As Garrett indicated, Maria sat down in one of two chairs in front of the desk as he took a seat in the other. Courtney closed the door and came around and sat down behind the desk, but her eyes never met Maria’s. They stayed glued on Garrett, and Maria couldn’t help but be impressed by the remarkably serene expression on the other woman’s face.
Garrett held up a hand indicating he’d only be a minute, and as she waited, listening to the deep, cultured sound of his voice, Maria’s eyes traveled around the beautifully appointed office. Coming to a framed picture that clearly featured the Rule siblings, Maria recognized Garrett, a dark-haired younger girl who must be the sister, a second brother she’d never seen before and Courtney, standing beneath the arm of a man who was indisputably the one Maria had seen at the lake house.
The picture had to be several years old, and there was something in Courtney’s expression that was giving Maria a messed-up feeling in her gut. Did the other woman have feelings for this man? The same man who Maria had seen with another woman the night before? As her gaze left the picture and touched briefly on Courtney again, it occurred to Maria that she felt compassion for her, that if she’d known her better, she’d probably warn her about what she’d seen the previous night.
Enough puzzle pieces were there to make Maria uncomfortable . . . Not three minutes before, she’d heard Courtney asking her secretary about Nick, with a worry that wasn’t hard to recognize and now Maria felt something that could only be labeled as sisterhood coming up to rear its head. She wanted to save the other woman from hurt, if Courtney did indeed have feelings for the rat bastard Maria had seen.
With an abrupt movement, Garrett stood to his feet. “Excuse me for a minute,” he said in an aggrieved voice before walking from the room, totally wrapped up in his phone conversation.
After the door slammed behind him, Maria looked back to Courtney. With an obvious hesitation, the other girl’s eyes left the door and met Maria’s. An awkward silence pulsed between them.
As Maria wracked her brains for something to say, the other girl spoke up. “Do you like St. Louis?”
“Yes, so far. It’s certainly different from Florida.”
“Tell me about it,” the blonde woman said with such an affinity that Maria wondered at it.
“Do you know Florida well?” Maria asked. As far as she’d known, the three or so weeks the other girl had been at the hotel had only been a visit for her.
“I’m from Florida, Maria, born and raised, I thought you knew that,” Courtney said.
Surprise engulfed Maria. “No, I didn’t realize that.”
“From the Emerald Coast,” the other girl elaborated. “I grew up in Panama City Beach, and then went to college in Gainesville. I spent a lot of time at Daytona Beach, too. The Miami area was new for me, though,” she said, referring to her stay in the hotel.
Maria took a deep breath and forced herself to make an admission that she couldn’t continue to ignore. “I suppose I owe you an apology.”
The other girl shrugged her shoulders as if she’d moved past it. “I’m sure you had your reasons. I didn’t take it too personally,” she said.
Maria took a breath and plowed on. “My reasons were selfish, I guess. I was envious of your job with the corporation—well, not this job,” she tilted her head, indicating the office they were sitting in, “but the job at the hotel, you know.” No way in hell was she going to admit to the jealousy she’d felt when she’d thought Courtney was involved with Garrett. That wasn’t happening. Not in this lifetime.
The other girl nodded her head, as if she understood. “And now it’s my understanding that you have that job.”
“I do,” Maria agreed, as a fond smile she couldn’t control came over her face.
“Well, I’m glad it all worked out for you.” The woman seemed to debate something and then she said, “Listen, just so you’ll know, as much as I love Florida, I don’t want to be there, so you don’t ever have to worry that I’ll want your job. I need to be here, in St. Louis.”
With the other girl’s statement, Maria couldn’t contain her concern any longer. She knew she should hold her words back, not get in the middle of the other girl’s life. But she had several reasons why she felt the need to say something. First off, she knew what it was like to be hung up on one of the Rule brothers. She and Courtney obviously had that in common, but now, knowing that the other woman was a displaced Florida girl as well? Maria opened her mouth before she could think twice. “Can I ask you something?”