Gone Country (44 page)

“Maybe, but the right hundred acres, adjacent to our four thousand acres, with creek frontage ain’t nothin’ to sneeze at.”

“How many people underestimate you?”

Dalton grinned. “A lot. Especially when I’m playin’ cards. They see my baby-face and assume…well, not many of them assume I’m a rookie anymore.”

“Is that how you funded your land purchases? Through gambling?”

Dalton hung his head. “Yes sir.”

“Don’t even try to pull off contrite, Dalton.”

He laughed. “Sorry. So as long as we’re swapping stories about how we made our millions—ha ha—I gotta know if all of yours was inherited.”

Strange to think his brothers hadn’t asked him this question. But since Dalton had been honest with him, he owed his cousin the same courtesy. “My dad started a real estate development company in the 1960s. He did very well in the 70s, 80s and lost more than half when the credit market collapsed. He recovered, but never like during the heyday. He died when I was twenty-eight and I was already VP of the company, so I took over.” Gavin sipped his drink. “My father was a great guy, but I found out a few things he’d done that were shady and I worried his mistakes would come back and bite me in the ass.

“So a few years after his death, I started buying cheap properties. Rentals in decent areas that didn’t require more than basic updates. Two properties turned into four, four turned into eight…and so on. Around that time, I’d had enough of my cheating wife and filed for divorce. Instead of letting that bitterness eat away at me more than it already had, I become more hands on, buying government foreclosures, houses auctioned by banks, any little gem I could turn fast. I’d go in and gut the place. There’s nothing more cathartic than beating the fuck out of stuff with a sledgehammer.”

“Are you kiddin’ me?”

“No. I worked out my aggression toward my ex-wife and started flipping houses at exactly the right time in the market. I made a killing. I reinvested it in rental properties. Daniels Development Group is still in business, I’m still a figurehead CEO, but with the spectacular crash of the housing market, the bulk of my business focus is Daniels Property Management. Since I’m not hands-on, ripping places apart, I can work from anywhere. Made it easy to move here.”

“I had no idea. I gotta say. That’s impressive.” Dalton gave him a self-satisfied smile. “Everyone else in the family sees you as a suit, making real estate deals. From this point on, I’ll see you busting shit up with a chainsaw.”

Gavin laughed.

“So we have a deal?”

“All right.”

“This stays between us,” Dalton cautioned. “If anything changes on your end or my end, we’ll agree to meet to discuss it before making a decision?”

“Sounds good.”

Without missing a beat, Dalton said, “Now that that’s out of the way, you wanna play pool?”

Gavin studied the too-innocent face. Pool shark as well as card shark? Probably. But Gavin still had a few tricks he could teach this pup. “Sure. But we’re not playing for money, right?”

“How about if we play a few games and see how it goes?”

“Sounds fair.”

Two hours later Gavin went home three hundred dollars richer.

He doubted Dalton would underestimate him again.

Chapter Thirty-Three

March…

Rielle stormed into Gavin’s bedroom. “Do you know who I just got off the phone with?”

“
Publishers Clearing House
?”

“Not even remotely funny, Gavin Daniels. A trucking company based out of Denver just called, asking me when I’d be home to accept shipment for a greenhouse. Not a greenhouse kit, but a fully finished greenhouse.”

He had a hard time containing his smile.

Her gaze pierced him. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“Could you describe this greenhouse?”

Rielle threw up her hands. “It’s a greenhouse! You know very well what a greenhouse looks like.”

“Oh, right. Then that’s probably the greenhouse
I
bought you.”

“Did I just hear you say you bought me a greenhouse?”

“Is there an echo in here? Yes, I bought you a greenhouse. And I’m disappointed because they were supposed to deliver it last week.”

“Oh. My. God. Are you serious?”

“Completely.”

“Who buys someone a fucking greenhouse?” she demanded.

“I didn’t buy
someone
a fucking greenhouse, I bought
you
a fucking greenhouse,” he shot back. “Big difference.”

“How did you even know I was pricing them?”

Gavin cocked his head. “Rory told me.”

“What? When the hell did you talk to my daughter?”

“Last week she called to check on Sierra, when Sierra was sleeping, so I chatted with her. She apologized for being a jerk when she found out we were together. I confessed I’d been difficult to live with in the weeks after Sierra’s accident and I wanted to make it up to you.”

“That’s your way of apologizing? You buy me a greenhouse?”

“Yep.”

“Jesus, Gavin. Why didn’t you just buy me flowers?”

“In a way, I did. You can grow your own flowers in your new fucking greenhouse.” He grinned.

“You are impossible. I can’t accept this from you.”

Gavin scooped her up, threw her on the bed, and loomed over her. “You don’t have a choice. I custom ordered it. It’s on the way and it’s nonrefundable.” He studied her face. She had that determined set to her jaw, which meant arguing was pointless. So he kissed her.

“No fair,” she panted after he slid his mouth between her breasts.

“Say,
thank you, Gavin, for such a thoughtful gift
.”

“I will pay you for it.”

“Now you are starting to piss me off, Ree. I didn’t buy it out of guilt. I bought it because you needed it and because I could. I wanted to do something nice for you.”

“This goes way beyond nice.”

“I know. What I feel for you can hardly be described as nice. I love you.”

That’s when she softened. When her pride took a serious smackdown from her heart. “I love you too. It’s just weird to have you buy me things. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it.”

“Get used to it. And practice that saying
thank you
thing, because I had them toss in a new tractor with a trailer attachment.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Did you really?”

“Yes. But it’s just a little tractor, so a little thank you will be fine.”

