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“Relax,” I say again, unsure whether I’m talking to her or to myself.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
PJ
“Trust me, I’d so much rather go hiking with you,” I tell Colin when he intercepts me outside Sweet Butter as I’m leaving with my latte. But after Beatrix and I left my dad’s, she insisted we have a family meeting the following morning.
“I know it’s a workday. No pressure.” Colin looks like a different person than the one I met his first day here, awkwardly ordering coffee and wincing at the idea of two weeks off. His shoulders have dropped, he’s learned to rock a hoodie like no one’s business, and his eyes look bright from sufficient nights of sleep, despite our shenanigans.
“We have the event tomorrow, so I think everyone wants to get our ducks in a row.” I don’t realize that my own shoulders hover near my ears until Colin’s steady large hands land on me and gently press my shoulders down. He massages the sore muscles, and I melt into his touch. “How are you so good at that?” I moan.
“It’s easy to be good at things that make me happy.”
I want this, the easygoing way we are with each other in the vacuum of solitude. No one is here to judge him for taking time away from the day-to-day grind at AstroTech, and I’m outside the critical glare of older siblings who’d judge me for “bedding the billionaire.”
“Listen, I’ve been thinking about tomorrow…” I tip my head up, and Colin’s lips meet mine in a kiss I can’t resist.
“I’m thinking about right now,” he murmurs against my lips.
He makes me smile. “That too, but as a publicist, I’m not sure it’s a good idea for you to come to the event at Butter and Rosemary. The optics aren’t good if you’re photographed hobnobbing with wine country elite instead of running AstroTech. Plus, I’ll be busy trying to make sure the right people get photographed for the right media outlets and deflecting attention from questions about our finances…”
He shakes his head. “This is an important night for you. You’ll manage all these media wasps like a champ, and I want to be there to see it.”
His words strike a deep chord within me, warming me from the inside out. No one has ever had the kind of faith in my ability to do my job well—the way I know I can do it. Selfishly, I want him to be there, even if he’s across the room drinking wine with my brother.
A heavy sigh rolls from me, and I’m surprised at how relaxed I feel at the thought of him having my back at the event.
And even…after the event?
We haven’t discussed whether we’ll see each other after he returns to Palo Alto, and this isn’t the time. With the event weighing on me, I need to make a good showing in front of my siblings and handle the media ops like the pro I know I am.
He points at my cup. “Got your fuel, I see.”
“Wish I had time to kick your ass in chess. That might relax me.”
He grins. I know he likes my wisecracking. I know he likes me. The problem is that what I’m starting to feel for him goes way beyond liking him.
Can I love a man after just two weeks?
“I’d play you, no problem, but will it mess with your mojo if I kick your ass?”
I pat his cheek. “Wouldn’t go down that way.”
“I so want to prove you wrong.”
I smile. “Maybe the meeting will be short, and I’ll come back, and we can play.”
“Hope so. Bring the A game I know you have, and your family won’t know what hit ‘em.”
This guy…I love that he sees the best in me.
I carry that light with me all the way into the meeting with my siblings, fearing it will vanish the moment I walk in the door. Hoping it won’t.
Inside the old barn, Beatrix stands in the industrial kitchen with her arms crossed. Hair pulled back into a ponytail, eyes hard, she looks from Archer to Jackson to me with suspicion. Somehow, Dashiell escapes her glare.
A spread of sandwiches and pitchers of lemonade sit on the table untouched. We don’t bother eating the snacks or exchanging niceties because Beatrix launches right into the reason she called us together. “Are you all holding out on me? Is there anything about our finances I don’t know?”
