Page 22 of Wolfish Heart
He stares into space for a moment. “Like warning you that whenever Mom meets you, she’s going to make a huge fuss over details. She’ll want to know where you bought your earrings or if they were a gift, and what they mean to you. I’ll make sure that we meet her for coffee at Corina’s or something – with a time limit of around an hour, so her third-degree line of questioning can’t go on too long.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
He smiles patiently as I take another slow breath. “Of course…if I’m meeting your mother, then you really think…”
Kaden stares at me blankly for a moment. Then his mouth drops open. “Oh baby…yes. If you’re asking if I think this is areal relationship, yes.” He squeezes my hand. “You’re the one for me, Zoe.”
My breath sputters. “Really?”
“Ten thousand percent. If this house is too big or you don’t like it, we can get another one. Or we could have something custom built, and while they’re working on it, we could go live in the south of France for a few months. Or California. Or Iceland – though that’ll be a bit colder. Hey, we both work remotely, right?”
“See… It’s just wild to me that you have no stress. You can just take off and do whatever you want.”
Kaden shifts to pull us closer. “We were very fortunate, not having to get jobs right out of school. We were able to take our time and figure out what we wanted to do. But when we hit upon this idea…” His eyes roll. “Those first two years.Damn. Coding and testing and all-night brainstorming. We worked our asses off. I’m still not saying that we deserve this incredible fortune or anything, though, which is why we give so much of it away.”
“I love that part,” I say softly. “It’s like you’re the fairy godmothers of the town.”
“Really?” He slumps, making an exaggerated grumpy face. “Fairy godmother? That’ssuperunsexy.”
His arm slips around me, pulling us together as he nuzzles the side of my neck. “So, my sweet, gorgeous baby. Even though I’m apparently over the top, and my home and company are too much, do you want to make this official?”
“Official?”
“Like, will you be my girlfriend? May I clear you out some drawers and half a closet until you’re ready to move in? Introduce you to people on the street as my girl?”
I fix him with a look. “I mean, there was that huge hug in the middle of the road the first day we met.”
“That was wishful thinking. Now I need to hear you say it.”
The decision is already made. Kaden is so kind, so gentle. Thoughtful about every detail. Plus, he seems completely committed to caring for me. If he’s willing to take some things at my pace for a while, I can push myself to be a little more outgoing.
Lifting my palm, I cup the side of his face. “Yes. I’ll be your girlfriend.”
Wow. His smile. There’s so much emotion in his eyes, and they light up as I give him a quick kiss. Being physical with him feels natural, when I allow myself to stop feeling nervous.
Kaden leans back with a grin. “Great. First, we’re going to have to?—”
His phone screams with an urgent, metallic ringtone. He grabs it, then exhales a deep sigh as he reads the screen.
“Correction. First, I’m going to have to teach you what happens in an emergency, when one of our data points goes down.”
15
KADEN
It’s terrible timing, but Zoe’s sunny attitude on the drive out to the river tells me that she understands my responsibilities.
“You know, if we were at an important birthday dinner or something, I’d have one of my brothers do this,” I say, reaching over to squeeze her knee. “But I’m closest.”
She smiles, then jumps as the front wheel hits one a large pothole. “It’s just a short trip. It’s fine.”
We reach the river and Zoe follows me along the trail, then we veer off to the east past a huge boulder. “We take a slightly different route every time so that we never create a real path,” I explain, taking the long way around a pine tree before getting back on track.
“That makes sense.” She looks around the forest, breathing in the fresh air. “I really appreciate you showing me your super-secret spot.”
My arm circles her shoulders for a quick hug, my other hand slipping down to squeeze her ass. “Baby, I want to share all our secret spots with you.”
Once we get to the camera, I’m relieved to see it’s simply been knocked off its tripod. Zoe looks around. “Could someone have done this on purpose?”
