by Melissa Hill
Although Terri had been sound enough to him last night, what with the free gargle and good company. She blew hot and cold sometimes, Terri, but was all right at the back of it all. Gary smiled, figuring she must have always had a bit of a thing for him, but because he was with Rachel he’d never really noticed.
He brought his bike to a halt, spraying gravel as he stopped. Still sitting on the saddle, he reached into his pocket and brought out the phone. Then he paused, suddenly worried it might be her again . . . but no, this looked like an international number. The calls had been coming thick and fast since the new year and while he’d managed to avoid most of them, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do that forever. He didn’t recognise this number but his curiosity got the better of him and he decided to answer it anyway. He could always claim it was a wrong number if needs be.
‘Hello.’
‘Is that Gary Knowles?’ The voice was male, with an English accent and sounded posh. Shite, Gary thought, realising immediately that it had to be that Ethan Greene guy.
‘Speaking,’ he replied.
‘Well, it’s nice to talk to you finally. It’s Ethan Greene here.’
‘Right. Er, hello.’ Gary tried to sound nonchalant but the truth was his nerves were in bits. Was there a chance that, as Terri tried to point out last night, the piece of luck that had landed in his lap (or at least in that Tiffany’s bag) wasn’t that at all? He didn’t want to think too much about it.
If something had gone amiss then it was an innocent mistake and had nothing to do with Gary; him being unconscious and all.
‘I’m not sure if you remember, but our paths crossed in New York,’ Greene went on, not sounding particularly friendly. ‘I’ve tried to get in touch with you a number of times since but it seems you’re a very hard man to pin down.’
‘Right, yes. I think Rachel might have mentioned something.’
‘Mr Knowles, let’s not beat around the bush. I’d like my property back.’ Gary’s eyes narrowed defensively. He didn’t like this guy’s tone. Who did he think he was, ringing up out of the blue like this and making demands? ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Oh I think you know very well what I’m talking about. The diamond ring that is currently in the possession of your girlfriend, Rachel? You and I both know that you didn’t buy that yourself.’
‘As I said, I don’t know what you’re—’
‘Mr Knowles, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The ring is mine and I want it back. I’m also more than happy to return your own Tiffany’s purchase – a silver charm bracelet, I believe?’
‘I really don’t know what you’re on about.’ Gary knew better than to admit anything upfront. ‘Thanks for looking after me following the accident and everything, but as far as this stuff goes it’s all news to me. I bought that ring myself.’
‘Really? So why did you admit to your friend Terri that you had no idea where it came from?’
Shite! Gary couldn’t believe he’d been so stupid as to let his guard down like that. There was no way he could ask Rachel for the ring back now, not when she thought the sun shone out of his backside for giving it to her. No, what was done was done, and how was he supposed to know that the stupid ring belonged to someone else? Surely it was your man’s fault for not looking after his own stuff? Gary was annoyed. It was bad enough that he’d been put in the awkward position of having to propose – unprepared! – because of this bloody ring, so for this guy to just turn around and expect him to hand it back after all that was a bit rich!
For all Gary knew any stranger could ring up and claim the ring was his, but where was the proof?
‘Look, I don’t have time for this,’ he said in an attempt to get the guy off his back. ‘I don’t know what you’re spouting off about, to be honest.’
‘Fine, then you leave me little choice but to go to the police.’
‘Grand. Do what you like.’ Gary didn’t know what else to say. Anyway, what could the cops do? He’d committed no crime, and in all honesty, he’d also been the victim here, considering that the appearance of this ring had led to him being engaged without having the chance to think properly about it. So the last thing he wanted to do was have to fork out a fortune for another diamond just because some stranger had taken the notion to blame him for losing one. Never mind the fact that he hadn’t a hope of being able to afford even a small one, let alone something to match the size of that rock.
It was important that Rachel continued to think well of him. Gary didn’t know how she’d react if she knew that his property business was in serious trouble and the debts were piling up. Especially when her own business was going so well. Women like Rachel wouldn’t look twice at men who didn’t pull their weight; Gary knew that much.
