Carolina Girl (30 page)

He thought being a turtle might have its advantages.

o0o

Composing herself, pretending she was simply walking into a
meeting at her office where she would present loan proposals for a new business
for someone else, Rory walked up the marble steps of the bank. She’d
scheduled the meeting with Jeff for a Friday afternoon, when he’d be
eager to escape for a round of golf. She wanted this short and sweet.

It had been only two days since the letters had gone out to
the Binghams. The offer to set up the land in a nonprofit trust the family
could control might already be stirring up talk among the local property
owners. Soon they would have distant relatives talking to each other for the
first time in their lives. Better that it was out in the open so the Binghams
knew what was happening, and the bank and development companies couldn’t
steal the land out from under them for lack of knowledge.

Now, if only she could talk the bank into leaving her equity
loan open, they’d have a few hundred thousand more to invest in
Clay’s software and, ultimately, an income for life, if
“Mysterious”
produced the astonishing profit Clay promised.

“Hello, Aurora! You’re looking fantastic.”
Standing beside his secretary’s desk as if he’d been waiting for
her, Jeff Spencer greeted her with the enthusiasm he saved for his wealthier
customers.

He was as handsome as ever, still single, and rich enough to
build his own house in one of the town’s McMansion neighborhoods. Rory
figured any house Jeff built would have all blond-wood floors and white walls.
Jeff never had possessed much imagination or color. As an insecure teenager,
she’d seen that as steadiness. As a more secure adult, she recognized how
boring that was—purple knights were much more challenging.

Boring Jeff could very well be behind the Commercial Realty
ploy to buy out Cissy. She would have to play this one close.

“Thank you, Jeff,” she said with just the right
amount of frost while sweeping past him into his office. She couldn’t
believe that less than a month ago she’d stepped out of his way rather
than rock the boat, and here she was now, ready to turn the boat over and shoot
holes in it.

“I have the payoff calculated, as you
requested.” He sat down at his desk and opened a file folder on his
otherwise immaculate desk. “But you needn’t be hasty about this,
you know. If you can show substantial assets outside of the land—”

“We’ve had an offer of ten thousand an acre, and
with thirty acres, that’s more than sufficient to cover the current
balance,” she interrupted in the crisp tones she’d learned to use
in the banking world. “I’m prepared to write a check for the entire
balance.”

No, she wasn’t. The lawyer had collected the prize
winnings and deposited them this morning, so the money was technically there.
She just needed as much of it as she could hold on to. Experience had taught
her that meant she must speak from a position of strength. “I would
prefer working with the local bank, of course, since I see no reason to tie up
liquid assets, but if you are uncomfortable with the loan, then I have no
difficulty taking our interest elsewhere. What is the payoff balance?”

Jeff looked uneasy as she produced her checkbook and a pen
and waited expectantly. “Now, Rora, let’s not be so hasty. You know
that ten thousand an acre is unlikely, and if you’ve really been offered
that, you should grab it. We can come to some compromise—”

“No, I don’t think so. Our land is on prime
property along the access road to the new state park. Since you’re so
interested in developing a property tax base out there and the zoning
commission won’t be interested in anything less, then I see no reason why
we shouldn’t benefit from the ecological disaster that will result. That
property will be worth ten times as much in ten years. I’m willing to
take the risk. The payoff, please.”

He managed to shutter a brief expression of alarm, but his
blatant self-interest couldn’t be as easily disguised. “Then
you’ll quit fighting the zoning?”

Gifting him with her most dazzling smile and hiding the wolf
grin behind it, Aurora put down her checkbook. “Why, Jeffy, if
that’s been your concern all along, you should have said so. I’m
about to move a multimillion-dollar corporation in there. One-bank shopping
makes sense to me. Are you interested?”

He fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. Rory decided she
should have cut line and fished in deeper waters long ago.

