Page 57 of Stirring Up Love
“You know what.”
A half smile lifted the edge of his lips. “She thinks I’m handsome.” He put his hands on his hips, his fingertips pressing into the dips. He looked away toward the trees, then bit his lip. Shook the hair out of his eyes before fixing her with a look from under the dark fringe.
Gosh, did he learn that in some class somewhere, under the category Smolder 101?
“Of course I think you’re handsome. I kissed you!” It was the rest that she couldn’t handle.
“Ms.Blake has a thing for pesky, irritating—”
“You are quite possibly the worst person I’ve ever met.” She stomped off toward the water’s edge and plopped down on a rock. Folding her legs under herself, she selected a flat stone from the ground nearby. She cocked her elbow back and flung the stone, sending it skipping along the surface.
A shadow fell across her. She pushed pebbles aside, digging out another piece of loose shale.
Finn sat down next to her, drawing one knee up to his chin. “Is that why you’re so tense? Because you want to kiss me again?”
She tossed the rock, counting the skips, and he prodded her knee with his chilly knuckles.
“I’m not tense.” She hated how huffy she sounded. “And if I wanted to kiss you again, it would be a moot point, because I hate you.”
He snorted. “Got it.” He drew up the other knee and clasped his arms around them, the dark ink of his tattoos a contrast to his fair skin, and rested his cheek on his knees. His deep-brown eyes watched her for a moment. “Is there anything I can do?”
She selected another rock. Tossed it. “Start wearing a bag over your head? And maybe like a postapocalyptic handwoven robe.”
He laughed, and she couldn’t help but notice the way his stomach tightened. “I meant anything I can do to make amends.”
“Back out of the deal?” She twisted her lips in a rueful smile. “Yeah, didn’t think so. You don’t really care if I like you. You care if I trust you enough to go into business with you.”
“Can’t it be both?” He spoke softly, and she hated the vulnerability in his eyes because it mirrored her own. He couldn’t take down her walls. If he disarmed her, what would be left? A shell no one wanted.
“So you admit you’ve been trying to steal my business from day one.”
He jabbed his hands back through his hair. “How many times do I have to tell you? No. I never would’ve gone on that show if I would’ve known you’d be there, because I would’ve known it would be a waste of time. Put us up against one another, and nine times out of ten you come out on top.”
He sat up and stretched one leg out toward the water. Didn’t dip his feet in, she noticed.
“The tenth time was a draw. Those weren’t odds I would’ve taken. But a miracle happened. I got a chance. And so did you. I’m not trying to steal your business. All I wanna do is build it.” At her frown, he said, “Addto it.”
“Take half of it.” No matter how sweet he was today, if she gave in, on Monday she’d be signing her future away. “You’ve got to understand something, Finn. It’s bad enough that everyone thinks I’ve got no business running Pops’s restaurant. If I give you half, it will prove to everyone I couldn’t do this alone.”
His thick brows pinched together. “No one does things alone.”
“What about my grandpa? He started Honey and Hickory with a couple hundred dollars and a smoker parked on the roadside. My sister opened up a cookie shop in Chicago, all by herself. And you went onThe Executiveswith a sauce you created from scratch.”
“And I launched it with the help of my best friend, Darius. You think I know how to create a website? Manage e-commerce? Without help, I’d still be a busboy.”
“Yeah, but you’re not. You’re the owner of a barbecue sauce company that two of the richest people in America want a part of.” She stood up, because she couldn’t be here anymore.
“That’s where you’re wrong.” He followed suit and scrambled to his feet at the canyon’s edge. “They don’t want a part of Finn’s Secret Sauce. They want a part of us. You and me. We’re in this together, whether you like it or not. If you back out of the deal, you think the executives will take a chance on me alone? Heck no.”
“They don’t want to take a chance on me alone either. No one thinks I’m good enough on my own.” Never far off, the memory rushed to the forefront and out of her mouth before she could hold it back. “Junior year of high school, my grandma got sick. Cancer, just like Momma. And I dropped all my extracurriculars, picked up extra shifts at the restaurant, all to take pressure off Pops so he could take care of Gran. But then over Christmas break, my sister came home and announced she’d dropped out of college.”
“Why?”
“Why do you think? To take care of Gran and Pops, because she didn’t think I was doing a good enough job.” She’d failed her family when they needed her most.
“I’m sure that’s not why.”
“Really? Alisha was one semester away from graduation. Why else would she drop everything?” To pick up her baby sister’s slack. Simone’s efforts weren’t enough then, and they hadn’t been enough to win her an investment either. “And what’s more, Pops didn’t even question it. Made it clear everything I’d done wasn’t good enough. Would never be good enough. So I left.”
