Page 42 of Love In Hiding

“I didn’t answer it, did I?”

“You thought you could get away without me asking again?”

“Nope. I know men like you. You’ll get the answers one way or another.” She held her hand up when he frowned. “Not meant as an insult. More like a compliment. It’s a good trait to have.”

He relaxed some and poured his beer into the glass. “Even if it’s not done the same way you would?”

They moved toward the balcony and went back to the plastic butt-numbing chairs that had left marks in the back of her thighs last night.

“I’m learning not everyone has to do things the same way.”

“Growth is a good thing. And you’re evading.”

“Nah. Just getting comfortable. So why Paris and Idecided to do this. First, I like to be the boss. I’m positive that comes as no surprise to you.”

“Not in the least,” he said, sipping his beer, his eyes dancing over the rim of his glass, his brown hair shifting in the light breeze. He wasn’t a stuffy attorney right now. Not even with the whiskers on his face since he hadn’t shaved.

Phew. He was back to the guy she was more interested in last night. She just wished he’d stayed like that more.

But then he probably wished she were more relaxed during working hours also.

So, guess she had to cut him some slack.

“Paris and I always knew we’d want to do this. We were both business majors in college. She focused more on HR. Me, operations. I don’t think we’d thought this is what we’d actually do at that time. I got my job first as a consultant. She was working for some company doing benefits and writing policies.”

“Did she like it?”

“She’s pretty adaptable. But I was traveling and telling her how much fun it was. I encouraged her to look into it also. If my company had had any openings I would have pushed for her there, but they hadn’t. She actually worked out of a firm in North Carolina. So she was remote or on the road.”

“And you were in the office when not on the road?”

“Most times. We lived in the same building complex and talked things out from our jobs. She gave me suggestions, I gave her some. Then all of a sudden, we ended up at the same client. Doing different things and at different times, but then we could set it to be there together.”

“Bet that gave them a shock to see you both come in.”

“Yeah. And we worked well together. I mean great.Smooth as butter. Creamy as that cheese sauce on my lobster mac and cheese tonight.”

He laughed. “Did you think it’d be otherwise?”

“I didn’t. She did. We overlapped several times in the past few years while we made this plan. We put money away to get started. Both of us had been to New York enough times.”

“And there was West?”

“It wasn’t really in our thought to ask him. Not like you think. But my brother Phoenix was struggling more than he wanted to admit.”

“Nix Plastics,” he said.

“Yes. West really does his research. Phoenix reached out for advice, not a partnership. It was hard for him to give up shares of the company.”

“It’s hard to let go of anything you’ve put a lot of blood and sweat into.”

“I hadn’t gotten there yet. I think that is why Paris could talk me into it more. She let me see it could benefit everyone.”

“So it was her idea?”

“She and my father talked it over. My father, he invested in the company. We didn’t need start-up costs like many would think. But we reached out to West and asked his opinion on office locations. Maybe there was a tiny part that we hoped he’d bite and he did.”

“A good way to do it without fearing rejection.”