Page 26 of No Love Lost

Nina tilted her head. “What’s financial structuring?”

Sean and Marcus groaned while Addy grinned. Sean stage whispered to Nina. “Now you’ve done it. This guy can talk about finances for hours. And hours.”

He smiled at his daughter and ignored the jab. “Financial structuring is like constructing a business from the money end. Figuring out who is going to invest what, how the bills are going to be paid, and how the money is going to get made.”

Her eyes lit up. “That sounds fun.”

His friends moaned, but Addy laughed and patted Nina’s hair. “It sure does.”

And he couldn’t wait to dive in.

Addison’s cheeks hurt. She’d been smiling all day. Heath and Nina were bonding. They shared a sense of humor and had been making silly puns and jokes all day.

Nina had enjoyed the teasing about the secret project. Now that Heath was involved, Addison knew her daughter would want to learn all the things about breweries and financial structures. The girl was constantly curious and soaked up new information by the bucketful. Or maybe the keg-full was more appropriate.

Addison had always carried a nugget of hurt inside her. Hurt that Heath hadn’t wanted her. That she hadn’t been good enough.

She’d never known her own parents and had grown up in foster care. While it hadn’t been great, it hadn’t been bad either. She’d learned to be quiet to avoid angry outbursts. When emotions had run high in foster homes, she’d retreated to her room with her books and her journals.

Heath had been the first person who’d wanted her. They’d met at the coffee shop where she’d worked. He’d come back day after day until they’d developed a friendship. It had shocked her to the core when he’d asked her on a date. His private school was dozens of levels above her social or economic status. That hadn’t mattered to Heath.

They’d been together for almost two years before his eighteenth birthday when he’d stopped answering her calls and texts.

Not only had her heart shattered, but her confidence had disappeared right along with it. She’d worked at overcoming it, but finding out that Heath hadn’t dumped her without a word had that nugget of hurt melting away.

After leaving the Saloon, they walked back to the parking lot with Nina in the middle. The day had been much warmer than the previous one and the snow had nearly all melted away.

Once they were in the lot, Nina turned to Heath. “Can we do something together again tomorrow?”

His smile pushed away all the shadows gathering in the night. “I’d love that. What would you like to do?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll think about it. See you tomorrow.” There was that slight hesitation again before she jumped in the car.

Addison smiled at Heath and kept her voice low. “She’s not sure what she’s going to call you yet.”

His eyebrows shot up. “She can call me whatever she likes. Should I talk to her about it?”

Addison shrugged. “I’d leave it for a bit. See what she comes up with. She’s a pretty smart kiddo.”

Heath chuckled. “Pretty smart? If she was old enough, I’d hire her as a researcher. She asks brilliant questions. You’ve done an amazing job as a mom.”

Pleasure flushed through her system. “Thank you. She had good genes to start with, and she’s a really terrific kid.”

Heath lifted his hand to brush some of her hair behind her ear. “She reminds me of you. You’re both amazing.”

Her skin tingled where he touched her and her body leaned in of its own accord. It had been doing that all day.

Heath’s eyes flared with heat, and his gaze tracked to her mouth and back up.

She didn’t stop her smile as she mimicked his movements. She’d loved his kisses as a girl. But they were both adults, and she’d bet the kiss would spin the top of her head right off.

Heath moved his thumb to brush over her lips. “We should probably wait to try that until we don’t have a pre-teen chaperone.”

“You’re probably right.”

But when he leaned down, she rose on her toes to meet him halfway. The kiss was soft, sweet, and far too brief.

Still, it left fireworks in its wake.

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