“He specifically asked to see you. I don’t know why.”
I nodded and took the few steps to the door. Before I knocked, though, I turned back to Hunter.
“What happened to Lucille?” I asked.
“You didn’t hear it from me, but Mr. Royal had me put in a call to his attorney for a little chat tomorrow afternoon.”
I nodded again and turned back to the door.
Bitch owes me doughnuts. Put it in the settlement terms.
I knocked, but Cindy gestured for me to go ahead in. I turned the knob and stepped inside, stopping short before I was even all the way into the room.
“What are you doing here?” I asked breathlessly.
“Come in,” Noah said from where he sat behind the desk.
I stepped further into the room and closed the door behind me. When I hesitated, he gestured for me to come closer. I took a few steps toward the desk, hesitated again, and then lowered myself into the chair across from him.
“What are you doing here?” I asked again.
I didn’t know what I was supposed to be feeling. I was delighted to see him, but I was also extremely confused and couldn’t seem to make all that was happening fall into place in my mind.
“I promise I didn’t mean to startle you,” Noah said. “I didn’t even know you when my father started negotiations with Walter.”
“Your father?” I asked, things starting to clarify a little. “You’re the president of the company now?”
He nodded.
“My father has been negotiating to buy Royal and Company as the first company that I would run for almost a year.”
“I thought that you were a baker,” I said.
“I am,” Noah said. “That is my passion. Advertising has been my family’s business for generations. As long as I go along with it and do my share of the work, I can bake on my free time. I paid my own way through culinary school and bought my own kitchen.”
“And your foray into The Enchanted Woods?” I asked.
I was inexplicably feeling angry, as if he had somehow betrayed me with decisions that he made before he even knew me, decisions that were truly no different than ones that I had made for myself.
“I wanted a chance to cook,” he told me. “I’m too well-known around my city to work in a kitchen there. I’ve kept in touch with one of my mentors from school and he told me about an opportunity that he knew about…”
I held up a hand to stop him. I couldn’t have this conversation right now. Seeing him without warning had hit me with far more emotion than I was prepared to experience, and I couldn’t handle it right at that moment. It was too much. I stood up, shaking my head.
“I can’t do this, Noah. I don’t know you at all.”
“Wasn’t that the point?”
I felt tears spring to my eyes at the comment and turned away from him, starting to the door.
“Snow, please,” he said. I paused, but didn’t turn back around. I closed my eyes, trying to control the emotion that I was feeling. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I only meant that neither of us really know each other because that’s the way that it was supposed to be, but that’s not how I want it to be. Please. Come to my house tonight. Talk to me. I can’t just let you walk away without having a chance. That’s all I’m asking. Just a chance.”
I hesitated, unsure of what I was supposed to say. My first impulse was to just keep going, to put it all behind me and try to find a new life bolstered by what I had learned and experienced at the retreat. I realized, though, that if I was truly going to follow what I had learned, I was going to be true to myself and to my feelings and push ahead, ready to find whatever might be waiting on the other side.
I turned to face him and nodded.
“Alright,” I said.
He smiled and I felt my heart flutter. He scribbled something on a sticky note and offered it to me.
“Here’s my address. Eight?”
I took the note.
“I’ll see you then.”
I wanted to hug him. I just wanted to be close to him. Instead, I turned back and rushed out of the office, moving past Cindy and Hunter before they could ask me any questions and left the building, dialing Robin even before my feet touched the pavement.
“Somehow I was expecting something else.”
I reached for another slice of pizza and pulled it toward me, dropping it onto the plate in my lap before taking up the shaker of parmesan cheese and giving the slice a liberal coating.
“I’m sorry,” Noah said from the carpet where he sat. “I was planning something more elaborate, but I ended up at the office longer than I thought.”
“No,” I said, sinking my teeth into the slice and sighing at the rich flavor that filled my mouth. “This is perfect. It’s the most incredible pizza I’ve ever had.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”
We ate in silence for a few more moments and then I dabbed my mouth with a napkin before slipping my plate onto the coffee table in front of me.
“Why did you ask me here tonight, Noah?”
He glanced over his shoulder at me and lowered his plate to the table beside mine.
“I wanted to see you again,” he said. “I needed to give you an explanation.”
“You don’t owe me an explanation.”
“Yes, I do. I did everything that I could at the Woods to tell you how I feel about you. You rejected me at every turn.”
“I didn’t reject you, Noah. I acknowledged that both of us signed contracts that prevented us from spending any more time together than was arranged. That’s it.”
“Look, I told you that I was a last-minute fill-in for another man that was supposed to be in your experience.”
“Yes,” I said. “I remember.”
“That’s the truth. I was there because I wanted to cook. That was it. I found out about the position there and I went for it. I knew that it would only be a matter of time before the deal with the agency was finalized and I would have to spend most of my time at the office. It was my last opportunity to really indulge myself cooking and baking for a while. When I met you, though…. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Then Fawn mentioned that one of the men chosen for you hadn’t shown up and I offered to step in. I wanted to have a chance to spend more time with you than just when I brought your food, but there was more than that.”
“There was?”
“Yes,” he said, turning so that he was on his knees beside the couch where I sat, looking into my eyes. “I offered because I couldn’t stand the idea of another man taking that place. I knew why you were there. I understood. But that doesn’t mean that I wanted someone else to come in and take the time that I wanted.”
My heart clenched at his words. I felt a wave of guilt through my belly.
“I’m sorry,” I started, but Noah shook his head, stopping me.
“You have nothing to be sorry about,” he said. “What you did was courageous as hell. When you left, though, it killed me. Then I saw your picture at Royal and Company when I went for a conference with Lucille to tell her that the final negotiations had started. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. All along, I was delaying getting to where I would have found you.” He stood and reached down to take my hands. “I never want another man to touch you. I never want you to have to search for anything. I want to be able to give it all to you.”