‘You’re seriously refusing to give it back?’ Greene said, and Gary knew that he’d been calling his bluff about the cops. Clearly he had no proof and so hadn’t a leg to stand on.
‘Look, mate, I’m sorry for your troubles, but I really haven’t a clue what you want from me. I don’t know you from Adam, and here you are ringing me up and accusing me of all sorts and—’
‘You stole my engagement ring, for crying out loud!’
‘Now hold on a moment,’ Gary said, his hackles rising. He’d had just about enough of this. ‘I didn’t steal anything. If you’ve lost something then I’m sorry but, as I said, it’s nothing to do with me.’
‘I saw the ring on your girlfriend’s finger just now. There’s no question that it’s mine!’
Gary frowned. What the hell? How could Greene have seen it on Rachel’s finger?
‘And quite frankly I cannot understand what such a lovely woman is doing with someone like yourself. We had dinner last night and she told me all about your so-called proposal and how you had it all planned. Planned, my foot.’
Gary was incredulous. Right. That was enough. First, the guy accuses of him of stealing some ring, and then he has the audacity to sneak around with his fiancée? Rachel hadn’t said a word about going out to dinner with anyone last night, especially not this guy.
Was this his true game at the back of it all? Was all this talk about a ring a mere front for him to get into Rachel’s knickers? Gary wouldn’t put it past him.
‘OK, Greene,’ he said, his tone steely. ‘I’ll tell you one thing. I don’t take kindly to strange men sniffing around my girlfriend. So if you know what’s good for you, you stay away from her.’
‘For goodness’ sake, all I want is to have my ring,’ Ethan said, backing down immediately, much to Gary’s satisfaction.
‘Well, good luck with that,’ he said, hanging up on him.
Stupid prat obviously didn’t know who the hell he was dealing with, and if he thought he could just roll up in Dublin and use some cock and bull story to try to swipe Gary’s woman from him, he had another think coming.
Gary put the phone back in his inside pocket and revved up the bike again.
He needed to talk to Sean about this, get his take on it. This all seemed a bit too convenient for his liking. Granted, the ring had appeared out of the blue, but that didn’t mean anything. He was only sorry that he’d admitted as much to Terri, and hoped she wouldn’t go blabbing to Rachel. After all, the ring did belong to him; well, once it landed in his bags anyway. And although the proposal hadn’t been as planned as everyone thought, he had asked Rachel to marry him – and in front of half the country on New Year’s Eve! And he’d got used to the idea now, and was happy enough about settling down with her.
So surely she couldn’t get too upset about a technicality?
With any luck Terri wouldn’t say a word, and he was worrying for nothing. She’d been pretty drunk herself last night so maybe she wouldn’t even remember. But in the meantime, just in case she did blab, he supposed he’d better start thinking about his own version of events.
Gary zoomed down the road in the direction of Sean’s place.
And he shouldn’t waste time wor
rying about that idiot Ethan Greene either. Rachel would believe him over some crackpot toff from London; he knew she would.
Chapter 29
‘What the hell am I supposed to do now?’ Terri said to Justin. She’d quickly filled him in on all that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, how she had got Gary drunk to get the truth out of him, and about the mix-up with the ring. Then she proceeded to bring him up to speed on her discussion with Ethan. Justin’s eyes grew as big as saucers, and when she’d finished he let out a long, low whistle.
‘Well, I have to say that it all completely beggars belief, even for Gary. But of course we knew all along that there was something fishy about this whole engagement.’
‘Yes, but besides the fishiness, you really should have seen the look on Ethan’s face. He thinks Rachel is the best thing since . . . erm, sliced bread,’ she added.
Justin looked sceptical. ‘But he already has a girlfriend, doesn’t he? Who would be his fiancée by now if our Gary hadn’t messed it all up.’
