Rhett sent her an unnatural-looking nod. “We need to get going. Dinner is in the oven.”
“How domestic,” she quipped, one hand on the doorknob. “Do let me know about the gala, darling.” With that, she floated back into Captain’s, the sweetness of her lingering perfume and saccharine words turning my stomach.
“Let’s go,darling,” I muttered flatly to a dazed Rhett.
We were passing by the Morning Bell when he caught up to us, running a hand through his hair. “I’m so sorry,” he started. “I had no idea.”
I didn’t have the energy to keep the frown at bay. “I assume that means you’ll be attending the gala?”
“Georgie, my parents are the biggest developers in San Francisco. They’re mybosses.” He lurched up to speed and let out a strained laugh. “Why are you walking so fast?”
Ripping a stray curl from my face, I whipped toward him at the corner of Main Street. “Yes, for a job I’m not even sure why you have.” He froze, apparently too stunned to speak. Easton and I continued toward Maple Street.
“I don’t understand. You told everyone that it’s fine if they go to the gala.” Rhett’s voice rose a fraction, agitation sharpening each word. I continued silently power walking toward my house,and he added, “You— you can’t just say one thing and mean another, Georgie.”
Bursting through my front gate, I turned on him in the shadows of the garden. “You’re not just anyone, Rhett!”
My voice cracked at the end. I let Easton off his leash to wander around the yard and tried to hide the redness flushed across my cheeks. Chest heaving and knees wobbling, I stumbled over to the porch steps and took a seat.
Rhett quietly sat beside me. “I wasn’t supposed to be here this long.”
“Explain,” I demanded, twisting to face him and scooting my back up against the railing.
“I… I was supposed to come, build the booths, get the company solvent, and go home.” He rested his elbows on his knees, jaw tensed as his eyes swept out over the street. “My parents allowed me to take the time off since the business was left to me. When I got here, though… I don’t know. Then Janice asked me for a favor, and I couldn’t refuse. She’s been like a mother to me—”
“A favor?” I repeated. Rhett lifted an eyebrow at me and I waved a hand. “Sorry, continue.”
“And admittedly, Marigold’s was a bit more work than I anticipated. But then I kept running into the shop owner—sometimesliterally—” He tossed me a look and I grimaced. “And she proved to be a whole different kind of distraction.”
Then his eyes softened, and I hugged my knees to my chest in an attempt to hide the beetroot color of my face. Rhett called me a distraction. I wasn’t exactly sure if it was good or bad, but it was something.
Silence stretched until I finally said, “So what does that have to do with the gala?”
“I need to make nice with them.” He paused to groan. “If I don’t smooth things over, they can—and will—make sure I never find work again.”
My brows knitted together. “Why would they do that?”
“Power? Control? I don’t know.”
His response hung in the air as I tipped my head back on the railing and stared at the sky. Why would he care what those kinds of people thought? It made me want to take him by the shoulders and shake.
I had no reason to, though. He was determined to go back home and forget his littledistraction. Suddenly, the word soured in my mind and the truth hit like a cold slap: this was just a detour on his road to bigger, shinier things. Getting the approval of his parents and maintaining the career he hated—that’s what mattered to him.
Not me. Of course not.
“What are you thinking?” Rhett asked.
“Nothing,” I lied.
He sighed and kicked a pebble with the toe of his boot. “I hate when you do that.”
“What?”
Something cold shot through me.
“When you don’t say what you mean,” Rhett replied, completely oblivious to the daggers I was shooting his profile. “You’ll smile and nod even when I can tell you’re dying inside.”
“Because you’re so much better?” I snapped back before I could stop myself.
