Blossoms of Love Page 4

  * * *

  It was hours later when Greer headed back to her office.

  “You have a visitor,” her sister Rachel called out as Greer passed her open door.

  Greer stuck her head in her sister’s office. It was piled high with files, bankers’ boxes and assorted supplies. Her sister, the company accountant, looked frazzled, her hair frizzing around her face like a halo. At twenty-five, Rachel was the youngest of the three sisters and also the most logical. Like the other Courtlands, she was an extremely hard worker.

  “Who is it?” Greer asked.

  “You’re new bestie, Daniel Torres.” Rachel turned back to her computer, her fingers flying over the keys.

  Greer made her way down the hall. She loved her office. Her parents had given her carte blanche in decorating it. She’d chosen a red leather sofa and two floral wingback chairs flanking an oak coffee table. Her desk was a slanted artist’s table facing away from the huge window that overlooked the parking lot. A rolling chest sat next to it containing her art supplies. She’d painted the walls bright white and then hung drawings of her prize-winning floats along with her diploma from Cal Poly Pomona.

  Daniel stood in front of a painting of a float that had won her a first-place ribbon in an art show her senior year in high school. He turned to her as she stepped in. “You’re very talented.”

  “Thank you. What are you doing here?” Greer asked.

  “Your sister Chelsea called me to go over the final flower order, and I thought I’d stop in and say hi to you.” He strolled around her office, pausing briefly in front of each drawing.

  She couldn’t decide if she was irritated or flattered. “That’s nice. Chelsea is in the warehouse.”

  “I’ll get to her.” As if waving her off, he continued to gaze at the drawings. “With all this talent, why did you go into structural engineering?”

  “I wanted to make magic.”

  “And you do.” He pointed at a drawing of a jaguar that looked as though it were about to leap. “I really like this one.”

  “That’s the float I did for Carnival in Rio this year. I like it, too.” Since he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave, she politely asked, “Would you like some coffee, water, tea?”

  “Nothing, thank you.” He gestured at her drawings. “This is magic for you?”

  “I get the chance to create something that is enjoyed for a day. It’s a challenge. Besides that, I get to hang with the coolest people in the world—my family.”

  “I understand. I like my family, too.”

  “Did you really intend to sabotage my meeting with Logan by showing up with Melody?” she asked him bluntly. No one would accuse her of subtlety.

  His eyebrows rose in surprise. “Logan was hoping the meeting would turn into a date, but another shiny girl came along and he got confused.”

  Greer’s eyes narrowed. “With a lot of help from you.”

  “What are friends for?” He kept grinning at her as though he’d pulled something over on her, too.

  She didn’t know whether to be irritated, amused or flattered. “Since you’re here, I’m wondering if you’d like to attend the preview party on Saturday at the Norton Simon Museum for Henry Ossawa Tanner. I have tickets.” That really came out of her mouth? Oh, Greer, you silly girl.

  “Are you asking me out on a date?”

  “Sure, we’ll call it a date. But...I have some rules. No Melody. No other starlet. No Logan hijacking me. And do you think we can ditch the paparazzi? I managed to avoid being a part of that love-triangle story, and I don’t want to see my face on a tabloid.”

  He looked like a kid who’d just been handed the best present ever. “I can manage that. It’s not like I’m Kanye, or Madonna, or Beyoncé. The paparazzi don’t really follow me around hoping to snap a photo of me doing something disgraceful.”

  “Done.”

  “Are you going to let me pick you up, or do you want to meet at the museum?”

  She paused, thinking. “On a first date, I like to have my own escape route if something doesn’t go well.”

  “Technically, it’s our second date.”

  He looked so hopeful, she didn’t have the heart to decline. And he was sort of right. She conceded to him on this. “Pick me up at seven. I’ll text you my address.”

  Chelsea poked her head into Greer’s office and grinned at Daniel. “Good, you’re here. I want to go over some things with you for final approval.”

  With a quick goodbye and a dazzling smile, Daniel followed Chelsea down the hall, leaving Greer to think about what she’d just done. She had asked him out on a date! But she had to admit it—Daniel had something about him that she just liked. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. He was charming and good-looking and had an interesting sense of humor. His baiting of Logan at their dinner had been fun in a very odd way. Bottom line: she wanted to know more about the man who was Daniel Torres.

  * * *

  The gym smelled of damp clothes, overheated bodies and good, honest man-sweat. Daniel had finished his workout. Logan sat next to him on a bench as they watched the people around them. Several women on treadmills competed with two men who had revved their treadmills up to the fastest setting and were running frantically while the women pretended to ignore them. A bank of windows on one side of the gym showed a class of women doing yoga. Two personal trainers coached their clients, and a cute woman with a truly buff body was spotting on a bench press for her own client.

  “She asked you out!” Logan stared at Daniel.

  “Who doesn’t want to date this package?” Daniel teased.

  “I don’t,” Logan said with a snicker.

  “You have no taste.”

  “I have great taste...in women.” Logan wiped his sweaty face with his towel. “And Greer is all woman.”