She laughed. “You are so ridiculous. That’s probably why I’m ridiculously in love with you.” She lifted up and kissed him. “Thank you, Gavin, for such a thoughtful gift.”

“My pleasure.”

“This greenhouse is enormous,” Ainsley said.

“Tell me about it. It’s twice the size of the one I’d been saving for.”

“And Gavin just bought it for you three weeks ago? Out of the blue? Was it a lucky guess?”

Rielle unhooked a hose coupling. “No. He talked to Rory and she told him. I suspect she exaggerated just a bit about what I wanted.”

Ainsley laughed. “How is Rory?”

“Busy. We only get to catch up about once a week.”

“So has she come around as far as you and Gavin being in a relationship?”

“Actually, yes. She apologized to me and to Gavin, although he didn’t go into detail about what she said to him.”

Ainsley’s eyebrows rose. “That’s progress.”

“I thought so. I’ll admit I suspected Rory was trying to pull one over on me. Claiming she had accepted the relationship in the hopes I would confide the intimate details to her. She’s sneaky that way.”

“Has she been hinting around she’d like to know more?”

“No.”

“Uh-oh. I recognize that contemplative look. What’s up?”

Rielle twisted on the spray nozzle until it loosened and fell off. “What I don’t understand is even when everything is going so great between Gavin and me, why do I still feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop?”

“Ree. That’s natural. It’s completely normal that you’re afraid now you’ve found this incredible happiness, you’ll lose it or something will screw it up.”

“Exactly! If it’s so natural and normal did you talk to Ben about this stuff at this stage in your relationship?”

Ainsley squirmed and Rielle wished she could retract the question. Although Ainsley alluded to it, she never came out and said her intimate relationship with Ben was…more intense.

“Not until Ben and I decided we wanted the same thing. We didn’t have the added pressure of kids meddling or trying to manipulate our emotions. So is Sierra completely accepting of your relationship with Gavin?”

“Most days. She’s sixteen, though. One day she’s on top of the world, the next day she’s in the pit of despair. Everything is a crisis in her life. A bad hair day. A B minus on a test. If a friend ignored her in the hallway. Or she’s elated because her favorite song came on the radio. Or if she’s having a good hair day.”

“Was Rory that way?”

“Worse. I think most girls are like that. I’d forgotten how small things are such huge angst inducing incidents in teen girls’ lives. Things we dismiss as irrelevant are life changing events in their world. It boggles my mind, what event constitutes a major breakdown and then is easily shrugged off the next day.”

“Now that you mention it, I remember being exactly like that,” Ainsley said with a groan.

“Gavin handles it really well. He’s a great father. And I know this will sound weird, but his nurturing, unconditional love and fluid discipline style he shows as Sierra’s father is one of the reasons I was so attracted to him.”

“You and Gavin are so perfect for each other. The hippie chick and the businessman? Who’da thunk, right? But it works.” Ainsley squealed and hugged her. “I am so thrilled for you—for both of you. Just think, when you and Gavin get married? We’ll be sister-in-laws!”

Rielle’s belly tumbled. “Married? That’s jumping the gun, isn’t it?”

“Neither of you went into this relationship thinking it would be casual.”

“How do you know that?” she demanded.

“Because I know you.”

A division of space and time still continued in the house and their relationship. It frustrated her at times; sometimes she welcomed the separation of selves. Despite their declaration of love, neither had spoken of changing their agreed-upon living arrangement.

Ainsley wandered to the far end of the greenhouse, poking her finger in random peat pots. “I do have another reason for showing up besides to gossip about your love life.”

Rielle grinned like a loon. She did have a love life. She had a fantastic love life. “And what’s that?”

“This is a nosy question, so go ahead and get your back up.”

She snorted. “A nosy question from you? Really?”

“Yes.” Ainsley set her hands on her hips, in confrontation mode. “So straight up, Ree. Are you planning to cultivate twice as many plants this year since you have twice the growing space?”

“And this concerns you…how?”

“Because you already work hard enough for two people. If you double the size of your operation, you’ll be doing the work of four people and as your friend, that really concerns me.”

Had anyone else stuck their nose in her business like that Rielle would’ve bristled. But Ainsley based her observation on logic, not emotion. “Truth? I feel guilty that half of this top of the line, state of the art, brand spanking new greenhouse isn’t being utilized. I went so far as to scour my seed supplier’s online catalogue. But I realized I can’t do that and have any kind of life outside the gardens. I’ve decided to curtail what I plant, as far as the yield to work ration.”

“Thank heavens. I know how much of this”—Ainsley gestured to the space around her—“defines who you are. But you need to tend your relationship with Gavin with as much care as you tend your plants.” Her nose wrinkled. “That sounded a lot less hokey in my head.”

“I get what you mean. And I really appreciate your concern. But I have to ask what prompted this?”

“Joely. Her patient load is too much for one doctor. So my nagging must’ve worked because she is bringing another doctor into her practice.”

“Good for her. I’ve hardly seen her in the last four months.”

“You and me both. A celebration is in order.”

“I’m in.”

“I’ll get the ball rolling.” Ainsley frowned and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. “My darlin’ husband is mighty impatient today, so I gotta get. Take care, Ree.”

“You too.”

After bending and lifting and being covered in dirt, Rielle indulged in a long, hot shower—in Gavin’s bathroom. The scent of his body wash sent her thoughts back to how thoroughly Gavin had rocked her world in this shower. He’d defined relentless, making her come three times before allowing his own shuddering release. As much as she loved his commanding side, it didn’t leave her many opportunities to lead the charge in the bedroom.