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“He hasn’t even spoken to me the whole trip. I doubt he’s given me much thought at all.”
“Well, you may be right, but I think it gives him the perfect motive to pick a random girl to be his fiancée for a few weeks.”
Harper lifted her teacup and sipped thoughtfully. Being cut off by daddy also gave her the one piece of the puzzle she’d been missing—the perfect motive for Quentin to blackmail her.
Eight
Sebastian was exhausted from a day golfing with the others but keen to get back to Harper to tell her everything he’d overheard during the trip. Between eighteen holes and half a dozen beers, mouths had loosened among the gentlemen. In addition to getting to know them all better, he’d picked up some stock tips, improved his swing and gotten some more dirt on her ex, Quentin.
As the bus pulled up in front of the castle, he spied Harper walking out toward the east gardens. When they unloaded, he trotted off after her, catching up just as she reached the intricate hedges that outlined the borders. She sat on a stone bench that overlooked the formal pattern of flowerbeds in bright summer colors that contrasted with the lush green of the grass.
“Harper!”
She turned and looked over her shoulder at him. She was wearing a pretty, pale pink, eyelet sundress with a matching sweater. “Hey there, Arnold Palmer. How did the golf go?”
He strolled the rest of the way toward her to catch his breath. He needed to do more running, apparently. “Awful,” he said as he dropped down beside her on the bench. “I couldn’t tell them I’d never played before, so I had to fake it and claim I was rusty from working too much.”
“You’ve never played golf? What kind of CEO are you?”
Sebastian chuckled. “The kind that doesn’t take clients out to schmooze on the greens. That’s Finn’s job. I work. But I have played golf. Just not this kind. I’m used to the windmills and the alligators that swallow your ball if you putt it into the wrong hole.”
“Miniature golf. You’ve played Putt-Putt. Yeah, I’d say that’s a little different.”
“I’ll tell you, though. Once I got the ball near the hole, I was an excellent putter. Just took me five swings over par to get that close.”
Harper winced and laughed. “Wow. Lose any money?”
He shook his head. “I’m not that stupid. There was no way I was betting on my game. I did offer Quentin a wager, though. I bet him a thousand dollars that he’d shank his next ball into a sand trap.”
She arched her brow curiously. “And?”
Sebastian reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of hundred dollar bills. “I think I jinxed him. He basically shot it straight into the sand dunes and couldn’t get out. Completely rattled the guy. I didn’t feel guilty about it, though. If he’s your blackmailer, then this thousand may have come from the money you paid him yesterday. If that’s true, then I’m glad to steal some back.” He handed the cash over to Harper.
“What is this for?” she asked, looking at the bills uncurling in the palm of her hand.
“For whatever.” He shrugged. “It’s not my money, so you can light cigars with it for all I care. Pay it to the blackmailer. Pay it on the loan. Get a really expensive manicure. Save it for a rainy day. Whatever you want. Just spend it knowing that I took it from Quentin. That should make it all the sweeter.”
Harper closed her fist around the money and nodded. “It will,” she said before slipping it into the little wallet pocket of her cell phone case. “Anything else interesting come up this afternoon?”
“Lots of man talk. Mostly bluster without substance. It got a little heated about the Yankees once alcohol got involved. The groom’s face turned as red as his hair when someone said something about the Mets being a better team. I was smart enough to stay out of that. I don’t know enough about sports to comment intelligently.”
“Really? You didn’t play sports in school?”
Sebastian frowned. “No. That wasn’t my thing,” he said. He supposed it might’ve interested him if he’d had the time. Maybe the swim team. But the fees to participate in school sports had been too high and all his free time had been taken up by working to help support his family. He hadn’t had the typical frivolous youth, but Harper didn’t know that. “I did learn something interesting about Quentin, though.”
Harper turned toward him on the stone bench. “Me, too. But you go first.”
“Okay. While we were talking, someone mentioned that Quentin was in some legal hot water. Apparently he’d tried to flip some real estate and used shoddy contractors to save money. The people that bought the place took him to court and the judge sided with them, awarding them a settlement to correct some of the repairs. Guess for how much?”
“A hundred thousand dollars?”
“Bingo.”
“That is interesting. It certainly gives him a reason to come after me for exactly that much money. Especially after what I learned about him at the tea party.”
“What’s that?”
“His father cut him off, financially. We’re not sure if it’s because he disapproves of the fiancée, or maybe because of his legal troubles, but he isn’t getting any more money from his father. I can tell you that’s huge. He’s probably hurting for cash right now. Even that thousand-dollar loss to you today likely stings.”
