She brought the bouquet to her nose to inhale and smiled. A raging, unexpected jealousy grabbed him by the throat. A man had sent her those flowers. Heather had told him she was divorced, but maybe she had a boyfriend. Or maybe she and her ex-husband were giving it another go.
It was only natural for an attractive woman like her to have admirers. But that didn’t ease his jealousy one bit. Whoever had put that smile on her face was a lucky man.
With his jealousy getting this out of control, now was the wrong time to try to get the truth out of Heather.
Chapter 6
Heather tossed the bouquet of roses into the trash. She was still holding the note that had been attached to the unexpected delivery.
Sorry for this morning. Gary.
In annoyance, she tossed the note into the trash can by her desk and sighed loudly. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The nerve of her ex-husband. An unexpected delivery of flowers like this meant that Gary was up to no good. Knowing him, this wasn’t an apology at all. It was probably just another one of his manipulative tactics to get something out of her.
On top of all of Gary’s nonsense, she had screwed up badly with Simon. His announcement that he would be mentioning her in his speech had completely caught her off guard. Ordinarily, she would have appreciated it for the generous gesture that it was, but what if she risked being found out by the press because of it?
Still on edge, she decided to head downstairs to the lobby to go over some details with the security team.
“Hey, babe.”
As she walked towards the front desk, her eyes widened at the sight in front of her. What the hell? It couldn’t be.
Heather’s ex-husband was standing by the front desk, grinning.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded.
“There you are,” he said. “We were just about to call you so that I could see you.”
She crossed her arms and raised her chin. “What do you want?”
“Did you like my flowers?” Gary leaned forward and planted a kiss on her cheek. The gesture evoked nothing from her but scorn. She couldn’t believe she had fought to stay married to him, but she had wanted her son to have his father in his life.
“They were nice,” she muttered. “Not my favorite, of course, but it’s not like you ever cared about what I liked.”
“Bitterness doesn’t suit you, Heather.”
“I’m not going to ask you again,” she hissed. “You need to leave.”
Gary held his hands up. “Okay. Okay. I’m here because I wanted to ask a favor.”
“I knew it,” she said. “You only ever bought me anything when you wanted something from me. Well, out with it.”
“I’d like you to pet-sit for Tiffani,” he said.
She blinked. “That’s what this fuss is about? Are you insane? I barely know your new girlfriend.”
“I know it’s short notice, but hear me out,” Gary said. “Tiffani and I are going on a little vacation and she’s bringing her kids along. But we can’t bring her dog, and she doesn’t have many options.”
“So, you suggested that I would do it,” she said icily.
“You’re the most responsible, giving, generous person I know,” he said, his voice all syrupy-sweet.
With a roll of her eyes, she took a step away from him. “So, you’d spend time with Tiffani and her kids, but not your own son?”
“Oh, come on. You know that’s not fair,” he said. “Besides, I have to make a good impression with Tiffani. You’d understand if you actually dated.”
“So, you don’t care about the impression you’re making on your son?” she demanded, ignoring his jab. Damn, he knew how to cut right to her insecurities. Heather refused to let him see how much he got to her.
“Finnley already loves me,” Gary said with an annoying grin. “It’s Tiffani’s affections I’m trying to win over. Besides, I’ll owe you big time.”
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Simon approaching. Panic made her heartrate speed up. Sweat was already forming on her brow. If Simon realized that Gary was her ex-husband he’d start asking questions that might expose her lie. She hadn’t told Gary about her deceit, but right now it looked like she had no choice but to let him in on it.