A Collateral Attraction (12 page)

“Has someone ever told you that your sensitivity chip is missing?” I ask. “That was brutal, Heath.”

“I’m sorry, Billie, but it’s also called moving on,” Heath says, leaning forward over the table.  “Especially now that she’s in trouble and you both have to start trusting each other again.”

“Oh, really? You mean like the way you and Ethan trust each other, or your sister, who hasn’t returned your calls in days, trusts you?”

“Maybe,” he says, his blue-gray eyes pinning me. “But then I’m not the one still dreaming of someone else three years after he betrayed her.  I’m not the one who hasn’t moved on.”

For the next few seconds, I glare at Heath.  It’s all I can do without leaping over the table to punch his lights out, even if what he said was true.  But he’s right to say I haven’t exactly moved on, not when part of my resentment for Blythe is really linked to that day and she has no idea.

“What about you?” I ask coldly, crossing my arms in front of me. “Have you moved on?”

“From what?”

“From your own demons, because God knows there’s got to be a reason why you’re such a cold son of a bitch. Why else does everyone say that you’re all work and no play? I’m sure you play, but I bet it’s not for the long-term. Maybe you prefer your women as Miss Right-Nows instead of Miss Right.”

“And what if I do?”

“That’s why you’re so cold then,” I say, shrugging and looking out the window even though the skies are dark and I really can’t see anything but hints of clouds.  “Why am I not surprised? Typical.”

“Typical of what? You mean I’m not the first millionaire you’ve met before.  There have been others?”

“What do you care?” I scoff. “The only thing you wanted to know earlier was whether sex with me would be on the table.”

“And it’s no longer on the table, Billie,” he says, “not when we’ve made ourselves clear.  Do  you know how many women would have jumped at that chance?”

“Like I care,” I scoff. “But what you said to me was cold-“

“-yet it was true.”

“It was still cold. You could at least be kind about it.”

“In my world, Billie, don’t ever mistake tact for kindness,” Heath says. “You saw that with Harris.  You saw that with Blythe.  You’re going to see that with Ethan, and the people he’s traveling with. It’s cold behind the smiles, Billie. Remember that. Now, I’m not saying what I did was tactless, but I was only speaking the truth.”

“Whatever,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Don’t you get tired of having to have to read behind the smiles each time? What kind of a world is that?”

“It s a world where billions of dollars are traded each day, and lost when you buy only the lies you want to see.”

“So when do you ever let your guard down then?”

“Now,” Heath replies. “Right now, with you, my guard is down.  In fact, I have no security with me, Billie, in case you haven’t noticed.  And right now, on the ground, everyone is freaking out as to where the boss is, and whether he’s with a stranger who could be a corporate spy-“

“-but I’m not.”

“I know you’re not, or at least, I’m hoping you’re not,” Heath says. “But even if I could be wrong, we have at least set the ground rules, haven’t we? A charade, nothing more, nothing less.  That way, you and I can make our way through Ethan and Blythe’s world and you can do what you need to do.”

“She really did hurt you, didn’t she?” I ask a few minutes later, just as Heath opens his laptop so he can start working again.

“Who?”

“Whoever this woman is you fell in love with,” I say. “The woman who made you this cold.  Natasha, maybe?”

“Definitely not her,” he says, chuckling drily. “And as much as I wish I could say that there was someone, unfortunately I can’t, not when I’m running two companies and chasing my brother half-way around the world just so I can talk reason with him.  But you are right about one thing.”

“What?”

“I’d much prefer one Miss Right, even if I have to wait forever, than ten Miss Right-Nows.”

It doesn’t take me long to learn that the Santa Barbara I know from my one-time vacation with my family, based on tour guide books and a limited budget, is nothing like the Santa Barbara that Heath knows. Immediately upon landing, we’re greeted at the airport by two bodyguards working for Tyler Crow, along with a driver standing next to a limo right there on the tarmac.

From there, we’re driven to Montecito where Tyler owns a chateau high above a hill. Though we have full use of the main house, Heath chooses to stay in the detached guesthouse that’s separated by a pool and a lush garden. He doesn’t want staff fussing over us, he says, though they do anyway, each one of them familiar with him as they welcome him back with warm smiles until he bids them all good night and shuts the door.

“I hope you don’t mind we stay in for the night and tomorrow we go to the country club,” he says as he shows me to my room. “My body clock is saying it’s one in the morning, and I’m exhausted.”

“You also barely slept.”

He covers his mouth with the back of his hand as he yawns. “True.  Anyway, Tyler always says,
mi casa es su casa
, so this house is your house, too. Feel free to roam the grounds in the morning. You can’t miss the view.”

