Page 11 of Never To Be Mine

“Just thinking about the recipe.” I set the burger down on my plate. “It’s close, but not quite there yet.”

“I thought you already settled on the recipe,” Micah said.

“I actually enjoyed the last one,” Victoria said. “Pretty close to a sirloin burger.”

I picked up a napkin. “If I can make something that tastes indistinguishable from the real thing but with better nutritional value, that’s the sweet spot.”

“No one will notice the difference,” Beau said.

“You’ve had exactly one plant-based burger,” I said. “Mine. You have no idea what the others are like. Trust me, there is a difference.”

“Because you’re the one creating it,” Micah said. “You notice because it’s your recipe.”

“I want more flavor but not spice,” I mused aloud.

“Why are you so obsessed?” Drew asked. “If it’s better than the rest, you’ve won.”

I shook my head. “No, if people take one bite and think ‘that’s pretty good for fake meat,’ I’ve already lost.”

Kensey, who was like a sister to all of us before she actually became our sister-in-law, looked at me. “Are we going to talk about the video?”

I groaned. Of course they’d seen it. That thing had legs. Toby was too good at his job. He’d crowed about how fast it took off. Initially, I thought that had been great.

Now, not so much.

“Oh man, that was gold,” Micah said.

Drew leaned back in his chair, grinning. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone look at you with such pure contempt. It was refreshing, honestly.”

“Refreshing?”

“Come on, Hollis. Women usually melt when you smile at them.” He gestured with his beer. “This one looked like she wanted to throw you in the ocean. With cement shoes.”

“And then chum the water,” Kensey added.

Victoria laughed. “I watched it three times. She was not impressed by you at all.”

Beau snorted into his beer. “Bro, she eviscerated you on camera.”

“I screenshotted her face when she called your smoothie rat piss,” Micah said. “Pure poetry. You looked like someone just told you your abs weren’t real.”

I glared at him across the table. “My abs are real, asshole. And my shake is good. People feel better after they drink it.”

I’d worked too hard to build something real for it to get dragged through the mud by some suit in heels who wouldn’t know good taste if it slapped her in the face. Still, part of me couldn’t stop replaying the way she’d squared up to me, all sharp edges and zero patience for my charm.

“Oh, poor Hollis couldn’t smile his way into her good graces,” Beau teased.

I wanted to argue, but they weren’t wrong. I’d gotten used to a certain level of favorable attention, at least from women. Having someone look at me like I was a cockroach that needed to be squished was discomforting.

“Hot though,” Beau said thoughtfully.

“Oh, here we go,” Kensey said.

“What? I’m just saying,” Beau said with a shrug. “The crazy-to-hot scale is relevant here.”

“If you don’t mind sleeping with one eye open, crazy can be good,” Micah agreed. “Crazy is fun in the bedroom.”

“You’re such a pig!” Kensey said with a laugh.