Chapter Thirty
Nash stared at the ice cream freezers. Just three more emails and he could have a pint. He’d promised he would hold off until after he slogged through the backlog of emails from his time on the farm. He hadn’t realized how much work he did over the weekend. Sending off a text or reading over a document were easy tasks that took minutes. He did them without feeling a pull away from anything important. Work was his life.
Or it had been, until Kenzi came along. The fact that she had distracted him from his phone for two whole days was a sure sign he was in love. Deeply in love.
He’d also developed a new respect for the farmers who provided milk and cream for their products. His back might never be the same after hauling hay from the storage barn to the feeding pens—and most of the work was done by tractor.
The first of the week passed by in a blur as Lunette and Hattie left. He missed the little munchkin. She’d brought a joy to the house that only kids could create with their laughter and fairy tale ways.
The door opened behind him, and he dropped his head to make it look like he was reading the invoice from the cherry growers.
Raquel sidled into the seat next to him. “I don’t know how you work in here. I’d eat everything in the freezer before noon.”
He smiled, thinking that he was prepared to do just that. “It’s a hardship I am willing to bear.”
She tapped her nails on the counter. “It’s probably easier for you to stay down here in the basement, isn’t it?”
“As opposed to …?” he prompted, closing out of the document and giving Raquel his undivided attention.
“Being upstairs where there are windows … without bars.”
Nash swallowed thickly. His nightmare had come to life in the form of Kenzi’s sister. “You’re going to have to say it.”
“Why? Are you embarrassed?”
He was, but he wouldn’t let her know that. “No. I want to know exactly what you think you know.”
“Well.” She clasped her hands together and rested them on the counter, all poise and pious-looking. If someone were to look through the window on the door, they’d think the two of them were having a perfectly pleasant conversation. “I know you went to prison for defrauding stockholders. And I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it yet. I’m pretty sure Kenzi doesn’t know.” She cocked an eyebrow at him and waited for a confession.
He wasn’t about to tip his hand. But neither could he lie. All Raquel had to do was ask Kenzi, and then his wedded bliss would end. “I didn’t know I was committing fraud, but I did my time because I had done what I was told without asking questions. My stupidity was on me.”
“And now it’s on Kenzi. My sister should not be married to an ex-convict, and she doesn’t take kindly to being lied to. You’ll be lucky to slink out of here with the clothes on your back when she finds out.”
This time, it wasn’t Nash’s stomach that sank; it was his heart. “You’re right. She deserves better than me. But she also deserves a sister that’s better than you. Don’t act altruistic; you’re motivated by self-preservation only.”
“Fine. Lunette can run to Clyde and Kenzi can have her little jailbird, but I want this company.”
“You’re not going to get it. Not if I have anything to say about it.”
She tapped her chin. “What if you didn’t … have a say?”
Nash glared. “And why wouldn’t I?”
“Maybe you could find a reason to be—” She flicked her hand. “—away for a while.”
Nash grasped for the only straw he could find. “I can’t do that. I’m married.”
“Then have a fight. Happens to couples all the time.”
Nash thought back to the look on Kenzi’s face when she had to talk to Clyde, the utter disgust. He couldn’t stay and have her look at him that way, but he couldn’t be a victim of blackmail either. “You’d better consider your moves carefully, Raquel. You’re dealing with a man who spent three years in prison. I’ve faced men who were a lot scarier than you and come out on top.”
“Don’t worry, brother dear. I know how to play the game.”
“You’ve already lost one sister; do you really want to lose another?”
“Do you really believe she’d pick you—a man who spent three years in prison—over me?”
“Do you think she’d choose a sister who stabs her in the back over a man who loves her?”