It’s not till the following morning that I see what Heath means, though it’s the ringing of his phone at 5:30 that first wakes me up and gets me out the door to watch the sunrise. From the detached meditation house where I force myself to do some stretches and breath work, the view of Santa Barbara from the Pacific ocean to the west and the Santa Ynez mountains to the north and east of me is so breathtaking it makes me cry. I wish my parents were alive to experience all this with me, and not have to settle for the cheap motel and picnics in the park because of our tight budget when Blythe and I were kids.

By the time I make my way from the meditation house back to the guesthouse, I see Heath doing laps in the pool between the main house and guest house. As I stop to watch him from the guest house patio, I watch his body sluice through the water effortlessly. It’s the first time I see him with hardly any clothes on, and I’m struck by how tanned his body is, and toned. Perfect.

“I hear he was captain of the water polo team in college,” says an older woman coming towards me, her sandaled feet crunching against the white pebbles that line the path from the pool and the garden. Wearing a white summer top and pants ensemble, she’s tall and lean, a row of perfect white teeth against luminous dark skin and her hair is pulled back in a bun. Large hoop earrings frame her exotic features and her hazel eyes hypnotize me. They seem hard and intense and I feel like she’s been watching me for some time.

“I’m Tyler, by the way. Tyler Findley-Crow, although I like going by Crow these days,” she says, extending her hand. “I just got in minutes ago and wanted to welcome you personally, and I gather you’re Billie Rose. Very nice to meet you.”

“Same here,” I say as I stare up at her and shake her hand. I wonder if she was ever a fashion model because she could have very well floated towards me on her very own traveling catwalk.

“I just came from your meditation house,” I say. “You’ve got an amazing home.”

She beams. “Thank you. My mother hired Feng Shui experts to make sure that chi flowed effortlessly throughout this property before she passed away nine months ago.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you,” she says, smiling as she admires the jasmine flowers growing along the trellis. “This guest house just happens to be in the relationship corner, so hopefully it will be smooth-sailing for you two lovebirds-”

“We’re not dating.”

“-while this whole thing involving Blythe and the embezzlement situation settles down,” she continues, without missing a beat. “Word’s gotten around that Heath is dating someone new so I have warn you — all eyes will be on you. It always is the case whenever Ethan and Heath show up anywhere — siblings who always show a unified front to show the world while behind that front is-”

“A lie?”

“Pretty much, though not all the time,” she says. “But it’s no different from some sibling relationships, I believe, though I wouldn’t know since I’m an only child.”

Tyler must be about forty, though she doesn’t look a day over thirty. And behind her almond-shaped eyes and her friendly smile, I can sense there’s a razor sharp woman underneath the facade. I can see now how she totally fits into Heath’s corporate world. Even with her casual wear, she exudes confidence, though I’m not too thrilled about her knowing way too much about Blythe and the alleged fraud. I wonder if she knows about the letters, or is that just between Heath and Ethan?

“How close are you to Heath?” I ask.

“Close enough,” she says. “I met him when we did our Masters together. He was pretty young, straight from a BA in Business Management and I, from a few years of working at a credit company but needing that MBA on my CV.”

“Is an MBA really that important?” I ask, realizing too late what an inane question it is. Of course it’s important, but she’s unsettling me, eyeing me like a hawk from behind what seems like a carefully placed smile.

“Of course, it is,” Tyler says. “It’s hard enough to get anywhere in the corporate world with just a Bachelor’s degree these days, especially when you’ve got your eye on the highest rung of the ladder. Harder still when you’re a woman and you know that the only reason you’re being considered is because they need diversity on the board — that is, after you’ve beat out every other man first with your track record.”

“Is that how it really is out there? At least for women?”

“Behind closed doors, yes.  It’s also what I tell myself each morning when I wake up so I never let my guard down, not when there’s always someone else gunning for whatever position I have,” she replies. “I’m on the board of companies, Billie, for two reasons — first for my brain that gives me the drive to go after what I want, and then the plumbing between my legs, because God knows they’re in desperate need to get caught up with the times, and it looks good to the public. And while there’s nothing I can do about the second, there’s much I can do about the first. After all, I wasn’t born rich like some people.”

Like Heath, you mean
, I want to say but keep my mouth shut. I have a feeling that it’s best not to get on Tyler’s bad side.

“You make it sound so bad, being around people like him,” I say, forcing a smile.

She chuckles drily. “I didn’t mean to, not when I’m now one of those people. But the point I was trying to make is that I got here through hard work — very hard work and a lot of sacrifice, like setting aside having children just so it won’t interfere with my current work trajectory.”

Her expression hardens then.  “And the last thing I want is to see everything I’ve worked so hard for crumble because Heath decided to protect his brother’s girlfriend when his first duty was to the company. I hate to be blunt here, Billie, but I’m not a fan of your sister at the moment, not when I risk losing everything I’ve worked so hard for.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You look so much like her, it’s so uncanny,” she says after neither of us say anything for a few minutes.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“It’s not bad. It’s just uncanny,” she says, shrugging her shoulders.

