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He should have known she wouldn’t run. He should have known that his baby would walk right over and likely tell him she got here first and he should leave.
She was about to find out that he wouldn’t walk away so easily.
“Quaid, could we speak for a moment?” Jayna asked in that oh-so-polite tone of hers that still somehow held an edge of challenge. Like she halfway expected him to say no because he was a scaredy-cat.
He stood. The good news was he was friends with the owner of this place and knew exactly where they could talk.
“Of course.” He slipped his napkin on his plate and stepped aside.
“Quaid, remember your manners,” Rene warned.
Manners didn’t matter. It was obvious she wasn’t going to respond to his gentlemanly side.
It was time to let the bad boy come out toplay.
chapter eleven
Jayna followed Quaid into the dining room. “Uhm, I thought we should talk outside. It’s loud in here.”
She wasn’t sure where he was going. Did he need a drink in order to have a conversation with her? This might go worse than she thought. She’d expected a short conversation followed by some awkwardness and then they would get on with their lives.
“I know a place where we can talk and not have everyone in town listening in,” Quaid said, his voice rising over the sound of chatty diners and the music from the dance floor. “Or watching.”
She glanced around and sure enough, almost every eye in the room was on them. That was exactly what Quaid wanted to avoid. She’d screwed up again. “Maybe I should return to Sienna. You can get back to your friends. We can talk tomorrow.”
His hand came out, grasping hers and basically challenging her to pull away and create even more drama than they had now. “I don’t want to get back to my friends. They were supposed to come out with us tonight to get to know you. If you’re not there, there’s no reason for me to be there, either,so let’s talk. And I don’t care what they say about us, Jayna. You should understand that right now.”
He turned and started walking again. She pretty much had no choice but to follow unless she wanted to make things worse. No matter what he said, he did care about gossip. It was precisely why he wanted to keep her away from his family. They were in Papillon’s upper crust, and no matter how many degrees she had, she was still one of those Cardets. She didn’t even have her father’s surname because her mom hadn’t been married to her or Sienna’s dads. Two kids. Two different fathers. No marriages.
Was her mother afraid of losing her to more than distance?
Quaid pressed through the big stainless-steel doors that led to the kitchen. The smell of frying food made her stomach rumble, reminding her that she hadn’t had dinner yet. One of the waitresses picked up a tray with two orders of chicken strips and French fries, one salad with crawfish bisque, and that big old po’ boy with fried shrimp she’d planned on eating her feelings with. Yep. That was her order walking away.
“Lisa, I need to use the apartment,” Quaid said to the petite woman in a Guidry’s shirt and jeans.
Lisa Guidry’s gaze moved between the two of them, her big eyes even wider than normal. “Sure, but it’s kind of bare right now. We only use it when Remy’s working overnight.”
As if saying his name made him appear, Remy poked his head out from behind the row of shelves, frowning their way. “Hey, Quaid. You know there’s no condoms up there. We’re trying to get pregnant.”
Now she pulled her hand away. Whoa. Someone misunderstood. “We don’t need condoms. We’re going to talk for a couple of minutes and then I’m going to rejoin my family and Quaid is going to get back to his life.”
“I’ve got some on me. Don’t worry about it,” Quaid said, and then nodded her way. “Not that we would need them because of what she just said. But you should tell everyone in town that I hauled her up there because I couldn’t stand a single afternoon of her being mad at me and I’m going to do everything I can to make it up to her. You tell them all that.”
He gripped her hand again and started for the back of the kitchen and the stairs tucked back there. She would have pulled away but she felt warm for the first time in hours.
“Quaid, what is going on? You basically told Remy and everyone in the kitchen that we’re going to have sex. Which we’re not. We’re going to talk. Or rather I’m going to talk and you’re going to listen.”
“And then we’ll probably have sex. I was serious. I snooped Sienna’s calendar and saw that she was going to be here.” He took the stairs two at a time. “I made a bet you would come along with her.”
She had to jog to keep up.
“You didn’t think this was a coincidence, did you?” Quaid asked, his voice rough.
Was he going to be more difficult than she’d imagined?
“You wouldn’t talk to me this afternoon,” Quaid continued. “You walked away without giving me the chance to explain. I’m not going to make the same mistake. You want to talk, I’ll listen, but you’re going to give me the same courtesy.”
“I didn’t think there was much to say. You gave me an order. I’m following it. I’m giving Paul the contracts tomorrow. I won’t have anything further to do with your family, so there’s nothing for you to worry about and all of this is not necessary.” She allowed him to lead her inside the tiny apartment over the kitchen.
