“Allie?” Ash asked, his deep voice coming from right in front of her. “Are you okay?”
She looked up into his handsome worried face. But instead of seeing the man she was falling hard for, she saw a businessman so eager to feed his own ambition that he would sell away the best interests of the children in his own community.
“I can’t do this,” she said, her voice cold and flat. “I could never be with someone like you.”
“What are you talking about, Allie?” Ash asked her, extending his hand to her. “What happened?”
“Branded greenhouses with the Turbo Tailor logo?” she asked him, leaving his hand hanging in the air. “On elementary school properties all over the country?”
She wanted to say so much more, but there wasnothing more to say, and her stomach was churning like that fancy dinner was going to come back up.
She pulled off the beautiful engagement ring and dropped it in his hand.
He was looking down at it, sadness in his eyes, as she ran from the ballroom, through the great hall and out into the snowy night.
Allie sucked in a deep breath of fresh air, then let it out slowly, watching it cloud in front of her.
But she couldn’t just stand out here. If Ash followed, she would have to talk to him and she just couldn’t bear to do that. She wasn’t sure she could hold her resolve.
Running for her car, she prayed for the strength to hold fast to her convictions.
She didn’t need someone who was rich and handsome like Ash. Allie could be happy with just about anyone, as long as they were kind. And there was nothing kind about marketing something dangerous to children just to make a buck.
23
ASH
Ash drove home, his stomach twisting more than the country roads in front of him.
It had all been right in his hands, the culmination of his career and the love of his life.
Her words still echoed in his mind.
I could never be with someone like you.
He’d been so stunned that he didn’t even chase her as she hurried away. He just stood there, frozen while the love of his life disappeared.
And the things she’d said didn’t even make sense.
Except that they kind of did. Of course they did. Everything he knew about corporate mindset told him that clearly the investors would love the idea of using elementary school greenhouses all over the country to find fresh, impressionable new customers.
It’s not pleasant. But that’s the way the world works.
He’d had to repeat those words to himself a time or two over the years as he made the kind of decisions that put Tailor Beverage on the map. Whether it was curbinghis more generous impulses when it came to employee pay and benefits so he could afford marketing and high-end ingredients, cutting prices to edge out a competitor in a local marketplace, or even working brutal hours as a young dad, Ash had done what he’d needed to do to make TBC what it was.
If he’d thought going national wouldn’t involve some compromise, he was delusional.
But they’re just kids…
The idea stuck in his throat. And it wasn’t just the implications. It was the fact that he had been kept in the dark about plans for his own company. He was disappointed that the other three never mentioned anything about it to him, but he wasn’t surprised. After all, they knew he had a child of his own and probably wouldn’t love the idea.
He was pulling up at home before he knew it, his mind and heart still in turmoil.
The frigid air was calming, so he decided to walk up and down the drive for a minute before going in. But after a minute, he worried that Maya might still be up. If she saw his car and he didn’t come in she might think something was wrong.
He knew she was in good hands with Allie’s mom, but he cut his pacing short anyway.
Before, she’d been with a new nanny every month it seemed like. But these days, he seldom left her side except when she was at school. He was already beginning to feel like a part of him was missing without her as she disappeared into the school each morning.
