Defy the World Tomatoes (6 page)

“Didn’t we agree to stick to business?” she asked. “I’ll need to bring in a bulldozer to grade the yard. I don’t want to disturb your practice schedule. Would it be better for us to work in the morning, or the afternoon?”

Griffin jammed his hands in his hip pockets. “I’ve stopped rehearsing. Work whenever you please.”

“Can you just stop like that? I mean, don’t you have to play every day to keep your edge?”

“Now you sound like Karen. I fired one agent today, and I sure as hell don’t need another. Good-bye, Ms. MacLeod.”

“Oh, no you don’t.” Darcy stepped in front of him to block his way. “You owe us some money. A check will be fine.”

Griffin pulled his money clip from his Levi’s pocket and peeled off hundred-dollar bills. “Here you are. I’ll expect a receipt.”

“You really ought not to carry such big wads of money,” Darcy warned. “It makes you an attractive target to muggers.”

Griffin flashed a mocking grin. “Why, Darcy, I’d no idea that you cared.”

“Mr. Moore, really.” Darcy had his receipt ready and removed it from her clipboard. “Here you are.” Embarrassed by his constant teasing, she felt a bright blush fill her cheeks, but as she walked away, he was chuckling to himself.

When Darcy returned to Defy the World, she debated mentioning the
Architectural Digest
feature to Christy Joy, but decided against it. For all she knew, Griffin had merely made it up to inspire her to keep working for him. She was ashamed by how effectively it had worked.

On her lunch break, she hurried down the street to Song and Dance Music to look through their classical CDs. They were arranged by composer and, as she thumbed through them, she found several featuring Griffin as the soloist. Dressed in tails and seated at a grand piano, he looked terrific from every angle.

Each CD included effusive praise from music critics. Darcy’s favorite lauded Griffin’s spirited passion and unparalleled technical brilliance. She’d recognized how well he played, but clearly she was too ignorant when it came to classical music to appreciate just how extraordinarily gifted he truly was.

That he had stopped rehearsing left her both puzzled and alarmed. She couldn’t afford to buy all of his CDs, so she chose the one containing Franz Liszt’s
Hungarian Rhapsodies
,
hoping
that
was what she’d heard him play.

She carried the CD up to the counter, where the clerk was an earnest young man with bright red hair and a million freckles. “Good choice,” he said. “Moore plays as though he invented the piano.”

“You sound like a fan.”

“I sure am. I heard him at the Music Center in Los Angeles a couple of years ago. He played three encores, and the whole audience was still standing and applauding wildly ten minutes after he’d left the stage for the last time. The man is phenomenal. I’ve heard he visits Monarch Bay occasionally, but I’ve yet to see him.”

“Perhaps your luck will change.”

“I sure hope so. I’d love to have his autograph.”

Griffin had scrawled his signature across her first estimate, but Darcy quickly discounted the thought of reproducing it for his fans. He missed no opportunity to take advantage of her, it seemed, but she wouldn’t stoop to taking advantage of him.

She swung by her truck before returning to work and left her new CD there rather than take it into the gift shop to add to their collection. She’d been enthralled by Griffin’s performance, but she didn’t want the plants jarred into collapse, or their customers, either.

After its initial rocky start, the rest of her day went well, and then, at a quarter to six, Griffin walked into the nursery carrying a long, slim package from Fun in the Sun.

“It won’t be dark for another couple of hours,” he said. “There’s a nice breeze, and you’re finished for the day. Come on home with me, and we’ll try out my new kite.”

George had overheard Griffin’s invitation and walked up to Darcy. “I’ll lock the gate. You’ve been working too hard and could use some fun.”

Griffin introduced himself and reached out to shake George’s hand. “Thanks. I’ve tried to tell her the same thing, but totally without success.”

“Did you remember to buy string?” Darcy asked, grasping for a means to postpone the date.

“Of course. They won’t let you out of Fun in the Sun without a big reel. Now, don’t give me excuses, let’s go.”

“All right, but I’ll drive my own truck. That way you won’t have to bring me back into town later.”

“Whatever you’d like.”

George gave Griffin a thumbs up sign behind Darcy’s back. Certain something significant had passed between the two men, Darcy glanced over her shoulder, but George was merely smiling innocently.

“Have fun,” he said.

“If he claims I fell off the bluff, you’ll know he’s lying,” Darcy warned. “Tell the police it was murder.”

Griffin quickly discounted her dark prediction. “I think I’m the one who’s in danger here, George, but I’ll do my best to see no one comes to any harm.”

“You just have a good time, kids.”

Darcy didn’t see any hope of that, but she stopped off to tell Christy Joy a quick good-bye and then went on out to her truck.

Griffin waited for Darcy in his driveway. “I don’t mean to shock you, but unlike most men, I actually enjoy reading directions. Let’s go on out to the terrace. I’ll read the notes with the diagrams, and you can assemble the kite. It’s shaped like a dragon with a long, notched tail. It’s very colorful. I hope you like it.”

“It’s your kite,” Darcy reminded him, but when he pulled it out of the package, she couldn’t help but be impressed. “Start reading, I want to see this thing in the air.”

“First we have to unroll it.”

“All right, I’ll hold the tip of the tail while you walk backwards, and that ought to do it.”

“Hey, I thought I was giving the directions here.”

“Sorry. I’ll keep my mouth shut,” Darcy promised.

“Well, not all the time, I hope.” Griffin soon had the dragon stretched out across the terrace. He checked the directions again and sorted through the accompanying dowels. “These go in the head and wings. Do you see the slots that hold them?”

“Slots?” The dragon was red and breathing orange flames. Darcy felt along the sides. “They’ve got to be here somewhere. This is your kite, after all. Why don’t I read the directions while you attach the dowels?”

