Breath of Scandal(130)
Jade got out of her Cherokee. "Nice place," Dillon remarked drolly as he alighted form his pickup.
441sn't it wonderful? I'm thinking of buying it." Undaunted by his lack of enthusiasm, Jade moved toward the house and carefully picked her way up the steps to the veranda. It wrapped around three sides of the house. Her footsteps echoed hollowly as she walked along it, peering into window casements. Those that still had glass were grimy with salt spray. The beach was only half a mile away.
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"You can't be serious," Dillon said, moving up onto the veranda with her.
"I am."
"Isn't it a little large for the three of you?" "It's not for us. I want to buy it for GSS - "
He gave a harsh laugh. "First a piss-poor farm and now a derelict Tara. I hope George Stein didn't give you carte blanche with the company checkbook."
Taking no offense, she left the veranda and ventured to the eastern side of the house, where once there had been a formal flower garden. The crushed seashell paths were now choked with weeds and, in the flower beds, wild grass grew where carefully cultivated plants once had.
On the far side of the garden there was another live oak. A swing hung suspended from one of its branches. The ropes attaching it to the tree were bigger around than her wrists. The knots beneath the plank seat were larger than her knees. Gingerly, she sat down in the seat and gave the swing a desultory push with the toe of her sandal.
Tilting her head back, she closed her eyes and let the dappled sunlight spill across her face. She breathed deeply of the sultry air, which was heavily scented with honeysuckle and gardenia.
"You've been here before."
She opened her eyes. Dillon, standing with both hands in the rear pockets of his jeans, was watching her. His hazel eyes looked more green than usual, reflecting the verdant branches of the tree.
"Several times. I wasn't kidding when I said I want to buy it. I'd like for this to be a company playground, sort of a corporate bed-and-breakfast facility."
"I thought you were scouting out property for an annex. ,,This would be in addition to that. Think how wonderful it would be to entertain clients and upper-echelon executives here. I picked up a floor plan from the realtor and sent it to Hank." Dillon had met Hank in New York. They had conferred on the TexTile plant.
"I told him I'd like for the house to be modernized without compromising on the Southern grace and charm. If we
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get the foreign markets we hope to, we could bring their reps here for formal dinners - Maybe transport them by horsedrawn buggies and serve them mint juleps on the veranda. They'd eat it up."
He moved behind her, placed his hands above hers on the ropes, and began pushing the swing, not too vigorously, but enough to let the wind sift through her hair.
"Have you bounced this brainstorm off ol' George yet?" "Not yet. I want Hank to do some watercolor sketches first. "
"You and Hank seem to be pretty thick." "We've been friends since college." -Hmm. I I
She ignored the speculation in his voice. "I also asked Hank to design a beach house in the nature of a gazebo, where we could hold company parties, picnics, and receptions. We could lease it to other groups when it wasn't in use. That would defer some of the maintenance costs."
"George'll like that. And maybe while you've got those foreign executives sitting on the veranda sipping mint juleps, darkies could sing spirituals from the slave quarters."
She lowered her foot and plowed a yard-long furrow in the ground before the swing came to a stop. She had to angle her head far back in order to look him in the eye. The crown of her head came close to touching his belly.
"You're patronizing me."
He didn't move, although conversation would have been much easier if he had let go of the ropes and stepped around the swing to face her. "That's right."
"Thank you for admitting it, at least." "You're welcome."
"I guess I got carried away. Do you think I'm crazy?" "I think you're ... intriguing," he admitted after pausing to search for the right word. "in fact, Jade, you confound the hell out of me."
His voice sounded too intense for comfort. She tried to make light of what he had said and divert the topic to him. "You're a fairly puzzling character yourself."
His mustache spread wider over his smile. "me?"
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"Uh-huh. For a bachelor living alone, you don't go out much. "
"No mystery there. My demanding boss doesn't leave much time for the pursuit of pleasure."
"You don't see women."
He arched one of his eyebrows. "Are you keeping track?"
"I just had you pegged as a man who would frequently need female companionship."
"You mean sex."
"Yes, sex," she repeated uneasily.
Suddenly, the still afternoon had become more torpid than before. Even the insects had ceased their droning buzz. The air was too muggy to inhale. Jade became aware of her clothing, and every place that it clung damply to her skin. Her hair felt heavy and hot against her neck. A buttercolored sun beat down on the earth, which released its heat in rising shimmers. It was like being in a perfumed sauna -only they weren't naked.