I shook my head slightly as I stepped into my office, dropping my bag onto the chair.
“That man is so dramatic,” I muttered under my breath. But even as I said it, I knew that wasn’t all it was.
The morning dragged after that.
Emails, calls, vendor confirmations and staff scheduling. I buried myself in it.
At least he had the decency to actually give me access to the staff wages but I couldn’t figure out a solution to our financial problem with it either and the longer I looked at it, the more the numbers made my head hurt.
Every now and then I’d catch myself glancing toward the hallway, listening for his door.
Nothing.
No footsteps. No proof of life. No “Aurora” being called like I did something wrong.
Huh.
And I thought I missed him before.
Around three,Hartland knocked once and walked in without waiting.
“You alive?” he asked, dropping into the chair across from me.
“Barely,” I said, not looking up from my laptop.
He leaned back, studying me. “You been at this since you got here.”
“I got work to do.”
“It’s pass lunchtime.”
“And?”
“And the guys were looking for you. You not eating?”
“I’m not hungry.”
Hartland leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “You and boss man beefing?”
I paused, fingers hovering over the keyboard.
“No,” I said, a little too quickly. “We not beefing.”
He raised a brow. “So the two of you randomly decided to skip the vineyard inspection and hideout in your offices all day for no reason?”
I finally looked up at him. “We are not beefing.”
Hartland didn’t even try to hide the look on his face. “Right...”
I rolled my eyes and leaned back in my chair. “He’s just… being weird.”
“Sinclair’s always weird,” he said. “But you being weird is new weird.”
I let out a breath, dragging my hand over my face.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “This is new weird.”
He nodded slowly, “You gonna check him?”
