Page 30 of Cade

The thoughts did nothing to quell my nervousness; in fact, they only made me long more for the man.

Focus, Cade!

“Wonderful, you can wait over there,” she said as she pointed to an area equipped with white, egg-shaped chairs amidst a bright white floor and rug, floor to ceiling windows encasing the space and bathing it in bright light.

I am so out of my league, here.

I did as I was told, taking my seat in the strangely shaped chair, which swiveled without even a squeak.

What have I gotten myself into?

CHAPTER 19

Weston

I strolled through the halls of Rhodes Enterprises, feeling rather bored. For starters, there was nothing I loathed more than the drudgery of board meetings, which my father always insisted I join him for whenever I was in town on holiday.

It’s like he’s trying to bore me to death on purpose, perhaps to write me out of the will.

I casually pulled my phone out of my pocket, checking my messages for the hundredth time since that morning, to contemplate if I should respond back to Cade’s abrupt exit text. He had agreed to a fresh start, but the last thing I wanted to do was appear... needy, or worse...

Clingy.

The fact I was worried about how I would come across to the golden-haired sexpot was baffling in itself, and should have been red flag numero uno to me. After all, I’d lived nearly thirty years not giving a shit what anyone thought of me. My parents, my coworkers, the newspapers or social media spies who liked to report my antics to embarrass me, my family, and the company.

So why did I care all of a sudden, about what the doe-eyed little cinnamon roll thought of me?

Why was making a good impression suddenly so important when it seemingly wasn’t before?

“Morning, Mr. Rhodes,” Cynthia, the desk attendant, called in her chipper, sing-song voice.

I barely looked up from my phone. But then again, I dealt with Cynthia just as much as I dealt with either of my parents. She was their right hand, after all.

“Morning, Cynthia. Where’s this stupid meeting my father wants me at today?”

“Conference Room C on the fifth floor,” she said sweetly, but I could see the disdain in her eyes when I finally looked up.

I knew how most of the people in the family business felt about me, which was just another reason why I wanted nothing to do with running my family’s legacy, father’s wishes or not.

How was I supposed to take over a company where no one even liked me because of their own preconceived notions?

Preconceived notions you helped feed with your drama, no doubt.

It was true, I had never set the record straight for any of them, not that it would have mattered. When people saw me, they saw the heir to Rhodes Enterprises, not the man who went home alone nearly every night to an empty penthouse with nothing but his hand and a stocked bar to keep him company.

They only saw the moments I wished would have lasted longer than a moment.

“Thank you, Cynthia,” I murmured, trained in the art of thanking my father’s assistant practically since my birth.

Sliding my phone back in my pocket, I pressed the elevator button, waiting impatiently so as to get this damn meeting over with. The sooner I showed up, played pretend for my father, the sooner I could go back to...

Was there anything truly worthwhile to go back to?

The realization struck me, cold and hard, in the chest like an icicle of truth. But I didn’t want to think about cold, hard truths, and so I shoved the thoughts aside as the doors slid open, calling me forth like a lamb to the slaughter, and perhaps that was all this song and dance really was. I could fight and refuse all I wanted, but deep in my heart, I knew one day the inevitable would come.

As I sauntered down the crisp white and grey halls of the fifth floor, I noted how quiet it was, which only made the sound of my beating heart that much louder in my own ears.

And when I’d settled on Conference Room C, I’d opened the door expecting a boardroom full of company executives and my father.

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