Lily shared her father and finally got the sibling she’d always wanted.

“I’m waiting,” her
faux
sibling prodded with a grin.

“I’m sorry I took your Porsche without asking,” Lily said, with proper chagrin.

“Oh, who cares?” He waved off the apology. “
Why
is what I’m waiting for.”

“Well, we met in the nursery office. Rhett was looking for Tammy, so he could do his final inspection on the BDC order. I thought he knew I worked here, so I offered to show him the trees. We were having such a good time, and then he asked me out. I hesitated because I feel funny dating customers, but I really wanted to go.”

“Then I showed up and almost blew the whole deal for you,” Tammy said. “It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on.”

Lily groaned. “That’s the bad part. I realized too late that he thought I was a
wealthy
customer, so I kept pretending.”

Rob frowned. “You lost me.”

“Rhett asked me out because he thought I was some Jupiter Island socialite, the kind of woman he obviously dates. If he thought I was just a gardener, he wouldn’t have asked me out. I just know it.”

“What?” Rob and Tammy exclaimed in unison.

“You heard me.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Rob said.

She shook her head. “I don’t think so, and when he insisted on going back up front with me, I just couldn’t jump in my dirty truck. Wealthy Jupiter Island socialites don’t travel by truck.”

“And I pulled up in the nick of time with Cinderella’s Porsche,” Rob finished.

Lily shrugged sheepishly.

“What was the name of his company again?” Rob wanted to know.

“BDC is what the landscape architect Garrett Tucker listed on the purchase order,” Tammy volunteered.

“No, it can’t be,” Rob said.

“You know the company?” Tammy asked.

“What was the owner’s name again?” he demanded. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Rhett Buchanan, why?”

Rob scrubbed a palm down his face and gave a long, deep sigh. “Geez Louise.”

“What? Tell me,” Tammy pleaded. “I can’t take this.”

“I don’t think I want to know,” Lily said softly.

Rob opened his eyes and stared at her. “You might be right, Lil. Rhett Buchanan is the most eligible bachelor on the entire East Coast, let alone Jupiter Island. BDC is a worldwide conglomerate. I know because my father does business with them. Buchanan is the CEO. He’s a billionaire.”

Lily gasped.

Tammy hooted. “This is great!”

“No, it’s not,” Lily said sternly. “I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going.”

“Yes, you are,” Tammy argued.

“Lil’s right, Tammy. This has
mistake
written all over it.”

“Are you crazy?” Tammy said. “This is what she deserves.”

“A relationship built on deceit?” Rob stared open-mouthed.

“I don’t
have
a relationship,” Lily cried, “and right now I don’t even have a date. I’m not going.”

“Wait just a minute, both of you.” Tammy held up both hands to silence any interference and turned to Lily. “You liked him, didn’t you?”

Lily could feel her cheeks growing warm again. The curse of being a fair-skinned blonde—everyone knew when she was embarrassed or upset. Her cheeks took out all the guesswork.

“Well?”

Lily stared at her friend for a long moment, then nodded.

“A lot. Am I right?”

Lily flinched under Tammy’s intense stare. She had never lied to either Tammy or Rob and never would. The truth was she hadn’t felt this excited over a guy since . . .

Well
. . .
Since
never
.

The butterflies in her stomach still fluttered, and just imagining Rhett’s face made her cheeks grow warmer still.

“I can see by your blush I’m right,” Tammy said softly. She held up a hand to silence Rob. “Lily, you
deserve
to be Cinderella for at least a little while. You can always tell him the truth later, and by then, he’ll love you as much as we do.”

Lily wanted desperately to go along with her suggestion. Rob remained silent, and she knew what he was thinking. Socialites considered gardeners to be
dirty
second-class citizens. His own parents had disowned him for passing on a chance to enter the family investment business and for choosing to be a lifetime gardener. Rhett Buchanan would never have asked her out if he’d known she was the head gardener there.

“You’ve let this nursery suck
all
the life out of you for too long. You
deserve
some fun, Lily. You always make the sacrifices, but not this time,” Tammy prodded gently. “Maybe Rhett is Mr. Right. Maybe he isn’t. But you deserve to have the choice.”

Rob suddenly heaved a resigned sigh. “She’s right, Lil.”

Lily stared first at Tammy, then at Rob. He’d surprised her. “Can I borrow the Porsche?” she asked.

“After I give you those pumpkin-coach-driving lessons,” he said, laughing, “and I’ve got time right now.”

Lily slid the stick shift into second gear and steered around the corner with a sigh of relief. Rob’s driving lesson had worked wonders, and she only had a little further to go, all of it down residential streets on Jupiter Island.

She pulled to the side of the two-lane road to call Rhett and briefly turned on the inside light to click numbers. She looked in the rearview mirror, and a face she didn’t recognize stared back—eye shadow, blush, mascara, lipstick, and blond hair swept back in a graceful chignon, held in place with an elegant gemstone comb. Who
was
that woman staring back?