She hadn’t
said
she’d quit fighting
zoning, now, had she?

o0o

Limping down the cracked sidewalk from Cleo’s store,
Cissy tingled with pride at the sight of her candy-apple-red pickup. She
didn’t care if it wasn’t brand new. Buying vehicles new was a waste
of money. But this one was as close to new as she’d ever owned, with
hardly a dent or scratch on it. She had a working CD player and room in the
narrow backseat to transport Mandy and her friends. She wanted to take it out
on the highway and test the acceleration, but she hadn’t had an excuse to
do so yet.

Sure, it was registered in the name of the corporation and
not her name, and she hadn’t paid for it. But Rora had showed her the
corporate papers with her name on them, and part of the million dollars was
hers, so if she carried the keys, she figured that truck was bought and paid
for.

The idea of being part owner of a corporation was so far
beyond her comprehension that she dismissed it. Owner of a truck, now, that she
understood.

In the sack from the hardware store was a computer cable.
Cleo’s Hardware carried computer parts, since the town was too small for
a specialty store. Cissy now knew what cables did and even knew which one to
buy to connect Rora’s PC to the scanner Clay had brought over. She even
knew what a scanner was and how to operate it. She’d be able to open her
own computer store if she kept this up.

The warm fire in her belly at that thought was an unusual
sensation. The maxim “With knowledge comes power” had always eluded
her. How to find good clothes at the cheapest price and keep a grocery budget
was knowledge, but she’d never considered it powerful.

But knowing all about computers could lead to a real future,
a secure one, one that would make Mandy proud of her. Clay had been right: It
was worth trading the opportunity for easy cash for the knowledge that would
build a solid foundation.

A white Cadillac glided to a halt behind her pickup. Cissy
glanced at her watch. Rora should be coming out of the bank any minute. They
might have time to stop at the school and pick Mandy up so she didn’t
have to take that slow school bus. She didn’t want to have to maneuver
the truck out of a tight space if someone parked in front of her. She would
move the truck and idle in front of the bank until Rora came out.

“Miss Jenkins, how fortuitous that we should run into
each other!”

Distracted, Cissy glanced up at the business-suited
gentleman climbing out of the Cadillac—Mr. Turner, from Commercial
Realty.

Since rich gentlemen driving Cadillacs did not usually
acknowledge her existence, Cissy remained on the sidewalk, watching his
approach with suspicion. Once upon a time she might have flirted with a man who
smiled at her like that. These days she felt older than the hills, but maybe a
little wiser.

“How do you do, Mr. Turner,” she acknowledged
his greeting politely.

“Have you given any thought to my offer, Miss Jenkins?
I was surprised not to hear from you. It’s an excellent offer, and
we’re saving that lot for you.”

“I don’t make decisions like that without some
thought,” she said stiffly. Even with her newfound confidence, she hated
giving up such a tempting offer. Did she really need all that land? Did it
matter if her mother’s family had owned it for generations? Rory had
asked how important it was to Cissy, but Rory hadn’t indicated that it
meant anything to her.

“We’re quite anxious to start moving on this
project,” Turner said with bluff good humor. “If you’re not
interested, give your neighbors a chance.”

What if Rory and Clay were wrong? What if Turner really
meant to build something out there, and he took his money to their neighbors?

It took all the backbone Cissy had grown over the years, and
her respect for Aurora’s intelligence, to straighten her shoulders and
look three hundred thousand dollars in the eye and kiss it good-bye. “I
think you’d better start talking to my neighbors, Mr. Turner. My sister
and I have other plans for that land, but thank you very much for your generous
offer.”

She walked away from his stunned expression, terror and a
floating feeling of freedom carrying her past the truck and down to the bank
where she walked up the marble stairs as if she had as much right to be there
as all the rich people did.

To Cissy’s pride and dismay, Rory was just leaving
Jeff Spencer’s office, and the banker greeted Cissy as if she were a
long-lost relative. Everyone in the lobby turned to stare, and she was wearing
only her second-best jeans and a tank top.

But she owned a candy-apple-red pickup and had just turned
down three hundred thousand dollars. Taking a deep breath, Cissy smiled and
shook Jeff Spencer’s hand. She was a millionaire.

