He’s human.
Across from her, Leo slumped. His quick glance up at her exposed the worry etched in his face. The tiny candle highlighted the outline of his granite jaw and the shiny black of his hair. “My dad thinks the solution is getting married.”
Tessa choked on her wine. Hitting her chest and sitting up, she finally managed, “What?”
“Right? That’s what I said.” His tie was askew, and his five-o’clock shadow somehow made him look roguish and vulnerable at the same time.
“How would that solve any problems?”
He refilled their glasses. “My dad says this is a family restaurant and he needs someone in charge who’s a family man. He believes success is all about image.”
She considered that; in a small town like theirs, there was some truth to it, but it certainly wasn’t the only factor. “To me, success is all about the bottom line. And if I can’t find some way to improve our bakery’s bottom line, my mom’s going to have to sell it.”
He folded his muscled arms in a way that looked casual, but she could sense the tension rolling off him. “Is that such a bad thing? Selling?”
She nodded adamantly. “The bakery is over a hundred years old. It would break my family’s heart. And selling wouldn’t even give my mom enough money to live on for very long. I can’t imagine her getting a job doing something else…” She twirled her glass. “What will you do if the restaurant folds? I’m sure there are similar opportunities for you to turn businesses around in New York. Why do it here, where people are so set in their ways?”
He leaned forward, conviction lacing his voice. “Tradition and family mean something to me, too. I came back here not only to help my father but to work with him. I just need to convince him to implement my ideas. Those are what are going to save the restaurant.”
He sounded…superbly confident. But then, he always had been. “Well, nothing short of a miracle is going to save our bakery. It needs new accounts and more business. And I have big plans for my life that actually involve leaving town. But I can’t when everything is in the mess it is now.”
He reclined back again. “And where might you be going, Tessa Montgomery?”
With his wolfish grin, that sounded like there should be a sinister, toothy My Dear tacked on at the end.
And somehow, that made her smile.
Or maybe it was the wine.
She wasn’t going to get into the details of her life plans with him, but why lie? “I’ve applied to pastry school.”
“A rebel at heart.” He raised his glass.
Her face heated with a flush. He had no idea how against-the-tide it was going to be to get herself to pastry school. But she would do it. She had to.
“Sounds like we’re birds of a feather,” he said.
No. No, they really weren’t.
“I’d love to help you,” Tessa said and meant it, “but even if you used our bread or even some pastries, I don’t see that helping either of us all that much.”
“You’re right,” he said, pointing a finger at her. “We need more than that. We need a partnership. Birds of a feather flock together.”
“A partnership?” Her head was buzzing, and not just from the wine. What was he suggesting? She’d already told him her mother would never get on board.
“Exactly.” He drummed his fingers on the table as he thought out loud. “Something to make my dad have to listen to my ideas.”
She snorted. “While you’re at it, come up with something that would convince my mother of the same thing.”
“If we had a partnership, we’d have more power together than we do individually. Then both of our families would listen.”
“We could make them an offer they can’t refuse,” she said in her best Godfather voice. Then she chuckled, because her best impersonation was probably the worst she’d ever heard.
He chuckled, too. Maybe they’d both had a little too much wine.
“Oh! Tessa, that’s it.” He smacked his hand down definitively on the tabletop, making her jump. “I’ve got it.”
“What have you got?” She laughed again. “What’s it?”
He looked at her with a laser-sharp gleam of confidence in his eye. “We need to get married.”
Chapter Four
Tessa sat across the table from Leo, unmoving, her startled blue eyes big and round. She appeared to be waiting for him to say something. Maybe like, Ha-ha, just kidding.
Except he wasn’t kidding. He was dead serious.
When she had a couple glasses of wine in her, even this light stuff, she was fun, and she had this way of crinkling up her nose that was kind of…cute. But he had a feeling that if she’d been completely sober, she’d be way too uptight, too by-the-book to even consider something this far out of the ballpark.
She clearly wasn’t a risk-taker. If she was, she wouldn’t still be trapped in a job she disliked.
And he hadn’t been planning on proposing to her, either, but as soon as the idea hit him, he knew it was perfect.
“I might be a little tipsy,” she said, taking another sip, “but that’s never gonna happen.”
She was adorable, with her messy bun and a streak of flour on her cheek. And the same determination to help her family as he felt.
But he couldn’t trust her. She’d proven her insincerity by messing with his feelings back in high school. He reminded himself that she was still a Montgomery. He could not afford to allow his hormones to get involved in what he was proposing—even though what he was proposing was marriage.
Ideas were rapid-firing through his brain, a combination of desperation and the genius driven by a truly excellent vintage. Either he was incoherent and didn’t know it, or he’d actually hit upon the answer to both their problems.
“It’s the only way.” He looked her directly in the eye. “The only way for both of us to get what we want.”
“But I don’t even like you,” she said. “Even if you’re hot.” She put a hand to her mouth. “Oops, didn’t mean to say that.”
Leo cracked a smile despite himself. She might be a little mellowed out and fun now, but it was just a matter of time before her sharp, cutting tongue returned.
“This isn’t about like or any other emotions,” he said in his most practical tone. “It’s a business partnership. Nothing else.” Frankly, he didn’t do anything else. All his past relationships were strictly for fun—if you could even call them relationships.