Page 83 of Stirring Up Love
Sedona had been a beautiful dream, and knowing it wouldn’t last, he’d cut it short, preempted the inevitable by waking before dawn. But her surprise detour to the Grand Canyon had given him hope that maybe the haven they’d created could last beyond this trip.
“Remember when we first kissed?” Simone’s quiet question punched a hole in the silence. “You said you had a history of trusting the wrong people. And I got angry because that wasn’t me. Isn’t me.”
The pressure in his chest built. He knew that now. Wished he could go back in time and unsay it. Kiss her again and not retreat behind his walls. Soak up the fleeting moments of togetherness rather than worry them away.
She shifted, and the sheet slid along his shins, a phantom caress. “What I didn’t tell you is you’re not the only one with a history of trusting the wrong people. Last year, I worked on a proposal with a coworker who’d been my friend for years. He and I spent months perfecting our pitch, but then the week before we planned to present—”
“He stole your idea.”
“It was our idea. But yeah, he took sole credit. And instead of the promotion I’d been hoping for, I got let go.”
He wanted to reach out for her, but though they were inches apart, the distance felt too great. “They fired you? For what?”
“Because I pushed back when I found out what he’d done. Didn’t go along with his version of the story, or take it lying down.” She pulled the blanket higher, up to her chin, shrouding herself in the only armor available. “They had to do cuts. Jason had gotten wind of it, and that’s why he passed the idea off as his own. Not only was I not an innovator, but I wasn’t a team player.”
The Simone he’d come to know—grudgingly—over the summer was the very definition of a team player. She preferred to be the captain, but leading meant she worked doubly hard to ensure everyone’s success. He’d seen her come to the market early and stay late, helping out and pitching in. The people of Hawksburg were her team, just like the staff at Bellaire was his, and he could only imagine it had been the same at her job in Chicago.
“Anyway, getting fired brought me back home. I’m not mad about that part.” She rolled onto her side, facing him now, for the first time since they’d come upstairs, searching his face. “But what drives me nuts is wondering, Were we ever really friends? Or was our closeness just a long game to get what he wanted?” The question split his heart in half.
He could barely force the words out past the boulder on his chest. “You think I only care about you because of the money? Because of a business deal?”
She hitched up a shoulder, and the sheet slid off. She tugged it up and rolled onto her back, but he rose up on an elbow, willing her to meet his eyes.
“Yeah, the mess withThe Executivesmakes our situation complicated. But if you tell me right now there’s no chance of you taking the deal, how I feel about you won’t change a single bit.”
“Won’t it?”
Two words. A question, not an accusation, but it gutted him like a boning knife.
The outcome of the deal wouldn’t change his feelings, but it would alter their reality. Would she still want him, a chef with no grandiose future? Did she even want him now?
At night, shadows always loomed larger, crowding out certainty. As the minutes ticked away in silence, drafts of doubt seeped under the covers and invaded the warmth he’d soaked up out west. Left him chilled and uncertain. Of himself, of his future.
And of Simone.
CHAPTER 29
SIMONE
Gagging on an exploratory bite of jelly doughnut—lemon filling, no thanks—Simone wordlessly passed the rest to Finn in the driver’s seat. He bit off half in one bite, no sign of disgust, like she’d expected. The man hadn’t been lying about eating whatever was put in front of him, and yet the food he’d made for her last night was as deeply nuanced as his barbecue sauce.
With him sharing Honey and Hickory, she wouldn’t lose sleep over the quality of their menu. Was she being selfish to want to keep the restaurant as her own? The last thing she wanted was to hold back the scope of Honey and Hickory for a personal fantasy. But taking the deal would mean trading community for corporation. Abandoning her principles for profit.
But if she bowed out, Finn would lose everything. Both of them or neither, those were the terms.
As they crossed over the Missouri–Illinois border, she felt more lost than ever.
Simone could’ve driven the last few miles in her sleep, which was lucky because by the time they exited the freeway after seven hours in the car, she was fighting drowsiness and decision fatigue.
Exhausted from trying to separate her growing feelings for Finn from all the turmoil surroundingThe Executives. Ready to put some physical distance between them to clear her head.
Ever since his offhand comment, things hadn’t returned to normal between them. Gone was the flurry of insults, but missing, too, was the playful banter.
Gone was Finn’s openness, his easy laugh. His patience, too, seemed frayed at the edges. He kept scrolling through his phone. Adjusting the vents. Fiddling with the radio. Maybe she only noticed because it had been a long few days cooped up on the road. Was he having doubts about the deal, or doubts about her?
She turned into Meg’s dirt driveway, the headlights barely making a dent in the country dark, and pulled to a stop in front of the corrugated metal pole barn that housed Meg’s farming equipment.
“I’ll be in touch Sunday to go over our strategy for the video call, after all this fuss with Alisha’s wedding is over.” Inadequate. But what else could she say?
