He stares at the boxes in my hand. “Scrumptious Chocolates is a good name. Did you come up with it yourself? Clever.”
“That’s me alright, clever,” I say, as I rush him through the lobby and then out of the building and into the sunshine where my car is parked.
“And yes, I came up with it myself. I don’t have a marketing team. And my chocolate may have a clever name, but the competition here is brutal. I’ve been slogging around trying to get a foothold for a year or two. I do weddings, special events, charities, that kind of thing. Mostly for friends or if a holiday gets overbooked with the other guys.”
“Can I have one?” he asks as we get to my beat up, red, ten-year-old Honda Civic.
I hand him the boxes so that I can open my car door. Then I frisk myself for my key, but remember I am currently in a bikini, flip flops, coverall, tee shirt and goofy hat. That means I have no purse and therefore no keys.
“Forget something?” Chase watches me frisk myself, sucking in his lower lip in while he waits for me to come to the obvious conclusion that I don’t have my keys.
I sigh loudly and yank uselessly on the door handle. “Only my keys. And my purse. And my clothes.” All of which are back at the lounge chair for two. Or are they in Chase’s room?
Chase shrugs. “It’s okay, we can take my car.”
“I need clothes, Chase.”
He shifts the boxes of chocolate in his arms. “But you were just about to get into your car like that. Ten seconds ago. Before you realized you didn’t have your keys, remember? Besides, if you ask me, I vote for the no-clothes option.”
“Funny,” I shoot back. “I was about to leave in this outfit. That doesn’t mean it was a good idea.”
“Back to my suite, then?” He smirks at me as he tightens his grip on my chocolates.
Chapter Twenty-One
Kaylee
Now we have to hurry to Chase’s suite and back to get my keys and change. I can’t have those chocolates melting in the late afternoon summer sun. It’s a sauna out here. And Fi needs them soon.
As soon as we get back inside, the air conditioning hits us like an ocean wave.
Good thing, too, it’ll cool down the chocolates. We head for the elevator. I check my watch. We have time, but not a lot of it.
Finally, we make it to Chase’s suite. He slips me his key card, refusing to let go of the boxes of chocolates.
I let us in, frowning at him. “Can I trust you with those boxes while I change? Because you’ve been looking at them like they are the possessions that you would save in the event of a fire. You’re a freaking billionaire, I’m sure you’ve had amazing chocolate before. Probably from France or whatever.”
He enters and sets the boxes on the kitchen table. “Sure, I’ve had chocolate before. But believe me, yours are special. And they smell so good. Please tell me there are a few extra in here.”
I roll my eyes as I run into his room to change. “Fine, I did pack extra, but go easy, okay?” I turn back toward the kitchen and do the watching you sign with two fingers from my eyes to his.
He fake salutes me. “Yes, ma’am. Deal. I’m talking two or three chocolates, tops. Maybe five. Well, six or seven because that would be half of a baker’s dozen, right? That sounds reasonable.”
I barely hear the last part because his mouth is full.
“Oh my gosh,” I call from his bedroom, “when it comes to sweets, you’re a hopeless child. Ralph was not lying.”
I start to take off my bikini when his face appears around the corner of the door. “Who’s Ralph again?”
“Hey, I’m changing. Get out!”
He takes one more long look at me and then backs out of the doorway with a smirk. “Sorry, I totally timed that wrong. You still had your clothes on. You should shut the door. But seriously, who’s Ralph.”
“Are you jealous?” I call teasingly.
“Maybe.”
“Ralph’s the head chef here at the resort. My boss, remember? One of the two people we were trying to avoid on our disastrous kitchen heist. He had you and your family pegged as sweet obsessed in the morning meeting. Are your brother and sister as bad as you in that department?”
“I assure you we are all completely hopeless.” Then he moans loudly.
I throw on my jeans and shirt and walk out to see what he’s doing. Because right now he sounds exactly like a man version of When Harry Met Sally. “What are you doing?”
“It’s not my fault. These chocolates are fantastic!”
I raise my voice and an eyebrow at him. “OMG. Is that your chocolate eating noise? Because if it is, you’re banned from my chocolate shop. When I have one. Honestly. You’re moaning louder right now than you were last night. You’re lucky these walls aren’t as thin as the rest of the resort.”
“I’m serious,” he says, ignoring the teasing. “I truly don’t understand why Scrumptious Chocolate isn’t blowing all the competition in this town away.”
That brings back bad memories for me. I sigh. “I’ll tell you later, we have to go. Fi’s expecting me soon.”
“We can take my car if you want.”
It’s only like the third time he has offered his car. And with my Honda Civic struggling lately and also out of gas, the last thing I need is to break down before I can get the chocolate to Fi.
I turn to him and smile. “Fine, I give in. Spoiler alert, my car’s fuel gauge is sitting on empty anyway.” I cross the room and glance down at the stacked boxes of chocolates.
The box on the top that Chase is working his way through is down to a quarter of what it was originally. “How many of those did you eat? I was only in there for five minutes.”
“It’s not my fault,”
