Page 99 of Stirring Up Love
After reaching the bar, Simone leaned over to give her order. “Could I have two glasses of merlot, please?” Not traditional for a toast, but all the champagne had been used up in toasting the bride and groom.
Drinks in hand, she turned around and ran smack into Pops. Half the wine ended up on her, the other half on his white button-down, the tux jacket discarded. She looked down at her dress, saturated but unstained. Thank goodness for berry-toned velvet.
Pops grabbed a stack of cocktail napkins off the bar, but she waved them away. Didn’t want white pulp marring her dress.
“I’m good. You’re the one in need of a costume change.”
“Pah. No one’s lookin’ at me today.” His blue eyes twinkled in the candlelight and the glow from low uplights strategically placed along the walls. “Your sister makes a beautiful bride. Why aren’t you out there with her?” He flipped a napkin toward the dance floor.
“Looking for Finn,” she said, and she instantly wanted to bite back her words when a coy smile lit his face.
“Oho, are you, now?”
His smirk made her wish she’d downed the glass of wine now seeping through her dress. “We just catered a wedding for two hundred and fifty guests, so I figured another toast was in order.”
He huffed his agreement, dabbing ineffectually at his stained shirtfront. “That all you’re toasting to?” He kept his eyes down, but she knew what he was really asking. What everyone in her family was wondering: Was she going to take the deal?
“For now, yeah.”
“I wasn’t keen on the idea, to say the least.” Pops tossed the useless napkins down on the table next to them. “And from what I hear from Ali”—he narrowed his eyes at this, letting her know just what he thought of her lack of communication over the past week—“neither are you. I promised I wouldn’t butt in. Honey and Hickory’s all yours now, to do as you see fit.”
“But ...”
“But as much as you might see ‘franchise’ as a four-letter word—”
“And you don’t?”
“Never said I didn’t. But all I’ve got to say is you’ve got a lot to consider. And I hope you won’t let feelings get in the way.”
Feelings? “I may have gone off on him on the show, and we had our share of arguments this summer, but I’m not going to let a grudge cloud my judgment.”
“Wasn’t talking about that kind of feelings, Sim.”
Was she that transparent? She crossed her arms against the feeling of exposure, regretting it when dampness seeped into her skin. “If it helps, I’m not taking the deal. Not as it stands.”
“That’s what I’m worried about.”
Confusion swept over her as the music quieted down.
“You have a history of pushing away things you love.”
Love? “I don’t love Finn.” Her voice came out choked. Panicked.
She looked away, into the crowd, to avoid Pops’s scrutiny. Her eyes landed on Quentin, standing across the room, the grin on his face bright with the full force of unfettered love. She followed his gaze to her sister, in the center of the dance floor, smiling back at him without an ounce of reservation.Thatwas love.
No twist of doubt. No messy complications. Perfection.
The deal put everything in limbo, but it was more than that. Her feelings for Finn were too big to put into a tidy box, and that scared her.
“He’s no one special to me.” She couldn’t let Pops see the depths of her messy, imperfect feelings for Finn. Not with so much on the line. Not with her heart on the line. “There’s nothing between us. If anything, he’s a liability.”
Pop’s gaze flickered up, over her shoulder, his expression solemn. “From the looks of it, that’s news to him.”
CHAPTER 35
FINN
There’s nothing between us ...