‘I know.’ Terri bit her lip. ‘Lucky her, whoever she is. He’s a dote and Rachel would be so much better off with someone like him than with the likes of Gary.’
‘Come on, Terri, Rachel barely even knows him. And neither do you, for that matter.’
But Terri thought that sometimes you didn’t need to know a person all that well to have a good feeling about them. She put her hands on her hips. ‘Stranger things have happened, Justin. You didn’t see Rachel this morning. Something happened with those two last night; I’m sure of it.’ When Justin’s eyes widened again, she quickly clarified: ‘Oh not that kind of something. I mean a spark, a connection, whatever you want to call it.’
His gaze narrowed suspiciously. ‘When did you turn into such an old romantic?’
‘Since I realised that my best friend has become engaged to the biggest shit in the world.’ She kneaded her forehead. ‘I’m her bridesmaid and we’re going out shopping for wedding dresses soon. How am I supposed to tell her that Gary had no intention whatsoever of proposing, and that she’s wearing – for all intents and purposes – a stolen ring? This is all such a mess.’
‘So are you going to tell her? About how Gary came by the ring, I mean.’
Terri grimaced. ‘Can you imagine that conversation? I don’t want to upset her, but of course I don’t want to see her get hurt either. You know what Rachel’s like; she’d be devastated. Anyway it’s not up to me to tell her, is it?’
‘Well, surely Gary will say something now that he knows the game is up.’
Terri wrinkled her nose. ‘I wouldn’t bet on it.’
Justin continued making up some fresh salad. ‘One thing I will give you: it is pretty telling that Ethan Greene didn’t break the news to Rachel. Especially considering the size of that rock. If it were me, by now I’d have been ready to hold her down and prise it off her finger.’
‘Exactly. Which has to mean that he feels something for her, or at least enough to worry about her feelings. He admitted as much to me on the street earlier.’
‘So what are you going to do?’
‘What can I do, Justin? Rachel’s convinced that Gary’s the man of her dreams, when in reality he’s the stuff of most women’s nightmares. Whereas Ethan, on the other hand . . .’ She smiled, picturing the earnest face, the deep blue eyes. ‘This could be fate.’
Justin raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, for what it’s worth, I think you should take a step back for a while, see how this plays out. I wouldn’t go running to Rachel about it just yet; you’ve already done your bit in getting Gary to admit the truth, and maybe that’ll be enough to shame him into telling her. If he does, then you’ll be around to help pick up the pieces.’
Terri looked at him. ‘When did you get so sensible?’
‘I’ve always been sensible. You’re the one getting carried away with all this “fate” business, which really isn’t like you.’ He picked up a chopping knife. ‘But if you truly believe in that, then you also have to let fate do its own thing. The problem is that, in my experience, sometimes fate can have a strange sense of humour.’
Terri sighed, but she knew deep down that Justin was right.
Throughout her conversation with Ethan Greene, she’d already tried her best to give fate a helping hand.
What the guy did next was entirely up him.
Terri was surprised to see Gary at the bistro later that evening and even more surprised when, after speaking briefly to Rachel, he came into the kitchen and asked if he could have a private word with her.
‘What’s up?’ she asked, drying her floury hands on a nearby tea towel. He looked preoccupied and uncomfortable, a notable change from his usual cocky demeanour.
‘I, ah, just wanted to talk to you about last night,’ he began, his tone cautious.
‘Last night? What about it?’
‘Well, I had a few in me and I might have said some things . . .’
‘I’m not sure what you mean,’ she said, feigning innocence. Was he worried she might tell Rachel about their so-called flirting? Or did the concern stem from elsewhere, namely the sorry truth about the ring?
‘Well, as I said, last night is a bit fuzzy but you know the way we were talking about the engagement and I was telling you that it all happened a bit fast?’
Aha! So he was worried about that, she realised with some satisfaction. He’d obviously had a good think about it all after last night and had finally copped on to the reality of where the ring had come from. Maybe she’d misjudged him and he was about to come good after all.
