His fingers moved.
“Want to meet up somewhere? Dinner?”
Sent.
Instantly, his chest tightened. He gripped the wheel again, breath shallow, heart pounding harder than it had in the gym. What the hell was wrong with him? Why did it matter so much?
The phone buzzed.
“I already had dinner.”
Something dropped in his chest, cold and sharp. Stupid. What had he expected?
He was about to toss the phone aside when another message came through.
“But I wouldn’t say no to bubble tea. I know a place that makes it really well.”
A smile spread across Jasper’s face.
And for the first time in a long while, he felt the ice around his heart begin to melt.
CHAPTER 57
Nina sat in the soft leather seat of her car, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel as streetlights streaked past the windshield. Night wrapped the city in darkness, and the asphalt still gleamed from the recent rain.
Her head was still spinning from the shareholders’meeting.
She’d done it.
She’d taken back what belonged to her family. Made it clear to those polished, self-important faces that she wasn’t going to fade quietly into the background. They’d thought they could push her aside? That after everything she’d been through, she’d just disappear?
They’d been wrong.
Nina tightened her grip on the wheel, a slow, steady sense of satisfaction spreading through her chest. Her father would have been proud. He would have said she was a true Osborne—that she hadn’t broken, hadn’t backed down, had gone all the way.
She’d spoken in front of the board. Shown them she wasn’t a puppet. Maybe she wouldn’t run the company the way Frank had, but from now on, no major decision would be made without her. They would have to reckon with her.
She was the heir to this company. Her family had founded it. Her father had built it up with his own hands. And she wasn’t about to let some self-absorbed manipulator who’d betrayed her destroy what had been created with blood and sweat.
Frank had done real damage to the company’s reputation—but that, too, could be fixed. Reputation was a fragile thing. Give it a year, maybe two, and the scandal would fade. The company would recover.
Nina exhaled slowly, drawing in a deep breath and letting it steady her. She’d done it. Taken back control. Taken back herself.
And maybe that was why she’d agreed so easily to meet Jasper. How else could she explain it?
A smile tugged at her lips. She really had said yes too easily. As if something inside her had been pulling her toward him, as if the day wouldn’t have felt complete without seeing him.
She checked her makeup in the rearview mirror, smoothed a few loose strands of hair, straightened her shoulders.
She was early.
Nina parked near the restaurant, passed the flower shop window, and went inside. The place looked exactly the same. She used to come here often, once upon a time.
The host recognized her, greeted her by name, and she asked for a table by the window.
She flipped through the menu without interest. She wasn’t hungry. Her nerves were still humming from the meeting. But she needed to relax. And eat. Or at least pretend to.
After all, she’d agreed to this dinner.
