Page 29 of Heart Like Yours
My attention is pulled from my inner struggle as the man himself steps up beside me, closer than seems professional, but I can’t find it in me to move away.
“Are you ready to make this official?” he asks.
I glance at him from the corner of my eyes with a smirk.
“Last chance to change your mind before you’re contractually stuck with me,” I tease.
Garrett chuckles, the sound eliciting a shiver down my spine. Placing a hand on my lower back, he leans in as he directs me forward toward the table.
“I’m almost certain I’m the one who should be telling you that. After this, you won’t be able to get away from me.” BeforeI can stutter through a response, he raises his voice slightly to greet everyone else. “Are we ready to get to signing?”
“We’re just waiting on Mr. Daniels, then we can get things rolling,” Tyler, one of the lawyers from Garrett’s team, answers.
“Which means we will probably be waiting for another thirty minutes for the old man.” One of the lawyers from the selling company’s team snorts out while glancing at his watch before turning to his partner. “Should let the missus know to eat without me. Otherwise, she’ll ‘forget’ and be miserable later.”
My brows furrow as I check the time, seeing we’re all actually a few minutes early. Mr. Daniels has also been on time to the previous two meetings this week.
His partner laughs. “Dude, I could never understand how someoneforgetsto eat.”
I stiffen, clenching my jaw and silently hoping they move on from this subject.
“Right? At this point, I’m pretty sure they just do it for the attention.”
Looks like we’re choosing violence today.
“Or maybe,” I snap, unable to put up with their arrogance on this subject, “it’s possible that some people genuinely get distracted and so busy that they continue to go through the motions to get things done that they don’t have time to stop and eat.”
“It’s really not that hard to just ea?—”
“And maybe some people are struggling to have a healthy relationship with food. They could have or be recovering from an eating disorder that you don’t know about, in which case their body might not know how to give them hunger cues until it’s too late.”
The men blink at me from across the room and I’m extremely aware of Garrett’s stare, but I don’t back down. I might not be open and honest about my own struggles, but I sure as shitwon’t stand by and listen to anyone making fun of others’ eating habits.
The lawyer clears his throat, shifting on his feet and refusing to look at me. “It was just a joke.”
“Joking about the eating habits of a person you claim to love, or anyone’s for that matter, is not funny,” I state.
Awkward tension builds in the room, everyone clearly uncomfortable and uncertain of what to say. Not willing to apologize for standing my ground on this subject, I reach for the chair in front of me just as the door opens behind me.
I twist, finding Mr. Daniels paused in the doorway and looking around the room with his brows pulled together. His eyes bounce between his team and me, and I offer him a strained smile.
“Well.” He laughs awkwardly. “Looks like I’m right on time in more ways than one.”
He walks toward us, reaching out to shake hands with Garrett and slowly easing some of the tension in the room.
“Mr. Walker,” he greets, turning to me with a soft smile. Some of the anger that had built thanks to his team eases as I stand and take his hand. “Miss Adams, pleasure to see you both again.”
“You as well,” I tell him, shocking even myself with how true my words are. Unlike the men he brought with him today, Mr. Daniels reminds me of my grandpa before he passed away during my sophomore year of college. He can’t be older than seventy, but something about him screams “if you call me because your basement is flooding, I’ll be there to help fix it ASAP.”
I step back toward my seat, clenching my fists so I don’t impulsively hug a man that I don’t even know. Considering I’m not even a “hugger,” I chalk the feeling up to the fact that his team got under my skin.
“Alrighty then.” Mr. Daniels claps his hands, glancing between his lawyers and us. “Why don’t we get this show on the road?”
“Cheers to a successful merger,”Leo says, raising his wine glass toward Garrett before motioning it in my direction with a crooked smile. “And a much-deserved promotion.”
After finishing signing all the paperwork, Garrett and I went back to the hotel to freshen up before coming to meet Leo for dinner. It’s been two hours of listening to the two of them tease each other and I can’t remember the last time I laughed this much.
Blushing, I clink my glass gently against his and murmur a soft thanks.