Free Her Heart's Desire by Lisa Watson Page B

ever made, but when I got an offer to work at this small boutique to head up their marketing campaign, I took that as a sign that I needed to shake things up.”
    “Did your boyfriend relocate with you?”
    Her smile faded. “No. His career was flourishing. Uprooting to another state wasn’t one of his long-term goals. So that was that. I should’ve seen it coming.”
    “Why?”
    “We’d been engaged for two years, but never set a date. The timing was always wrong, as far as he was concerned. It took me a while, but eventually I realized that we weren’t of the same mind. Breaking up was painful. It broke my heart, and made me doubt myself. There were times when...secretly, I hoped we would get back together. That he would call me or just show up here to say he’d made a huge mistake and that he wanted us to try again, but that never happened. He never fought for me...for us.” She glanced over at Ivan with eyes alight with unshed tears. “You must think that’s pretty silly.”
    He reached for her hand. “Not at all. I understand how in love you must’ve been, and that your decision to move on even though you still loved him was extremely difficult. Not wanting the same things in life is what ripped to shreds most of the relationships I’ve had—that and my being so far away. Believe me, Tiffany, I know exactly how you feel.”
    Tiffany dabbed at the corner of her eyes with her dinner napkin before taking a sip of her wine. “Okay, enough melancholy.”
    “I agree. Tell me about your store. How’d you get started?”
    “Well, I wasn’t fulfilled working for someone else, and when Milán opened her own interior-design company, that gave me the incentive I needed to get off my butt and make things happen. My grandmother left me a small nest egg when she died a few years ago, so that’s what I used to help get my boutique off the ground. That and a small business loan,” she added. “But I did it.”
    “I commend you for taking a chance and starting a small business. You had the gumption to realize your dreams, and you went for it.”
    “What about you? How did you get your company started?”
    “I began consulting after I ended my last tour and got out of the army. I decided not to reinvent the wheel as far as a career, and stuck with security and protection. It expanded from there, and I soon realized it was a lucrative market. I brought a few retired buddies in with me, and the company grew exponentially. But you know what I love most about it?”
    She shook her head.
    “It still fills me with a sense of accomplishment, and it makes me proud to be able to continue making a difference in people’s lives.”
    Tiffany held up her glass. “Here’s to us. May we never lose sight of dreams and what makes us truly fulfilled.”
    Ivan held up his glass and clinked it with hers. “Here’s to you, for having such an antiquated alarm system that allowed us to meet in the first place.”
    That made her laugh. She touched his glass again, and took a sip of her wine. “You don’t think Norma Jean would’ve eventually tried to push us together? Granted, you’re built like a tank, so I really don’t think anyone would be pushing you too far, but if anyone could, it would be Jeannie.”
    Ivan’s right eyebrow shot up. “A tank?”
    “Yes, a devastatingly handsome, incredibly sexy tank,” she added.
    “Oh, well, then I can deal with tank.” He grinned lasciviously. “And no, I don’t think she would’ve tried matching us up. I was pretty clear when I told her I wasn’t interested in blind dates. So far she’s respected my wishes.”
    Tiffany looked skeptical. “About as clear as Adrian has been over the last twenty years?”
    “Well, he’s her son. Of course she has a vested interest in him marrying.”
    They both had a good laugh at that. Since Ivan was relatively new to the Love Broker experience, Tiffany brought him up to speed on some of her not-so-near misses.
    “I think you all should