Craig had to hold himself back to keep his temper from flaring. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Barney put his hands up. “Nothing. Why are you being so touchy?” He sighed. “I just mean – you don’t trust anyone, usually. Except me. You have a problem with that.”
“Well, maybe I’m expanding my boundaries?” Craig laughed. “Maybe I realized I needed to learn to count on other people.”
“Ah.” Barney nodded slowly. “Because you can’t count on me anymore.”
“No, it’s not like that. I think it’s just clear we’ve needed help for a while, and Rose has proven she’s worthy of being trusted.”
Barney was quiet, weighing this, before finally responding, “Yeah. You’re right.”
Crisis averted. Or so he hoped.
He was being too obvious with how he was treating Rose. He’d treated her differently from the beginning. But shewasdifferent…
“Can she at least talk to Brett? Smooth things over? He’s not going to let this go.”
Craig didn’t like it. Not at all. The more he got to know Brett, the less he liked him. He dreaded meetings with him. The guy was just unpleasant. He didn’t want Rose to have to deal with him.
But what could he do?
“Fine. I’ll talk to her.”
“Thank you.” Barney cleared his throat. “Now do you want to go boating with me this weekend?”
“No, but thank you,” Craig said with a laugh.
He had to find a way to break the bad news to Rose. He couldn’t protect her forever. He realized that, logically.
At the same time, he had to wrestle with the urge to call off the deal entirely so Rose would never have to deal with Brett breathing down her neck.
If only.
Chapter Eighteen
Greg’s email for their upcoming dinner was so business-like. Rose couldn’t decide if he was trying to be funny, or if he was just being organized and unlike himself.
She was staring at her screen, lost in thought, when the door to her office burst open. Rose looked up with a start and saw Craig standing there, his skin pale and his eyes red.
A jolt ran through her.
They hadn’t had much time to talk over the last few weeks. She was busy with matchmaking and Craig told her she had his full trust to deal with the clients. It was just the excuse she needed to keep herself from making excuses to see him.
But now, something had happened. Somethingterrible.
Had someone died? Worse – had her secret gotten out?
She didn’t have a chance to play it cool. She stood from her seat. “What’s wrong?”
Craig paced to the window, then abruptly spun and looked at her. “Nothing. Everything’s going great. That’s the problem.”
A weight lifted from her chest. He hadn’t found out her secret. Not yet.
“Oh.” Rose cleared her throat. “Did you have a visit from a fortuneteller? Get some bad news?”
He took a seat across from her, his face sullen. “Not exactly.”
“They’re not so different from matchmakers, you know. Just trying to give people what they want.” She paused and waited for him to smile, to say something clever back, but instead he wrung his hands together, let out a grunt and said, “That’s true.”
