“You started it, you should have to clean it all up,” Bryce said, pointing his finger at Sterling.
“Good luck with that,” Sterling shouted back, lurching to her feet. She grabbed for her half-full glass of wine. I don't know if she'd been drinking more than we saw or if she just caught the edge of her heel, but she tipped to the side, upending the glass of red wine over Tyler's head.
Parker's husband shot from his seat, glaring at everyone, even his wife. “That is it! You people are all insane. I don't know how I lasted so long in this hick town, but I'm out of here. I don't care how much money is in it for us at the end. I'm done.”
Parker leveled cool eyes on her husband. “So, you're going back to New York then?”
“I'm sure as hell not staying here for another five years. I thought I could put up with it. For you. But this is a nightmare. The house is a disaster and your family is insane. Every single one of them. I won't have anything to do with it. I'll be on the next plane out. If you care about this marriage, you can get started packing our bags.”
As one, we watched Tyler storm out of the dining room, just like Savannah had. Unlike Savannah, I was pretty sure Tyler wasn't coming back. Parker sat in her seat, face blank, her hand shaking only the tiniest bit as she took another sip of wine.
Sterling sank into Tyler's abandoned chair and threw her arms around Parker in an awkward hug. I couldn't catch what she said, but the tone was apologetic, Sterling's face distraught.
Parker said something back that must have been comforting. Sterling straightened, shoving away her own wine glass and reaching for the bottle to top off Parker's.
“Aren't you going to do something?” Bryce demanded. “He's the only decent one of all of you. Probably because he's not a Sawyer.”
“No,” Parker said. “I'm tired of chasing after him, soothing his hurt feelings and trying to make everything better. If he doesn't want to live in Heartstone Manor with the rest of us, then he can go.”
Bryce seemed ready to argue, but Royal stepped in. “Daisy brought a double chocolate cake for dessert. If any of you want some, I suggest you get to cleaning.”
I pushed back my chair, ready to pitch in, though I hadn't thrown a single pea. Royal took my arm and tugged me away from the table to where Griffen stood with Hope, neither of them cleaning either.
Fair enough since they also hadn't thrown anything. Griffen was talking quietly with Hope.
“What's wrong? Are you okay?” Royal asked.
“I'm fine,” Hope insisted.
“You're not, you're turning green,” Griffen said. “I'm taking you up to bed now. I just have to—” he cut off abruptly. “Damn.”
“What is it?” Royal asked.
“It's nothing, really. It's just that I told Hawk I'd go check out the watchtower. I was supposed to do it this afternoon and then—” A shared glance with Hope.
“I distracted you,” she said with a weak smile. “Can't you do it tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I guess. Except Hawk needed that report to update orders for supplies, and he wanted to send the orders in first thing. I was supposed to do it a few days ago. And we're going into Asheville tomorrow to meet with Brax about that project he wants to invest in.”
“We can do it,” Royal said, “if Hope has a pair of shoes she can lend Daisy. Just let me know what we should look out for. I'll see if I can talk Savannah into letting us take dessert on the road.” Royal turned to me. “It's a short walk past the gardens, but the watchtower is something to see. Definitely more romantic than cleaning peas off the carpet.”
“If Hope can hook me up with a pair of shoes, that sounds great.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Daisy
I only felt a little guilty about leaving while everyone else was still cleaning up. Hope found me a pair of sneakers that fit when we laced them tightly, and Royal met me by the back door with a bag that looked like it held more than two pieces of cake. The sun had only just begun to drop in the sky. Plenty of time for a short hike.
We headed out, taking the gravel path that led us past the bench and tree where we sat on my first visit to Heartstone Manor. The path wound deeper into the gardens, and it didn't take much imagination to see how beautiful they must have been before Royal's father had abandoned them.
Through the scraggly bushes, I caught a flash of water off to my right along with the roofline of another structure. “Do you have a pool?”
I wished the words back as soon as I asked them. This was Heartstone Manor. Of course, they had a pool. Royal sent me a grin, the one that always made my heart speed up. “The pool is one of the first things Griffen fixed. The pool house, on the other hand, might fall down on our heads. As long as we can swim when it gets hot, none of us cares.”