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“Ah, right. Forgot about that.” He smiled wryly. “Robbie told me he’d been invited, but I didn’t pay much attention to when it was happening.”
“You must be very proud of your son.”
“I am,” he agreed without hesitation. “But because he’s a hard worker who built a business with his own hands, not because he’s invited to fancy parties. No offense intended.”
Livia nodded. This man had always been polite when he was working at the Willows, but never subservient. He wanted to do a good job and go home. He wasn’t there to make friends with his rich employees.
“None taken, I’m not of a fan of fancy parties either, but I didn’t have much choice.” She sighed. “I’m stuck at the Willows for another week.”
“Never understood that.”
“Understood what?”
“Why Henri insisted you all gather together every summer like swallows returning to their nest.”
“More like vipers.” Livia snorted. “I assume it was my grandfather’s way of controlling us from the grave. If he’d had my portion of the trust fund automatically deposited into my bank account I would never have come back once I was of age to decline his invitations.”
“That sounds like the old man. He always wanted to be in charge.”
A massive understatement, Livia silently acknowledged. Her grandfather turned manipulation into an Olympic sport. A master puppeteer pulling the strings. But while he could force the people who depended on his wealth to bend to his will, he couldn’t force them to love him.
A strange chill crawled over her skin. As if her grandfather was punishing her for her petty pleasure in imagining him dying alone and despised in his big, four-poster bed.
“When did you start working for the Benoits?” she abruptly demanded, banishing the terrible image.
“Let me think.” Remy tapped the blunt tip of his finger on the table, as if searching his mind for the date. “I first started gardening with the March sisters. That was before your time. They owned a big house next to the interstate. It was torn down when they built the new access road. A shame. The house was falling apart, but they had the most beautiful gardens. Then I started working part-time for the Durands and eventually added in the Willows. I think it must have been in the mid-eighties when I started there. Later I included a couple businesses like the bank and Baptist church.”
She’d known that he wasn’t full-time at the Willows, but she hadn’t realized he’d been spread so thin.
“That’s a lot.”
“It was, but there’s something special about spending your day surrounded by nature. Never seems like work.”
Livia wasn’t an outdoor sort of gal, but she could understand why someone would find peace in a garden.
“It sounds nice.”
“Those were the days.” Remy held up his hand to reveal the swollen joints of his fingers. “They pass too quickly.”
Livia folded her arms on the table and leaned forward. “Tell me about them.”
He hesitated. “You sure? Did Robbie ask you to stop by and keep me company? I know he worries I spend too much time alone.”
“No, I’m genuinely interested.”
Remy studied her with a curious expression. “What do you want to know?”
“Tell me about the Benoits back in the day.”
He shrugged, sipping his coffee before answering. “I suppose they were pretty much like they are today.”
“Arrogant, entitled, and insufferable?”
His lips twitched. “Your words, not mine.”
“What about my mom?”
“Ah, now. Giselle was different.”
