First Impressions Read online

  She had no way of knowing until she’d actually worked with him, but she thought that maybe she and Remi were going to get along well after all. Her worry had been that he’d want to interfere in the designing. What she needed were some strong young men and some machines, not budding designers. “I don’t know about you, but don’t you just love that tractor over there?”

  He grinned at her. “Looks good to me. If you can get ol’ man Granville to part with the money, that’s more than I can do.”

  “Maybe he can’t afford it,” she said softly, remembering the evil that McBride had put into her head.

  “He can afford it,” Remi said. “He could buy everything on this lot with what’s in his checking account. Remember when Compaq computers was going bust? He bought a lot of their stock then. When they came out with a new computer that outsold everything on the market, he sold his stock. He made millions. Multimillions. He can afford anything. He just thinks that I’m a lower class than he is, that’s all. I’m an embarrassment to him.”

  Frowning, Eden turned to look back at Brad. He was standing beside McBride, and they were talking earnestly. She wondered what lies McBride was telling him. They were two very handsome men. Brad was an inch or two shorter, but he was built more powerfully, with a thick, broad chest that tapered down to a small waist and trim hips. McBride was leaner, darker. Brad had gray hair that made him look distinguished. You could see that he was a man of importance. McBride had dark hair and eyebrows, and he looked as though he’d be at home in a sports car with a model beside him. Two very different men.

  She looked back at Remi. When she was his age, she too was disgusted at the unfairness of parents. When she was twenty-five, she’d had a boyfriend who was from a rich, educated family. He was sweet and kind and she’d liked him a lot—until she met his family. They’d quizzed her relentlessly, and she’d failed with every answer she gave. After that, it had only been a matter of time before the boy quit calling. At the time, Eden had hated the injustice of it all. The parents hadn’t judged her on herself but on where she’d come from and what had happened to her to make her a mother at eighteen years old.

  But as Melissa had grown up and started dating, Eden had changed. She’d wanted the best of the best for her daughter. When Melissa had dated a boy who rode a motorcycle and had tattoos, Eden had been nearly hysterical. Melissa had accused her of being a snob and a bigot.

  Now, looking at Remi, she could see his side and Brad’s. Brad had wanted what he thought was the best for his daughter, but she’d married a man who—Eden smiled to herself. “Made her bones rattle.” That’s what a coworker had said once, that she wanted a man who “made her bones rattle.”

  “Can you work that tractor?” Eden asked Remi.

  He gave her a look that said, Just try me.

  Coming toward them was a salesman, and Eden asked if Remi could test-drive the tractor, which had a front-end loader and what looked to be a half a dozen attachments sitting beside it. She glanced back at Brad and McBride. They were now talking in a relaxed, friendly manner. Their earlier animosity seemed to have gone, and they now had smiles on their faces. They looked as though they were planning to do something together. Play golf?

  The salesman got the key to the tractor, and minutes later Remi was in the seat, giving a demonstration of what he could do. He knew the controls on the tractor as though he’d invented the machine. If he was half as good in other aspects of landscaping as he was on the tractor, she knew they weren’t going to have a problem.

  When Eden glanced at Brad, she saw that he’d given a cursory look at his son-in-law, but he seemed to be mostly interested in whatever he and McBride were discussing.

  Suddenly, Brad looked at his watch, and an expression of panic crossed his face. He turned to Eden. “I have to go. The big meeting with the buyers is today. You’ll go with me, won’t you?”

  It was all Eden could do to not look at McBride for permission. But the truth was that she wanted to do most anything in the world rather than go back to the house she loved so much. Visions of the secretary sprawled across the hall floor, and the snakes in her bedroom, ran across her mind. Part of her knew she should return to Farrington Manor and start going through those manuscripts piled in a corner in her bedroom. She needed to start on them for her publishing house’s sake, but she also needed to start looking for anything she could find out about that spy who had eaten her name. Just the thought of it made her stomach turn. It was one thing to watch such things on CSI, but quite another to think that your name had been found inside a man’s stomach. She was sure it was irresponsible of her, but right now she couldn’t bear the thought of going back home.

  Keeping her head turned so she couldn’t see McBride, she smiled at Brad. “I’d love to go. Maybe I could get something to eat while you’re in your meeting,” she said.

  Behind her, Jared said, “Me too. I’m starving. Maybe we’ll see you after the meeting.” Again, he put his arm possessively around Eden’s shoulders.

  Brad frowned slightly as he looked from one to the other. “It’s the BIG EVENT, all capitals. Home buyers are flying in from all over the U.S., and we’re meeting at the clubhouse. I shouldn’t have left everything this morning for the others to take care of, but my daughter insisted.” Pausing, he glanced at Remi, as though to say that if anything bad happened it would be his fault. Taking Eden’s hand, Brad gently pulled her in an attempt to get her away from Jared.

  But Jared didn’t release his hold easily.

  “I’d love to go with you,” Eden said, forcibly pulling away from McBride and heading toward Brad’s car.

  As Brad got into the driver’s seat, Jared took Eden’s arm. “I don’t want you around a lot of people,” he said quietly. “Until this is sorted out, you need to be isolated.”

  “Isolated with you?” she asked, giving him a cold smile. “Mr. McBride, I’m beginning to wonder if your interest in me is purely professional. Perhaps you have other things in mind.”

  At that Jared stiffened and dropped his hold on her arm. “I’ll have you know, Ms. Palmer, that I—”

  He broke off when she quickly opened the passenger door and got into Brad’s car. Jared slid into the backseat just as Remi took the seat beside him. For a moment Brad looked askance at Eden, but all she could do was shrug. She had an idea that if she said she didn’t want McBride to go with them, he’d tell Brad the truth. And what would happen if it were found out that she was being investigated by the FBI? Or that men had broken into her house last night and searched it?

  She gave Brad a weak smile as he started the engine.

  Ten minutes later, he turned onto a wide road with a discreet sign that said QUEEN ANNE and nothing else. There were no words that shouted the number of houses being built, or that they offered water views and docking for boats. There was nothing but a small sign that by its very plainness declared elegance and wealth.

  They drove through trees that had been saved from the builders’ bulldozers, then had been pruned to be neat and tidy. To the right and left of them was empty land, with several trees, all of them of old growth. Someone had gone through the land, marked the best trees, then had the undergrowth cleared.

  “Later in the spring, these meadows will start sprouting wildflowers. It all looks very natural, but it took years of work.”

  “Yes,” Eden said, “get rid of the weeds first, then plant the wildflowers and nurture them until they take over.”

  “Exactly,” Brad said, smiling at her.

  As she looked out at both sides of the road, she saw no buildings anywhere. “So when do you start building?”

  “What a compliment! Actually, we’ve sold eighty-two percent of the houses, and nearly sixty of them have been completed or at least started.”

  Eden twisted in her seat. “Where are they?”

  At that moment, Brad drove over a little hill, and when they got to the top, he stopped the car. Below them was Arundel Sound, the huge body of water that conn