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I listened patiently as my mom talked on the phone. With me flying out to see her tomorrow, her anxiety ramped up to a fifteen out of ten. Flying terrified Mom, which was part of the reason for them driving to Oregon when they moved instead of flying.
“Yes, Mom. I checked everything. All packed. Checked the airline just before calling you. No issues with my flight. I triple checked the time. Went over their regulations. No oversized bags, no liquids. No bombs.”
“Why the heck are you talking about bombs? Did you pick up a new hobby after we moved away? They’ll arrest you at the airport for jokes like that. It isn’t funny.”
“Okay, okay.” I bit back a chuckle. “I’m sorry.”
Normally that would have at least gotten a laugh out of her. That was how anxious she was.
There was only one way to calm her down. A trick I used countless times when she got too focused. Bring up her passion.
“Either way, all is fine and I’m ready. I’ll land at the airport with all my fingers and toes, I promise. Now tell me about your work. How is it going?”
Paul did more than just ground me when he entered our lives. He also gave Mom direction. The last couple of years, she has been happily working as an elementary teacher.
Like it always did, my little trick worked and Mom began talking about how her week and the trouble her students got her into. All I heard was chaos, but to her, it was apparently the best thing ever. Everything she said was soft and warm and happy. Without having to see her face, I knew she was grinning.
By the time I got off the phone with her, I was feeling a bit exhausted. Then I looked at my current project and grinned, energy surging through me again as I thought about tonight.
Everything needed to be perfect. I obsessively went through the plan in my head again for tonight. Take Cadence out. Spoil her. Learn more about her. Safely bring her home. Feed her. I wanted to do so much, but the evening wouldn’t allow for it.
I just needed to remind myself that I had time. Everything didn’t need to be perfect at this moment. We’d have more dates in the future.
Giddiness filled me again, and I chuckled as I went back to working on my little surprise for her.
A date with Cadence. A real one. I’d been itching to do this for too long and now I had a chance. It just took me having to leave town for Thanksgiving for it to happen.
I couldn’t afford to ruin it, not when it felt like everything was barely hanging together by a thread. From what I’d gathered, she still needed to ask Bryan.
Then the easy part would be over.
I talked confidently with Cadence and the guys, but the closer we got to actually doing this, the more I was beginning to feel like I was a fraud. Everything I knew was from my aunt, which meant I didn’t really understand either. I could ask her a million questions and it still wouldn’t be enough to know how this was going to work. For something like this, it was going to be trial and error and experience. The error part of it scared me though because it could be enough to end it all.
I still couldn’t figure out why I set myself up to be some kind of expert in poly relationships, and I was beginning to feel that pressure.
If this didn’t work out…. I suppressed a shudder. I really wanted this to work.
Cadence was a storm into our lives. Scary, but once the storm ended, everything left in its disruptive wake was fresher, cleaner, more beautiful.
I wanted her.
And I knew the others wanted her too.
We were going to do this together, but the big question was, would we be able to keep her?
I swallowed my fears and focused on my task. Our date was only a couple hours away, and I needed to make sure it was perfect.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I was supposed to focus on Sunday. I wanted solid work to share with Laurens when I met with him and there were a few projects that had managed to pile up. So much for keeping on top of all my work.
On top of that, tonight, I had a date with Seth. A real date date. With wooing and romance and officialness. It wasn’t going to be like when we had those frienates, but more. Seth already warned me. Hell, he warned me when we did our frienate and he refused to treat it less than a date.
I was a little scared about what he was cooking up for tonight. But also excited. My stomach kept doing dance moves all morning and afternoon as I tried to work but instead started daydreaming about Seth.
By the time I finished getting ready, I was a bundle of jittery eagerness.
Seth barely had time to knock on my door before I was swinging it open to greet him.
