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A wicked grin bloomed.

“Get off her desk.”

Bennett and I turned to find Cam resting his shoulder on the doorjamb of his office. He was all long lines and lean muscles, with a carefree light in his eye.

Heat rose to my cheeks for no reason at all.

Bennett pushed off my desk. He leaned close to my ear. “The glasses were a good choice today.”

I adjusted the frames self-consciously as he strolled off.

Cam threw a smile my way. “Good morning, Honeycutt.”

Throat dry, I toasted him instead of answering. He ducked back into his office.

At the marketing meeting, Ryan presented our rising sales numbers. “It’s like night and day. I’ve got inquiries from places in all fifty states. Even Hawaii. This is going to launch us nationally.”

“Local high-end restaurants are asking about exclusive lines and branded cocktails,” Xavier said.

My eyebrows shot up at the news. “Really?”

Cam smiled at me. “The consensus is Henley Honey is pure class, and apologies go a long way to change opinions.”

“Who knew?” I barely managed not to roll my eyes.

“Carley Gentry sure has turned things around mighty fine, hasn’t she?” Booboo asked with a booming laugh.

Cam stared at him a beat. “You realize Shay’s apology and cocktail are the only reason this is happening, right?”

Booboo’s smile faded, and he tipped his head to me. That was probably the best I’d get, so I took it.

“Speaking of… Edmond, it’s time to bite the bullet with the ad as well. We need to post our apology online. Shep will just have to deal with it.”

He was actually standing up to his father? With my idea? From there, it was only a small leap to He’s defying his father for me.

I stared at him. Scarred eyebrow. Pretty eyes.

Your father won’t like that.

I don’t care.

“Sometimes you have to do the right thing, even when it’s hard,” he said with a casual shrug.

I love you.

The unwelcome thought nudged its way to the forefront of my mind, draining the blood from my head. It wasn’t all that surprising, really—some part of me had been in love with him from the moment I laid eyes on him as an idiot teenager—but it was stronger now. It had matured like Henley’s most exclusive whiskeys. This wasn’t the shallow fluttering of an infatuated girl. This was the steady blaze of a woman who’d lived and learned that a man like Cam Shepherd was a rarity. A near-mythical being.

He had a good heart, and I wanted it. I couldn’t have it. I wasn’t worthy of it. But I wanted it.

In one fell swoop, my skin went cold as ice.

This was going to absolutely wreck me.

“That reminds me,” he said, as if my entire world hadn’t just collapsed around me. “Could I see the recipe for the New Old Fashioned?”

Swallowing down a bitter taste, I pulled out my aggressively shattered phone and opened the note with the recipe. His eyebrows drew together, and he stroked a finger down the splintered screen, jerking back when a sharp edge pricked his finger.

“I dropped it last week,” I rushed to say. “I’m sorry⁠—”