He intertwined his fingers with hers, their hands resting on his ribs. “I used to count the minutes until lunchtime, partly because I was a teenage boy, and I knew the sexiest girl in school was going to climb into my lap.”
She flushed at the description and the way it loosened the memory, blended the feelings of then into now.
He tilted his head up enough to kiss her on the forehead, and then flopped back onto the pillow. “But at least as much because we always had the best conversations. No one sees the world the way you do, and you don’t mind making that clear.”
She melted into him, not sure what to say. He remembered and enjoyed their time in high school the same way she did and for the same reasons.
The revelation sank deep until it nudged something loose. A whisper of fear. A pit she didn’t want to acknowledge. Did that mean they were about to make the same mistakes as before? No. She’d learned her lesson, and they knew their limits. They were talking things through—that definitely didn’t seem to be a problem anymore. They’d be fine.
Chapter Sixteen
“You want me to build a no-room-for-error development calendar for the next nine months?” Scott sounded irritated, and his bunched up eyebrows reinforced it. “I don’t usually do this for more than a couple of weeks at a time.”
They were gathered at Chloe’s. She refused to hang around when Zach and Scott were over discussing work—said it was too false-hopey for her—so she was at Jordan’s
“You have to know it’s possible.” Rae needed to remember that, even though these men were her friends—she glanced at Zach—and more, they were still her clients. Colleagues? They weren’t being difficult on purpose. She just had to make them understand, and at the moment, that centered around Scott proving on paper he could meet the aggressive development schedule he’d laid out without burning his developers out.
“Don’t be unrealistic,” she said. “But be aggressive. Look at what your people can do on a deadline versus what they do when that pressure isn’t there, and find a spot somewhere in the middle.”
Scott sank back into her couch. “What makes you think they don’t produce the same amount of work all the time?”
She stared back at him, lips pursed.
He laughed. “I’m not the only one working, right? You’re going to make him do something?”
“Absolutely.” She looked at Zach, trying to ignore the heat lurking beneath his disinterest. The three of them were finalizing plans before they started making job offers and announcing their new venture. She was doing what she did with any company, making them prove they could work within the numbers she’d mapped out. “He’s going to go through his address book and see if he knows anyone who wants to invest.”
She could have sworn the temperature in the room dropped fifty degrees in an instant. Scott coughed, and Zach glared at her.
“Not funny.” Zach’s words held a hard edge.
She’d mentioned investors seriously once, and met such a hostile response she’d immediately crossed it off their list. Neither of them wanted to end up in the same situation again, and she didn’t blame them. She held up her hands. “Okay, I won’t tell that joke again.”
Zach relaxed.
Scott rolled his eyes. “And if you’re holding one back about sleeping with the boss, cross that off your list too.”
Her eyes grew wide. Right. There was that. The secret he didn’t know yet.
Zach gave her an almost imperceptible shake of his head before responding. “You know something I don’t, man? What happened to just friends?”
Scott looked up. Zach stared back. Scott flinched first. “Nothing happened to it. Aren’t you doing something?”
Rae forced herself to breathe and make sure she could keep the nervous waver from her voice before she spoke. “He’s calling people. Hardware distributors, benefits companies, anyone he’s ever met, or who he thinks might know his name, and making sure he can get you the best deals possible.”
“On it, boss.” Zach was already pulling his phone out and wandering into her room. Seconds later, the door swung shut behind him.
“You know.” Scott didn’t look up from his screen. “A month ago I would have sworn you’d rather die than let him in your bedroom, even a temporary one.”
She laughed. Did that sound as forced as it felt? “Funny how things change.”
“Hmm. True.” He tapped a few more things in. “What happens if there are people who don’t accept our job offers?”
Relief nudged her at the change in topic. This she could do. “There will be.”
He frowned.
“It happens,” she added quickly. “You’re a startup. They’ve already been burned once, and some people will get better offers. But you do what you did last time: find the undiscovered talent and let them shine. You’re building from the ground up, so proprietary knowledge doesn’t mean anything except being comfortable with each other.”
“That’s worth a lot.” He gave her his full attention. “You get a couple of people who bounce off each other just right, and suddenly everything moves faster. Kind of like with you.”