Page 15 of Knot Your Sunshine (Snugverse Romcom #2)

Chapter fourteen

Josh

Keanu hasn't moved from the window in twenty minutes. He's just standing there, one hand pressed against the glass, watching the ocean like it might tell him what to do next. His shoulders rise and fall with deep, measured breaths.

"She'll come around." Noa's voice drifts from his desk where he's signing documents, though I doubt he's actually reading them. The pen scratches across paper in quick, sharp strokes. "She just needs time to process."

"You don't know that." The words slip out before I can stop them.

Noa's pen stills mid-signature. "What?"

"The probability." I minimize my displays with a frustrated swipe. "Based on typical omega response patterns to pack bonds, accounting for her specific personality markers, career focus, and previous relationship failures—"

"Josh." Keanu turns from the window, his usual easy smile nowhere to be found. "Stop."

"Statistics don't lie. I'm just saying that—"

"Josh." Noa sets his pen down carefully. "She's not a data set."

"Everything is data if you look at it right."

"Is that what you were thinking when she leaned in to smell you?" Keanu asks, walking closer. "Running calculations? Building spreadsheets in your head?"

My face burns. "No."

"What were you thinking?"

That I'd rewrite every law of physics if it meant she'd stay. That I'd delete every line of code I'd ever written just to make her smile.

"I wasn't thinking," I say instead.

I watch Noa return to his paperwork, shoulders rigid with the same tension he carried during our company's server crash of '19. Three days without sleep, surviving on coffee and determination, convinced everything would collapse if he stopped moving for even a second.

He's doing it again. Taking responsibility for everything, or at lest in his head.

My pager buzzes against my hip.

The sound is so unexpected I fumble it, nearly dropping the device. The screen lights up with three letters that stop my heart:

MIA.

"She paged me." My voice cracks embarrassingly.

Noa's head snaps up so fast I hear his neck pop. Keanu crosses the room in two strides.

"What does it say?" They speak in perfect unison.

My hands shake as I read: "Meet me at the marina overlook. Now."

* * *

We reach the marina overlook in record time, all three of us slightly out of breath. The path here winds along the cliff's edge, offering views of boats bobbing in the resort's harbor below.

She's there, standing at the railing with her back to us, sundress rippling in the wind, her scent carried by the breeze, growing stronger the closer we get.

By the time we're about six feet away from her and she turns, my knees threaten to give out. She looks calm. Composed. Absolutely beautiful with the sun behind her.

"I've had time to think." Her violet eyes move between us, steady and determined. "While I don't approve of your methods... at all... I'm willing to move past the deception."

Beside me, Keanu makes a small sound, like someone just pulled him from underwater. Noa sways slightly, and I see his hand twitch like he wants to reach for her. My own hands clench and unclench at my sides, every neuron screaming at me to move closer, to never let her out of my sight again.

"But." She holds up one hand, and we all freeze. "I need to know something first."

She takes a breath, looks out at the ocean, then back at us.

"My last three relationships ended the same way. I chose my business over date night one too many times." Her fingers grip the railing behind her.

She pauses, and I watch her throat work as she swallows.

"They all said they supported my dreams. Right up until my dreams meant they weren't my priority. Can you honestly handle that? Not just say you can, but actually live with it?"

"Yes." Keanu doesn't hesitate, not even for a heartbeat.

"Mia." I step forward, needing her to understand.

"Before we sold our company, before any of this"—I wave vaguely at the resort visible in the distance—"we lived in a converted garage working sixteen-hour days.

I once forgot to eat for a whole day because I was debugging code. Literally forgot food existed."

Her eyes widen slightly.

"Keanu surfed by moonlight because daylight hours were for working," I continue, the memories flooding back.

"Noa didn't see his family for two months during our final push.

We built something from nothing, and it consumed us completely.

" I meet her gaze. "We know what obsession looks like. We lived it. Breathed it."

"Wait." She looks between us, genuine surprise on her face. "You built your company yourselves? I thought you inherited—"

"We built a B2B software company. Started with two laptops and a dream," Noa says, and there's quiet pride in his voice. "Josh wrote every line of code. I handled the sales side, Keanu the design and marketing."

"We know what dreams cost," I add softly. "And what they're worth when you achieve them."

She's quiet for a long moment, the breeze playing with her hair. Then something shifts in her expression, determination replacing uncertainty.

"If we do this, and I'm not saying yes yet, I have conditions."

We all nod eagerly.

"First, the business backing has to be real. I want you to invest enough to give it a real chance of success, and I want the help of an expert too."

"Of course, Sunshine," Keanu says earnestly. "We wouldn't do it any other way. Plus, I have complete faith in what you can build."

"And we already contacted a franchise consultant," Noa adds, pulling out his phone to show her the email thread. "He's on standby, ready to fly here as soon as you give the word."

"We'll fund everything, no exception," I blurt out. "Initial investment, marketing, legal fees, everything."

She nods slowly. "Okay. Second." Pink touches her cheeks, and it's adorable. "The scent thing. It's... overwhelming. I need to take things slowly. Get to know you as people, not just as whatever biology is screaming at us to be."

"You want us to keep taking scent blockers," I say, understanding immediately.

She nods. "Half doses, like before. I think it's a smart approach, it lets our natural chemistry work while keeping our heads clear enough to see if we genuinely like each other beyond the biological pull. I'll take them too, obviously."

Oh, Sunshine, if you only knew how far past "liking" I've already sailed…

"That's reasonable," I say instead, adjusting my glasses.

"More than reasonable," Keanu agrees.

"And third." She straightens, all business now. "I want a contract. For both the business arrangement and... the personal one."

I actually laugh, delighted. "You want to contract this… thing?"

"Is that weird?"

"It's brilliant."

"Thank you." She smiles and my heart flutters. "I know it's a little extreme, but having everything clearly defined will help me feel safe about all of this."

"Anything you want," Noa says, his shoulders relaxing as he meets her eyes. "We'll cover all the legal costs, obviously. Spare no expense."

She steps away from the railing, moving closer, and my skin prickles with awareness. She's still three feet away, but I swear I can feel her warmth.

"Awesome," she smiles, looking pleased. "I'll reach out to a lawyer so we can get the paperwork started."

"Awesome." Noa's face lights up as he claps his hands together. "And what do you say we celebrate this with dinner tonight? There's this incredible restaurant on a sandbar, just a ten-minute boat ride from here."

"I'd say it sounds terribly romantic," she teases. "Aren't we taking things slow?"

"You could invite Elena and her pack," I suggest. "Make it less of a three-on-one. More like... a friendly group dinner."

She laughs, and the sound makes my chest expand. "I like that idea."

Another strong breeze carries her scent directly to us, and I see all three of us lean forward involuntarily.

"Eight o'clock?" Noa asks. "We'll meet at the marina, by the boats."

"Eight." She backs toward the path, still smiling. "And gentlemen? Those blockers? Take them before dinner, please."

She disappears around the bend, leaving three grown men standing there like we've been hit by a very small, very beautiful tornado.

"Did that just happen?" Keanu asks, dazed.

"She said yes," I murmur, still staring at where she disappeared. "Or at least, she didn't say no."

Noa claps me on the shoulder, grinning wider than I've seen in months. "Josh?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's make sure she gets the same quality scent blockers we've been using."

I wouldn't have it any other way.