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“I don’t want to be hiding in the shadows with you. I don’t want to be hiding in the shadows at all.” A tear slips down my cheek. All the feelings from the past hour come rushing forward. My mother’s scorching words, watching Cash with another woman, almost losing him completely.
“We don’t have to hide.”
“Cash, can you honestly say you are ready to deal with a relationship with a woman who is going through a divorce? A messy divorce, which will only become messier when the press gets wind that we’re together. You’re you.” I motion toward him. “You are the new golden boy, garnishing press and interest, and criticism over the handling of your company.”
He flinches at the mention of his company. I move closer to him, hating how I’ve made him feel. Cash’s eyes soften and he opens his arms to me. I move into them and lean my head against his chest. “I’m so sorry, Gracie,” he whispers into my hair.
“Me too,” I reply, but the words get caught in my throat between a hiccupping sob.
He breathes me in and squeezes me tightly. “Just give me time to figure this all out.”
I sigh against his chest. “I’ve got time.”
“And in the meantime, could you try not wearing these glasses out in public?” There’s a hint of teasing in his voice.
“You don’t like them?”I ask, my hand going up to my glasses and taking them off to clear the fog that’s accumulated from our heat.
Cash groans. “They drive me fucking crazy, Grace.”
A smile peeks through my cloudy exterior, and I pinch my lips to the side. “Oh yeah?”
Cash grins. “There’s my girl.” His thumb rubs softly against my chin. “Yeah, your glasses, your skirts, you…you drive me fucking crazy, Angel. I’m infatuated. Obsessed. And I hate making you cry.”
His eyes study me seriously, and I lean up to kiss him. Before our lips touch, I whisper, “I’m pretty crazy about you too, Cash.” His dimple pops with his boyish grin, and he moves the extra millimeter to grab me in a kiss. When his tongue snakes its way into my mouth, warmth floods my body, and within seconds, I’m moaning against him.
How does he do this to me every time? Make me forget where we are, our circumstances, hell, he makes me forget my own damn name.
Regrettably, I pull away. “You really do need to get back to your date.”
Cash reaches out and touches my cheek, stroking me. “I’m really sorry for how I acted, Grace. I’m going to make this right, and you and me, Gracie, we’re going to dance under the moonlight again…outside the shadows.”
I close my eyes, remembering our perfect night in the Keys. And picture a future filled with more nights like that. Oh, just maybe…I smile sadly. “Focus on your job, Whiskey. I’ve got a lot on my plate with the divorce and work. Don’t worry about me.”
Cash shakes his head as he tips my chin up to gaze at him. “I’m going to figure it all out. My job, the press, and us.” He leans down and his lips brush against mine again. “Don’t give up on me yet.”
Chapter 22
Cash
The problem with having my siblings living so close is that now no matter where I turn one of them is hanging around. Today it’s Cat. I thought for sure I’d have a shot of being left alone on the weekend, but when I walk into my office, determined and nervous for a meeting with a PR executive and our legal counsel that I’d purposefully scheduled on a Saturday so that no one would be around,I find Cat lounging on my couch again, a Twizzler hanging from her lip and another magazine in her hands.
“Oh goodie, you’re back!” she says as she swings her legs off the couch into a sitting position.
“Cat, I really did believe you had a job somewhere else. Is there something you need to tell me?”
She rolls her eyes. “No. I’m meeting friends for lunch down this way and thought I’d stop in to say hi to my favorite brother.”
“Favorite brother? I mean we both know it’s true, but I have a feeling you’re buttering me up. What do you want?”
She stands up and throws the magazine on my desk, and I find another picture of me on a date. This time it’s one with Vanessa from a few weeks ago. Do the papers have nothing else to publish but my boring dating life? Although, I suppose it’s better than news about the company. That is far more salacious.
“You went out with Vanessa Simpson. Tell me all the details.”
I scrunch my face in confusion. “How do you know her last name?”
“We went to college together. She reached out after the date. Said it went well but that you never called again. Did it go well? I love her for you!”
Setting my coffee down on my desk, I ignore her question.
