He held out a hand and spoke with a strained voice. “Yes.” He grabbed his bottle of water and washed the food down. “Just give me a minute.”

Once his eyes stopped watering and he had an open airway again, Hudson shook his head. “Your fiancé was sleeping around?”

I smiled sadly. “Yeah, but everything turned out for the best—for my business anyway.”

“How so?”

“Well, I don’t know that I ever would have made it this far if Aiden and I hadn’t split up.”

“Why is that? Didn’t buying out your partner cause the initial strain on your finances?”

“It did. Aiden had contributed a hundred-and-twenty-five-thousand dollars over the years. So the money I had saved for the rest of the start-up inventory went to buy him out. But I’m not sure I would have ever made it to launch, even if I still had all of that money. Aiden and I were young when we first got together. Back then, he was very encouraging, and we slowly started banking funds together in a joint savings account. At first it wasn’t a lot, but as the years went by, the money started to add up. And by then, Aiden had gotten interested in using it to buy investment property. It probably should’ve been a red flag that he wasn’t interested in using it to buy a house for us to live in together, even though we’d dated for years and still didn’t share an apartment. But anyway, he said investment property was less risky than my business idea. He suggested we buy one property and then start saving for Signature Scent after that.”

Hudson frowned. “Your ex sounds like a real dick.”

I smiled. “He is. But I often let him sway me when I shouldn’t have. A few months before we split up, we had started looking at rental properties. My dream wasn’t his dream, and I was about to give up on mine and accept his. I had a good job, and he made me feel like I was selfish for wanting even more.” I paused. “Our breakup was awful for many reasons, but the one good thing that came out of it was that I decided to take back my future.”

Hudson contemplated me for a moment. Eventually, he nodded. “Good for you.”

“I think so.”

“Though I think there’s more than one good thing that came out of your breakup.”

My brows dipped together. “What else is there?”

“You’re not marrying an asshole.”

I laughed. “Yeah, I guess there’s that, too.”

My cell phone started to ring from its spot on the table, and Ben’s name flashed on the screen. I reached for it and hit Ignore, but not before Hudson also read the name of the caller.

“If you need to take that…” he said.

“No. It’s fine. I’ll call him back later.”

He waited a few seconds, and when I didn’t offer more, he tilted his head. “Ben. Is that the guy you were with at the wedding?”

I shook my head. “That was Fisher.”

“Right.” He nodded. “Fisher.”

Again awkward silence filled the air. Eventually he raised a curious brow. “Brother?”

“Nope. Don’t have any. It’s just me and one sister.”

When I yet again offered nothing more, Hudson chuckled.

“You’re going to make me ask, aren’t you?”

I smiled innocently. “It’s…new.”

Hudson held my eyes for a few heartbeats before clearing his throat. “Why don’t we get started? I can walk you through some of the things I wanted to discuss while you finish eating.”

Hudson seemed ready to flip a switch and move on to business, but my head was too jumbled now. He started spouting off numbers and dates, and while I nodded and pretended I was following, everything seemed to go in one ear and out the other. I didn’t even realize he had stopped to ask me something until I looked up and found him waiting for me.

“I’m sorry. What did you ask?”

His eyes narrowed. “Did you even hear anything I said?”

I jabbed my fork into a shrimp and shoved it in my mouth, pointing at my lips to show I was now unable to respond. I thought I was being cute and avoiding his question, but it only made Hudson zone in on my lips. It looked like he was hungry, only not for Chinese food.

Oh boy. My belly felt a familiar flutter, and when Hudson licked his lips, that flutter dropped lower.

I finished chewing and swallowed, clearing my throat. “Do you think you could repeat the question?”

That little twitch at the corner of his mouth was back. If I didn’t know better, I might think he had a facial tic.

I was relieved when Hudson nodded and began to repeat what he’d been saying. This time around, I was able to focus on most of it. And I was blown away by how much he’d gotten done in such a short time. He’d had his buying team get multiple quotes on all of my sample materials and was able to save at least five cents per piece on the majority of items. It didn’t sound like much, but with each box getting twenty different samples, and the freight discounts his buying power got on top of that, the total wound up being pretty significant.

“Wow.” I sat back in my chair and smirked. “You’re definitely better than Aiden.”

His eyes gleamed. “I’m not going to touch that one with a ten-foot pole.”

I laughed. “Probably a good idea. But really, the savings you’ve come up with will almost cover the cost of having a partner in year one already. I don’t know what to say. And here I thought I’d done such a good job negotiating.”

“You did. A lot of these savings are from prepaying and buying in bulk, which you weren’t able to do before with your cash-flow restraints.”

Hudson’s phone buzzed a reminder. The word Charlie flashed on the screen, and he looked at his watch as if to double-check that the time was right on his phone. “I didn’t realize it had gotten so late. Can you excuse me for a moment? I need to call my daughter to say goodnight.”

“Of course. I need to run to the ladies’ room anyway.”

After I hit the bathroom, I went back to the conference room. Because Hudson was quiet, I didn’t immediately realize he was still on the phone. When I did, I motioned that I’d wait outside, but he waved me in. So I took a seat and listened to one side of his conversation.

“I was only kidding when I said that. You shouldn’t have repeated it to your aunt, Charlie.”

A pause, and then he closed his eyes. “You told your whole class about it?”

This had me intrigued.

“Okay, well, I’m sure the teacher understood it was a joke, even if Mommy and Aunt Rachel didn’t.”

Hudson looked up at me. “Actually, tell your mom I don’t have a minute right now. I’m still at work. I’ll speak to her when I call tomorrow night.”

Pause.

“Love you, too.”

After he swiped his phone off, he shook his head. “I have to remember that a six-year-old won’t always get my sense of humor.”

I smiled. “What happened?”

“My ex-sister-in-law is pregnant. She’s about to pop. Rachel makes my ex-wife seem like a ball of fun. Neither has a sense of humor. The other night, Charlie asked me what I thought might be a good name for her soon-to-be cousin. I have no idea why, but I told her Aunt Rachel was going to name the baby Homeslice, and then spent five minutes convincing her it was the truth when she doubted me.”