Page 11 of Until I Find You

Again, I try not to look at her for fear my insides will turn to mush. Her curls are pulled back into a claw clip on her head, showing off the dark hollows of her cheeks, and her eyes are focused and clear.

Beautiful.

“Okay, and…” She presses a few more keys, then the period with a flourish. “Take a look.”

I circle the island to look over her shoulder at the document, placing my hand on the back of her chair and leaning over her shoulder.

She smells like a citrus tree, fresh and clean, but sweet all the same.

Hold your breath, idiot.

I try, but that makes it impossible to read.

“I changed a bit of the executive summary to reflect more personality. You know, they will want to know the attitude of the business.”

“I didn’t know businesses werepeopleto investors.”

Though I can front all the capital for the project, she’s insistent I consider investment to increase our reach.

I understand her plight. The more people are involved, the more people want it to succeed. Still, I can’t help feeling that this is all for naught. That at some point, something is going to make me throw in the towel and wonder why I even bothered trying.

She shakes her head. “You might not like it, but we’re technically going to be a corporation. Investors know that we are going to be appealing to a market that cares about who they support. We want to be approachable.”

“I just want to make coffee,” I grumble.

She laughs. That laugh too, light and airy and right from the center of her being, drives me up a wall in a good way.

“Look, it can be simple and clean, but it still needs to have a soul, Lyons.” She gets up from her chair and goes to my fridge.

Though we aren’t comfortable around each other, she’s made herself more at home than I feel most of the time. She snags a bottle of sparkling water out of the fridge and cracks it open, the bottle hissing. “Unless you’re not familiar with that concept.”

“Excuse me?” I frown.

Camilla shrugs and takes a sip, her brown eyes wide and innocent.

Is she…flirting with me?

No, impossible. She’s far too professional for that.

Is she far too professional to be an asshole, though? Yet to be determined.

“I like it,” I say.

“Good. Now we have that in our pocket, we can get to work on the timeline on our side of things.”

I blink at her. I’m ready to call it a day. It’s not even two, but we have been working nonstop with only a menial lunchbreak asinterruption. I don’t know how she manages to keep going and going and going. She’s like the Energizer Bunny.

No wonder Seth thought she was the best woman for the job. Toassistme, although she seems to take umbrage with that moniker.

She’s acting more like we’re a team, which I wouldn’t mind if she had any of the money to front for the project.

What I say still goes. It’s my brand, my business. Camilla might be invaluable, and I’ll compensate her appropriately, but if she thinks we’re partners, she’s sorely mistaken.

I nod. “Fine. Well, we have our first full team meeting on Wednesday… Get everyone aligned then.”

She cocks her heard. “Mm…alignment. You know the lingo.”

My lips twist to the side in a half-smile. “Trying.”

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