On the Monday after Aurora’s triumph at the bank, Clay
locked the finished copies of his programs in Cleo’s safety-deposit box
with a sense of satisfaction. He had nearly worked himself to death this past
week putting everything in order. Now he had time to breathe.

And think about Aurora. He glanced up at the courthouse
roof, but he had no itch to tinker with the clock. His life had become a more
interesting place since Aurora had walked into it.

It would become even more interesting if he could pry her
away from her desk and her family and back into his bed again. But privacy and
spare time had been in short supply since their trip to Charleston. Unlike the
other women who had decorated his life, Aurora seemed to understand when he
immersed himself in work. Would she have the same understanding of his need to
play now? Could he talk her into running into Charleston with him?

Of course, she was juggling phone calls from Binghams and
inquiries from investors. He couldn’t expect her to drop everything just
because he was ready to play.

And TJ had arrived last night. It might be easier to park
himself at Aurora’s place and deal with sexual frustration than submit to
his brother’s questioning.

At least at her place he’d have the fun of listening
to her deal with family and friends and Binghams and whatever else crossed her
path. Every time he stopped by, Aurora was bubbling with energy, obviously in
her element juggling half a dozen problems at once. She laughed away
Cissy’s timidity with the computer, teased Mandy into acting as
receptionist, hugged her father when he blundered into the table, dumping off
her worksheets.

Clay was the only one she walked softly around, and he
figured that was because they set off enough electricity to light New York
every time they got within three feet of each other. He’d stolen a few
kisses behind the refrigerator door, but the trailer was way too crowded for
anything else.

Thinking of those kisses, he dragged his gaze from the
courthouse clock and its secrets to the florist shop next to the café. He used
to send Diane huge bouquets of red roses when he’d spent the weekend
working late. Would roses impress Aurora? Persuade her away from the telephone
and the trailer and into somewhere private?

Or would she just swat him with them for wasting money? That
was a new and not entirely comfortable question to puzzle out. The old Clay
would have just spent money and called the problem solved. He hadn’t
quite decided what his new laid-back persona should do.

Spotting a small, balding man walking in his direction, Clay
grinned. Yeah, he thought he knew what this Clay ought to do.

He stepped up on the curb in front of Terry Talbert, nearly
causing the tourist commissioner to walk into him. “Had any free MBAs
walk into your office lately?”

Talbert glared up at him, swiping a flyaway hair back from
his frowning forehead. “You’re pond scum, you know that? You
promised
us that program! And now look what you’ve done—every Bingham in the
county thinks he’s a millionaire.”

“Every Bingham in the country, more likely.”
Clay shrugged off the accusation. “They’re not dumb. They’ll
figure it out now that they have the information to work with. You should have
kept Aurora. She’s handling the heirs beautifully.”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Terry shouted, too furious for coherence, much less Clay’s logic.

“Yeah,” Clay said with great pleasure. “I
have the smartest person in town working on my side because you threw her away.
A word of advice—next time you choose sides, choose the honest one, not
the rich one.”

He left Talbert standing there, digesting that, as he strode
off in the direction of the grocery store. He’d take the money he could
have spent on roses and buy a tomato plant to put in the Jenkinses’
ravaged garden, plus a lobster or two for Aurora to play with. And chocolate.
She did the most amazing things with food. He might even learn to eat for the
sheer pleasure of watching her cook.

o0o

“I’ve got it, I’ve got it!” Aurora
ran screaming into the front room they’d converted into an office, waving
a piece of paper at her audience of two. She and Cissy had spent a frantic
weekend fielding phone calls from Binghams. Friday night Clay had started
appearing for meals, sacks of groceries in hand. This morning he’d
arrived with tomato plants and lobsters. She’d never understand the man,
but she adored his thoughtfulness. Cissy had been ecstatic over the plants.

At Rory’s triumphant cry, Clay glanced up from the
laptop he’d brought over, and Cissy stopped frowning at the big computer
they’d set on a television stand. They both waited expectantly, if
somewhat warily, since Aurora tended to run in with excited messages several
times a day.