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“So you don’t think I should pursue this.”
He hesitates. “It’syourcompany.”
I groan with frustration. “Henry, you’ve been involved withmycompany since this all started.Nowyou’ve decided to stay out of it?”
“Fine. I don’t think you should take the deal.” His voice has shifted to that typical commanding tone. “You can have a highly successful business without your product ever touching a shelf inside a store, at least for now. My advice is to stay the course. Build your name on your own first. Retail store contracts will be worth that much more later.”
I weigh Henry’s words. “Zaheera seems to know what she’s doing.” In the time since Henry hired and paid for Nailed It to step in and help me make something of my hobby, I now have stylish packaging, a website, and a basic but perfect new name—Farm Girl Soap—for my legal company.
“They’re the best at what they do. That’s why we went with them.”
“We?” There was no “we” in that decision the day I got the phone call from Zaheera.
Henry ignores me. “She’ll make sure it grows at a healthy rate that you’re comfortable with, so you’re not overwhelmed. Besides, you still have a degree to finish, right?”
I wince at the reminder. “I’msobehind.” After my father’s accident, when I knew I couldn’t head back to Chicago to finish my last year full-time because my parents needed help, I enrolled in correspondence courses. I’ve barely touched the assigned work for this semester, too wrapped up in life with Henry.
“You’ll get there.” He takes my hand in his, his thumb sliding over the pearl. “And now you have a wedding to plan too.”
A thrill radiates through me as I admire the ring again. My wedding to Henry. Because Henry will be myhusbandsoon. It still doesn’t feel real, and I doubt it will until I’m walking down the aisle. “If I can wrestle it away from Mama.” I held my breath when I announced the good news over the phone just before leaving Wolf Cove, not sure what to expect from a woman who has done everything in her power to keep Henry and me apart, including ingesting caffeine pills to fake a heart attack.
The whoop of glee that escaped her had my mouth hanging. According to her, Henry is doing the honorable thing … finally. We’ve only been together a few months.
Henry chuckles. “At least she’s not knitting a Henry doll to burn in effigy.”
“Have you met Bernadette Mitchell? She’d be afraid God himself would strike her with lightning for something so sinful as black magic.”
His laughter grows, his eyes twinkling. “Do you think she’ll keep it quiet—”
“Not a chance.” There won’t be a soul in Greenbank, Pennsylvania, who won’t have heard about my engagement by the end of the day, which means the media will find out shortly after. With all the interest in Henry these days, that’s likely to cause a stir. Will the headlines be kind or judgmental? Worry gnaws at my bliss, threatening to damper it.
“And did you tell her it would be in Alaska?”
“One hurdle at a time.” Though I suspectthatwill be a monumental one to overcome. Mama will have her heart set on including the entire church congregation, and we can’t possibly be expected to fly them all up there.
Henry’s wry smirk says he guessed as much. “Wolf Hotels has a special events planner for big occasions. I’ll have Miles contact her to call you next week to start the ball rolling. She’s good. Her name is Jill, and she’ll organize anything you want.”
“Wewant,” I correct him. “It’s your wedding too.”
“Abbi, if it were up to me, we’d be driving to the courthouse from the tarmac as soon as we land, and I’d be fucking my wife by nightfall.”
“How romantic,” I tease, but my stomach flips with nerves. There is something swoony about his sudden impatience to marry me.
A dangerous glint lights in his eye as his grip tightens. “You want romance, Abbi?”
“I wantyou.”
“You already have me.” He yanks me forward and onto his lap, my legs straddling his thighs. “Every inch of me.” Heat from his strong, skilled hands seer my skin through my black leggings as they slide around to cup either side of my ass, pulling me forward until our torsos are flush against each other and that delicious hard ridge is pressing into the apex at my thighs.
I wind my arms around his neck, my wrists entwined behind his head. “I’ve never been happier in my life,” I whisper, a bubble of exhilaration stirring as I lean in to capture his plump lips.
“Same,” he murmurs against my mouth before our tongues meet in a slow, seductive dance that quickly spirals, his hand seizing a fistful of my hair, angling my head back so he can get closer.
Jack, the co-captain, slips out from the cockpit. “Sorry to disturb. We’re about to start our descent, and we’ll have you on the ground shortly. Is there anything you need in the meantime?”
“Draw the privacy curtain,” Henry demands in a gruff voice.
Could he make it any more obvious?
