Page 42 of So Wrong It Must Be Right

She would have the future she had planned for herself from the time she could remember. Dinah running Gallagher’s. Dinah in charge, making her mark, and damn happy doing it.

She stomped around Kayla’s desk and sat down in Kayla’s chair, ready to focus and get right to work on her proposal.

Instead, she buried her head in her hands and cried.

* * *

Carter had been restless for three days straight and it was starting to drive him a little crazy. On the plus side, he had certainly done enough work for three men. Plants were weeded, picked, packaged, watered, and he’d even made some random repairs that he’d been putting off around the house.

Now he was grilling dinner for what he assumed would be Dinah’s impending arrival. Without discussing much about schedules or the like, they’d gotten into the habit of having dinner together.

Dinah talked business and supplier ideas, and Carter mainly fed her and distracted her with sex. Dinah seemed to be energized by talking about business, but for Carter this was a decision he’d needed to make in quiet and in his own time.

So, he’d let her prattle on without talking much himself. All in all, it had begun to feel very domestic and . . . real.

Which was downright scary as hell. He didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing, and he didn’t have anyone to talk to about it.

His friends weren’t the kind of friends you talked to about women or identity crises or whatever the hell he was having. He’d discussed the business portion of his issues with his family, but he hadn’t mentioned the complication of Dinah and Gallagher’s, and relationships. His sisters would just start talking about marriage and settling down and missing the whole damn point.

So he was left to fumble around trying to figure out the right thing to do when it came to the infuriating woman he couldn’t get out of his head.

The thing was, Dinah had tapped into something he had wanted to do for a while. He’d gotten a little taste of the possibilities of being someone’s local produce supplier a few years back, but Grandma’s restaurant had never fully gotten on board with that.

Someone actually developing a menu around what he grew? It was a hard thing not to get really excited about.

He didn’t trust Gallagher’s. He wasn’t even 100 percent certain he trusted Dinah. Gallagher’s would always come first for her. His farm would always come first for him, so he understood that. He didn’t even want to change that about her, but he didn’t know how to safeguard himself against the damage that Gallagher’s could inflict.

His youngest sister had hooked him up with a possible lawyer, and though he couldn’t afford it, his family had rallied around the idea, offering what they could. If he wanted to do this, he had support. Even from thousands of miles away, his family had his back on this.

Finally.

“Something smells delicious.”

He glanced over his shoulder to where Dinah was walking through his rows of beans. She was wearing a skirt and impossibly high heels, and how he had fallen for such a put-together, business-type woman was completely beyond him.

But he had fallen for her. Pretty damn hard.

“Thought I’d grill tonight.”

She walked up next to him and hovered there. He glanced at her face, noticing that something was off. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what, and maybe she was just feeling awkward because he hadn’t agreed to anything yet, but there was a strange lack of energy from her.

“You know a girl could get used to not having to cook for herself. Although I have the sneaking suspicion that under that lid you probably have just as many vegetables as you do pieces of meat.”

“My evil plan uncovered.”

She smiled at him, something a little wistful in her expression. So he reached out and touched a strand of hair that was curling around her cheek.

“Rough day?”

“Very,” she said emphatically.

“I suppose if we’re going to be business partners, you could probably tell me about it, if you wanted to get it off your chest.”

She reached out and grabbed his arms, her eyes wide and a smile hovering at her mouth. “Does that mean you’re going to agree?”

There was so much hope in her expression that even if he’d been about to say no, he wasn’t sure he could’ve said it. Which was certainly scary, to know she had that kind of power over him. No one had ever had that kind of power over him.

He’d fought his family, the people he loved, every step of the way for everything he had, and knowing he might not fight her . . .

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