The Life That Mattered (Life Duet 1)

Ronin maintained an unreadable expression. Was it shock in his furrowed brow? Complete disbelief? Or something else?

Oh shit!

Was it a deal breaker? Why would a ski patroller want to date a woman who couldn’t ski? I overshared. The butterflies dropped dead in the pit of my stomach; their little wings tried to work against the impossible gravity of my unfortunate confession.

“I made everything in this store. Well, everything except the packaging. I even make my own essential oils. And they’re very pure—medicinal. I’m an excellent chemist.”

Well, there he had it. My dating résumé. Who wouldn’t want to date an excellent chemist? Surely, all tall, athletic, sexy men dreamed of women wearing goggles and white lab coats.

I bowed my head, covering my face with my hands while I whispered a laugh. “I’m not bragging. It’s just … soap. Yes, saponification is my super power. Impressed?”

“Wildly,” he replied on a soft chuckle.

I giggled, letting my hands drop from my face. Ronin greeted me with a lopsided grin.

Screw it. This is me. Take it or leave it.

“Are you going to recommend soap and lip balm, or should I ask your employee out front?”

“No. I’d prefer you not talk, smile, or look at Sophie again … ever.”

“No?” Ronin followed me out front.

I shook my head, breezing past the cash register straight to the men’s display. “Definitely not. She’s in heat.”

“Who’s in heat?” Sophie asked from behind the register as I pulled products from the shelves for Ronin.

“No one.” I turned with a tight-lipped smile and set the products on the counter. “My entire men’s line.” I wrapped the soaps, moisturizers, lip balms, body sprays, and facial scrubs in paper, then arranged them in a bag.

“Two hundred, thirty-six, seventeen,” Sophie gave Ronin a total for the products.

“No!” I cringed. “He gets the ski patrol discount.”

“The what?” Sophie squinted.

I took half off the total. It was still close to a hundred and twenty dollars in body care products.

He handed me a credit card.

I couldn’t do it.

“We’re starting a free trial program.”

“We are?” Sophie asked.

I twisted my body to face her, eyes wide, lips set into a line. “Sophie, could you go in the back and finish unpacking and inventorying the herbs?”

“Are you going to explain the free trial to me later?”

I relinquished a single nod, maintaining a stiff smile. Sophie shot Ronin a flirty grin before disappearing into the back room.

“I don’t need a discount or a free trial. But that’s really cool of you to offer that to ski patrol. I’ll spread the word. Half off is huge.”

Yes. It really was. It was the discount you gave when you didn’t want to stay in business.

“The free trial is new. Maybe don’t mention it until I get the kinks worked out. But I’d love to see the ski patrol use my products. So … yeah. Spread the word on the discount.”

Just like that … the ski patrol discount became a real thing at Clean Art. Great advertising. As long as all of my customers weren’t ski patrol, I’d be fine.

“There’s no discount, is there?” He chuckled, trying again to hand me his credit card.

“There is now.” I laughed, hugging my arms to my chest. “No. There wasn’t. But there should be because I know they work hard, putting their own lives in danger to keep everyone else safe. Therefore, there is now officially a fifty-percent off discount for ski patrol.”

“They do … we do.” He waved his credit card in front of my face.

I grimaced. “I can’t. I can’t let you pay for anything.”

“Why?” He tapped the card on the counter.

“Because you already admitted that you’d probably marry me. And family gets free products. Or you can think of it as a parting gift because I bet you have no interest in seeing me again since I’ve mentioned marriage twice in two weeks.” I blew out a long breath, releasing the residual crazy from my body.

“Family gets free products? For life?”

My cheeks burned as I bit my lip to keep from smiling too big or laughing too much. Where was he going with this?

“My mom and sister-in-law would love this. And I have two nieces. But if your men’s line is as good as I imagine it is … my dad and brother will want in on the family discount too.”

Twisting my lips, I returned a sharp nod, wide-eyed and dramatic.

“Perfect.” He pocketed his credit card, grabbed the paper bag handles, and then … he leaned over the counter and pressed his lips to my cheek. “See you at dinner, dear.” Ronin strutted out of my store.

My hand inched to my cheek where he kissed me.

It was a game. I started it, so of course I got it. But “dear?” And the kiss? Ronin took the game to the next level.

“Oh my god … who was that guy?” Sophie peeked her snoopy head out of the back room.