“So is that where your loyalty lies, with the company?” I ask. “Are you going to throw my sister under the corporate bus because you don’t want anything to ruin all the hard work you’ve put in to get where you are now?”

“Wouldn’t you, if you were me and you start off from nothing?” Tyler asks, her eyes narrowing. I don’t know why but I seem to making enemies instead of friends these days.

“No, I wouldn’t, but that’s only because I’m not you,” I reply, tired of playing nice. I just have to accept that through no fault of my own, I’m on Tyler’s bad side and there’s nothing I can do about it. “And I definitely won’t do it to my own sister, not unless she really is embezzling all that money. But until then, while everyone else is busy protecting their own rich asses — now more than ever because Heath decided his loyalty was more to his family than his father’s company — I’ll do what I have to do to protect my own sorry ass, and my sister’s.”

I’m so angry that I don’t notice that Heath has emerged from the pool, and that as water slicks down his body, he’s like Greek god come to life. I should admire it, after all I’m supposed to be his girlfriend. But the last thing I want to do is pretend Heath and I are a couple in front of Tyler Crow, who probably would rather call the Ethics Committee and Feds herself than spend another minute with the doppelgänger of the woman who could cost her everything.

“I can see now why he likes you,” she says softly.  “You’re nothing like all the women who go after him, every one of them just after his money and his name — Ettinger and Kheiron.”

In the distance, Heath sees us and waves as he dries himself with a towel.

“Oh, please,” I scoff. “What could I possibly have that someone as gorgeous as Natasha doesn’t have?”

“Not to sound trite or overly romantic, but you’ve got a heart, Billie.  And in our business, it’s usually the first thing to go on our way to the top,” she says as her phone beeps and she glances at it briefly.

“You mean you don’t have one — considering that now you happen to sit on the Board of Directors of this and probably other companies?”

“Oh, I do have one,” she says, smiling as she gets up from her chair. “And right now, her nanny just texted to let me know that’s she awake from her morning nap.  Feel free to go anywhere you please, Billie, even the main house. Anyway, I need to get back in and say hello to my little Cara. I just came by to welcome you personally.”

If that was Tyler rolling out the welcome wagon, I’m afraid to find out what her farewell party would be like.  One minute she’s cold and the next, she’s not, though I can’t exactly blame her for being angry at Heath and his decision to delay informing the board of Blythe’s embezzlement.

Still, my meeting has left me in a bad mood and I huff back into the guest house and almost slam the door behind me. It’s not until I lean against the door do I realize I’m shaking.  Tyler Crow is not a woman who beats around the bush and she sure made her point clear.

By the time Heath enters the house, I’m a lot calmer. I’ve decided to look at things from Tyler’s point of view and see what she’s set to lose if Heath’s plan — finding out who is really is behind the embezzlement before doing any official action — fails. What would it cost her if the board finds out that after learning about the embezzlement, she did nothing to inform them? Surely, she’d be the first one to suffer the consequences, most likely a casualty of her plumbing. Harris is on his way to a cushy retirement as chairman emeritus so he probably wouldn’t care if they ushered him out sooner. Heath wouldn’t stand to lose a thing, not when he owned majority of the stock to begin with. And as for Blythe and I, nothing would change there. We’re still expendable.

“I see you’ve met Tyler,” Heath says when he walks past my bedroom, the door ajar. He’s got a towel draped around his hips and droplets of water glisten from his damp hair. He’s carrying a small package in one hand.

“I did, yes,” I say, forcing a smile. “She’s really nice.”

“She can be rough around the edges, but she means well,” Heath says, though he’s looking at me curiously. “But I’m glad to hear you both got along.”

You call that getting along?
I almost sputter.  ”So what’s the plan?”

“Breakfast first,” he says, rubbing the towel through his hair. “Then to the country club for the afternoon tea. I hear that Ethan and Blythe will be there to meet sponsors.”

“Can we have breakfast outside?” I ask. “I know Tyler’s got an amazing house and there’s staff to make us whatever we want but I was thinking of exploring Santa Barbara for a bit. I also need to get a new phone.”

“That’s already been taken care of,” he says, handing me the bag he’s holding. “It was delivered this morning and it just needs to be set up.”

It’s a brand new phone just like Blythe’s and while Heath takes a shower and gets dressed, I call Customer Service to help me set it up. Then I input Blythe’s phone number as well as the shop’s into the phone directory, before getting dressed in a pair of jeans along with a sleeveless top and an airy eternity scarf.  As I look at my reflection in the mirror, thanking Alicia’s eye for what works for my skin tone and my hair, I think I look decent enough.

I could even pass for Blythe.