Teo paced in front of the couch while Cedar paced behind it. Neither one of them were able to sit still as Cedar laid out everything that had happened between her and Darrin. She said she wanted things between them crystal clear so he didn’t worry.

Teo did worry.

He worried the whole time she talked that she was going to tell him she wanted to be Darrin’s partner. Small knives rolled around in his stomach, cutting him up from the inside. He’d fallen for Cedar. Fallen hard and fast and he didn’t want to let her slip away. He opened and closed his fists.

“So what I learned from all of this is that I’m not meant to work for someone else.”

“That’s what you’ve learned?” He stopped and threw his arms out. “Cedar—I’ve got to know where we stand. I can’t wait in limbo any longer. I’m not good at it.”

Cedar stopped moving and leaned on the couch. “I told you I didn’t want to go back to Darrin.”

“No, you said you didn’t want to work with him.”

“Oh,” she glanced down shyly. “In my head they were one and the same.”

“They aren’t.” Teo climbed on the couch, his knees digging into the cushions. Cedar’s sweet pineapple scent teased him closer and gave him the courage to cup her face in his hands. “I slept like crap last night.”

Cedar giggled. “I’m sorry.” She traced her fingers lightly over the bags under his left eye, her touch reaching all the way to his heart. “I wanted to be sure of myself.”

“Are you?” He searched her ocean eyes, finding the deep greens and blues that had captivated him the first time they’d met.

“I’m sure I don’t want Darrin—professionally or personally.”

Teo brought her hands to his lips and pressed a kiss to her fingertips. Her skin was soft and warm and sweet. He took a deep breath, ready to tell her he loved her, that he wanted her in his life from here to as far as he could see and beyond.

Cedar spoke first. “I need to get my life back on track.”

Teo could see the wheels turning in her head. She wasn’t caught up in emotions right now—she was calculating her next big move. Which meant she was confident that the two of them were settled for the time being. That wasn’t a bad thing. Her perception that all was well between them meant she felt confident in their relationship. He could wait to lay his feelings bare. He glanced around the living room. This wasn’t exactly a romantic setting. He let out a sigh. He could do so much better.

She continued, “If Darrin can find backers, then I can do it, too.”

He may not be able to say I love you right away, but money he would gladly give away. “You’ve already found one—how much do you need?”

Cedar didn’t answer right away, and the silence lengthened between them. Eventually, she took a deep, fortifying breath, the kind that pulled her chest up and her shoulders back. “I can’t take your money.” She spoke so quietly that he had to lean sideways to catch the last word.

That was unacceptable. Teo had worked hard, darn hard, to get where he was in life. If what he had couldn’t help the people he cared about, then what good was it? “Why not?”

“Because it’s too easy.” She pulled her hands out of his grasp and placed them on his cheeks.

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“I need to pound the pavement, pay my dues, put in the time, and work my contacts. I need to build this myself. Does that make sense?”

He just wanted the peace they’d had over the past few weeks at home where ex-boyfriends didn’t pop up and Cedar didn’t talk about shutting him out of a part of her life.

The old, familiar shaking in his hands started and a thousand-pound weight of dread settled on his chest. Amy had shut him out, too. He thought he’d conquered all of her rejection, put it in the ground when he buried her, but this situation was too familiar.

He spent several seconds working to calm his hands. Cedar was not Amy. Cedar wasn’t trying to keep him away from his child. Cedar was determined and wanted to make it on her own. Her grittiness was something to admire, not fear. Still, the weight remained. There was only one way he knew to conquer—and that was to hit his opponent hard. Except he couldn’t hit Cedar.

“I can respect that,” he managed to say.

Cedar leaned her head against his chest. “I need to dust off the old plans I wrote. Go through files. Make some phone calls. I feel busy all of a sudden.”

Teo listened as she continued to discuss her first steps back into the business world. He managed to rub her back as she spoke. “It’s still early. Do you want to spend some time on the beach?” The soft sand had become their special place. Which was perfect, because before that, it had been just his. There was no one on earth he would rather share it with than Cedar.

She shook her head. “My brain is going a hundred miles per hour. I’ve got to get to my laptop. Rain check?”

He clenched the couch to keep his hands from shaking again. This was important to Cedar, and he needed to give her space to be herself. He repeated many of the phrases that had gotten him through life with Amy in his head. “Sure. We’ll celebrate out there—together—when you’ve got everything settled and ready to go.”

Darrin had upset Cedar—spurred her into action. Cedar’s reaction to the event was a positive one. She wasn’t in a ball on the couch crying her eyes out. She was taking the field. Like in a game. If you got knocked down, you got up.

As he entered the house with Akoni on his shoulder and Cedar’s headlights on his back, he couldn’t shake the feeling that they’d entered a new ballgame, and he didn’t know the plays.