Anything but Vanilla(46)
‘I don’t have much choice. She was going to develop a special chocolate and chilli ice cream for me.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘It’s a special request for a local company who import tea, coffee, chocolate, spices. Adam Wavell? You might know him?’
‘I might,’ he admitted.
‘He didn’t insist on a tasting. We’ve worked for him before and he trusted me to deliver.’
‘Did he know that Ria was involved?’
‘It doesn’t matter, does it? His contract was with me. Graeme is absolutely right. This is no way to run a business.’
TEN
Strength is the ability to open a tub of ice cream and eat just one spoonful.
—from Rosie’s ‘Little Book of Ice Cream’
‘Graeme?’
Sorrel blinked, slowly. He’d said that in exactly the same way as Graeme had said, ‘Alexander?’
‘Graeme Laing,’ she said. ‘He’s my financial advisor.’
His eyes searched her face, so close that she could see the starburst of navy blue that gave his eyes their ocean depths. The flecks of turquoise around the outer edge of his iris that lent a gemstone intensity to the colour. ‘A little more than that, I think.’
‘No...’ The denial sprang to her lips, heat to her cheeks. It wasn’t that she didn’t blush, apparently, only that the occasion hadn’t arisen before. But whereas Graeme had accepted her dismissal of Alexander as ‘just a friend of Ria’s’, Alexander had instantly sensed that there was something more. ‘I met him when he gave a lecture on business start-ups at university. I talked to him afterwards, asked his advice. He’s been my mentor ever since.’
‘He’s not keen on dogs, I understand.’
Thank you, Gran...
‘He’s not wild about dog hair,’ she admitted, ‘but right now he’s more concerned about Knickerbocker Gloria. He’s advising me to let Ria go to the wall so that I can pick up the pieces for peanuts, then pay students the minimum wage to produce her ices. Pretty much what you suggested, in fact.’
‘It’s good advice,’ he said, his hand slipping away from her shoulder. No-o-o... ‘You should take it.’
‘Probably,’ she managed, through a throat thick with words, explanations that had no meaning. He had kissed her as if he had no ties, no bond. And she had responded as if Graeme did not exist because at the moment, when Alexander’s lips had touched hers, he hadn’t. ‘He’s helping me attain my ambition to be a millionaire by the time I’m twenty-five.’
‘Then you should definitely take it.’ He didn’t look impressed by her ambition, but at least he hadn’t laughed. ‘How much time do you have left?’
‘Only a couple of years,’ she said. ‘And while my business brain knows that Graeme is right, that you are right, given a choice between friendship and ambition, there’s no contest. I’ll take on Knickerbocker Gloria, but only if I can have Ria as a partner.’
He regarded her thoughtfully. ‘Are you sure about that?’
‘I’m not sure about anything, Alexander.’ It wasn’t just her business world that was falling apart; her life plan was crumbling to bits. ‘The only thing I’m certain of right now is that you should have worn cricket whites instead of shorts. You’re going to make my students look pasty.’
‘I didn’t realise it was an option but don’t worry about it. No one is going to be noticing what those boys are wearing. Everyone will be looking at the girls.’
‘All the men will be looking at the girls,’ she said as he turned those blue eyes on the young women in their ribbon-trimmed ice-cream-coloured dresses. All the women would be looking at him. ‘Would you like me to introduce you?’ she asked. ‘From left to right we have raspberry ripple, lemon cheesecake, Mexican vanilla, cherryberry sundae, coffee mocha cream and strawberry shortcake, also known as Lucy, Amika, Kylie, Poppy, Jane and Sienna.’
‘Very pretty, but you were right about too much sweetness being cloying,’ he said. ‘I’ll stick with cucumber surprise.’
‘What’s the surprise?’
He grinned down at her. ‘Crisp and cool on the surface but with a soft centre and an unexpected kick of heat when you bite into it.’
That would be the heat burning in her cheeks. She had to put a stop to this before everything spun out of control. Now!