She shrugged. “I worked for a property developer for a few years. You learn things when you’re around the trade all the time. I also suggested another couple of bathrooms. He has the space. And the street, well, it’s not so easy to buy into.”
“I would say it’s a good idea.” Jay made a thinking face as he poured a glass of wine for Calli. “Do you want me to get it down on paper for you, Kell?”
Kell nodded, almost surprised. He had half expected Jay to reject the idea, but apparently he accepted Calli’s calculations. She had the sort of casual plausibility that encouraged people not only to like her, but also to trust her—the perfect credentials for a confidence trickster. His mouth curved with amusement.
He thought she had the measure of his family. Even in the Garden of Eden, she would have the snake eating out of her hand. He settled in to watch his brothers and their wives check out his newest acquisition.
Chapter 10
Calli had to admit she’d been surprised when Kell drove her to the small expensive enclave where his brother lived. She had imagined he lived anywhere other than here, in this area of tall green trees and taller houses built of bluestone, sandstone, and untold wealth, but when she had spotted Vix Tremain in the back garden, she almost walked backward. His brother had clearly fallen on his feet by attracting one of the nicest, lowest-key rich girls in the state, most likely the reason why he lived in this gracious home in an exclusive area.
Vix had been two years ahead of Calli in school. She hoped, because of the age difference, Vix might not recognize her. In her private co-educational school, the older students had tended to ignore the younger ones, preferring to stick to their own groups. Calli tried to act unconcerned about being recognized, but she had the wild urge to grab Kell’s big warm hand. Fortunately, she had managed to maintain her poise but only because he had been occupied with herding small boys at the time, which he found as difficult as mesmerizing cats. Consequently, she hadn’t embarrassed herself by latching onto him.
Then, happily, she found she had no need to worry because Vix had waited for an introduction with a polite smile on her face. Well, Calli had never exactly been a star at school. Her only distinction was in having an identical twin sister who delighted in letting people guess which was which. Calli was the levelheaded twin. Tiggy was more open to wild ideas. And now barely eight years later, Calli was paying for organizing her life, but finally seeing the benefit of being open to anything, or rather, open to acting on her attraction to a man without first making sure that he was suitable marriage material.
A month ago, she thought she could only be happy with a man who had the same background as her, stable parents, a good steady income, and well-educated friends. These days she couldn’t look past a man who had somehow brought himself up, and while bypassing a university education, had managed to start a thriving business of his own. Her father had done the same, though he had started with two very canny parents to help him. Kell was a rather marvelous self-starter.
After being seated, she scrutinized the rest of Kell’s family of tall handsome brothers. Jay had a white scar on his cheek and Luke had red hair like two of his sons. Both of Kell’s brothers were good looking. However, he had the edge, his coloring more dramatic with the contrast between the darkness of his hair and the lightness of his eyes. Sherry, Luke’s wife, was pretty and pert, probably younger than Calli.
She took the glass of wine Jay handed her, noting only a single bottle sat on the table, out of which very little had been poured. This group didn’t see drinking as a team sport, clearly. Nor did she.
Vix Tremaine, now Vix Dee, toyed with her drink, staring at Calli with a thoughtful expression on her face. She shook her head. “I can’t believe Kell thought you were a boy.”
“I can’t either,” Calli answered, now confident she hadn’t been recognized and she wouldn’t have to suffer the mortification of either being judged, or questioned about the truth of the story reported in the papers. “He tackled me and threw me to the ground. Very un-neighborly, I would say.”
“He what?” Jay laughed. “I would have thought that by now he could tell the difference between males and females.”
“Very funny,” Kell muttered, folding his arms across his chest. “She took me by surprise.”
“Are you house-sitting for the judge?” Vix asked, handing the middle-sized boy, Max, a halved apple.
“I’m living in the guest cottage, but I’m keeping an eye on the main house, too. The judge wanted his garden finished while he was away, and it’s easier to get it done without having to worry that I might be inconveniencing a client while I was messing with the garden.”
“How long have you been designing gardens?” Sherry passed the other half of the apple to Luke, who bit into the fruit while staring at Calli.
“Six years. For the first two I worked with David Bowden.”
“David Bowden?” Vix gave a delighted smile. “He designed my grandmother’s garden about five years ago. I was thinking that’s where I might have seen you before.”
“More than likely,” Calli answered firmly, although she knew she hadn’t seen Vix at her grandmother’s home. She had been too confident too soon, and Vix was likely to remember where they had met before if Calli didn’t keep cool. “Where is your grandmother’s garden?”
“A couple of streets away, but she doesn’t own it anymore. When my grandfather died, she moved to live with the rest of my family in my father’s country house. David used a marble fountain reclaimed from an English garden as the centerpiece at the front—and he put in formal hedging, too. That was very much his style then.”
“It still is, but I remember the garden with the marble fountain. It was one of the first I worked on. After being his apprentice, I took a job with AA & Company, and then I left to start designing gardens for my own business. I haven’t yet had a request for a marble fountain. I mainly do less formal gardens now.”
