Page 16 of The Rules of Their Red-Hot Reunion

He looked down at the finger barely denting his skin. ‘Is that supposed to make an impression?’

She yanked her hand away and scowled at him. He grinned, pushed to his feet, and glanced at his watch. ‘Where are you going?’ she demanded. ‘We still have things to discuss!’

He looked from her to the coffee cup in his hand. ‘I was just going to make myself another cup of coffee.’

‘Oh,’ Aisha replied on an internal wince. ‘You could’ve asked me first!’

‘Honey, we’ve been married and divorced, and I got you hooked on this particular drug, so I thought we were beyond that. Do you want a cup?’

‘No, yes, okay.’ Aisha speared her hands into her hair and sucked in a deep breath. Twenty minutes in and she was already exhausted. She’d forgotten that dealing with Kildare was like trying to wrestle an octopus. And, off subject, the way those Levi’s cupped his butt was enough to make angels drool.

He turned, caught her ogling him and lifted an eyebrow. Aisha blushed, annoyed by his grin and the satisfaction in his eyes.

Yeah, he was a good-looking guy and she wasn’t immune. She wouldn’t touch, that would be stupid, but she could look. A little. A very little.

‘Rules of engagement...’ she muttered.

Pasco resumed his seat. ‘What are you muttering about?’

Aisha waved her index finger between them. ‘We need rules. Last night I tried to talk to you about how we were going to work together and we got distracted.’

‘That’s one way of putting it,’ Pasco drawled.

She ignored his comment and pulled a writing pad towards her. Picking up a pen, she clicked the top a few times before jotting down a few bullet points.

He craned his head to look at her writing and released a frustrated huff. ‘Your writing is revolting.’

‘Yours, I recall, isn’t much better,’ Aisha retorted. ‘I’m making a note of what we need to discuss...things like the budget, decor ideas, equipment, staff. Oh, and we need a name.’

‘Pasco’s at St Urban,’ Pasco whipped back.

‘Uh...’

‘I have Pasco’s at The Vane, Pasco At Home—that’s my brand of kitchen items and foodstuffs—Pasco’s, Franschhoek. The name is part of my brand, instant name recognition, and that’s what this restaurant, if I sign the contract, will be called,’ Pasco said, determination in his eyes.

Aisha wrinkled her nose, knowing she’d already lost this battle. Luckily, she saw the reasoning behind his words and was prepared to hand him this victory.

‘Okay, then, let’s talk about how and when we’re going to meet.’ She pulled her tablet towards her and opened her calendar. She turned it to face him and gestured to the mostly blank squares. ‘As you can see, I’m pretty free, but that will change shortly. So, pick a date. I think we should meet a couple of times a week.’

Pasco shook his head. ‘That’s not going to work for me. My schedule changes from day to day. I go where I’m needed, do what I need to do as the day unfolds. The best I can do is give you a couple of hours’ notice when I’ll be free.’

Aisha felt her jaw drop, not sure she was processing his words correctly. Was he seriously suggesting she build her calendar around him? Did he not realise how much she had to do, the mountain of work ahead of her to get St Urban up to standard? She was already operating under time constraints and that was before she heard about the pop-up restaurant.

But now, like then, Pasco’s work came first. Aisha felt the wave of resentment and looked away so that he didn’t see how much his blithe words affected her. So, nothing had changed, not really.

And how sad was that?

She could say something—she should say something—but honestly, she was tired and didn’t have the energy to fight. Aisha scratched her forehead, worried she was slipping into the patterns of the past, allowing Pasco to walk all over her again.

‘I see some things haven’t changed.’

He frowned, trying to work out what she meant. Dammit! She hated it when passive-aggressive comments slipped out—she was better than that.

She held up her hand. ‘No, that won’t work for me. You need to give me definite times when we can meet because I am not sitting around waiting for you to call.’

She waited for his response and wondered if she imagined the flare of respect she saw in his eyes. Probably. Pasco took their empty coffee cups to the sink and when he returned to stand in front of her, he slid his hands into the back pockets of his jeans and nodded. ‘Fair enough. I’ll see what I can do, but I’m slammed.’

‘Make time, Pasco, this is important.’

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