Page 6 of Baby for My Billionaire Rival

“I’m not here to make friends,” she repeats sassily.

I breathe in tightly. “Alright, well, I’m not. I’m here to learn. That’s all. Make my family’s business better. I don’t need you to pretend to be nice to me when it’s clear that you don’t think we’re on the same level.”

Caroline scoffs, “I never said that.”

“You didn’t have to. Not outright. You made it clear that you don’t see us as equals right when you came out of that bathroom.”

“You’re assuming I don’t see a handyman as my equal. And that’s not fair.”

I’m taken aback, but I don’t let my face betray that she’s thrown me off.Alright, Caroline Gladstone has at least a little self-awareness.

“I made an assumption, I did. But that had nothing to do with me not respecting you.”

It’s hard to believe that someone who looks like her has respect for tradesmen and people who work with their hands… I guess I’ll take her word for it, though. I don’t have anything else to go off of. However, this was never about how she sees other people. It’s about how she sees me. “All the same, Caroline, I don’t feel the need to try and be friends with you. If that’s what you’re looking for. You do your thing, I’ll do mine. And we’ll exist in the same place at the same time sometimes and… well, that’s good enough for me.”

The corners of Caroline’s mouth sink and her cheeks drop making her friendly eyes a bit more distant. “Well, fine, if that’s how you want it to be.”

“That’s how I want it to be, yes.”

Caroline pulls her bag higher on her shoulder before giving me a nod and turning back in the direction of Trilby. After only a few steps, she stops. Turns back toward me as slowly and gracefully as a dancer in a music box. And she smiles, though there’s no kindness in it. “Have you ever heard that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, Simmons?”

I resist smiling at her calling me by last name, like it’s some sort of indication of familiarity. “Sure I have. I think it’s a bit of a catch-22. Because while the vinegar may keep the flies away, the honey will kill them eventually.”

We stare at each other. Though the hubbub of campus rattles on around us, I am stuck in a vacuum of her echoing words.

“We don’t have to be friends, Simmons. You can be the vinegar… and I can be the honey,” she says. Then, with a tick upward of her chin, she heads off toward Trilby.

I stand there far too long, trying to untangle her words. What’s she trying to say? That I’m vinegar, warding people off and she’s honey because she’s supposedly sweet? But honey traps the flies, so does that mean she’s really some insidious mastermind?

It might be harsh, to be vinegar, but that’s been my whole philosophy in coming here. I’ve got my friends and family back home. I don’t need more of them. I don’t need to make connections. Simmons speaks for itself.

I just need to learn the skills I don’t have. If anything, friends would get in the way of that.

Beautiful women wouldcertainlyget in the way of that.

When I settle into the cab of my truck, it finally dawns on me. What Caroline meant.

While I drive people away, she’s going to draw people in. And in life, that might be fine. But this isn’t real life. This is business.

Caroline thinks she’s a better businessperson than I am. Because she can suck people in with her honey words and good looks and trap them.

Maybe she thinks she can even trap me.

I chuckle to myself. That head of blonde hair has gotten one calculation terribly wrong.

I don’t give a rat’s ass about sucking people into my orbit. And if there’s one thing I know about me, pretty women can’t take my eyes off the prize.

Graduation’s in two years. And nothing, not even Caroline Gladstone’s cute crinkling forehead can get in the way of that.

Chapter 3

Caroline

“Pink? Really Caroline?”

I look down at the dress I’ve chosen for today’s meeting and shrug. “It stands out.”

“More than stands out,” Gram mutters. “It screams.”

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