“Don’t complicate things. Just get busy.”

Darcy raised a hand. “Let me see that diagram.”

Griffin stepped beyond her reach and hid it behind his back. “Come and get it.”

“No way. You’re the one who wants to build the kite, remember?”

“An excellent point.” Giving in, Griffin knelt beside her. “Maybe they didn’t sew this one together correctly at the factory.”

He was mere inches away and studying the kite’s construction rather than tormenting her. His lashes made shadows on his cheeks, and he was quite appealing when he was in a playful mood, but none of it seemed real to her. It was all just a trick, and he probably wouldn’t stop until he’d convinced her that she actually wanted to move Defy the World clear out of town.

Then she grew curious. “Why do you need a recording studio if you’ve stopped rehearsing?”

“Later. Here we are, the slots open on the other side. Hand me the first dowel.”

Darcy slapped it into his hand. “Tell me.”

“Let’s get the kite in the air first.” Griffin slid in the dowels, then attached the string. He stood and shook out the kite, then looked up at the cloudless sky.

“Is there some trick to getting this thing in the air?” he asked.

“You’ve never flown a kite?” Darcy stood and moved out of his way.

“I began playing the piano at five and just looked up a couple of months ago. There’s a whole lot I’ve missed, including the art of kite flying.”

Darcy didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but she imagined he must have been a very serious little boy indeed. “You need to run while you let out the string, and the wind will carry it aloft for you.”

Griffin looked around to judge the distance. “If I stay on the terrace, I shouldn’t be in any danger of falling off the bluff.”

“Go for it,” Darcy encouraged. She watched him cross the terrace in an easy lope and when he turned back into the breeze, the kite bounced upward. “That’s it, just let out the string.”

Griffin fumbled with the reel, then caught it and laughed when the kite rose steadily into the air. The wind whipped the dragon’s long tail and serrated wings, pushing it higher. “Wow, it looks like a real dragon, doesn’t it?” he shouted.

“It sure does. Now just move back a little and keep letting out more string.” She raised her hand to shade her eyes, then walked across the terrace to where she could observe Griffin as well as the brightly colored kite.

She remembered the kids who had played in the high school band as being rather nerdy. Not that she’d been Miss Popularity, but at least she hadn’t always had her nose in a book. With Griffin’s looks, no one would have ever called him a nerd, but it saddened her to think he must have missed out on a lot of the fun of growing up.

“Is this all there is to it?” he asked.

“Not really. The wind can shift and send a kite right into the ground, or into a tree. The power lines are buried underground up here, but usually they pose a threat too. Then, if there are others flying kites, your string can become tangled in theirs and send both kites plunging to earth.

“Depending on the wind conditions, flying a kite can be frustrating, or like today, just plain fun. Let it go up as high as you’d like, but remember you’ll have to rewind all the string when you bring it down.”

“I’ll keep it in mind. Why don’t you come here and try it?”

Here we go, Darcy thought, but the prospect of having him wrapped around her wasn’t all that unappealing. She moved to his side and gradually took control of the string. To her infinite dismay, however, he stepped back out of her way.

“Now, tell me why you need a studio,” she prompted, as much to distract herself as to discover his intentions.

Griffin moved up behind her and began to rub her shoulders. “You look rather stiff. Does this feel good?”

His touch was light but sure and incredibly soothing. “Christy Joy said you’d have great hands.”

“Did she?” Griffin chuckled.

Darcy hadn’t meant to pay the compliment out loud. “Please don’t tell her I said that.”

“I’m going to be tempted, but maybe we can work out something.”

“Do you expect a bribe?” Darcy felt a strong tug on the string and released a bit more. The kite was way out over the bluff now and dancing against the sun.

Griffin leaned down and nibbled her right ear. “Stay for dinner. I bought a roasted chicken. You eat those, don’t you?”

Darcy felt his breath on her cheek and couldn’t recall his question. “Chicken?” she mumbled numbly.

Griffin kissed her left ear lightly. “Yes, do you like them?”

He was wrapped around her now, and as snugly as she had imagined
—
no, hoped. She relaxed against him, and he began to trace teasing circles around the tip of her left breast with his right hand, while his left crept slowly down her stomach toward the sweet spot between her legs. His hips were pressed against her back, and there was no mistaking the intensity of his desire.

“This is what you had in mind all along, isn’t it?” she nearly moaned.

“Do you blame me?”

Darcy dipped her head. She supposed this was simply his usual routine. He would be in town for a few days to give a concert, and if he wanted to connect with a woman, he would waste no time in going about it. Even better than a sailor with a girl in every port, she bet he had women all around the world eagerly awaiting his return.

“Darcy? What was his name?”

Startled, Darcy turned to look up at him. “Whose name?”

“The man who broke your heart.”

Enfolded in his embrace, Darcy could not recall any of the other men she’d known. “Griffin Moore,” she breathed out softly.

Griffin released her to reach for the kite string. “Do I frighten you that badly?”

She’d blurted the truth, and there was no way to take it back now. Instead, she sat on the terrace steps and waited for him to reel in the dragon kite. When he sat beside her, she kept hugging her knees, but she knew exactly what she wanted to say.

“Now do you see why we ought to stick to business?” she asked.

“No, things were just getting interesting.” He reached for her hand and rubbed his thumb across her palm.

Darcy pulled her hand away and laced her fingers together in her lap. “You’re not only famous, you’re amazingly talented. Why would you hole up here and stop playing?”

“You believe I owe you an explanation for some reason?”

“Yes, you just had your hands all over me.”

“And everything has its price?”

Darcy would have slapped him, but he caught her wrist in mid-air. “I’m not for sale,” she swore through clenched teeth.