Page 36 of Stirring Up Love
“Whether you like it or not, we’re stuck together.” The words could’ve come from Keith’s mouth, but unfortunately for her, it was Finn she was trapped with.
She flipped the page. “For now. Any minute now, we’ll be boarding and we’ll never have to see each other again.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe I’ll change my mind and agree to partner with a man who’s already tried to steal my business?”
“Not to be particular, but changing your mind would be changing your mind, since you already agreed to the deal.”
It was official. She was going to kill him. It was going to happen. He slouched backward like his life wasn’t in imminent danger and threw a hand over the top of the seats, fiddling with a rip in the fabric behind her shoulders.
Did the man always have to be so loose limbed and loungy? It was downright distracting. Disarming. Decadent, like hot fudge and lazy Saturday mornings. She resisted the urge to lean back and see what it felt like to have those fingers slide up into the curls at her nape.
“What I meant was,” Finn said, apparently incapable of shutting up now that he’d started talking, “sure, there’s a chance we’ll be on the plane in an hour. But I’ve been checking the radar, and it looks like another storm front’s coming through. We might be stuck here for a few days.”
He was just trying to get a reaction out of her. “No way.”
“See for yourself.” He passed her his phone, and the openness of the gesture stunned her. It went against nature, like sharing underwear, or a toothbrush. But she thumbed through the weather headlines, avoiding the cracks in the screen. Page after page of the dire warnings meteorologists lived for. Shoot. He wasn’t lying.
An ache in her jaw signaled she needed to unclench her teeth, but when she did, a headache popped up in its place. She passed over his phone and slumped back, right into his hand. His fingertips slid along the sensitive skin at her hairline as he pulled away, and she ducked her head into her hands.
“Sorry.” He sounded genuinely upset by her reaction.
“No, it’s not your stupid hand.” Which wasn’t stupid at all; it was soft, and comforting, in a way that made no sense. “It’s that this can’t be happening. I cannot be stranded in California for days.”
“Oh.” He paused, then spoke again, tentative. “There are worse places to be stranded.”
“Not for me. My sister’s getting married on Saturday, and I’m two thousand miles from home.” The irony. Trapped with her worst enemy when her closest family member needed her most.
“Next Saturday, as in less than a week?”
“Yeah, but her bachelorette party is in just a few days.” And Simone still needed to work on the decorations, buy the liquor and party favors, catch up on all the work she’d missed ...
“Well, I mean, you could miss the party, right? She’d understand.”
“No, Finn. I cannot ‘miss the party.’ This is my only sister we’re talking about.” Not to mention she’d already pulled focus away from Alisha by going on the show. Selfish Simone strikes again. She stood up. “I need to go talk to a ticketing agent.”
“Wait.” His hand caught at her wrist, gentle, but his touch seared her like a hot brand. “I have an idea.”
“I hate it already.”
He laughed, loud and clear, and the brick of ice in her chest thawed at the edges. “Drive back home with me.”
“No way.” She jerked her hand away and crossed her arms, her skin tingling at the loss of contact.Drive back home with me, as if he were her coworker clocking out to go home to the same apartment building, not her sworn enemy asking her to embark on a cross-country voyage.
Brown eyes alight, he said, “Look,The Executivesplayed us—I think we can both agree on that.” She refused to agree with anything Finn Rimes had to say. Now, or ever. “But that doesn’t mean they’re wrong.”
“Shocking you’d take that stance, since you’re the one who can’t get into big-box retailers without their clout. You need the deal.”
“And you don’t? You didn’t come on that show just for publicity. I may not know you that well, but you don’t seem like the kind of person to waste their time.”
Maybe she could forgo her pledge and agree with him. Once. “No, I’m not. I really wanted a deal.” The deal she’d asked for, not the one they offered. But she’d be out of her mind not to partner with Keith and Constance, wouldn’t she? Saying yes had bought her a week to think it over. No would’ve been final. “‘Wanted,’ past tense.”
His lips tightened into a straight line. “So why back out? Just to spite me?”
“It’s not to spite you. It’s to protect my company. My dream.”
He stood up, eyebrows dipping together. “What if you could trust me?”
