Page 9 of For the Promise

“Rude,” I mutter as they enter a room and shut the door behind them.

Jaxon may be a sexy nerd but he’s also rude. It’s a good thing I’m off men because I can’t stand rude men.

“Shall we get to work on the checklist?” Paisley forms her words as a question, but she’s not asking. She hands me a printout. Told you she made a checklist. “You can handle the first page. I’ll handle the rest.”

I barely have a chance to sayokaybefore she’s off. I peruse the list and my nose wrinkles. I can’t check these items off myself. I need help. I’d love to go into the office and ask Dakota but she doesn’t know much about the distillery. Her job is working for Eli directly as his assistant and not for the distillery itself.

I wait a few minutes, but when Eli and Jaxon don’t return, I decide to join them. I don’t make it to the room where they’re holed up before I can hear their voices.

“I don’t want them here,” Jaxon grumbles.

“Too bad,” Eli says.

“It should be a decision for the board, not a unilateral decision made by you.”

“This is the decision of the board.”

“I didn’t vote for it.”

“Jaxon,” Eli growls. “Don’t you want to help out your fellow smugglers?”

“Can’t you just give them money or something? You’re a billionaire after all.”

“This is the best way to help their business.”

“But they’ll be in my way. In my distillery every day.”

I’ve had enough. I throw the door open and stomp inside. “I don’t know what your problem is with us. We don’t have cooties.”

Jaxon pushes his glasses up his nose. “I didn’t say you did.”

“And yet you don’t want us here.”

“It’s not personal.”

“Feels pretty personal from where I’m standing.”

Jaxon frowns. “What does where you’re standing have to do with anything?”

Is he for real? Judging by the confusion in his startling blue eyes, he is. “I didn’t mean literally where I’m standing. I meant from my perspective.”

“Why didn’t you say from your perspective then?”

“It’s a saying. You know what a saying is, don’t you? A maxim, a proverb, an idiom, a—”

He cuts me off with a growl. “I’m not stupid.”

I lift my palms in the air. “I didn’t say you were.” I drop my hands and fist them on my hips. “But I did say your unwillingness to share your distillery with us feels personal.”

Eli crosses his arms over his chest. “Believe me. It’s not personal. Jaxon doesn’t want anyone in his distillery. Not even me and I own half of the company.”

“Oh.” My anger deflates. “Do you want us to figure out another solution? Paisley is already hurting since her precious brewery was destroyed. I hate to hurt her more.”

Sympathy lights up Eli’s blue eyes. He obviously cares for Paisley. She may claim to hate him, but she doesn’t stand a chance against those eyes.

Jaxon groans, and I glance over at him. He removes his glasses to clean them with his t-shirt. Damn. His blue eyes are even more startling without glasses obscuring them.

My stomach tingles with interest. I remind my body what a jerk he was when we arrived. It doesn’t care. It wants to watch those blue eyes flare with passion before his tongue swoops into my mouth.

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