That was it.
Unicorn ice cream.
I didn’t know of any place nearby that did it. It would draw people here to see it, and as Grandma said, it had the potential to get online attention.
I dragged my hand down my face.
Oh, my God.
I had it.
I knew what I needed to do.
I tossed my phone to the side and ran into the kitchen. A large metal pan was empty on the shelf, so after I rinsed it, I pulled out all the ingredients I needed to make ice cream.
The colors I had weren’t the brightest like the photos seemed to indicate, but that didn’t matter. This was only a test. I needed to see how well I could make this work.
After making the initial mixture, I split it into three different bowls and added the food colorings. Pink, purple, and blue. They each mixed into the white mixture, and when it was done, I took my time adding each spoonful into the pan.
I would mix everything in a minute. It didn’t need to be perfect.
Ten minutes passed until I’d gotten the whole mixture into the pan, complete with multi-color sprinkles. It looked like a horrid mess of color, but that only got worse when I grabbed a metal skewer. Over and over, I made a figure of eight in the mixture, drawing it all into a marble-looking pattern until the colors all mixed together except around the very edges.
With a deep breath, I put the pan in the walk-in freezer.
And I hoped like hell it’d worked.
I didn’t want to think about what would happen if it didn’t.
CHAPTER THREE – CHASE
She was insufferable.
I knew that, though. She always fucking had been. Headstrong and stubborn, Raelynn Fortune was a force of nature. In fact, I’d say she was an unnatural force. She was a hurricane of unstoppable proportions, which meant the fact that she’d spent two years losing business to me without screaming at me was confusing..
Rae had a temper. She always had. She was a snap-your-fingers-and-scream girl. She was unable to hold anything back.
Yet I’d been here two years, and she couldn’t even talk to me.
She’d pretty much choked on her fucking thank you this morning.
Jesus, she had no idea. No matter what the rumor mill said, I hadn’t stolen her ideas. I’d been inspired by them, yes. But this store was a last-ditch attempt to make her talk to me. It’d been a stupid fucking idea, yes, but we weren’t over.
I knew that the moment she cried when she’d broken up with me.
We weren’t over. Something lingered there. I still fucking wanted her even though I could count on one hand how many times she’d spoken to me since she’d walked out of my apartment.
All I wanted was for her to talk to me. To look at me and not see through me. To not pretend that I didn’t exist when she knew as well as I did that there was unfinished business between us.
Maybe I was delusional. There was always that chance. Maybe I was seeing things that didn’t exist because I couldn’t get over that goddamn woman. If that was how it was, then fine. I’d accept it, but I needed to hear it to my face.
I needed her to give me a real reason for why she’d broken up with me.
I didn’t believe her reason.
“I don’t love you anymore,” she’d said.
She hadn’t even looked me in the eye.
She’d lied. I didn’t need to be a fucking body language expert to see that. I knew Rae inside and out, upside and downside.
CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS.
I tapped my fingers against the granite counter. I’d never opened before midday, but now I wished I did. Her sign had occupied every free space of my mind.
Was she finally fighting back? If she was, it’d taken her long enough.
Renovations.
What was she doing to the place? I knew what that store meant to her. I hated that my stupid, ill-fucking-thought-out attempt at revenge had hurt her.
I didn’t have to be a billionaire CEO to see that my business was killing hers. All I wanted was for her stubborn ass to talk to me. I was dumb.
In more ways than one.
I’d opened this fucking business.
I’d fucking hurt her.
And she still had to choke on her own spit to thank me.
I collapsed forward onto the counter and clasped my fingers behind my neck. That goddamn woman would be the death of me. Two years and I still couldn’t shake my feelings for her. I wasn’t the demon the rumor mill had made me out to be.
I didn’t care about this store. I wanted to march into hers with a toolbox and ask her how I could help. I wanted to do everything it took to make her business a success. All I wanted was for her to be happy—with or without me.