Noble Love (The Nobles of Sweet Rapids #1) (10 page)

"
W
hat do you mean 'revamp the company'?" Isaac yelled. "The company's been fine all this time."

"Isaac, sit down," Irene said calmly. "Let Isaiah finish."

Isaiah gave his mother a grateful nod. He opened his mouth to speak when Isaac said, "Our products our fine! We don't need to change them."

"I'm not talking about changing the products we already have," Isaiah said. "I'm talking about adding variety and expanding." He smiled, remembering those were Tessa's words that sparked the inspiration that had him standing in front of his parents.

Isaac now seemed intrigued.

"Expand how?"

"What sets us apart from most other hair care lines?"

"All of our products are natural of course," Giselle Warren, one of the chemists who worked with quality control, piped in.

"Exactly," Isaiah said, pointing at her. "But we've only limited ourselves by just making hair care products. People aren't just trying to be conscious of what their putting in the hair, but they are becoming conscious of the things they put on their faces and their bodies as well."

He watched as both of his parents' eyes lit up with realization and he nodded. "I think we should add more variety to Noble Naturals by expanding beyond hair care products. I think we should make lines of natural bath and body products, and makeup as well."

The room went up in a frenzy; a burst of excited energy buzzing around.

"That's brilliant," Isaac said.

"I've actually got some ideas that I think would be great," Giselle said.

The people from the PR and marketing departments were already brainstorming ways to present the company’s revamping.

"This is excellent," Isaac said, laughing as he clapped his hand. "We'll get started on putting together a plan and reconvene next week. But this definitely has to be in the documentary. 'The future of Noble Naturals. Bigger, brighter, bolder.' Chic and Sleek won't know what hit 'em!"

Isaiah eventually dismissed the meeting and everyone filed out of the boardroom.

Isaac clapped his hand on Isaiah's back. "I knew you would come through."

"How did you come up with the idea?" Irene asked. "It's such a simple idea, but so broad at the same time."

"I actually came up with the idea thanks to Tess," Isaiah said. He couldn't wait to see her later on and tell her the good news. When he'd told her that his idea was inspired from her own aspirations, she thought it was a great idea. She wished him more luck with his parents than she'd had with her own.

He hoped they could figure out a way to get her parents, specifically her mother, to come around.

"I told Tessa she was good for you," Irene said, smiling.

Yes, he thought, Tessa was extremely good for him.



"You...got...laid!"

The egg Dana had been about to crack on the edge of a bowl, slid from her hands and hit the floor with a splat.

"Shit," she swore under her breath.

As she went about cleaning up the egg, Tessa continued to needle her. "Unfocused at work...glowing skin," she said. "Not to mention that big ass hickey on
your
neck."

"I
told
that asshole..."

Her eyes squeezed shut when the words slipped from her mouth and Tessa threw her head back and laughed. "I see you finally took my suggestion and let Aiden knock
your
bottom out."

"I can't stand your ass."

"You love me," she teased. "So...how was it?"

Dana finished cleaning up her mess and stood. Shrugging, she said, "It was sex. We ran into each other at the perfect opportunity. I was pissed after my argument with Mama, I ran into him, he made some assholey comment; I cussed his ass out and then went into my place. The next thing I know, he's pounding on my door. I went to cuss him out again and he..."

Dana cheeks actually blushed when her words drifted off.

"It was that good, huh?" Tessa asked, folding her arms across her chest and leaning her hip against the island.

Dana stood, went over to the trash can and dumped the destroyed egg, and the contents she'd used to clean up the mess.

"We made it
abundantly
clear...I still think he's an arrogant ass, he still thinks I'm a spoiled brat. So the fact that it was probably
the
best sex I've ever had in my life, is irrelevant."

"The
best
sex, you say?"

"How was
your
weekend away with Isaiah?"

"Deflect now," Tessa said. "But I'm invoking my right as your big sister to demand you tell me everything...well not
every
thing–"

"I get it! Damn," Dana said, cracking a small smile. "Back to your weekend away."

"Oh it was great, even though we broke up for like two minutes."

"
What?!
"

"Although I'm not sure whether or not it would be considered breaking up since we haven't really defined what our relationship is yet, so–"

"What the fuck happened?" Dana screamed. "What did you do?"

Tessa's eyes grew wide. "Why would you assume
I
did something?"

"Because you're always overthinking things. You probably freaked out over something that was absolutely nothing."

Tessa sighed at her sister's keen observation. "After you left, Mama and I got into it as well. I was frustrated about that. And a few days before that, his mother came in and she was talking about how he's going to leave Sweet Rapids soon."

"So you were all in your feelings and went full bitch mode on Isaiah."

