Page 8 of The Sweetmate
The judgmental tone doesn’t go unnoticed. Excuse me for wanting some rest after months of traveling and press tours. No use arguing. She’s clearly already made her own assumptions about me.
She takes a deep inhale and then exhales and holds out her hand. I gently accept it, and her fingers wrap around mine in a firm handshake.
“Hello, Mr. Riis. I’m Lisa Vinton. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Oh, we’ve hit the reset button. Fresh start. I like it. Cool.” The quiver of her bottom lip has the corner of my mouth tugging up into a smile. She’s going to murder me in my sleep. And I couldn’t be more excited. “Call me Casey, please. We’re about to be partners, right?”
Her hand slides out of mine as she speaks. “Partners? I guess in a sense, but more of a client…situation. Co-workers?”
“Don’t overthink it.” I release a light chuckle. “Co-workers. Teammates. Partners. It’s all the same.”
She clears her throat. “My behavior earlier was completely unprofessional. I apologize. It’s been a long day, which is no excuse. You caught me off guard—again, no excuse. And—wait, I’m rambling. Wow.” She casts her eyes down to her lap and takes a deep breath. “This is a horrible first impression. I’m blowing this.” After about three seconds, she turns to face me and smiles. “Mr. Brunner didn’t mention he knew you personally. You’re his…nephew?”
I take a bag of peanuts out of my backpack and pop a few into my mouth. Speaking between chews, I say, “Yeah. Your boss is my uncle. He and my mom have a sizable age gap. I think she was a major oops on my grandparents’ part, but I’m not judging. Anyway, my uncle and I aren’t close. You should know none of this was my idea.”
“That was a lot of personal information within five minutes of meeting you.”
“I’m an open book.”
She presses her lips together in a tight smile and nods. “Even when people don’t ask to read it.”
“Wanna try one of my salty nuts?”
She sucks in her lips as I take her hand and pour a few peanuts into her palm. Lisa stares at them for a while before finally cutting her eyes to me. “You didn’t ask if I have any food allergies. What if I were allergic? Peanut is one of the most common food allergies.” She pops one of the peanuts into her mouth.
“True. It’s like, one in fifty kids. But I made sure that Brox sent a thorough list of allergies and whatnot for whoever he sent.”
“What?” She begins coughing.
“Plane hasn’t even left the runway, and I’ve already got you choking on my nuts. That’s a new record.” I grab a water bottle from my bag. “Here. I haven’t drunk out of this.”
Lisa takes a generous gulp and then demands, “What do you mean you checked for my allergies? How? Nobody asked me for that information.”
“Sure they did. Brox had you fill out a form for food allergies.”
I’m a professional pastry chef. Of course, I’m aware of allergies and would want to know about the person who’s going to essentially be up my ass for two weeks. One, I don’t want to deal with a lawsuit, and two, more importantly, I don’t want to kill anyone accidentally.
“Brox was in charge of everything. Ask him. I just know that apples are a no-go. So fear not, Snow White—no apples.”
“Snow White. Poisoned apple. Cute.”
“That’s the second cute. Not that I’m counting.”
The pilot comes over the speaker, and the plane begins to taxi.
Lisa mumbles next to me, “Thank God.”
“Nervous flier?”
“Ready to get to the room.”
I smirk. “Oh, me too, me too.” I wiggle my eyebrows at her.
A joke about how my kiss could breathe new life into her is on the tip of my tongue, but I keep it to myself. Honestly, she looks like she could use a good kissing. One bruising kiss that leaves her breathless and satisfied. Awakens something deep inside of her.
“It’s great to meet you.” Lisa places a set of giant headphones on, which I take as my cue to leave her alone for the rest of the flight.
I connect my phone to the Wi-Fi and use the duration of the flight to search for everything on my new travel buddy. I discover that Lisa Vinton is the complete opposite of me. Makes sense why my uncle sent her to monitor me for the next week. From what I can gather, she’s single, never married, clean record, and has led the most boring life. Her life is so squeaky clean, I wonder if she breaks any rules—like has she ever walked on the wrong side of the street?
