She laughed. “That’s not hard, itiswild.”
“Yeah, but not everyone has an eye for taking pictures. Are you going to play up the history of the business? Man, we need to go through your aunts’ archives for old photos, there must be tons of old stuff we can use.”
“We?” She gave him a friendly side-eye.
“Did I say ‘we’?” He looked up.
“Yep.”
He laughed and raked his hand through his hair, tucking it back behind his ear. “Sorry, got carried away. Must be the ghosts of all those school projects we did together coming back to me.”
“Oh, you mean all those joint projects that I did all the work for?” Ryan had been famously lackadaisical about all things to do with education, whereas she had been book smart and focused. Their friendship had been an enigma to most of their teachers.
“Hey, I helped out with the presentation part, because you hated speaking in front of the class; that’s what made us the dream team.”
She snorted but he wasn’t wrong. She’d never been good at public speaking; her nerves always got the better of her. She’d once fainted during a History presentation. She had no doubt that her fear of speaking up in meetings had contributed to her being overlooked at work.
“Seriously, I know marketing and advertising is your area of expertise, but if you ever want someone to help youtrawl through the archives, or just someone to bounce ideas off, then I’m your man. It might even help to inspire my own social media presence, which is seriously lacking, which is another word for crap.”
“Is it?” she asked, innocently. She knew it was crap. His personal Instagram was nonexistent, she’d checked it out right before she’d gone to sleep on Krampus Night; two or three photographs uploaded in the last six months. It had been a disappointment in terms of snooping. And his Coast Roast Insta page was almost as bad. “Your website looks great, though,” she said, diplomatically.
“I paid someone to design the website. I had loads of ideas of the kind of thing I wanted, but I couldn’t pin it down. Some things never change.” He gave an apologetic grin, and shrugged. “You always had the visionandthe wherewithal to see a thing through to its fruition. I always have seventy-six ideas flitting around inside my brain, and not a chance of getting any of them to settle.”
“It hasn’t stopped you creating an incredible business. I haven’t achieved anything like your success. You did it, Ryan,youbrought Coast Roast to life.” She punched his arm affectionately.
He scrubbed his hand through his hair again and smiled, shyly. “I’m still not exactly sure how that happened.”
“Vision, hard work and determination,” she said, making sure to catch his eye. “Did you get the same company to design your packaging for the mini coffee sachets?” she asked, motioning to the closed box on the bench.
“No. I wanted to do it myself.” He shifted self-consciouslyas he continued. “It’s a big deal, having something of mine in Hallow-Hart Crackers. I wanted the design to reflect my business but also to suit yours, I didn’t want to let the side down. And Bella—unlike you—is far too nice to tell me if she hates something, so I needed to make sure I got it right.”
God, he was so nice it was killing her. He was ticking boxes she didn’t even know she had.
“Ryan Frost, maker and actualizer of plans; you’ve changed,” she said, smiling.
He shrugged. “I guess I have. We both have.”
“Seventeen years will do that.”
“I don’t understand how it can have been that long when in my head I’m still only eighteen.”
“Huh, eighteen-year-old me would not have been joining the family business,” said Fred.
“Hmm, you make a good point, eighteen-year-oldmepreferred tea.”
“Would you like me to take a look at your social media for you?” she asked. “I’d be happy to help you put a strategy together.”
Ryan rubbed the back of his neck. “I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“Actually, you’d be doing me a favor. I can’t bear to see an underutilized Instagram page, and yours is causing me trauma.”
He laughed. “Well, in that case, yes, please help me.”
“And maybe I could take you up on your offer of letting me bounce ideas off you?”
“It would be my pleasure.” He smiled at her. “I likespending time with you,” he added, and though the smile remained amiable, his eyes flashed with an intensity that shot a bolt of pleasure down her spine where it pooled like mercury between her hips.
“Mmm, m-me too,” she stuttered, knowing full well that her cheeks were glowing.
