Page 16 of Hers to Hold
“Let’s go get it then.”
He carried her upstairs and into her room. While Chastity shoved her books into her book bag, Wes threw some of her clothes, toys, and recreational books into her small suitcase. “You’re coming to stay with me for a while,” he said brightly, hoping to cheer her up after what she’d heard.
Chastity adjusted the bag on her shoulders and put her hands on her hips—just like her mother. “Do I have to cook?”
“No, baby.” He laughed nervously. “I’m not going to make you cook, unless you wanna help Kat at the bakery.”
Chastity’s eyes lit up. “Can I? I want to make cheese danishes.”
“I’ll make that happen.”
She let out a cry of excitement and flung herself into his arms. Wes carried her out of the townhome, with Caroline nowhere to be found.
Chapter 7
“Idon’t even want kids,” Kady murmured to herself.
She wrapped her arms around her middle and perfunctorily crossed her legs. She’d been preoccupied all day after finding out Wes had a kid. How old was it? Did he have more than one? What was his relationship like with his ex? Were they married?
Were they still married?
“Huh?” Yates said while furiously typing away on his computer.
Kady waited patiently in her boss’s office. Another check-in on top of the weekly meetings she had to attend. Kady was used to the oversight. Besides, she was new and unproven.
“Nothing,” Kady muttered. She still debated whether or not telling Yates that Wes had a kid was a good idea. On one hand, she believed Yates would order her to find another route to the information because making a potentially single father and unwitting source would rub any journalist the wrong way.
On the other hand, Kady thought Yates would only encourage her to use the guy more. Yates was the type to skirt the ethics line. Kady continued to weigh the options right up until the moment Yates yelled at her for daydreaming.
“Sorry, sir. I was just thinking about the case.”
“Not about your source?” He wagged his brows.
Kady’s cheeks flamed before she had a chance to erect an internal defense. She lifted her chin to give the impression that his perceptibility didn’t affect her. But it did.
As did Wes’s kiss.
That, too, had caused her to daydream right through her shift at Kat’s bakery. She’d dropped a tool in a vat of icing, set the oven timer incorrectly and burnt some bread, and gave the wrong order to a customer picking up a delivery.
It was a nightmare.
Everyone she worked with just smiled and laughed. Told her not to worry about a thing and that accidents happened. It was weird. The journalism world was Hunger Games. Everyone out to undercut everyone else, steal stories, spread rumors, plagiarize information, create facts out of thin air. But at a bakery, it was all rainbows, unicorns, and icing-filled cupcakes.
“Sir, my source has…”
Yates raised his brows. “What? Has what?”
“He has a kid sir,” Kady said with a sigh. “And I don’t think the situation is a good one. I’d like to explore other options.”
Yates’s head dropped to one side. “Kady, you’re undercover. Or have you forgotten what that means?”
“No, sir.”
“You’re not supposed to get attached. You’re playing a role, nothing more.”
She kneaded her hands in her lap. Her boss was right no matter how much she wanted him to be wrong. She was playing a role. She wasn’t supposed to have feelings for Wes. To kiss Wes. To think about his kid.
Unless it had to do with getting the information she required.