  “She is beautiful, but she wasn’t beautiful enough to keep you from ogling Melody.”

  Logan sighed. “I’m going to have to find a way to make that up to her.”

  “Let it lie. Let her be angry with you for the rest of your life.”

  Logan gave him a piercing look. “You like her. You like her a lot.”

  Daniel saw the challenge in Logan’s eyes. “We’ve never sparred over a woman before.”

  “That’s because I’ve always won the ones I wanted.” Logan’s face took on a dreamy look.

  “Or one could say I allowed you to win the ones I wanted you to have.”

  Logan burst out laughing. “This never gets old, does it?”

  Daniel smiled. “I’m going to be your friend forever.”

  Daniel had met Logan during their freshman year of high school on the football team. Logan had been the quarterback and Daniel the wide receiver. They both had loved football, but Logan had wanted to make a career out of it while Daniel just wanted to play the game.

  Logan’s home life hadn’t been the best. His parents had never been around. His father, a talent agent, traveled a lot, and his mother, a character actress, was always on the set of some movie. Logan had been raised mostly by nannies. The first time Daniel brought him home, his parents had taken the boy under their wing and made sure that this spoiled little rich kid act turned into a responsible adult.

  In their first encounter, Logan made a pass but had stepped out of bounds, and no one noticed. Daniel caught the pass, made the touchdown and got the win, but Daniel had called Logan to task for his maneuver.

  Logan had been amazed that Daniel cared. Daniel had talked to him about fairness and doing the right thing. Doing the right thing had intrigued Logan because his parents hadn’t had that level of ethics. Daniel’s parents, on the other hand, were all about being ethical and insisted Logan fall into step with them if he wanted to be Daniel’s friend. Because Logan did want to be Daniel’s friend, he’d al
lowed Grace and Manny Torres to mold him. He’d once told Daniel that he liked the Torres family rules because he knew exactly what was expected of him.

  “I’m not going to stop chasing after her,” Logan said after a long silence. “If you think she’s that intriguing, then she must be, and you know how I like to be intrigued.”

  They lifted their water bottles and clunked them together. “Good luck with that. As much as you like being intrigued, you are easily distracted.”

  Logan gave Daniel a look. “Wait a minute. Are you saying you aren’t playing fair?”

  “The better man is going to win.” Daniel knew he sounded arrogant, but he really liked Greer. His mother would like her, and Grace didn’t give her approval easily. She expected her children to act with the highest standards and to find partners who would do the same thing.

  What was he thinking? Why was he even putting the words marriage and Greer in the same thought?

  * * *

  Greer stood in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom. She’d tried on five cocktail dresses in the hope of finding just the right one. She finally chose her Anna Sui black-and-yellow-daisy cocktail dress with black lace inserts on the bodice. She brushed her short hair straight back from her face and added diamond drop earrings and a matching pendant on a gold chain. She was as ready as she would ever be.

  She grabbed her black silk clutch, took a deep breath and walked out to the living room to wait for Daniel. She sat in a chair in front of the huge living room window.

  She’d saved for five years to purchase her tiny Craftsman bungalow. The bungalow had been a fixer-upper. Though she didn’t have the skills to renovate the house for herself, she did know people. Half the float staff at the warehouse had pitched in and helped her, and she was proud of the results.

  She’d decorated with Stickley furniture she’d gotten on sale at a local furniture store and hung her own vividly colored paintings on the walls. Oriental rugs covered the polished wood floors, and reproduction Tiffany lamps sat on tables, adding the vintage look she’d wanted.

  When she saw a limo pull into her driveway, she stood, surprised. She hadn’t expected Daniel to rent a limo for the night, though she had to admit going to Norton Simon seemed like a limo-worthy affair.

  Daniel stepped out of the limo and walked up the garden path to her front porch. A second later the doorbell rang. In the kitchen, her dogs barked. Her cat lifted her tiny black head, blinking in annoyance at the interruption to her nap.

  Greer opened the front door and saw Daniel’s eyes widen in surprise as he dragged his eyes down her body from head to toe.

  “Wow!” was all he said.

  “I clean up nice, don’t I?” she teased. “You do, too.” He looked so handsome in his black suit.

  He must have heard the dogs scratching the kitchen door, because he looked beyond her. “Your dogs, I guess?”

  She nodded. “They’re in the kitchen and no doubt itching to get out and smell their guest.”

  “Then let’s meet them.”

  She opened the door to the kitchen. Two medium-sized white-and-tan dogs jumped out, their claws clicking on the wood floor. They sniffed Daniel’s shoes and legs and then looked up at him with their appealing brown eyes.

  “This is Roscoe and this is Pip. Who could resist them?” She knelt down and ruffled their ears.

  The cat jumped down from the chair she’d been sleeping in and walked over. “That’s Scooter. She had a litter of kittens that died, and she ended up adopting Roscoe and Pip as newborn puppies when their mother rejected them. It seemed sad to separate them. I’m kind of weak that way.”

  When the dogs were satisfied Daniel wasn’t a threat, they went back into the kitchen and out the doggie door. Scooter returned to her chair and her nap.