“You worked for Alexander Allbrook?” Kell squeezed his chin between his forefinger and his thumb, folding the skin into the cleft.
“For a few years. Then I branched out on my own.”
“Brave,” Kell said, his gaze intent on her. “I had a small catch-up job with them earlier in the year.”
Jay leaned back in his chair. “If you were offered more contracts with them, you could set yourself up very nicely.”
“Great minds.” Kell shot a smile at his brother. “I’m angling for more, that’s for sure.”
“What about you, Vix? And Sherry? Do you have careers?” Calli smiled brightly at everyone, trying for a quick sidetrack. Although Trent had told Kell about Grayson, he clearly hadn’t mentioned her surname. Her father, Alex Allbrook the owner of AA & Company, the leading property developer in the state, contracted his favorite companies and he rarely used others. She couldn’t help Kell even if he asked her, not after the travesty of Grayson trying to worm his way in via Calli.
“I’m a set designer,” Vix answered. “Sherry still has a boy at home. Are you going to design Kell’s garden?”
“I’m going to give him advice.”
“And she is mighty good at giving advice,” Kell said in a mock dissatisfied tone before skimming a look at Calli. “She advised Trent and me to shift rocks for her this morning.”
She noticed Vix and Sherry glance at each other while they laughed.
“Do you happen to have a best girlfriend?” Luke asked, drumming his fingers on the table, his expression mischievous.
She glanced at him, puzzled. “No. I have a sister.”
“Leave it, Luke,” Kell said in a threatening voice.
“A sister might do.”
Kell rose to his feet, his expression dangerous. “You had your first and only warning.”
Vix rose to her feet, too. “Sorry to interrupt a spot of family ragging, guys, but I’m needed in the kitchen, that is, if you want Pavlova. And, Jay, leave it.” She aimed a steely glance at h
er husband.
He appeared taken aback for a moment. Then he nodded. “Sit down, Kell. We need to discuss your extension.”
Kell sat, palms on his knees, his eyebrows lowered as he watched Vix cross the lawn to the house. Sherry, chewing on her bottom lip, arose and followed her. He finally said, “I’ll want the roofline extended. We’ll brick the side walls the same as the others and have a wall of glass at the back.” He glanced at Calli for confirmation.
A tickle of pleasure warmed her chest. She leaned in to the conversation. “He needs sort of a family/eating room—big enough for the kids to do homework, et cetera. I wouldn’t think a childless couple would buy a house with four huge bedrooms. Without the extension, Kell would only have formal rooms for the kids, like the dining and the sitting rooms.”
“What sort of flooring would you use?” Jay asked his brother after considering Calli’s words. He seemed to be the sort of person who would always consider before he spoke.
Kell lifted an ankle to his knee, blinking with thought. “I have flooring from the old laundry outside, and I could steal some from the upstairs bathrooms. It’s all jarrah. I’d planned to use it in my business and tile the kitchen floor.”
“Polished hardwood floors are on trend,” Jay said, his gaze drifting to Calli for a moment. He blinked and concentrated again on Kell. “Using your wood and the reclaimed brick will give the old house an edge. Will Trent do the bricking for you?”
“I haven’t asked, but he will. He doesn’t plan to give up his free lodging, and he still has a couple of months before he leaves.”
“I can do the plumbing next week,” Luke said in a slightly chastened voice. He picked at his fingernails. “I’ll start tomorrow, if you like.”
Kell scrutinized his redheaded brother for a moment, as if examining the offer. Then he nodded curtly. “Trent would like that. Cold showers are getting to him.”
Calli nudged Kell. “He knows he can have a hot shower in my place.”
“You make him work it off.” Kell eyed her sideways.
Calli glanced at his brothers, spreading her hands. “That’s not as dubious as you might think. I used them both this morning to shift rocks around the judge’s garden. They’re probably owed a couple of free hot showers for that.”
“You got Kell working for you on a Sunday morning?” Jay stared at Kell. “There’s a first.”
“I was working for me, as it happens,” Kell said in a growly voice. “She offered to pot some plants for me that had to be dug up. So I dug them up.”
“And another first, you working with plants,” Luke contributed. “Being on the ladder to success is making a new man of you.”
“Let’s not get carried away. I felt no true connection to the plants.” Kell leaned back in his seat, his fingers meshing behind his head.
The width of his shoulders and the hardness of his biceps showed far too blatantly, and Calli’s lust for him almost stopped her breath. She glanced at his hard thighs and remembered him nudging himself between hers, and she groaned silently. In her whole life, she had never craved a man as much.
“Fortunately the plants didn’t know,” she said, clearing her throat. “Plants can be very sensitive. The rose bushes were very impressed by being handled so quickly and efficiently. I think that might be why Hobo, my cat, also is in love with him. I can’t think of any other reason. He doesn’t look after her or feed her.”
“A cat is in love with him?” Luke let his jaw drop.
“She talks to him, and she answers when he speaks.”
“A cat? What do you know about cats?” Jay asked Kell, appearing to be highly entertained.
Kell shrugged. “What’s to know? Anyway, the cat decided on the relationship. I’m only going along with her.”
