Page 48 of Falling for You Again

She ended up saying something smart-ass anyway. But it doesn’t come across as sarcastic as I expected.

“We aren’t going to fall in love.”

“If you say so.” Emi hugs me goodbye. “Text me later.” She wants an update after I hear from Aaron. He hasn’t called me yet, and by the time I return to his town house, I still haven’t heard from him. I try not to worry, trusting he’ll make the announcement to set everything in motion, but I’m nervous the news will fall flat and Savant won’t lose interest in acquiring Artisant. I mean, that is a possibility.

Meanwhile, there isn’t anything I can do except work toward my own goals. But after a few hours, I’m still sitting on the floor in the living room, my back against the sofa with Blueberry purring in my lap, going over Artisant’s numbers. June London plays on the turntable, and spread on the floor before me are the sheets Dad printed. I’m stumped. I’ve come across six large, uncategorized withdrawals with an empty payee field over the past six months. They can’t be distributions because Mom would have labeled them as such. She keeps meticulous records, making the uncategorized entries stick out.

I hear Aaron’s key in the door. Still unused to the house and sounds, Blueberry flies off my lap and up the stairs just as the door opens. Aaron startles at the ball of fluff that blurs past him.

“Whoa!” he shouts before seeing me there on the floor. “Hey.” He looks drained.

“Long day?” I ask, anxious for news.

“Long day,” he echoes. He tosses his jacket over the sofa and drops his backpack on the floor. Rolling up his sleeves, he joins me in the living room, settling on the sofa across from me with a heavy sigh. “I told them.”

“Your parents?” He nods. “How did they take it?”

“As expected.” He predicted his dad would be upset, but his mom would have a much more passionate reaction. Both would demand he get an annulment. Bottom line, he told me, they couldn’t legallydo anything about our marriage. But his mom would make his life miserable.

“Are you in the doghouse?” I ask of his mom.

“If it’s located in Hell and doesn’t have an HVAC system, then yes, I am.”

I wince and open my mouth on the cusp of telling him how sorry I am.

He stops me. “Do not apologize.”

“How did you know I was going to?”

“Because I’m getting to know you, Meli. This isn’t your fault. I put myself in this position. I wanted them to react this way.”

I got so caught up in my own goals that I forgot he has an endgame too. I do wonder if there’s more to it than him not wanting his parents to control him through his spouse as he’d shared with me when we first negotiated this marriage of convenience.

“Now we wait?” I ask.

“Now we wait.”

We watch each other for a drawn beat. I have the urge to crawl across the floor and into his lap, to kiss him.

A flush moves up my chest and I glance away, look out the living room window. The sky is the pinkish gray of twilight.

“Have you eaten?” he asks.

“Um ... dinner? No. I lost track of time.”

“Up for some Thai?”

“Would love some. Want a beer?”

“God, yes. I’ll get them,” he says when I start to get up, eager to splash my face with water.

He orders our dinner and returns with two Blue Moon ales. Handing me one, he sits on the floor beside me. “What are you working on?”

“I’m going through Artisant’s accounts so I can apply for a business loan. Something isn’t adding up, though. I came across some large, uncategorized withdrawals, and I don’t know what they’re for,” I say,taking a risk sharing this with him. I have to trust he won’t pass the information along to the acquisitions team. But it’s likely they already know if Uncle Bear has shared the shop’s books. They would have done a valuation. “The withdrawals put the shop deeper in the red each month. It’s been going on for six months. My mom’s accounting is clean, but this seems careless even if it’s intentional.”

“I’m sure there’s an explanation. Have you asked her?”

“She doesn’t know I have these. She didn’t want to give them to me. My dad printed them.”

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