‘Yes, you might have mentioned something about it all being a bit of a surprise for both of you.’
‘Yeah. It’s just that . . .’ Then he looked at her, as if trying to figure out something. ‘Actually, did Rachel mention to you where she was last night?’
‘After work, you mean? As far as I know she went out to dinner.’
‘Any idea who with?’
Terri was all innocence. ‘Well, now that you ask, I think it was with that guy who saved you, Ethan Greene.’
There was a strange look on his face. ‘Don’t believe everything you hear, Terri. That guy didn’t save me.’
‘Of course he did. You know that.’
Gary grimaced. ‘I don’t know. I think he’s a bit of a player, this fella, making up stories about losing some ring to try to get into Rachel’s pants.’
She shook her head, bewildered at his reckoning. ‘Gary, I really don’t think so. And you yourself admitted that you don’t know where the ring came from.’
‘Still, there’s nothing to prove it came from him, is there?’
Terri couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was Gary seriously trying to justify keeping the ring even though he knew it belonged to Ethan Greene? And was he now trying to accuse Ethan of moving in on Rachel? Admittedly, there might be something to the latter, but that was only through circumstance and certainly not by design.
‘Gary, I’m not sure what you’re asking.’
‘If this Greene guy was so anxious to speak to me, then why did he go behind my back and ask her out to dinner?’
‘Because you weren’t here and Rachel thought you were staying overnight in Wicklow. Anyway, he didn’t ask her; she asked him, to thank him for helping you out.’
He rubbed a hand across his stubbly jaw. ‘I don’t know, Terri; this guy seems a little too cute for my liking. And if he thinks I’m going to fall for that sorry story he fed me earlier . . .’
‘So you have spoken to him, then?’ Terri was relieved that the two men had at least been in contact. It meant that Gary would now have no choice but to be upfront about what had happened. Granted, Rachel would be hurt and feel very deceived but the truth needed to come out sooner rather than later. ‘I’m glad. The sooner Rachel knows about this the—’
Gary looked at her. ‘Rachel doesn’t need to know anything, as there’s nothing to know.’
‘But . . . but we both know that the ring isn�
�t yours!’ she replied, wide-eyed. ‘You must give it back to Ethan.’
‘Forget it, Terri. There’s nothing to prove it’s his. It’s Rachel’s now, and none of us wants her to get hurt, do we?’ He looked at her closely, and Terri realised that behind his Neanderthal bluster was a calculating mind. This worried her even more.
Even worse, he was calling her bluff, daring her to admit what she knew to Rachel, when he was sure she wouldn’t be able to back it up. He was right in a way: there was probably no firm proof that the ring belonged to Ethan. And, by the looks of things, Gary was planning to suggest that Ethan was using it all as a cover story to get closer to Rachel. Perhaps he was even convinced of it himself.
Either way, it looked like Ethan wasn’t going to get the ring back any time soon.
Just then Rachel arrived back in the kitchen. ‘Hi, what are you doing hiding away in here?’ she said, sidling up to Gary.
‘Just thanking Terri for keeping me company last night,’ he said, putting an arm around her, and Terri was amazed at the ease with which he could lie. ‘Anyway, I’d better go and let you ladies do some work.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want to throw on an apron and give us a hand? I’ve got some fresh pastry that needs making,’ Rachel teased him, going to the storeroom.
‘Nah, best to leave all that stuff to the experts,’ he joked. Giving Rachel a kiss on the cheek, he eyed Terri briefly as if to challenge her.
With a sinking heart, Terri knew that, realistically, even if she wanted to tell Rachel the truth, she didn’t have a leg to stand on. The story would seem so unlikely and far-fetched that there was a chance Terri might simply come across as jealous or spiteful.
What made it harder was that Gary was willing and (it appeared) well able to cover his tracks, and after talking it all over with Justin, Terri knew that by saying something to Rachel she ran the risk of ruining not only their friendship, but also their business relationship.