Nothing but money.
He had no intention of giving her anything of himself. Ever.
“If you have fifty dollars,” she said shakily, “I’d like to take a cab.”
He looked at her for a moment like she’d lost her mind, then leaned his head back on the head rest, his hard jaw jutting out. The thick bulge in his pants caught her attention before she yanked her gaze away.
He reached into his back pocket and tugged out his money clip. He peeled off four fifty-dollar bills.
“I’ll never take you anywhere you don’t want to go.”
“Just one will do.” Her face was hot with the humiliation of having to ask him for cash. She lifted one bill from his hand, and he let go of all four so the other three fluttered to his knees. One fell on the floor.
Anna pulled on the door handle and maneuvered her way out of the car, tugging down her skirt. The bright afternoon sunlight stung her dilated pupils. “Thanks,” she rasped, clutching the crisp banknote. “I’ll pay you back.”
Naldo emitted a low growl, which was silenced by her car door as it closed with an expensive-sounding click.
She set off down the sidewalk, feeling Naldo’s eyes on her as she flounced away in her polka dots, his fifty- dollar bill crumpled into her hand.
Maybe her mother couldn’t resist the De Leon charm and had settled for being a kind of secret mistress, but she sure wouldn’t make the same mistake.
The morning shadows shrank as the sun rose high on yet another day in the cottage. Anna had stopped packing completely. The stuff didn’t want to be packed. She didn’t have anywhere pressing to go. What was the rush? She’d taken a couple of pieces of her mom’s modest china collection to the jeweler/pawn shop owner in town and raised enough to live on for a few days.
And to pay back Naldo his fifty dollars, which she’d stuck in an envelope and placed in the mansion’s mailbox.
She lay stretched out on the sofa, flipping through a handwritten recipe book she’d found in one of the kitchen drawers. Was this the one mentioned in the will? Why would there be a special provision that her mom should keep her own recipe book?
It was beautiful, though. Bound in red leather, a special book made to be treasured. No scrawled notes or taped-in newspaper clippings here. Her mom had written the recipes in a careful copperplate hand on the creamy vellum. Pen-and-ink drawings accented with bright watercolors illustrated some of the recipes.
The drawings surprised her. She hadn’t known her mom had artistic talent. But apparently there were a lot of things she hadn’t known about her. She bit the inside of her mouth as another wave of raw emotion threatened.
A load roar outside yanked her attention from the smooth pages of the cookbook.
What was that noise?
Anna peered out the window of the cottage.
A lawnmower. Typical. Naldo must have told the gardener to keep on maintaining the property around the cottage as if it was still his. Annoyance spurred her to her feet as the mower came into view through the window.
Now that the cottage and the land were all she had, she felt proprietary about them. She’d even started to have stray thoughts about keeping them. She didn’t have anywhere else to go right now.
She hurried outside and waved her hands to get the driver to stop. It was a young guy she didn’t recognize. “Please don’t mow this lawn,” she called, striding toward him.
The man frowned. “The grass is getting long.”
“Mr. De Leon no longer owns this cottage or the land around it.” A flash of fear stung her as she made the bold pronouncement. It didn’t feel true.
The young man’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “You kidding?”
“Nope. It’s mine. My mother used to live here and Robert De Leon left it to her when she died.”
“Letty was your mother?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.” He nodded. “She was very nice.” He gave her a strange look, and there was an awkward silence thick with the unspoken words and you, maybe, aren’t so nice.
Why did it mean so much to her not to have Naldo’s employee mow her grass?
“Anyway, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mow here for now. I want to grow the grass longer, for a more natural look.” She licked her lips awkwardly.
The gardener’s brow lowered and a smile tugged at his lips. “More natural?”
“Yes, you know. A Xeriscape.”
He looked like he was trying not to laugh. “You’re the boss. You don’t want it mowed, I won’t mow.”
Anna gulped. She didn’t feel like the boss of anything.
“I’m Ricky, by the way.” He looked at her steadily.
“Oh, hi, I’m Anna.” She walked closer and held out her hand, mortified that she’d forgotten even common politeness in her grim quest to defend her little stronghold.
“Hi, Anna.” Something twinkled in his eyes as he gave her hand a firm shake. Amusement. Anticipation of the fireworks display he’d see when he told Naldo?
She gulped.
A big white Mercedes sedan pulled into view, and she gulped again when she saw Isabela’s face in the open driver’s side window.
“Gotta go,” said Ricky. He sped away on the mower before Isabela adjusted her dark glasses and stepped out.
In a floaty chiffon jacket and wide-legged pants, she looked comically overdressed as she picked her way across the overgrown grass in her high-heeled shoes.
“Anna.” She smiled. “I must apologize for the other night.” She lifted her huge sunglasses to reveal big brown eyes. “I was feeling rather emotional. It’s been a hard time, Daddy’s death, you know. Coming home for the first time in ages.” She waved a ring-laden hand in the air. “I suspect I was rather rude.”
You could say that. Anna wondered if this visit was really about making amends.
Isabela gave an apologetic smile. “I’m an artist. I can be a little temperamental. Truce?” She held out her hand.
Anna decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. After all, Isabela’s bluntness had clued her in to the truth.
She shook Isabela’s soft hand. “It’s a tough time. I’ll miss your dad. He was a pretty amazing guy. And I actually appreciate you filling me in on the situation between him and my mom. I really had no idea. A lot of things make sense now.”
Isabela nodded. “And you have this cottage.” She gestured at it. “You own more of the estate than I do.” An odd laugh peeled out of her. “Funny, isn’t it?”
Anna felt a stab of pity. The look in Isabela’s face showed that it hurt more than her glib words let on. “It is odd that you don’t inherit. Especially since you’re the oldest.”
“I’m a mere girl. Patriarchal to the core, that’s the De Leon family. That’s why it’s such a shocker that Daddy left land to your mother. She must have held quite a sway over him.”
“Or maybe he just felt guilty that he didn’t marry her.”
“Yes.” Isabela looked thoughtful. “But he gave her the jewels, at any rate, and that’s why I’m here. I’d like to buy a piece or two, purely for sentimental reasons.”
Anna frowned. Did Isabela not know that Naldo had them now? That they supposedly belonged to him?
“Naldo has them.”
“Oh, I know. But they’re yours. Daddy paid a gift tax on them five years ago.” She tilted her elegantly coiffed head.
Really? Interesting that Naldo hadn’t shared that tidbit of information with her. “So they’re legally mine?”
“Absolutely. And of course my darling brother intends to buy them from you to restore them to the estate, but I’d so like the pretty ring with the lion on it. And that old yellow diamond in the funny setting.”
“I guess I don’t feel they’re mine to sell, even though they might be legally. Perhaps after I sell them back to