“Sounds like you,” Jay said, his mouth twisted. “Remember that old dog, Luke?”
“The stray?”
“This stray,” Jay said, turning to Calli, “was the local beggar. He dragged himself along the street snatching up food where he could find it. The cat lady, who happened to live on our street, used to give him milk and table scraps. He took them without biting her, but he snarled at everyone else. Except Kell. Did you ever feed him, Kell?”
“Not initially. He smelled like the inside of a garbage bin,” Kell said with clear reluctance. “He used to trail me and that annoyed me, but he turned out to be a good old dog in the end.”
“He tamed Kell. Kell was a wild boy, but not when he was with the dog. We ended up adopting Scrappy, but he died within a couple of years. He was probably older than Kell at the time. What were you, ten?”
Kell shrugged and averted his glance. “Ha, Pavlova, at last,” he said to Vix, who walked across the lawn with a tray holding plates and spoons.
Not following too far behind, Sherry carried the strawberry-topped meringue. “Make a space on the table,” she said, and the guys moved glasses and dishes of nuts and dried fruit and little savory pastries out of the way. She slid the dessert onto the marble tabletop and Vix placed her tray alongside.
“Does everyone want a slice?” Vix glanced around, her eyebrows raised.
Five adults and three children nodded. She cut ten slices and handed the sweet around on plates. Calli slowly savored her treat. Kell ate his in about three bites, and when Calli finished, he stood. “We’re off.” He held out his hand to her.
One glance at him, and she took his grip, rising to her feet. “That was lovely, Vix, thank you. I hope I see you all again one day.”
Everyone else rose, too, Sherry politely saying the very same thing about Calli. Jay and Vix walked Calli and Kell to the car. While Kell and Jay discussed the delivery date of the plans for the extension, Vix said in an undertone, “It will all go away before you know. You’re strong. It took me a moment or two, but I remember you on the swimming team.”
“You do?”
“And I had a terrible crush on your brother.”
“Who didn’t? Hagen the golden boy—not easy to live up to, that’s for sure.”
Vix nodded sympathetically, and Calli slipped into the car, rather impressed that Vix hadn’t even hinted to the others that she recognized Calli. No doubt she would reveal that, if she hadn’t already, and Kell would know within days. Despite being slightly apprehensive, Calli appreciated that the other woman hadn’t started the old-school chat that never interested anyone who hadn’t been there at the time.
Kell walked around to the driver’s seat and started the engine while Calli absorbed the fact that Kell picked up strays, and she was also one. Like Hobo, she had decided to have a relationship with him, initially only physical, but now she wanted so much more.
Kell was not only handsome, but he was beautiful, too. She hadn’t seen past his face, or his wonderful toned body, but this tiny glimpse of him with his family told her he wasn’t her usual date, all show, no substance. He was a man. A real man, a man like her father—responsible, smart, and kind.
“I remember Vix from school,” she said reluctantly, as he pulled into the traffic, struck by his profile, his straight manly nose, his chiseled lips, and his clean-cut jaw.
He didn’t shift his gaze from the road. “And Vix went to a very expensive school.”
“Yes.”
“And you had parents who could afford that.”
“Yes.”
“I had an alcoholic father, and I barely matriculated.” He clamped his lips.
She heightened her chin. “I have a tertiary degree, and I dig in gardens for a living. You asked about my last relationship. You heard something about me second-hand from Emily.”
“I heard you bled the poor guy dry—bankrupted him.”
She slumped down in the seat. “And what do you think of that?”
He drew a deep breath. “I think he should have watched where his money was going. I think he must have been a fool if he let you do that. And I think that if you did, you aren’t the person I know. Yo
u are scrupulous about debts and money.” He shifted one of his hands from the wheel to his thigh.
“I was, at the time, very stupid about debts and money. I had never had to worry about it, you see. I was given everything I would ever need by my parents, who have loved and supported me all my life.”
“And so you didn’t notice how much of his money you spent.” For the first time he glanced at her, and her heart cracked. The expression on his face said that he was trying to make excuses for her. No one else had. The people who knew the truth of the story had told her she was an idiot to trust Grayson. This man who didn’t know the story was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
“No. I didn’t spend any of his money because he didn’t have any. He convinced me to leave a good job and to go out on my own, with him. He assured me he could handle the business side, as my father had, and I would be in charge of the design side—which I hadn’t quite been with my father. He had the ultimate decision about my gardens. I wanted to make my own decisions.”
“So, the story about you is untrue?”
“The story about Grayson is untrue. He was impressed by my parent’s money and he thought that when he had run through mine, my father would come to the rescue. And my father would have. I wouldn’t let him.”
“So, he tricked you, not the other way around?”
She nodded. “After he had spent all the money in my bank account, I had none left to pay the trades. And you said the person who had the money should have watched where it was going. I should have. I don’t have any excuse for not doing so, other than I thought he and I were friends.”
“He sounds like a man who needs a good throttling.” His voice was matter-of-fact.
“I didn’t have a magic people-meter in my head that sorted out the good people from the bad, after all.”
“We all think we have one of those. Apparently, he fooled Emily, too.”
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