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Hearing the hesitancy in his voice only made her fall for him even more, because she knew he would leave Blake for her if she asked, but he also didn’t want to leave his friend alone when he was in pain. “I’m very sure,” she said.
“Okay. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Goodnight.” Hallie clicked off the call with a smile. She’d wanted Caden to come back so they could spend the night together again, but at the same time, she also liked her alone time, and it wasn’t like she didn’t have a lot to do.
Hallie ended up staying awake on her laptop way too late, and then woke up to her phone buzzing next to her. She groaned not wanting to answer whoever it was, but when she peaked at the screen and saw it was Caden sending her a text message, she perked up instantly.
Caden: Have breakfast with me :)
Hallie: I’d love to :)
An hour later, he was knocking on her door and kissing her like he hadn’t seen her in weeks as opposed to hours. She could definitely get used to that. “Good morning,” she said with a huge smile on her face. “How’s Blake doing?”
Caden shrugged. “Okay. He was in a lot of pain for a while, so we pulled out his old PlayStation to try to take his mind off it. We ended up playing until like two in the morning. Then he crashed, and I went home and was asleep before my head even hit the pillow. You look absolutely stunning, by the way. Still insisting on torturing me, huh?”
She wore a flowy skirt and a cute off the shoulder top with her favorite pair of rhinestone sandals. Not an outfit she really thought was all that sexy, but there was a kind of fire in his eyes that she’d never seen another man have for her. He caught her mouth with his in another mouthwatering kiss, leaving her nearly dizzy with lust.
“Are you ready to go?” He asked, his voice a little husky. “I need to get you out of here before I go back on my word and just rip your clothes off. I thought we could check out the farmer’s market down the street and then see where the day takes us.”
Hallie nibbled on her bottom lip. The things this man said to her should be illegal. But she was glad they weren’t. “I’m ready. And I’d go anywhere with you,” she said, echoing his words from yesterday.
Instantly his steel gray eyes went from smoldering to swimming with emotion. He pulled her into his arms, holding her close. They were quiet for a long moment, then he pressed a kiss to the top of her head and said, “let’s go.”
They spent the rest of the morning and afternoon together, first at the farmer’s market, then they checked out another coffee shop, and lastly, they walked around a cute town center a few miles away where they had a late lunch at the prettiest little garden bistro she’d ever seen.
The whole time, Hallie felt like the luckiest girl in the world. It was almost unreal how easily this man made her laugh, how he always held her hand, walked on the street side of the sidewalk, paid for everything, even when she offered, and always seemed to be using his own body as a buffer whenever they were in a crowded place.
She didn’t want their day to end, but she still had a lot of research to do for her store, and Caden had to get ready for the week ahead. He had an appointment in the morning and he wanted to be rested and ready to go in case he was cleared to go back to work.
By the time she got back to her apartment, she was pleasantly tired, but continued the research for her store. The soft pings of her phone every time Caden messaged her were welcome interruptions, and she loved the funny memes he sent her. No man had ever gone out of his to make her laugh as much as Caden did, and she was loving every second of it.
The next day, Caden invited her to have lunch with him at a cafe not far from his office. She’d spent most of the night and the better part of the morning doing more research and hadn’t come up with any good ideas on how to bring more business into The Mystic Cow. She tried to hide her disappointment from Caden, but true to his observant nature, he picked up on her disheartened mood almost as soon as they sat down with their food.
“Regrets?” He asked.
They were sitting in an outdoor seating area in the heart of downtown Dallas with sandwiches and sodas. Hallie looked at her turkey club. “No, I like turkey.”
He smiled, a sweet dimple showing itself in his left cheek that made her hand itch to touch it, kiss it. This guy was an amazing distraction from her otherwise serious thoughts.
“What’s wrong?” His question hung between them for a long moment while she debated how honest she wanted to be with him.
Hallie shook her head, deciding she didn’t want to get into it and ruin a perfectly good lunch. “Nothing. Don’t worry about it. How’s your day going?”
He wore a dark suit with a white button-down shirt that looked even crisper against the classy eggplant colored tie. She was glad she’d thought to put on a nice pair of slacks and a dusty blue top. If she had just left the apartment in the jeans and t-shirt, she’d been wearing that morning, she would’ve felt seriously under dressed for the occasion, even if it was just lunch.
Caden put his sandwich down on the plate in front of him and stared at her. “It doesn’t work like that, Hales. You can’t go to a funeral with me one day and then hold back whatever is going on with you the next day. Spill.”
Hallie made a big fuss of sighing deeply and then smiled, hoping to lighten the mood. She didn’t really want to talk about how she’d spent most of the last two evenings trying to figure out how to save her business from spiraling, but she didn’t want to lie either. “I’m just a little tired. I spent most of the last two evenings and this morning doing some pointless research online.”
“About what?” Caden asked, not missing a beat.
Hallie took a sip of her Cherry Coke. Somehow just thinking about the sweet dark drink made her smile. It was a treat, and since she rarely had it, unlike coffee, she always ordered itwhen she was out, if the restaurant carried it. “Well, with the store being closed for a few days, I thought I could open with something new. You know, like a new gimmick, or something to attract more customers.” She said that last part as if it was no big deal. Like it was just an afterthought instead of the only thought consuming her every waking moment when she wasn’t with Caden or thinking about him.
He nodded, but he didn’t say anything, waiting for her to continue. Except she didn’t really have anything else to add. She had spent hours staring at her computer screen, scrolling through pictures on her phone, looking for ideas, but all she had to show for it was a headache and dark circles under her eyes that she’d used heavy amounts of concealer to cover up. “I haven’t figured out anythingyet,” Hallie said, really wanting to end this topic of conversation. “Now, tell me about your day.”
Caden reached over the table, taking her hand in his. “You’ll figure something out. Give yourself a break. You’ve been through a lot. And to answer your question, my day has been good so far. I have officially been cleared to go back to work and I’m sitting here having lunch with you.” He smiled again, the kind of smile that lit up his gorgeous steel gray eyes, and suddenly Hallie couldn't even remember what she had been stressing about. The man was seriously lethal, but when he smiled like that, all bets were off.
“That’s great. I mean about being able to go back to work, not the sitting with me here, part.”
