A sinking feeling rumbled in her stomach. He wasn’t large just because he was large. He was large because …
“Donovan plays for the Knights, honey, so yes,” Grams said. “You’d know that if you took an interest in the team, which is part of your legacy.”
Yeah, add that to her list of shortcomings. She didn’t care much about football and felt little to no shame about that fact, but sticking her foot in her mouth was a whole ’nother matter. Oh, God. Spontaneous Jada had struck again. The rumbling in her stomach increased in agitation. “Oh.”
“I also own Sugar Blitz, by the way,” Donovan added. Yeah, she’d figured that out, too. Insult the man’s cupcakes, insult the man. She was batting a thousand or scoring a game-winning touchdown, to use football lingo. But he still had that disapproving look on his face, so she didn’t feel one hundred percent bad. More like ninety percent. His frown deepened as her gaze lingered. Okay, make that eighty-five percent.
His jaw worked side to side before he spoke, the deep timbre of his voice filling the air. “Did you come to the store on some type of reconnaissance mission? Get the lay of the land?”
Jada’s mouth fell open. “What? No! Why would I do that?” Add arrogant to his list of attributes.
His lips twisted in a self-satisfied grin.
Jada swallowed a growl. Barely. He was messing with her. Trying to get a rise out of her. And damn it, it was working, and he knew it.
“I’m so happy you’ve been there. You liked the product, I presume?” Grams interjected.
Oh, great.
Now Stern Prin—no, Donovan—was studying her with unvarnished interest. She couldn’t go with “decent” again because that would only arouse Grams’s interest, and he knew it. Was it too early to declare Donovan her nemesis? She’d known him for less than twenty-four hours, after all.
Ignore him. Jada turned to face her grandmother. “I did like them.”
“Oh, really?” he marveled from behind her.
Her eyes cut to him. He was laughing at her. Jada’s teeth clenched. No, it wasn’t too early to declare him her sworn enemy. It was right on time, actually.
“I’m so happy to hear that because I had the most marvelous idea.” Grams beamed, clearly clueless to the undercurrents of dislike flowing in her office.
“What’s that?” Jada managed to push out of a dry throat. Her stomach was still heaving. Grams looked way too pleased with herself. Where was a bottle of extra strength Pepto-Bismol when she needed it?
“Donovan has agreed to let you work at Sugar Blitz for the next six months.” Right when she would turn twenty-six. Grams had thought of everything.
The roller coaster of her stomach dove straight down to her knees. Jada blinked. “I’m sorry. What?”
“You heard me. Wasn’t that nice of him?”
Calm was currently out of reach, but she grasped for it anyway, even as she felt it slipping through her fingers like grains of sand. “Grams, you can’t ask him to do that.”
“Why not? You need a job. He has a job.” Hurricane Grams had struck again with her infallible logic.
Jada sputtered. “Be-because…”
“If she doesn’t want to do it, I certainly don’t want to force her,” Donovan said, all superior principal talking to a recalcitrant student’s parent. And just like that, Jada opened her mouth to exclaim her eagerness to accept a job with the great Donovan. She caught herself in the nick of time. Only a small meep escaped. “Grams, really, I don’t think this is…” Her voice trailed off as Grams’s eyes narrowed.
“Hmm,” her grandmother said. “Donovan, do you mind if I speak to my granddaughter alone? We’ll be in touch later today.”
Donovan’s gaze met Jada’s briefly before he nodded. “Of course, Mrs. T. I look forward to working with you, Jada.”
The way he said her name, with a hint of mockery in the soft drawl, made her want to pop him in his smart mouth. But she wasn’t a violent person, or so she’d always believed. She forced her lips into a replica of a smile instead. “Have a nice day.”
That was the best she could do. No way could she say she was looking forward to working with him. ’Cause it wasn’t going to happen.
He nodded once more, then departed.
“Would you like to tell me what’s going on with you and one of my favorite players?” Grams asked as soon as the door softly clicked shut behind Donovan.