My mind races. Is it Pane, back from his honeymoon? Is he going to see the site and blow a gasket?
The door opens and a driver in a black suit gets out and opens the rear door.
Out steps a man—he’s tall, with broad shoulders and wavy brown hair. He scans the site and then fixes his gaze on Stone, his expression grim as death.
“Cousin,” he says, shaking Stone’s hand. “Good to see you.”
Stone plays this so cool. If you didn’t know he had amnesia, you’d never guess. He smiles, his eyes warm, whereas his cousin’s gaze is as cold as a steel blade frozen inside an iceberg.
Once they shake, Stone turns to me. “This is Coco. Coco, this is my cousin.”
“Rhett,” he murmurs, taking my hand, knuckles up, and holding it briefly before releasing it.
Knuckles up? This man was taught how to shake a woman’s hand. And his name is Rhett? It suddenly feels like I’ve wandered onto the set ofGone with the Windand I’m the underdressed extra.
Talk about Southern gentility.
Trying to save Stone, I say, “I didn’t know you had a Southern cousin.”
“South Carolina,” Rhett tells me. “There’s a small smattering of us Maddoxes there.” He turns back to Stone. “I’ve come to see how my investment’s going. From the looks of it, I’ve only got one question.”
“What’s that?” Stone asks.
Rhett’s face scrunches in anger. “What happened to the resort?”
Chapter 25
Stone
“Whatisall this?” Rhett demands when we enter my office. “I’ve gotten invoices for limecrete? For materials we didn’t discuss? What’s going on? And why aren’t you answering your emails?”
I slide into a chair and stare at my cousin. His icy eyes and dark hair ring no bells.
Rhett unbuttons his suit jacket and sits in the chair across from me. His jaw is snapped tight. His eyes burn with anger.
Soon as I tell him about my memory issues, he’ll call my brother and pull me from the job.
No way in hell will I let that happen.
Doing this—working with the guys, building this resort ... This is what I was made for. I feel it in my bones.
No one will take it away.
“I’ve been busy.”
“You’rebusy?” Rhett scoffs. “Busy playing with that woman, no doubt.”
Anger coils inside me like a cobra about to strike. “Coco has nothing to do with the changes. This land is magical, and because of that, it needed different materials. I didn’t know it until we startedbuilding. Soon as I realized it, I pivoted. Trust me, what we’re using is climate friendly, eco-friendly, and magical-unicorn-land friendly.”
Rhett stares at me blankly for a beat before he tips his head back and laughs. When he’s done, he wipes tears from his eyes and levels a frigid gaze on me. “What the hell are you talking about? The Stone Maddox I know cares about bottom lines, making money. Did something happen after that competition with Pane? Did it break you or something, because you didn’t win the company?”
A slight stinging sensation settles between my shoulder blades. “Nothing has broken me.”
Rhett points to Hercules. “And what is that?”
“That is a lambicorn. His name is Hercules.”
“Hercules,” he sneers.
