Page 23 of Masked Indulgence
A hostess told us to sit anywhere we liked after letting us know that the cost of the buffet would be added to the hotel room bill. The food was decadent, and everything looked and smelledterrific.
Nixon led me to a table near the window. “Like this? Or want to sit somewhereelse?”
“This is fine, Nix.” I placed my purse on the chair, and we headed to thebuffet.
He stood close to me as we filled our plates, pointing out healthy things like the fresh fruits and telling me they’d be great for the baby and me. A smile stayed on my face as he doted on me and our little unborn babyalready.
When we sat down to eat, he reached across the table, taking my hand. “Thanks again for letting me know about this so early on. I doubt most women would be as nice as you are about this. Would you like me to set up a moving service to get your things to my placetoday?”
“Today?” I asked, just before I put a piece of delicious hickory smoked bacon into mymouth.
“Sure, why not today?” he asked and then cut his stack of pancakes, taking abite.
“Well, I have to let my landlord know I’m moving. I have a lease. He might not let me out of it.” I took a drink of apple juice and waited to see what he thought aboutthat.
“I’ll pay to get you out of the lease. Should we go see him today and get that taken care of?” he asked, putting his fork down and looking at me. “I want to take you home withme.”
Flattered, I had no idea what to say. There were things I had to take care of. Not a ton of things, but there were some. I had laundry I had to get done, and I’d need to pack my things. I’d have to get boxes to do that. “Nix, I’ll need about a week to get thingsdone.”
“A week?” He looked stunned as he shook his head. “That’s too long. I want to get you to adoctor.”
“I don’t think this is an emergency,” I said with a laugh. “And I don’t think we’ll get an appointment that quickly anyway. A week’s not thatlong.”
He looked at his plate then picked up a piece of bacon, munching on it as he thought about what I’d said. His brow furrowed, probably thinking about what he could say to speed me up. “I can stay with you then; help you get everythingdone.”
My apartment was a complete wreck. Being sick—or pregnant, I guess—had left me too tired to do much of anything. In no way did I want him to see the mess the place had become. “Nix, can I be honest withyou?”
“Please do,” he said then reached out and took my hand. “You can always be honest with me,Katana.”
“Great,” I sighed as I readied myself to come clean with him. “My place is a wreck right now. I don’t want you to see it. Since I’ve been sosick…”
He gave my hand a squeeze as he interrupted me. “Stop right there. If you think I’m going to judge you about the state of your apartment, you’re dead wrong. As a matter of fact, let me hire a maid service to get things cleaned up for you. Let me take care of you.” He shook his head before changing his mind about what he’d said. “No—scratch that. I am going to take care of you. I’m hiring a maid service to clean your place. I’m hiring movers to pack your things and bring them to Malibu. And I’m going to go with you to talk to your landlord to settle any money owed for breaking the lease. Nodiscussion.”
I didn’t know what to think or say to all that. But then my mouth opened and out came the words I’d had no idea would come. “No, I’ll take care of those things myself, Nix. I’ll be at your place in a week. And I’ll take care of any money my landlord says I owe. Thank you, but I can do this part on myown.”
Now where did that comefrom?
Chapter15
Nixon
Ihadto admit that Katana had stupefied me when she flat-out turned down my help. But it did let me know the woman was no gold digger, not that I’d truly suspected that anyways. It’d been a week since I’d left her to take care of things on her end, and I expected her to show up at any time. The movers had already brought her things to my place the day before, and everything had already been put away. She’d come home to find she had nothing to do. I hoped she’d be pleased aboutthat.
Before I left her in Portland, I gave her a house key and wrote down the code to the security system for her, just in case I wasn’t home when she arrived for some reason. But I couldn’t wait for her to come home, so I took off early to bethere.
When the front door opened around noon, I hopped up, feeling excited about our new beginning. “Hey!”
My face dropped, and I stopped right where I was as I saw it wasn’t Katana, but Shanna who’d come in. “Hey, yourself. What in the hell are you doing home so early on aworkday?”
I hadn’t said one word about my news to anyone. And out of everyone in my life, I knew Shanna would be the one to think what I was doing wasstupid.
Sitting back on the sofa, I said, “I’ve got something going on. And just what are you doing here? And why aren’t you atwork?”
“It’s Friday. I always get off early on Friday’s. And I often come over here to lie out on your deck and chill from the weekly grind for a few hours.” She took the seat across from me. “You did give me your key, and you did tell me to come over anytime Iwanted.”
I had done that. And now I kind of regretted doing so. How would Shanna take Katana, and viceversa?
Leaning forward, I rested my elbows on my thighs and steepled my fingers, trying to think of how I should tell Shanna my news. There really was no right way to tell her about this, so I just went for it. “Okay, you need to know something. Things are about to change. And I mean a whole hell of alot.”
