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She slammed the coffee pot down on the counter and glared at him. “No, it is most certainly not okay.”
He looked uncomfortable as he tried not to look directly into her eyes. “You have every reason to be upset with me, but I have good intentions with Isabella. I promise.”
Emily slowly backed away and looked at me.
I shrugged. “I’m fine. Really. I can take his order.”
She sized him up and down before walking away with the coffee pot, mumbling something to herself in the process.
Blade breathed a sigh of relief when she was out of earshot. “Holy crap, she’s protective of you. Which is a good thing, of course.”
He must have assumed I was upset with him, but the mere sight of his gorgeous face and body had an adverse effect on me. I wanted to rip off my apron and run away with him, far away from Indiana. I dreamed of starting a new life with him, the life that had been ripped away from us due to his mistrust.
Instead, I kept my calm and led him into the back dining room. “I’m due for my break anyway. Come on, follow me.”
Another server finished rolling the last of the silverware set in the back dining room, which was closed off for the day. I closed the door behind him when he left, leaving just Blade and me. The two of us sat down at a booth, nervously staring at the table before I finally couldn’t take the silence anymore.
“I told my parents not to put me in their will. No amount of money is worth my freedom.”
His jaw nearly hit the table. “Wow, are you sure that’s what you want? I mean, you’re giving up half a billion dollars.”
It was a question I’d asked myself numerous times, especially now that I knew what it was like to work for a living. “Yes, I’m positive. Besides, I’m sure it was just a ploy to try and get me back underneath Jason’s control. My father isn’t in the business of following through on his word unless his word is that he’s going to destroy someone.”
Blade nodded in agreement and leaned forward. “There’s something I need to get off my chest too. I was wrong about everything.”
“No.” I shook my head with a sigh. “I was the wrong one, treating you like my dirty little secret.”
He shoulders fell, relaxing. “Hey, I can’t exactly blame you for doing that. Like you said, my reputation isn’t exactly squeaky clean.”
“And mine isn’t exactly the best either. People probably view me as some stuck-up, pretentious sorority girl.” I took one look at my uniform and sighed. “Not anymore, though.”
Blade reached across the table and cupped my hand. “You’re perfect. There are a few other things I need to say, though. I never should have accused you of trying to get pregnant or that you were behind that anonymous social media account. I should have known you’d never stoop so low.”
It was the words I’d been longing to hear all week. “You really mean that?”
“Yes, I do. Look, I was nothing before you. If all of Exley wants to think that I got you pregnant, why should that bother me?”
I reached for a napkin as tears pooled in the corner of my eyes. “What about the football recruiter, though?”
“Well, he met with me today, and everything looks promising. Pretty sure I’ll make the team.”
I crumpled the napkin and squeezed his hand harder. “Did he mention the pictures of the pregnancy test?”
“He was concerned about me not being fully invested in the team if I became a father. Which is understandable since I’ll be traveling the country if I get recruited. But I assured him the test was negative.”
I had no intentions of getting pregnant until after college graduation, but mistakes could happen between now and May. Which made me wonder just how invested Blade had been in our relationship. “What if the test had been positive, though? What would you have done?”
“What do you mean?”
I leaned closer to him from across the table.
“Blade, if that pregnancy test had come back positive, then I would have kept it. I don’t know how I’d manage a baby and going to school, but it would have been my world. Maybe I’d have put school on hold, but after suffering through a miscarriage….”
My voice trailed off as I thought back to when I was seventeen years old and the hell I’d gone through. At the time, both my parents and my boyfriend had chastised me for getting pregnant, as though it were only my fault for it happening. Hell, my father still played golf with my ex-boyfriend. In his eyes, a woman getting pregnant is entirely avoidable through abstinence, but he would never hold a man to the same standard.
Needless to say, I was curious as to how Blade would have reacted.
To my surprise, he kissed the back of my hand. “Then we’d deal with a baby. I’ll do whatever it takes to be with you, even if it means putting my career on hold. I love you, Isabella.”