"I did not." Tessa rolled her eyes. "Okay, I guess I did," she admitted, when Dana glared at her. "But Isaiah is not one to give up that easily. He set me straight."

"Good for him," Dana said.

"You're supposed to be on my side," Tessa teased.

"And I am," Dana said, smiling. "I think Isaiah makes you happy. And you should enjoy it, for however long that is. Don’t worry about the future that you can't predict or control. He's a great guy."

Tessa nodded, letting her sister's wise words sink in.

"So tell me more," Dana said.

Tessa told her all about how nice Isaiah's place was out in Zephyr Cove.

"Hey," Tessa said, lowering her voice as her face filled with a contemplative look. "Isaiah mentioned something...I guess you could call it a suggestion about selling our new recipes."

"I'm all ears," Dana said. "What did he say?"

"Well for starters, he suggested maybe we start off with offering samples."

Dana nodded. "Not a bad idea."

"He also said that we might want to think about just going over Mom's head."

Dana's face morphed into shock. "As in just…" she shook her head. "…Sell them against her wishes."

"Either that or get Dad to agree to let us sell them."

"Either way," Dana said. "You do realize this would basically be a mutiny. Against Mom."

Tessa nodded. "I know," she said. "It's crazy."

Dana's mouth spread into a devious grin. "Let's do it."

Tessa looked up. "Really? You're okay with this."

"I mean, I think we could easily convince Dad to at least let us give out samples of one or two new things, and eventually begin to sell them occasionally. We could call them seasonal items."

Dana was bouncing around the room, excitement beginning to radiate off her body. It was adding fuel to the small flame that was building in Tessa.

Dana stopped. "How do you feel about this?" she asked. "Because we have to be a united front with this. We can't waver; especially when Mom flies off the handle, because we know she's going to be pissed."

Tessa pulled her lip between her teeth and let it pop out a second later.

"She'll get over it."

T
essa smiled when she pulled her ringing cell phone out of the pocket of her apron. Dana had already taken off for the day and Tessa was locking up.

"Hey," she said, after she answered. "How was your meeting?"

"Why don't you meet me at my place and I'll tell you all about it," Isaiah offered.

"Your place?"

"I just pulled up to the Mediterranean spot to pick up some food."

"I'll see you soon."

Tessa finished cleaning up the bakery, locked up and drove out to Isaiah place.

They ended up snuggled up on the couch, feeding each other the take-out Isaiah had picked up.

"How'd it go?" Tessa asked again.

Isaiah twirled the noodles of the lemon basil pasta around his fork before stabbing a piece of shrimp and holding it up to Tessa's mouth.

As she took a bite, he answered, "They loved the idea."

"Isaiah!" she exclaimed, covering her mouth, so no food would fall out. "That's great."

Isaiah nodded. "Yeah, everyone's already making plans. They're not wasting any time on this. We want to get the ball rolling as soon as possible."

"This is going to be great for Noble Naturals. I can't wait to see what new products you guys create."

They ate in silence for a while and once they were done, they got up and began to clean up their mess.

"I mentioned your idea to my sister today," she said, following Isaiah into the kitchen. "About us just going for it with the new desserts."

"Yeah?" he asked, as he tossed the takeout boxes in the trash. He grabbed the wine and refilled their glasses. "What did she think about it?"

"She said it was mutiny..." Tessa laughed. "...And that we should go for it."

"Are you?" he asked. "Going for it?"

"We agreed to run the idea of giving out samples to my dad. But yeah, we're going for it."

He held up his wine glass and she toasted.

"To more success in both of our families' businesses," he said.

"I'll drink to that."

After they finished their wine, they went back to the living room. As they settled down on the couch, Tessa asked, "How's the filming for the documentary going?"

"It's going good," he said. "I actually wanted to talk to you about that."

"What about it? Do you need to redo my part or something?"

"No, nothing like that. I talked to my siblings. Of course, we'll be in the film as well. We're going to all sit down and do some filming, but I also plan on shooting each one of us individually. My sisters are trying to figure out when they can come home for their individual part and the group filming, but I'm going to fly down to Vegas to shoot my brother's portion."

"That sounds like fun," Tessa said. "You'll be able to get some work done and also see your brother."

"I was wondering if you'd like to go with me."

"To Vegas?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, giving her that irresistible grin. "Can't go to Sin City without my girl."

"Oh," she said, crawling over to him to straddle his lap. "I'm your girl now?"

His hand slid down her back, to cup her butt. "You didn't know?" he asked. "You've been my girl."

"Is that right?"

His other hand slid in to her hair and he pulled her head down to his face. "That's right," he said, pulling her bottom lip into his mouth.

She let out a moan as he continued kissing her.

"When?" she sighed.

"Next weekend."

She wrapped her arms around his neck as his hands went underneath her shirt. "Let me talk to Dana, see if she's cool with covering for me."

