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“When I want something?” He looked at her, allowing her to see his seriousness. “No.”
“And when you run into obstacles?”
“Go around them, over, through.” He paused. “Or demolish them.”
“That’s a hard way to live your life.”
“It’s the only way I could have clawed my way back to the top after what my father did to the family business.” Then he went in for the kill. “Are you any different?”
She blinked. “Me?”
“What have you ever allowed to stand in your way? You got an education, a good job. You’re taking care of your family. And quite frankly, I’ve been at the receiving end of you refusing to take no for an answer.”
A furious scowl buried itself between her eyebrows. “I’m not at all like you.”
“Oh you are, just a whole lot more considerate.”
Further conversation was prevented by the arrival of their bill, the packaged dessert, and the to-go container.
Kaylee reached for her wallet. “Let’s split this.”
Anger—sudden, hot, and lethal—pulsed through him. “Absolutely not.” He left the statement at that instead of adding the words that he wanted to. “Put it on this,” he told the server, inviting no further comment from Kaylee.
“Would you like to verify the charges?”
“Not necessary.”
When they were alone, Kaylee leaned forward. “Look, Mr. Frost. Just because Julie said you had to pay for this, it doesn’t mean that—”
He slammed his palm onto the table. “This has nothing to do with Julie.”
“But I can afford—”
“I’m sure you can, but you’re not going to.” Would the stubborn woman have insisted on paying half of the lunch at Bourbon? And had that had anything to do with her vehement objection to one of the city’s finest dining establishments? “Once again, Ms. Robbins, a simple thank you would suffice.”
She exhaled. “Am I an obstacle to you?”
The earnestness in her question dissipated his flash of frustration. “You are anything but. Confounding at times, perhaps. But I’d prefer to think of us as collaborators.”
At his comment, she shook her head. “That’s not possible when everything has to be your way.”
Intentionally he lowered his tone. “If that were true, we wouldn’t be here. And you’d have a much larger diamond.” And he’d refused Brigette’s demands to continue cutting costs.
Kaylee tipped her head to one side as if acknowledging what he said.
Their server returned with the receipt, thanked them for coming in, then wished them a merry Christmas before moving away.
Frost scrawled his name on the bottom of the paper and added a more-than-generous tip—which he would have done even if Kaylee weren’t studying him so intently.
The fact that she’d watched to ensure he’d take care of the person who had waited on them annoyed the fuck out of him. “I’m no Scrooge.”
“If you say so.”
“Shall we?”
At the host stand, she stopped to give her friend a hug before rejoining him to head outside where Jennings was waiting.
Kaylee turned over the bag containing the restaurant’s signature dessert. “Mr. Frost got this for you.”
