Page 44 of With This Ring

We head inside to the headquarters. Gavin hangs back in the lobby with Percy as I stride over to Kai’s office.

He has his jacket off, sleeves rolled up his arms, his hair piled on top of his head in a messy bun, a few strands hanging in his face. Kai’s bottom lip is pulled between his teeth in concentration, the plump flesh taking a beating from all the gnawing.

His desk is littered with papers, and pencils are strewn about. Paperweights hold down a large square of paper he’s studying and making little notes on.

I rap my knuckles on the door a few times, leaning against it. Kai’s head snaps up and I watch the mix of emotions cross his face. Surprise, distaste, confusion and maybe something close to like. “Carter.”

“Husband.” His lip twitches as if he wants to smile. “You have lunch soon.”

He looks down at his watch in surprise. “I do. Shit, I lost track of time.”

“What do you have going on?” I walk over to his desk and look over his shoulder. Floor plans are before him, with a list of necessary materials for a new build. “Is this for Indigo Arc?”

Exhaling roughly, he turns around and looks up at me. “I never second guess anything. If I want to do something, I get it done. I’ve never gone up against Pop.” He shakes his head. “Up against Charlie.” He pulls the hair tie out of his hair and drags his fingers through those luscious waves. “He hasn’t been answering my calls. So I haven’t been able to tell him I’m going to do this.”

“Go see him. Make him listen. If you want, I’ll come with you.”

His gaze bores into me, searching my face for something. “No. I can handle it. Thanks though.”

“This looks good. Knocking out these walls here,” I point to the rough plans he has drawn up, “and adding another restaurant will generate more revenue. Having more tables and a high rollers room will elevate your casino. You can even add an events room. You could do small concerts, a room for those charity balls. People pay in advance for those.”

Kai looks back at his hasty plans. He’ll have to have an architect draw the real plans up before he starts building, but he has a good grasp on what he wants.

Picking up one of the many pencils on his desk, he erases something and draws a large room, including beams and load bearing walls. He’s really good at it.

“Why didn’t you become an architect?” I ask, watching him work. “Seems like you know what you’re doing.”

He shakes his head as he keeps sketching, his hair falling over his shoulders. I use one hand to push it back so he can see the papers in front of him. “Pop said that would take too much time from the family.”

I scoff. “You know you can do tons of shit online now. That’s no reason to hold yourself back.”

I watch a smile spread across his face. “Maybe. I’ll think about it.” He finishes drawing with a flourish. Picking up the paper he tilts his head to the side and makes ahuhnoise. “That…that actually works. Can you project the revenue for the next ten years for me? Including two restaurants, a high rollers room and a possible event center?”

“Sure. It’ll take about a week while I work on it, but I can get it done.”

“Thanks.” Kai sets the paper back on his desk and turns his chair to me. “Why are you here?”

Perching on the edge of his desk, I cross my legs at the ankle. “I came to take you to lunch. And see if you needed one of my guys to fill in until you found a new full-time accountant.”

Kai nods, standing and putting on his jacket. “Actually, yeah. I think that would be good to have someone from your family working here. To blend our families and shit.” I grin. “You have someone in mind?”

We discuss which one of my guys to send over as we leave the office. Kai looks at me curiously when I grab his hand and pull him to the back of his building instead of heading to our cars.

He has a table in the back where I had Gavin set up some sandwiches and drinks that I had my dad’s cook make for us. When he turns to look at me, I explain. “For a while, it might be too dangerous for us to sit in a restaurant to eat. When all this shit blows over, I’ll take you out for a proper date.”

The blush that appears on Kai’s cheeks is breathtaking. He’s so fucking handsome and he’s so expressive now. Everything he’s feeling shows up on his face. Before, I had a hard time reading him, since Kai liked to keep his emotions to himself. Now, he shows me everything.

We sit down and I put a turkey sandwich in front of him, along with some fresh fruit and a bottle of water.

“Thanks. I’m starving.” Kai digs in immediately, taking a huge bite of his food. After he swallows the food in his mouth, Kai says, almost shyly, “This is nice. I’ve never been on a date before. This…is a date right?”

“Yep. Me either. This is all new for me. But I’m trying. For you.”

I’m shocked when his gray eyes soften, and that cute grin curves his lips. “Yeah, me too. I wanna try.” Hesitantly, he holds out his hand and I grasp it. “We’re probably a bunch of fools, actually liking their spouse.”

Smiling at him, I give his hand a squeeze. “Nothin wrong with that.” I take my hand back and bite into my sandwich. “Remember that time when we were sixteen and I saw you in that restaurant with your stupid ass friends?”

Kai gives me a dry look, then throws his napkin at me. I bat it away, laughing. “Yeah, I remember. Pop gave me shit for a week for the mess we made.”

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