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You complement each other well,” she added with a wry smile.
Warmth flushed across Rhiannon’s chest. There was an undercurrent in Liz’s words. Something she was thinking but not saying. Rhiannon poked at the mysterious energy to see what might shake loose.
“Carmela is extremely knowledgeable. I don’t think we would’ve gotten this far without her,” she graciously, but sincerely.
“Don’t sell yourself short. Carmela wouldn’t have changed the terms from sixty-forty to fifty-fifty if she didn’t think you pulled your own weight,” Liz countered in a tone so relaxed Rhiannon nearly missed what she’d said.
Rhiannon’s skin tingled like she was a hot pan splashed with water. Through a haze of suddenly fuzzy thoughts, she tried to sound casual. “Fifty-fifty, huh?”
Liz jerked her head back. “Did she not tell you? And more importantly, didn’t you read the contract?”
Rhiannon’s eyes widened. “Yes,” she stammered, embarrassed and uncomfortable. “I read the terms, but I didn’t think to verify the split.” She tried to retain a neutral expression while praying the Earth would crack apart like an old sidewalk and consume her.
Liz chuckled. “It’s a good thing it had so many eyes on it before it was executed. That’s a good lesson for you. Never take any part for granted. In the future, you might be the only one looking out for your client.”
As Rhiannon’s chest tightened and sweat poured down her back like Niagara freaking Falls, she hid her trembling hands under her desk. “I’m sorry. It’ll never happen again.”
Liz nodded. “Something tells me I can take that guarantee to the bank.” She winked. “Don’t worry about it. These things happen. The important thing is learning from it. And it’s the rare case where you didn’t notice you’d be getting an extra fifteen grand.”
“I can’t really believe it,” Rhiannon admitted. The money she was already making was unfathomable, even after she paid o the debt she’d racked up trying to get the house sold.
“Why would she do that? And without even telling me?”
“Who knows why people do things,” Liz said, looking like someone who absolutely knew why Carmela did it. “She probably didn’t tell you so it wouldn’t be a whole thing,” she added with a flick of her wrists. “Carmela is not an easy person to win over. I can’t tell you how it pleases me to see you two . . . getting close.”
The pause sa
id more than all the words Liz had uttered put together.
Rhiannon’s anxiety over her lack of attention to detail waned and her curiosity peaked. “What do you know that I don’t, Liz?”
Without answering her question, Liz stood and strapped her purse to her shoulder. “Underneath it all, Carmela is a wonderful person. She’s been through a lot in her life.
Someone who loves her like a daughter might say her protective barrier is up so high it’s keeping her in prison rather than keeping danger out.” She turned toward the door. “While I’m not one to stick my nose where it doesn’t belong, I’ll just say I’m rooting for you. Both of you.”
Long after Rhiannon was alone in the o ce, she couldn’t stop thinking about what Liz had said. More importantly, she couldn’t stop wondering what Carmela might have told her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
SIXTY DAYS FLEW BY SO QUICKLY, Rhiannon barely had time to meet with her parents’ friend, and retired accountant, about what to do with seventy-five thousand dollars. More specifically, how much she’d need to put away for taxes when that time rolled around.
The actual closing had been anticlimactic. With Luca in the Japanese Alps for some autumn pilgrimage to the mountains and Yeardsley already moved to his new place in California, it was nothing more than an exchanging of paperwork mailed to an attorney.
Even getting paid hadn’t been what Rhiannon expected.
When she’d walked into the o ce that morning, Brandy handed her a plain white envelope with a check inside. No fanfare. No big deal. Trudging to her o ce, she pulled o the light jacket she’d grabbed for the unseasonably cool October day and plopped into her chair.
If she was honest, she’d admit that her disappointment had nothing to do with unmet expectations. Her dreary mood had everything to do with Carmela. With the deal over, there was no reason to spend hours with her every day, or for them to talk nearly every night. The facts gutted her.
Rhiannon had been scrolling mindlessly through new listings for an hour when Carmela’s voice drew her out of her
slump. “Don’t spend that all in one place now,” she joked from the doorway. In a crisp, brown leather jacket, loose white shirt, and skinny jeans, Carmela was a vision.
Shifting in her chair, Rhiannon tried not to gawk. “I still can’t believe you tricked me into di erent terms than we’d agreed,” she countered, only a little seriously.
“Better than that trick you played on me, huh?” She chuckled, inviting herself to sit down. “Fair is fair. You earned it.” She smiled before pausing, as if suddenly remembering what she’d gone in to say. “But I have to admit. . . I am a little worried about you.”
Rhiannon quirked an eyebrow. “Worried about me?
