He glanced at it and smirked. “I seem to recall a time when you were, too. Something change?”
Counting to ten in her head, Kat willed herself to not lash out. Chaz wasn’t the one responsible for her foul mood. He was only doing his job. She had to remind herself of that before she did something she regretted.
Being in Rocky Ridge had changed her, yes. But for the better.
She now appreciated the little things. She loved spending time outside. She loved the family dinners and the free time she spent with Leo. Her work was different, too. Where she’d rarely stepped foot out of her office back home, here she oversaw so many different moving parts that she got to taste a bit of everything.
“Yes,” she managed to finally say to Chaz. “A lot has changed.”
Chaz studied her for a moment then leaned against the porch much like she was. “I can see it,” he murmured quietly. “You’re different.”
She cut him a glance out of the corner of her eye. “Is that a bad thing?”
“Of course not.” His voice was gentle and it threw her off. She blinked several times as she turned to fully face him.
How was she supposed to react to that? She swallowed hard, attempting to gather her thoughts but that was near impossible as Chaz inched closer. He placed a leather gloved hand on her wrist and squeezed, forcing her to meet his gaze again. “What are you doing here, Chaz?” Her voice was raspy, and it trembled slightly, giving away her nerves.
“You know I care about you, right?”
She didn’t react. She couldn’t. Chaz had never been this forward. He’d never told her he had feelings for her. There had been clues that he might, sure, but she’d never entertained them. It had been so much easier to pretend there was nothing there. Kat stepped back from him, pointedly putting distance between them. “Chaz, this isn’t a good?—”
“Your father knows. I have a feeling he knew before I did.”
She scoffed. “You’re not serious.”
“I am, Kat. I’ve had feelings for you for a long time. But you’ve never been all that receptive to any advances, so I waited. But I can’t be patient anymore. I want you in my life. I want to work with you by my side and spend my life with you.”
This time she threw her head back and let out a laugh of disbelief. “Chaz, you’ve never admitted any such thing before. You can’t expect me to believe?—”
“Well, believe it,” he said a little harsher this time. “Your father has plans for his empire and the two of us are part of that. He wants to see us bring it into the next decade.”
“I’m sorry, Chaz, but like I told my father, I’m not interested. I have my own plans.”
“Kat, think about what you’re saying?—”
“I have,” she snapped, facing him with a glare. “I’ve thought long and hard about what I want my future to look like and you’re not part of it.”
To Chaz’s credit, he didn’t show any reaction to her words. She would have almost preferred he did react. That he would look shocked or hurt by her admission. But he remained just as stoic as he did in most of their meetings.
She searched his expression for any signs that she’d hurt him or that he was angry but saw nothing. If he was right, then her father wouldn’t likely be thrilled to hear about what she’d said. This wasn’t the way she wanted her father to hear that she was interested in another path.
Chaz stepped toward her then, invading her space. He pried the mug from her hands and placed it on a small table that wassituated beside a chair then returned to face her. He took her hand in his and wouldn’t release her when she tried to pull away. His voice was low and clipped when he spoke again. “I care for you, deeply, Kat. I still want to be part of your life. I understand this is a new idea for you, and I’m confident you will come around. You care about your father and if you were even remotely honest with yourself, you’d admit that in the end you’re going to do exactly what he says.”
Kat finally extricated her hand from his. “No.”
Amusement flickered across his face and he shook his head with a dismissive laugh. “What’s the plan, Kat?” He gestured around them. “This? Are you seriously telling me that you want to move outhere? To the middle of nowhere? Do you hear how insane that sounds?”
“It’s not insane, Chaz,” she snapped. “It’s just different.”
He laughed again and that niggling feeling of doubt crept its way into her chest. “You were not bred to be some hick who lives in the middle of nowhere. This lifestyle? It’s great for a little while but eventually you’d want to come home.”
“You don’t know that,” she seethed.
“Oh, but I do. Because we’re cut from the same cloth, Kat. We both thrive on our way of life back home. This place? It would drive you crazy. You would eventually start to resent living here. I’m assuming your decisions have to do with someone else? That cowboy, maybe?”
She flushed hot, but kept her mouth clamped shut.
“Do you really want to grow to hate him? It wouldn’t even be his fault. Could you live with yourself if you pushed him away? If you broke him?”
