AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I am. What about you? How does your family celebrate?”
She swallowed hard. “Well, my parents and grandparents are celebrating with me tomorrow. We’re just having dinner and dessert together at my parents’ farmhouse.”
“What about your brothers or sisters?”
“It’s just me.”
I didn’t know why, but I’d assumed her family had multiple kids. “Really? I don’t mean to stereotype, but I always thought farmers had big families.”
She smiled, and it sent a jolt of electricity through me. While she’d been overly cheerful last night, this was the first time I felt as though Rhea was genuinely happy around me. Maybe it was because she didn’t have the alcohol making her loosen up. This was authentic, and it felt so good. “They do. But I guess you can’t really blame my parents for stopping.” She shrugged. “They got it right the first time.”
I couldn’t stop myself. I burst out laughing and struggled not to spill my food in the process. Rhea was giving me conversation, smiles, and teasing.
Fuck, I couldn’t get enough.
After I managed to pull myself together, I turned my attention back to her and offered a slight nod. “You’ve got a point.”
Something washed over her expression, and I was waiting for her to share what the look on her face meant, but she scooped up a forkful of rice and put it in her mouth instead.
If I didn’t want to get too distracted by her mouth, I had to keep the conversation going. Fortunately, with so much about her still a mystery, it wasn’t difficult to accomplish. “So, is The Sweet Landing your baby?”
Anything that had been lingering in her gaze was gone. Rhea immediately perked up and declared, “It is. I’ve been doing that for as long as I can remember.”
“Do you believe I’ve never had ice cream from your shop?”
“Sucks for you. You don’t know what you’re missing out on,” she returned. “I wish I could say I’ve never tasted a piece of Westwood’s chocolate, but I’d be lying.”
“I think I’d be shocked if you hadn’t. And I don’t doubt you for one second. I get the feeling that when I stop in one day this coming week to have my first taste, I’m going to regret not having done it sooner,” I told her.
Her face flushed. “You’re going to stop in one day this week?”
“Yeah. You’ll be open, right?”
She nodded.
“You don’t mind if I come in for a taste, do you?”
Rhea looked away from me. I would have been lying if I pretended not to know why she was suddenly struggling to maintain eye contact. I didn’t have to say what I said the way I said it, but it was too tempting. Because although I believed I was doing a decent job of remaining focused on conversation with Rhea and getting to know her better, I was finding I liked her more and more with every word she spoke. It was difficult not to drop hints of my attraction on her.
With the way she’d been playful and teased about her parents getting it right the first time when they had her, I thought it would be safe to do a bit of my own teasing. Given her reaction, it was possible I’d been wrong.
But by some miracle, after what felt like an eternity, Rhea returned her attention to me and whispered, “You’re welcome to come in for a taste, Wyatt.”
Fuck, she had to say my name.
It took superhuman effort not to react the way I wanted to, hearing my name come past her lips. I desperately wanted to kiss her mouth. Truthfully, I wasn’t quite sure that was the only place I wanted to kiss her.
Luckily for me, the tension between us seemed to be a bit too much for Rhea, and she was able to successfully steer us past it. Following a brief pause, she asked, “So, obviously, you know I’m making and selling ice cream here on the farm. What exactly is it that you do, working at Westwood’s? And do all your siblings work there, too?”
This was good.
It would be easy for me to tell Rhea about my work and each of the roles my siblings played in the company. Granted, I wanted to learn more about her, but as I was learning was the case, Rhea expected a bit of give and take. Until I could do that in all the ways I wanted to with her, I was going to have to suck it up and give her a little extra of what she wanted now.
So, that’s precisely what I did.
I shared with Rhea the details of my line of work, noting I was anything and everything I needed to be as the person who would eventually take over as CEO for Westwood’s once my father officially retired.
Since she’d asked about them, I filled her in on each of the roles my brothers and sisters played—or, in the case of Jules, the role she’d eventually play. Rhea seemed to be thoroughly interested in learning about my family, which I took to mean great things.
