Page 140 of I Choose You

He returned, joking about something again, and we carried on with getting the meal ready as a group.

Kaden wasn’t shy about helping. I already knew he was a generous and considerate man. He didn’t sit and act bored. He participated. Chopping veggies for the salad, rinsing vegetables, setting the table, and cleaning up after. He was no idle guest, and each time he stepped up in such a natural way, I realized it wasn’t for show. This was no grand scheme to impress and flatter me. He’d been raised that way, likely from an early age. Probably his mom’s influence.

It should have been surprising to see him so involved and competent doing the simple things in the kitchen. For as wealthy as he and his family were, they could have been living a life of luxury. Hired drivers were an exception, but living in the city but still needing to travel to the area we’d grown up, near Mom’s house and his father’s sprawling estate further out, paying someone else for transportation was a common way of life, not a sign of the elite living large.

Still, I didn’t get the sense Kaden—even Kody—acted like a pompous rich person someone with their wealth might. Mr. Wagner liked to dote on his sons. Margaux, too, had been overly generous by treating me with that silver dress and the items that went with it. But none of them exuded a barrier for me to fit in.

My only issue was in keeping that forty thousand. It didn’t feel right.

Kaden was more down to earth than someone of his status might be, and it only charmed me even more.

“I insist,” he said as he took the plates to the kitchen to wash them. He’d volunteered to handle it all. “You catch up with your mom.” He pecked a chaste kiss on my cheek, and I sat back and sighed next to Mom on the couch.

“Is he groveling?” she asked.

I burst out laughing. “What?”

“Is he? For doing what he did to you with prom night?”

I shook my head. “I’ve moved on past all that. It’s buried.”

“Well, he’s just so affectionate. And sweet.”

I smiled, glancing at him putting soap in the sink. We didn’t even have the appliance to do it for him. He’d stubbornly signed up to hand wash them. Enchiladas weren’t that messy in and of themselves, but burned cheese took some elbow grease to clear off.

“He is,” I agreed.

“You’ve hit jackpot, honey,” Mom said. “He’s such a gentleman.”

“I know.” But I’d feel better about where we’re headed if I didn’t have this sinking suspicion some things were still left unsaid.

Mom leaned in and elbowed my side to whisper. “What is it that you like so much about him?”

It should have been a trick question that required lots of time to consider.

As I watched him scrub a dish. I thought back through the past weeks. I let out a dreamy sigh. “I like how I feel when he looks at me.”

She patted my knee.

“When he looks at me, it’s like I’m the whole world. His greatest gift.”

Kaden gazed at me like that because he wanted to, not in default as a relative.

And that wasn’t something I could say about anyone else.

47

KADEN

The last time I went to the lake house, I’d gone on an SOS mission. Kody had taken a girl there, but she was mad when she realized he was only interested in sex. Apparently she was one of the rarities who didn’t want a one-and-done and he’d miscalculated. She ended up leading him on and locking him outside the house naked. Then left.

It was my sorry ass who drove out there in the middle of the night to let him in.

Idiot. He’d never learn.

But it had been funny because it poured that night.

This time, heading there for Dad’s bachelor party, I tried to stay positive. I’d rather be with Brooke, and I didn’t care if that meant I was pussy-whipped already. What we had was new, and with that newness, she was all I wanted.