Page 85 of I Choose You

“It’s yours to do with as you see fit,” I told her once we’d emptied our glasses.

“I still say it’s too much,” she said. Her protests came quieter, with less enthusiasm. It seemed more like she felt she had to say something, although her will to argue was fading.

After we both hugged her and said goodbye, we got into Kaden’s SUV and he began the drive back to the city.

“That was incredible,” he said once we left her street.

Oh, thank God. I wasn’t in the mood for that tense quiet from before. I’d had mixed feelings about bringing him to Mom’s house, and I was glad it seemed to have turned his mood around. He sounded happy. Calm. Excited even.

“I can’t wait for her to put it to good use. Some things were long overdue.” Shame should have hit me with that admission, but it didn’t. The rundown neighborhood gave the area such a glum and lousy appearance overall. The curb appeal was more like a warning than a welcome. Still, she wasn’t living in a hovel. She’d done her best and kept things nice. It was the bigger, unseen things that needed the boost of repairs—behind-the-scene stuff like the foundation, heater, washer and dryer. Or she could just apply it to the mortgage.

“Thank you for bringing me with you.”

I smiled and gestured at him behind the wheel. “I’d say you brought us both there. Thanks for the ride.”

“I feel honored.”

I peered at him, not expecting him to say something like that.

“But you gave me all the credit.” He glanced at me, then returned his attention to the road.

“It was your money,” I reminded him. Technically, it became mine when he deposited it. And now Mom’s since I gave her that check. Thinking about it soured my mood though. Just the reminder of him giving me anything felt weird.

Knowing I’d taken that money after what we did in the garden made it all cheaper. More gray. He hadn’t paid me for sex, but it complicated how ethical I could claim this to be. Even if sex was out of the equation, it didn’t sit well with me. Whether I liked it or not, our arrangement had changed.

Him being here like this, a quiet support when I was with my mom, didn’t feel like a fake date.

My desire to hug him this morning, when he looked so unhappy and lost to the point I hated him being in pain, didn’t make me feel like I was pretending to be his plus-one.

Now I was involving him with even more. He fit into my work life. He was my fake date. He was also my very memorable lover.

And a friend?

“Would you like to come to my house for dinner?”

I blinked, stunned that he’d asked that, of all things, out of the blue. It looked like he was reconsidering our relationship too. By asking him to come to my mom’s, I’d given him the idea we weren’t just business associates or fake dates. To know he wanted to put pressure on that crack between us, to splinter this confusion even more, thrilled me.

“Um, when?” I asked.

I’d spent all of last week firmly keeping us in one lane. The lane of him representing Wagner Industries and how I represented Halden Inc. Okay, maybe it was two lanes. Because I’d gone to that cake tasting as his fake date, too.

He noticed. There was no way he hadn’t noticed the boundaries I’d put up. I kept it all professional, on the up and up. Having Todd in the meeting helped that effort, but I had no doubt that Kaden had noticed my attempt at keeping things professional only. I’d hated the distance, but when he didn’t call or text me either, I started to assume he wanted it to be work only as well.

Until he showed up this morning looking like I would solve his worries.

Until he asked me to dinner.

“Tonight. I’d like to cook for you.”

I smiled, already imagining how that would go. Risky for my business-only goal, but I was excited that he’d ask. “That sounds like a date-date. Not a fake date.”

We made eye contact, and I melted a little at his intense gaze.

“So what if it is?”

29

KADEN