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She stomped up the stairs, past Rory, who followed her up. “Did you kiss him?”

She turned to look at her sister, who was overly romantic always.

“No,” she lied. “I didn’t.”

She didn’t know why she wasn’t telling either of them.

You know why. You don’t want them to tell you to rethink it.

You don’t want them to tell you to stop.

True. Because she wanted to go over there tomorrow. She wanted to go over there tomorrow, and with all the freedom that she possessed, she wanted to make whatever decision she did about him. Without them hovering in the background, worried about her. Without them acting like they knew best.

So there.

So she went up to her room and closed the door behind her, and she didn’t even take her clothes off. Instead, she just fell into bed.

She didn’t sleep for a long time, and she just replayed the kiss. Over and over again.

THE NEXT MORNING she left the house early enough that she didn’t encounter anyone, and she was grateful.

She wore a dress and her white shoes and socks, and she didn’t bring coffee, just like he’d said.

And when she arrived at the house, he wasn’t holding a thermos, but a mug.

“Come on in.”

It was weird. It felt like the dawning of a new day in so many ways.

He was greeting her differently. Treating her entirely differently.

“Good morning.”

“Come on. Sit down with me.”

“Is Camilla...?”

“She’s gonna leave in a couple of hours. She is not up yet.”

They went and sat down at the kitchen table. She held her mug between her hands and let it warm her palms. She looked up and met his gaze. There was a fire in his blue eyes that resonated inside her.

“So I’ll be working in the office today. I’m going to do a little bit of research on some systems I might be able to put in place for you, but you know, I think you just might want to hire somebody to do a lot of this. To make it kind of automated. I think it would be best, and I’m going to go through your financials and tell you where I think you can spare some expense. Okay?”

He nodded. “Okay. I don’t take being told what to do all that well.”

She laughed. Because she couldn’t help it. Because obviously.

“I hadn’t guessed that.”

“Yeah,” he said gruffly. “Well.”

“Don’t think of it as being told what to do. You already know that sometimes it’s good to take... Not help.Sometimes it’s good to get someone else involved in doing the parts of the job that don’t come as easily to you. It makes sense.”

“That’s why I’m having you do it,” he said.

“And I can help for a while. But once we get the store up and running, then... We’re going to be busy with that.”

He looked at her hard for a moment, and she realized that she had just turned on a ticking clock.