He nodded, before deepening their kiss.



Tessa and Dana stood in the kitchen of the bakery watching as their father thoughtfully chewed on one of the new desserts they planned on selling in the bakery.

"Hmmm," he said with a nod, before picking up a glass of water to take a drink.

Then took a bite of a cupcake that Dana had created, a Cherry Bomb, which was what she'd named it.

Too impatient to wait any longer, Dana said, "Well, Daddy! What do you think?"

Not to be rushed, Emmett finished chewing and then took another drink of water. Nodding, he finally spoke. "These are good, girls."

"Good enough to sell in the bakery?" Dana asked.

"Your mother..."

"Here we go," Dana sighed.

"Watch it," Emmett warned, narrowing his eyes at his youngest daughter. "Your grandparents made both me
and
your mother owners of this bakery. If she isn't ready to make changes, I'm going to respect her wishes."

"But you made
us
managers," Dana argued. "Which means, we should be able to manage this place as we see fit."

"Daddy," Tessa said, trying to keep the peace. "There's gotta be some way we can compromise on this."

Emmett was quiet for a moment before asking, "What do you propose?"

"Let us give out samples to the customers."

He was quiet for so long that Tessa began to assume the worst.

"Samples?" he finally said. "I think we can work with that."

"Really?" Dana asked.

"Yeah," he said. "If you supply them with free samples and then they demand more, who are we to deny the customers what they want."

Catching their father's mischievous grin, they hurried around to the side of the island where Emmett was sitting and pulled him in to a group hug.

"Thank you, Daddy," Dana said.

Their father chuckled, "I'm sure this is hard for you girls to believe, but I am on your side too."

"You won't regret this," Tessa added. "What about Mom, though?"

Emmett patted both of their arms. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Once they released him, he stood. "I'm off. Got a two o'clock tee time."

After he left, they got to work on a fresh batch of desserts.

"How do you think Mom's going to react to Dad letting us do this?" Dana asked Tessa.

"I don't know," she admitted. "But like I said before, I think she'll get over it. Besides, it's like Dad said, we can't deny the customers what they want if they like the samples good enough. Even Mom won't be able to argue that."

Dana nodded, and they got back to work.

They were quiet for a while before Tessa spoke again. "Isaiah wants me to go with him to Vegas next weekend."

"Nice!" Dana said.

"Will it be a problem for you?" Tessa asked. "Me being out of town."

"Of course not," Dana replied. "You handled this place by yourself when I was sick. And we've got the new employees. We'll be fine. Go and enjoy your weekend with Isaiah."

"Thanks," she said, smiling at her sister. "You're the best."

Dana shrugged and grinned. "I know."

They spent the rest of the day working on their plan for the new desserts and what Tessa was going to pack for her trip.

Isaiah exhaled deeply as he jogged next to Tessa.

"You good?" he asked.

"Great," she breathed, looking at him with a smile.

"Can you handle another mile?"

"Let's do it."

They were jogging along the edge of the lake and had been at it for a few miles. They'd woken up early to get their workout in. A mile later, they finally took a break.

"This was great," Tessa said, stretching as she prepared for their run back. "Especially since
someone
has been preventing me from my normal daily workouts lately."

Tessa's weekend stay at Isaiah's place had extended into the next weekend and beyond. When they were too tired to drive to his house, they stayed at hers.

Isaiah grinned as he stretched as well. "I think our other physical activities have compensated very well."

He walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. He loved the way her jogging pants fit her trim waist and her thick hips and thighs like a second skin. He couldn't get enough of this woman.

She laughed and tried to push him away. "Isaiah! I'm all sweaty."

"I don't care," he said, gripping her a little tighter, before he bent down to kiss her. She returned his kiss with vigor before he let her successfully push him away.

"Let's get back to the house before you start that up. We still have to pack."

He chuckled as they began their trek back to the house. Isaiah had enjoyed Tessa's constant presence these days. After splitting ways with his siblings, he'd quickly grown accustomed to living a solitary life. While he was sociable, he appreciated time alone.

But having Tessa around, that felt amazing, something he could definitely get used to.

Isaiah had finished filming his parents' portion of the documentary and he and Tessa were flying to Vegas in the morning. While he was looking forward to seeing his brother and shooting Ian's part in the documentary; he was also looking forward to spending time with Tessa.

"Make sure you pack your bathing suit," Isaiah told her, as they made it back to the house.

"We're going to have time for that?" Tessa asked.

"We're going to have time for that and anything else you want to do," he said.

"So, if I want to see a show..."

"Just let me know what you want to see and I'll see if Ian can hook us up with some tickets."

He loved seeing the eager smile on her face and wanted to do whatever he could to keep it there.