Chapter 30
HOLLIS
Iled her through the lobby toward the private elevator that went to the rooftop. The attendant nodded when he saw me. I’d called ahead and made sure everything was set up exactly how I wanted it. The elevator doors closed, leaving us alone in the small space.
“Where are we going?” Juno asked, her hand still tucked into mine.
“You’ll see.”
She rolled her eyes but didn’t press. I loved that about her. She’d learned to trust me enough to let me surprise her, even though it went against every controlling instinct in her body.
The elevator opened onto the rooftop lounge.
I watched her face as she took it in. The space had been cleared of the usual crowd.
Just one table sat in the center, draped in white linen with candles flickering despite the lingering daylight.
The view stretched out in every direction, the city sprawling below us.
“Hollis,” she breathed. “This is wild.”
I pulled out her chair and she sat, smoothing the purple dress over her legs. I took the seat across from her. I’d been planning this for days, coordinating with the hotel staff, making sure every detail was exactly right. I wanted tonight to be special.
A waiter appeared with champagne, pouring two glasses before disappearing as silently as he’d arrived. I raised mine.
“To us,” I said.
She clinked her glass against mine, smiling. “To us.”
We drank, and I watched the fading sunlight catch the diamonds at her throat. The server returned with an amuse-bouche and disappeared once again.
“So,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “Can you believe we’re here? Like actually here, on a date, without you threatening to dump my smoothies on my head?”
She laughed. “To be fair, I still think about dumping your smoothies on your head sometimes.”
“But you don’t.”
“But I don’t.” She took another sip of champagne. “Three months ago, if someone had told me I’d be sitting on a rooftop in a dress that costs more than my rent, having dinner with Hollis Blackwell, I would have laughed in their face.”
“And now?”
“Now I’m only mildly annoyed by you.”
“That’s progress.”
She shook her head, but she was smiling. “How did this happen? Seriously. We went from screaming at each other at that expo to this.”
I thought about it, remembering that first day when she’d called my product rat piss in front of half the wellness industry. I’d been furious and intrigued in equal measure. No one talked to me like that. No one challenged me the way she did.
“I think you wore me down,” I said. “All that passion and fire and refusal to take my shit. It was kind of hot.”
“Kind of?”
“Very hot.”
Juno picked up her fork and tasted the cucumber roll. “So good,” she said.
“Tell me something,” she said, setting down her fork. “Something I don’t know about you.”
I considered the question. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. Family stuff. You’ve got all those brothers and cousins. There must be good stories. I know you rich kids get up to some wild shenanigans.”
I laughed, thinking about the chaos that was family gatherings. “Oh, there are stories. Where do I even start?”
“Anywhere.”
“Okay.” I took a drink of champagne, organizing my thoughts. “So, I have a cousin. Briggs. He’s a lawyer. At family get-togethers, he’d be the one telling us not to jump off the roof into the pool or shit like that. The straitlaced guy.”
“Okay.”
“The guy is always following the rules, never a hair out of place. Total opposite of me and my brothers. We used to give him so much shit for being boring.”
“Used to?”
“Not too long ago, Briggs went to Vegas to shadow the woman who helped create Blackwell Occasions with my brother and sister. They hated each other. So imagine our surprise when he ended up married to her. And here’s the best part. He didn’t remember the wedding.”
Juno’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Swear to God. He got absolutely wasted and woke up the next morning with a wedding ring and a marriage certificate. No memory of the actual ceremony.”
“Oh my God.” She was laughing now, covering her mouth with her napkin. “What did he do?”
“Oh, they’re disgustingly happy now thanks to Elvis.”
The server returned, took our empty plates, and brought out an appetizer dish of heirloom tomatoes drizzled with olive oil.
I met her gaze. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.” Juno shrugged.
“You’re close with your father. I’ve been in your dad’s office plenty of times and seen the photos on his desk.” I paused. “But you never talk about your mother.”
“She died when I was eleven,” she said quietly. “Cancer. It was brutal watching her deteriorate like that. One day she was this vibrant, beautiful woman who made everything feel safe and warm, and then she was sick. Gone six months after she found out.”
I reached across the table and covered her hand with mine. “I’m sorry, that must have been difficult.”
