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…shit.
She had a point.
A good one.
“Fine,” I said. “Pull together some dates that work on both calendars and I’ll see what she wants to do. I don’t have to give her all the details, just the rough plan.”
Shiloh grinned. “Well look at that, he’s learning! I love it,” she said, slipping back out of the office before I could rebut her patronizing tone.
In all honestly, she’d probably just saved my ass from gettingbackon Nalani’s bad side, so I was going to let her rock anyway.
By the time afternoon rolled around, Shi had gotten everything back to me, and armed with that information, I took a trip toNectar.Today was Nalani’s first day back at the office and I’d planned to pop up on her anyway.
Now, I was armed with vacation plans and a gift.
The odds of making her smile were leaning in my favor pretty well.
I found her at the wine bar—working, not drinking. I hung back for a bit, watching as she interacted with the manager and employees. Before everything else,thiswas one of the things I admired about her. She truly was good at what she did and I could see the respect in the eyes of the people she was talking to.
She was a leader.
Which had made it no surprise that theNectarboard offered her the position of CEO her father had held. She turned it down, but was filling the role until they found someone suitable.
Instead of accepting it just for the power, she’d stepped back, choosing to continue in the Operations Manager position she enjoyed.
It was smart.
It was the kind of wise decision that prevented the usual corporate burnout.
Not to mention, she wasbeautiful.
Again, the capability, intelligence, beauty… those were all things I’d already known about her.
Things I admired.
I pushed out a deep, private sigh, thinking about what could have possibly been between us if I’d simply pursued her in a normal manner, instead of bulldozing my way into her life.
And of course if there was no bad blood between our families.
Before I could approach her, she’d looked up, noticing me from across the bar.
Her eyes lit in recognition, and then,ever-so-subtly,she smiled at me, letting it linger for just a few seconds before she tucked it away, schooling her face back to neutral.
Not wanting me to know she was happy to see me.
Which… that was fine, for now.
I knew that was on me.
But it was also on me to change it.
Since she’d seen me now, there was no point in hanging back. I strode up to her as she said parting words to her employees, then took it upon myself to get all in her personal space.
“How can I help you, Mr. Sterling?” she asked, still maintaining that neutral expression as she tipped her head back a bit to meet my gaze. “You know it’s still work hours, right?”
“I do.” I nodded. “I just wanted to lay eyes on you myself. Make sure you were good.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
