He shook his head. ‘I suppose I’ll have to have a chat with him,’ he said reluctantly; ordinarily Rome was the most genial of men, but not when it came to interference in his personal life. And whether Rome realised it or not, Audrey was very much in his personal life!
Andie gave a rueful smile. ‘He’s extremely volatile at the moment, so make sure you have your body armour on first! I only asked him to pass me the pepper at dinner last night, and he almost bit my head off,’ she explained with a pained grimace.
Adam groaned. ‘Maybe I should come and look at the roses with you before tackling Rome.’ He thought of the confrontation he would no doubt have with the older man once he had said what he felt needed to be said on the subject of Audrey’s resignation. ‘Isn’t there some sort of saying about stopping along the way to smell the roses…?’ he wondered.
Andie laughed as she stood in one fluid movement. ‘I think that applies to people who need to relax more—not someone who wants to avoid someone else!’
Adam looked up at her appreciatively. Her golden-coloured hair was loose today, falling silkily down her back, framing the loveliness of her face, a face dominated by those beautiful green eyes, her skin having attained a light golden tan from the summer months.
Yet as he continued to look at her he realised there was something different about her…
But as he stood up to accompany her out to the hothouse at the back of the house, where Barbara had spent so much of her time tending her beloved roses, he couldn’t quite decide what it was.
The heady perfume of the beautiful blooms assailed them as they entered the heated greenhouse, bringing back vivid memories to Adam of the woman who had first grown and tended them. Barbara had been such a lovely woman, inside as well as out, and her death ten years ago, from cancer, had been yet another blow in Adam’s life. He—
Now he knew what was different about Andie! Like her mother before her, Andie always looked perfect, her make-up in place, no matter what the time of day, her clothes always beautifully tailored. Andie’s make-up was still perfect, but for once she wasn’t wearing any of her designer label clothes. Instead, she had on a loose green shirt over fitted denims, the former so big it looked as if it could be one of Rome’s cast-offs!
Not that Andie didn’t look as gorgeous as always; in fact, the casual clothing gave her a more approachable appearance, Adam decided thoughtfully. He was just surprised at the change in her, that was all…
She paused in the act of dead-heading roses, turning as she seemed to sense his gaze on her, a slight blush colouring her cheeks as she looked at him—warily, it almost seemed to him…? Had their friendship really come to that?
Probably, he acknowledged with a regretful sigh for the easy camaraderie they had once shared. But what had he expected? Nothing stayed the same. The fact that Harrie and Danie were now both married was testament to that.
‘I was just thinking how much like your mother you are.’ He spoke quietly, knowing, with this newfound strain between them, that Andie would not welcome any comment he might make concerning her personal appearance.
Andie’s expression changed from guarded to noncommittal. ‘She would have approved of Harrie and Danie’s choice of husbands,’ she commented huskily.
Yes, she probably would. Barbara, like Rome, had adored all of her daughters, wanted only the best for them. From the little he had seen of Quinn and Jonas, he had a feeling Barbara would not have been disappointed.
But what about Andie—would Barbara have approved of her lifestyle…? Andie was a career woman, had been the senior editor of Gloss for three years now, and showed no signs of wanting to change that for a husband and family of her own.
Yes, Barbara would have approved, he decided; Barbara would approve of anything that made her daughters happy.
Besides, Harrie and Danie still had their respective careers, as well as their husbands!
‘I’m—’
‘So here you are, Adam,’ Rome’s rasped comment as he entered the greenhouse interrupted what Adam had been about to say. ‘Audrey said you were around somewhere.’
Adam briefly studied the older man, and he did not like what he saw. Rome’s boyish good looks—blonde-haired, blue-eyed—were still the same, but there was a look of strain about those eyes and his mouth, a hardness to the latter that boded ill for anyone who got in his way.
‘And, as usual, she was right,’ Adam returned lightly.
‘How on earth are you going to manage without her, Rome?’
Rome glared at him through narrowed lids. ‘No one is indispensable, Adam,’ he responded coldly.
Adam raised blond brows. ‘No employee, possibly,’ he returned acidly. ‘But I always thought of Audrey as being more than that,’ he added challengingly, aware that Andie was listening to the verbal exchange with a pained expression.
But it had taken only one look at Rome’s face, at the hard implacability of his expression, to realise that the friendly chat he had intended having with his longtime friend was out of the question; Rome looked as approachable as a wounded bull-elephant!
Rome gave a dismissive shrug of broad shoulders. ‘Obviously Audrey had decided differently,’ he rasped harshly. ‘And, as I have learnt to my cost recently, there is absolutely no point in trying to stand in the way of a woman who has made up her own mind what she intends doing with her own life!’
The remark, Adam knew, could have been directed at Harrie and Danie as much as at Audrey, and their determination to marry the men of their choice with as little delay as possible. However, Adam sensed, rather than actually saw, Andie’s reaction to her father’s remark, could feel the tension emanating from her as she paused in her care of the roses.
Leading Adam to wonder about the decision concerning what she intended doing with her own life Andie could possibly have made recently for her to assume Rome’s remark was actually directed at her…?
Seeing no immediate answer to his question in either Andie or Rome’s faces, he turned his attention back to Audrey; he would try and talk to Andie later on in the weekend. Try—because that hadn’t been too easy to do just recently!
‘And what does Audrey intend doing with her life?’ he prompted the other man.
‘I have no idea,’ Rome answered scathingly. ‘I suggest you ask her that yourself.’
‘Meaning that you haven’t bothered?’ Adam countered, his expression deliberately innocent as the other man scowled at him.
‘Meaning that Audrey has made it more than plain that it’s none of my damned business!’ Rome snapped.
‘Hmm,’ Adam murmured thoughtfully.
‘What, exactly, does that mean?’ Rome challenged hardly.
“‘Hmm”?’ Adam repeated, realising he was provoking the other man but knowing he had no choice if he was to get anywhere in this conversation at all. ‘I’ve always thought of it as a pretty noncommittal remark, myself.’
‘Then why make it?’ Rome grated disgustedly. ‘You—’
‘Daddy,’ Andie interrupted softly. ‘Aren’t you being just a little—aggressive to your guest?’ she said, once she had Rome’s full attention.
Rome looked far from pleased at the obvious rebuke. Adam couldn’t say he was exactly overjoyed by it himself; since when had he been relegated to being Rome’s guest…?
But he already knew the answer to that, he acknowledged heavily. He and Andie, although still polite to each other—overly so, Adam felt!—were no longer friends,