Page 58 of Never To Be Mine

Shelves lined the walls, stocked with ingredients and supplies. It smelled like bananas and the faint lemon scent of the natural cleaning solution we used. My office was in the back corner. I’d furnished it with a desk I’d bought secondhand, a couple of chairs, and a whiteboard covered in scribbled notes about recipes and marketing strategies.

I checked the time. She would be here in about ten minutes.

I paced the warehouse. The quiet felt strange. I’d paused operations while I figured out the Young at Heart deal. I knew it wasn’t much, nothing compared to the operations she ran. But it was mine. I had been damn proud of that first run bottled all by myself.

I heard the front door open. My heart kicked into overdrive.

I walked over to greet her. “Hey,” I said, suddenly unsure what to do with my hands. I shoved them in my pockets.

She stepped in and scanned the area. “So this is B Well headquarters.”

“This is it. Not as impressive as Young at Heart, but I’ll get there.”

She nodded slowly, her eyes still taking in the space. The silence stretched between us like a rubber band pulled too tight. It would snap eventually if one of us didn’t take the plunge.

“So,” I said finally, gesturing toward my office. “You want to talk in there?”

“Sure.”

I led her back to my office, acutely aware of her following behind me. I could smell that strawberry scent again. Very distracting. I held the door open and she walked past me. Her shoulder brushed mine for just a second. That brief contact sent electricity through my entire body.

This is why I make bad decisions around her.

She settled into one of the chairs across from my desk. I took my seat, putting the desk between us like a barrier. A safety zone.

“Okay,” she said, folding her hands in her lap. “We need to establish some ground rules.”

“Ground rules,” I repeated.

“Yes. About what happened in New York.” Her cheeks flushed slightly, but she maintained eye contact. “That can’t happen again.”

My jaw tightened. “Agreed. It was a mistake.”

She nodded. “We have to keep this professional. My father put me in charge of vetting your business. If he finds out? If he thinks there’s something personal happening? It could compromise everything.”

“I said I agree.”

She looked stunned. Did she expect me to argue?

“Oh,” she murmured.

“This deal is important to my business. I’ve worked too hard to screw it up now because I can’t control myself around you.”

Her eyebrows rose slightly. “Can’t control yourself?”

Shit. That had come out wrong.

“That’s not what I meant.” I ran a hand through my hair. “Look, I’m not going to pretend that kiss didn’t happen. But I understand the position it puts you in. Puts both of us in. So yeah, we keep it professional from here on out.”

She nodded. “Okay. Good.”

“Good.”

“Now that we’ve handled that, would you like to see my little operation?”

“Sure.”

I led her back out into the main warehouse space. The bottling equipment sat quiet in the center of the room.