the point,” Belle mumbled. So what if she did? Was that the only reason she wanted to stick with the job? No, of course not. She believed in it. She’d had a great time in their brainstorming session and the ideas they’d all come up with were awesome.
With that in mind, she squared her shoulders, shook off her nerves and claimed, “This is business and we signed a contract. Besides, I really haven’t seen any hard evidence to make me believe Mitch isn’t all his reputation says. Just little things that could easily be chalked up to normal start-up woes.”
“You wouldn’t have called me if you weren’t worried.”
“Not worried. Cautiously concerned about the big picture, you know?” And she hadn’t wanted to voice her doubts about Mitch’s success aloud. It seemed so disloyal.
“You mean you don’t want to let your lust for this guy blind you a second time.”
Belle pulled a face and, feeling like a slug, mumbled, “I’d rather just depend on us, if you know what I mean. As long as you’re okay with the decision.”
Sierra was silent for a second. Belle heard the cellophane crinkle of a candy wrapper. Then, “Eventfully Yours can handle whatever happens. The real question is, what do you want to do about your dad? Find someone else to help him? Like who? You’re the one with all the hotel experience.”
Blinking away tears of relief at her friend’s understanding and support, Belle paced and considered. “Let’s just see what we can come up with ourselves, okay? I don’t want to make any decisions yet. I just, you know, needed a sounding board and to get your brain in on the action.”
“What are you going to do while my brain works?”
Mitch strode out of his office just then. Unlike the businessmen her daddy worked with, who always did the suit-and-tie thing, Mitch seemed to have left that phase behind him. Other than their meeting at the restaurant when they’d signed the contracts, he always wore jeans.
As Mitch turned to respond to something Diana had said, Belle sighed. Damn, she loved a guy in jeans.
“Continue with plan A,” Belle said as her eyes met Mitch’s when he turned around.
“Jump his bones?” Sierra confirmed.
“You know it.” With that, Belle pushed the disconnect button and slid her phone into her bag.
“Ready?” Mitch asked, referring to their plans to tour the golf course and wooded picnic area.
“I need to change,” she said, waving her high-heeled sandal-clad foot his way. “Let’s stop by my room and I’ll get some flats, okay?”
They headed outside toward her cottage.
“I don’t think I ever saw you in jeans when we were dating or engaged,” she commented.
Mitch’s look of surprise must be due to her bringing up the past, Belle figured. But while she wasn’t about to play the blame game, it was silly to pretend they didn’t have a past. Maybe if they melted the ice with easy chitchat, she’d be able to work up the nerve to apologize for abandoning him at the altar before her job here was done.
“Six years ago I had too much to prove to let myself wear jeans,” Mitch finally said.
Intriguing. “And did you?”
“Did I what?”
“Prove your point? And what was it? That denim makes your ass look great, but you wanted to be taken seriously so you denied the world the sweet sight?”
He snorted and shook his head. They’d reached her cottage, so he gestured for her to precede him to the door. Belle glanced back to see if he was going to answer and caught him checking out her ass. She grinned. Well, tit for tat and all that.
“Hardly,” he said, shrugging an apology for the ogling. Belle just winked back to let him know she didn’t mind. “I wanted to play with the big boys. Hotels, entertainment. I figured nobody would take a hammer-swinging kid seriously so I went the businessman route.”
“Trying to be a wolf with silk ears?”
He frowned, then after a second corrected, “Wolf in sheep’s clothing? Or silk purse out of a sow’s ear?”
“Both.” She smiled up at him as she pushed open the door. “But I heard talk before you showed up in those fancy suits. Nobody thought of you as a kid or as less than a driving force. They were looking forward to working with you. You had a great rep.”
At least he had before she got ahold of him. Belle winced and, before he could respond by pointing out that exact fact, she gestured to the bowl