“My dad tried so hard to fill that void. He couldn’t replace her—no one could—but God, he tried.
He learned how to braid my hair, even though it always came out lopsided.
He sat through every school play and dance recital.
He taught himself how to talk to me about girl stuff that probably made him want to crawl under a rock.
” She laughed, but it was watery. “He was as close as possible to being both parents.”
“Sounds like a good father.”
“He is. The best.” She looked up at me and I saw the fierce love there.
“That’s why I’m so grateful I get to work with him now.
I know some people think it’s nepotism or that I couldn’t get a job anywhere else, but I want to be there.
I feel lucky I get to work alongside him.
Not everyone gets to spend that much time with their parent as an adult. It’s a gift.”
I squeezed her hand, understanding dawning. That was another reason why she was so protective of Young at Heart’s reputation. It wasn’t just business to her. It was her father’s legacy. Her mother’s memory. Everything that mattered to her wrapped up in one company.
That was a lot of pressure.
She wiped at her eyes, careful not to smudge her makeup. “Sorry. That got heavy.”
“Don’t apologize. I’m glad you told me.”
She took a shaky breath and reached for her champagne glass. “Anyway. Enough sad stories.”
I grinned, grateful for the shift in mood. “On that note, are you ready for your surprise?”
Her eyes widened. “No. Absolutely not. There have been way too many surprises for one day.”
“This is the last one… for today.”
“Fine, one more. But that’s it.”
I signaled to the server who’d been waiting discreetly near the elevator. He wheeled out a cart with a silver domed tray on top. He took our empty plates and left two more before he walked away. I stood up and walked over to it, my heart pounding. This was it. The moment I’d been building toward.
I removed the cloche with a flourish. “Ta-da!”
Juno’s expression fell. Her brow furrowed as she stared at what was on the plate. “Is that a burger?”
I nodded, unable to keep the grin off my face. “Yes, it is.”
Her eyes widened as understanding dawned. “Wait. Is that the burger?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She stood up, walking over to the cart like she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. “That’s what you and my dad have been doing the last few days.”
“I brought him a sample of the burger I’d been working on. Your father thinks we can get it to market in the next three months.”
“Three months?” She picked up the plate, examining the burger from every angle. “That’s incredible. How did you solve the production cost issue so fast?”
“Your dad’s team is brilliant. They figured out a way to scale the process without sacrificing quality. The price point is going to be competitive with regular beef burgers. Maybe even slightly cheaper.”
“Can I try it?”
“That’s why it’s here.”
She cut the burger in half, placing half on my plate and the other on hers. “I’m going to use my hands,” she said with a laugh. “I’m wearing an outfit that probably cost fifty grand and I’m going to use my hands to eat.”
“It’s a burger, is there another way?”
I watched her face as she took a bite, looking for any hint of disgust or disappointment. That was the thing with her, I knew she’d give me the brutal truth.
Her eyes closed. She nodded as she chewed.
“Oh my God,” she said around the bite. “Hollis, this is so good.”
“Yeah?”
“It tastes like a regular burger. Maybe better because I’m not thinking about the cow it came from.” She took another bite, then another. “The texture is perfect. Not mushy or weird. And the flavor—how did you get the flavor this good?”
Pride swelled in my chest. I’d spent countless hours perfecting that recipe. Hearing her validate it meant everything.
“Your company knows the recipe now.” I took a bite of mine and it tasted like success.
The server brought out the rest of our meal. A fancy fish dish with steamed veggies.
“This has been the best day,” she said as we finished dessert, some chocolate thing that had way too much sugar. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I wanted to do something special. You deserve special.”
We stayed on the rooftop for another hour, talking about everything and nothing. She told me about her college years, the disasters she’d dated before me, her dreams for Young at Heart’s future. I told her about growing up in the shadow of Hollywood royalty.
By the time we left, I felt like I knew her better than I’d known anyone in my entire life. And the scary part? I wanted to know more. Wanted to spend every day learning new things about her.
“My place?” I asked.
“Yes, please.”
I drove us back to my place in Santa Monica, her hand resting on my thigh the entire drive. It felt right, like we were right where we were supposed to be.