  “Shall we get going?” Daniel asked.

  Greer grabbed her clutch and a black silk shawl. Even though the evening was fairly mild, a slight chill hung in the air when Daniel opened the front door.

  “This is nice,” she said once they were settled in the backseat of the limo.

  “I’m excited about the exhibit. I’ve admired Henry Ossawa Tanner since I first discovered him when I took an art class. How did you score the tickets?”

  “My parents have always supported the arts and have been members of the museum for over twenty years. I’m keeping up the tradition.”

  Daniel poured her a glass from a bottle of crisp chardonnay cooling in a bucket of ice. She accepted it and settled back to enjoy the ride. He motioned toward a tray of canapés on a tiny table that pulled out from the side. She sampled a couple.

  “So tell me,” she said after another sip of wine. “Is there a possibility that Logan will show up tonight with your dream date?”

  He laughed. “I doubt it. Logan’s idea of art is the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.”

  “I wonder what he would say about your idea of art.”

  “I’m a big fan of impressionism and postmodernism. Before they opened their restaurant, my parents were performers, and my siblings and I were exposed to down-on-their-luck writers and artists all the time. They fed a lot of them. My mother has a soft spot for anyone who needs a good meal. My dad grew up poor and black in Brazil, where there wasn’t a lot of food. If you’re hungry, he’ll feed you.”

  “I’ve met your parents,” Greer said. His mother had so much energy she made other people look like they were standing still. “I designed a float for the North Hollywood Businessmen’s Association a couple of years ago. And I designed a float for Carnival in Rio last year that your mom commissioned.” That float had been a lot of fun and had also been the most elaborate one she’d ever designed. Rio was deadly serious about their Mardi Gras celebration.

  They spoke awhile about her work on those jobs. Then she couldn’t help asking the question that had been burning in her brain. “Why did you accept my invitation? Were you trying to make Logan jealous?”

  “I’m a man,” he said with a grin. “Of course I wanted to make Logan jealous, but that isn’t the number one reason.”

  “Before we get to the number one reason, what number was that on your list?”

  He thought for a moment, and Greer was amused at the tiny frown that appeared between his eyes. “Number six.”

  “And number one is...”

  He studied her. “You’re the most intriguing woman I’ve met in years. You’re like a mystery I want to unravel. You were a Rose Queen, and that beats a prom queen or homecoming queen any day. And you design the most beautiful floats.”

  She smiled and inclined her head. Her year as Rose Queen had been filled with events that had kept her busy and on display. She’d loved every minute of it, even though her duties took her away from her family for days at a time.

  The limo pulled up to the museum’s main entrance and waited behind a line of cars dropping people off. When they finally pulled up to the dropoff spot, Daniel jumped out of the car and helped her out. She draped her shawl around her shoulders, and as they walked up the stairs, he tucked her hand around his arm.

  The Norton Simon Museum was alive with light, laughter and music. People congregated in groups as they walked inside. Chamber music came from a three-piece orchestra situated in a corner of the foyer.

  Greer loved the museum. As a child, her parents had brought her and her sisters to workshops designed to introduce children to the arts and even allow them to try their hand at painting and sculpting. She’d taken her first art class at the age of six. Her talent had stood out so strongly that her parents started bringing her for art classes every Saturday.

  “Greer Courtland,” a voice called out.

  Greer turned to find Patricia Galen waving at her. “Patty.”

  “I’d hoped you’d come tonight.” Patty was a tall, slim woman in her midforties
. She scheduled many of the art events for the children’s workshops. “When can you teach another class on float design and engineering? I receive requests for you all the time. Your workshop has always been one of the more popular ones.”

  “Not until after Mardi Gras. I fly down to Rio in mid-January with my sister to oversee the last stages of the float we have there,” Greer said. “I’ll be back the day after the celebration. March and April are my down times.”

  “How about something for late March?” Patty consulted her iPhone. “I have an opening on the third Saturday.”

  “I can do that. I’ll call you next week and we can plan it out.”

  Patty smiled at Daniel, but before Greer could introduce him, she’d flitted off to talk to someone else.

  “You teach?” Daniel asked her.

  She detected admiration in his voice. That meant he was impressed on an intellectual level, which made her feel a little tingly. And she liked it. “I dabble more than I teach.”

  “You’re an interesting woman, Greer Courtland.”

  She smiled. “Isn’t that your number one reason for accepting my invitation to this event?”

  He gave her a salacious grin. “Yeah, I’m going with that.”

  That made her laugh and feel comfortable all at the same time. Daniel Torres was a dangerous man...in a good way.

  The entry doors stood open. Members of the board of trustees stood at the doors, greeting people. Greer shook hands with them as they passed.

  Once inside, Greer and Daniel followed the line to the exhibition hall.

  “So why did you ask me to come with you?” Daniel asked when they stopped at the door. An attendant handed them a booklet describing the paintings that waited for them inside.

  “Do I have to have a reason?”

  “I have one.”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t think you’d be interested in art. Consider this a test.”

  He glanced at her. There was a glint of disbelief in his eyes. “A test? A test of what?”