Page 50 of Singled Out

“It’s outside your comfort zone. That’s often a good thing. It means you’re stretching. Growing.”

“It’s so far outside of my comfort zone.”

“Why is it?”

“Business owner? Me?” she said, her voice pitching high. “I told you I don’t know a thing about running a business.”

“You have a unique product line in your jewelry. Plus ideas for other lines. Business is something you can learn. I’m betting Cambria has some business acumen, or she wouldn’t be looking to open a store.”

“I don’t really know. We’ve sort of fallen out of touch as adults.” She went thoughtful and quiet again, then asked, “It would be crazy to pursue this, right?”

“Maybe it’d be crazy not to.”

She laughed as if she thought I wasn’t serious.

“Harper, you told me barely twenty-four hours ago you needed to find purpose. Something that excites you.”

She sighed. “You’re going to use my words against me, aren’t you?” she said.

I laughed quietly. “You’re going to fight what’s right in front of you, aren’t you?”

She leaned her head back into the cushion, peering at the ceiling fan on the overhang that sheltered this part of the deck.

“Tell me what scares you about it,” I said.

“Everything,” she said without thought.

“Let’s break that down.”

She lifted her head to frown at me. “You’re going into teacher mode now.”

“It’s what I do. It seems like you showed up tonight to talk through this, right?”

“Maybe I came over because you called me hot.”

“If that were the case, you wouldn’t have told me about this business opportunity. You would’ve avoided it by kissing me. Again.”

With an adorable pouty look, she said, “You don’t have to call me out.”

“Just calling ’em like I see ’em.”

“It’s not too late for me to go the kissing route.” She said it like a threat.

The way my body reacted, it was anything but a threat.

“We had our one date last night,” I said as if I wasn’t tempted to lean over and kiss her this time. “Besides, you’d still have the same problem weighing you down afterward.”

“Logical people are annoying,” she said, but the fact that she didn’t kiss me told me she really did want to talk out her decision, regardless of acting grumpy.

I held myself back from touching her in support. “If you went into business with Cambria, what’s the worst thing that could happen?”

“I could fail,” she said with zero hesitation.

That quick response took me aback. “People fail all the time.”

“I don’t.”

“You’ve never failed?”