Page 34 of Winning Winnie’s Hand

He remained still, his eyes narrowing only slightly.

Wasn’t she supposed to have been starting over with him? Trying to butter him up? She swallowed her pride and tipped her head to the side. “Of course, I am sorry if I was a little too blunt for your liking. I’ll be more kind when it comes to the festival, I promise.”

Matthew said nothing. After a moment, she leaned forward. “Am I to take your silence as accepting my apology or denying it?”

He drew a deep breath, his eyebrows together. “How could I do anything but accept such a generous offer?” Sarcasm hung from his every word. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t fix everything else.”

“Oh, there’s more?” she questioned.

He nodded.

“Care to tell me so we might avoid a guessing game?” she asked.

“Absolutely. Let’s see, how about you speeding on my family’s property, destroying the grounds due to distracted driving, spraying mud across my armor so I was required to polish it all over again, dirtying the front hall with muddy footprints, and finally, agreeing to run a festival you know next to nothing about all while hoping you don’t run it into the ground?”

He finished, his frown having grown deeper and deeper as he’d continued, all while Winnie listened with measured breaths. She was used to barrages of criticism. Heck, if Matthew thought he could get to her with his words after she’d lived in her father’s home for nearly two decades, he had another thing coming. Compared to the metaphorical tomatoes Dad constantly threw at her, Matthew’s words were like flowers on a stage.

“Wow,” she said with a feigned heavy nod. “That’s quite the rap sheet, isn’t it? So one overarching apology won’t make up for them all?”

He didn’t respond, clearly unamused.

“No?” she pressed. Again, no response. “Okay, well, for the record, I did apologize for spraying mud all over you. As for everything else, what if I tell you everything that you’ve done to me so our actions cancel each other out?”

He scoffed. “And just what have I done to you, exactly?”

Now it was her turn to fold her arms. “How about tricking me into sharing more about your estate by making me believe you were a mere member of the staff instead of the owner’s actual son?”

His dubious look remained, despite the slightest hint of culpability now shining in his eyes.

“Or,” she continued, “how about when you made fun of me in front of your dad for accidentally tracking puddles through the house—which, by the way, I still don’t think I did? Or when you teased me for getting the century wrong for the medieval era? Or when you walked so close to me on your horse that I was sprayed with mud by his hooves? Oh, and then there was my favorite—your absolute guarantee that I would fail at my job here. How about any of those? Do they warrant an apology?”

They stared at each other, neither of them wavering, eyes unflinching until, to her surprise, his lip twitched, as if he were about to smile.

“I guess we’ve both said things to each other we probably shouldn’t have,” he finally muttered.

Woah, what? Were they actually progressing toward something of an amicable business relationship? She could hardly believe it had happened so quickly.

She had some charm after all.

“I guess, then, moving forward,” she began, “we can just promise to try our best not to tick each other off. It’ll make working together much easier that way.”

Just like that, the air between them shifted back to what it had been before, and Matthew’s stoic expression returned. He licked the corner of his mouth as his jaw shifted, then his eyes sharpened. “How did you find the festival?”

So that was his next angle—to find more ways to be offended by her. She had to play this right, or all hope would be lost with working amicably with the guy.

“I found it absolutely enlightening,” she stated.

“Enlightening,” he repeated.

“Yep.”

“That’s all you can say about it?”

She pressed her lips together. Speaking openly now, before they had even a chance to rebuild their tenuous relationship, wouldn’t help anything. But then, what would lying do?

“You want me to be honest?” she asked.

He nodded. “Of course.”