Page 32 of Purr For Me
She shrugged and drank her coffee. “How many rehabs in the USA can there be?”
“You’d be surprised—thousands. And with confidentiality top of their list, finding him may take some time.” Kade didn’t want to burst her bubble. Jason could have been lying to the girl. He might not be in rehab at all. Lexie, once again believed the best in everyone—even Jason, who she shouldn’t trust with a ten-foot pole.
“I have a good feeling about this. Come on, let’s eat. The food better be as good as you say it is,” she grumbled good-naturedly.
“Trust me. It is.”
She speared him with mock-fierce look. “We’ll just see about that.”
Kade laughed and took a swallow of his water.
* * *
Forty-five minutes later, Lexie’s stomach hurt from laughing at the funny childhood stories Kade told her. They were so amusing that she didn’t mind that they included Jason. They reminded her of the Jason she’d fallen in love with—before he’d got hooked on coke.
“Needless to say, I got spanked over that one,” he concluded the current story.
Lexie held a hand to her abdomen. “I’m not surprised. I would’ve killed you for putting Comet and dishwashing liquid all over the kitchen floor.”
Kade made a placating gesture. “I thought I was helping Mom clean.”
“In the middle of the night?”
“I was only seven. Give me a break.”
Lexie chuckled as she thought of her ex-mother-in-law. “I can just imagine Jackie’s face when she came downstairs in the morning and found all that goop dried on the linoleum.”
“She hit the roof, and Dad turned my butt red in a hurry. I never tried to clean again,” Kade said.
Lexie jumped when the alarm on her cellphone went off. Several other patrons in the diner glanced at her while she stabbed at the dismiss button. “Sorry about that,” she said.
“Is seven a.m. your normal wake-up time?” Kade asked.
Lexie brought up her work email account on her phone to check on the status of a couple of the parts orders she had placed for Kade’s car. “Yeah. Why?”
Kade smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”
Lexie’s eyebrows lifted. “Next time?”
“Yeah.” Kade snatched the check.
“Kade, I can pay for my breakfast,” Lexie protested.
“No, no. I promised to pay, so I am. No arguing.” He sobered a little. “I really enjoyed myself.”
“Me too,” Lexie said, meaning it. “I’m glad you invited me, even if you woke me up. The bacon made up for it.”
Kade grinned. “I knew it would. Well, I guess I’d better get to the gym and let you do whatever you do before work.”
He got out of the booth, and Lexie followed. “It just depends on my mood. Usually, I go for a run, but I think I’ll skip that this morning. I’m too full.”
Kade went to the register, paid the bill and returned to Lexie. “Maybe we could go for a run together sometime,” he suggested as they started for the door.
Sudden nerves made Lexie’s stomach sour a little. “Maybe.” She quashed her needless uneasiness. “We’ll see.” She flicked a coy smile at Kade before going out the door.
It surprised her when he followed her to her car.
“Are you afraid you won’t be able to keep up with me?”
