As Natalie tromps up the steps in disappointment, Sylvia turns her attention to her son. “How are things going? Though I probably shouldn’t ask you too much.”
“They’re well.”
“I expect you to be ready in a few weeks.”
“I will be,” he tells her.
She tugs the jacket on her shoulders, pulling it higher. “Good. So you’ve been making it on your own okay?”
He glances at me and smiles. “I’ve been making it great. I couldn’t have done it without Rowe.”
Sylvia places all her attention on me, and fire practically shoots from her eyes as her gaze sweeps over me from head to toe. I know this look. This is the look of someone who wants to make you feel inferior.
She pulls her lips back into a cold smile. “Ah, Rowe. Thank you for helping my son. That’s wonderful of you.”
Her tone is resentful. Sylvia Maddox, CEO and president of a multibillion-dollar hotel business, isresentfulthat I’m here, and she wants me to know I don’t belong.
I’ve got news for her: I belong well enough for Pane to put his hand on my back.
“You’re welcome,” I say, smiling through the irritation grinding in my stomach. “Your son’s amazing. I can see how he’d be great with the hotels.”
“Yes,” she says, hissing thesssss. “He is great with our international business. It’s much bigger than a small mountain town with a gimmick.”
Now it’s on, lady.“Oh? You’ve visited Mystic Meadows?”
“I’ve seen it. It’s very worn.”
“Not anymore.” I nudge Pane. “Because of this guy, people are giving the whole town a facelift.”
Her eyes go as wide as saucers at that. “Is this true, Pane?”
He shifts his weight like he’s impatient to leave. “Seems the renovation is contagious.”
“Renovation?”
“You’ll see it on judging day. I don’t want to say too much. I’m still competing against my brother.”
Sylvia regards him. Then her frigid gaze lands on me. She and Pane may share the same eye color, but his eyes are warm. Hers are filled with ice.
“Yes, about your brother.” She sighs dramatically. “There’s something I need to discuss with you. In private.”
She wedges herself between me and Pane, taking the arm he had on my back and pulling him down the tarmac.
As Sylvia walks off, she literally lifts her nose in the air.
Is she for real? Is this little rich woman jealous of me? Does she think I’m some sort of competition?
They talk in private for a few moments while I study the plane, wondering what it’s like on the inside and deciding that it’s best not to know. You know, since it isn’t mine and all.
After a minute, Pane’s voice rises in the air. “I just don’t want to talk to him right now.”
When I glance over, his mother is replying in a low voice. He nods.
They break apart and head this way. He calls up at the jet, “Natalie!”
A few seconds later, his sister appears in the doorway, hope alighting on her face. “I can stay?”
“No. I need a hug. Rowe does, too.”
