Page 58 of Baby for My Enemy Billionaire

“Katie!”

“What?”

“What’s going on here?” Mom appears around the corner and regards both of us. “I thought people were going to come and eat dinner.”

“Sorry, Grandma. I wanted to see Dad.” Katie hurries to Mom with a spring in her step. “Do you want me to lay the table?”

“Please, darling. And no books at the table. We can have a proper conversation without a book in the way.”

“Okay.”

Katie disappears, and I hear her footsteps move through the house and into the kitchen. At least while she’s laying the table, we have a few minutes. I fold my arms and glare at Mom.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Taking Katie to Jade’s store. Why would you do that?”

Mom raises her eyebrows.

“You’ve always wanted Katie to get into books. You were frustrated that if you told her to read, she would outright refuse to. Now she’s pouring into them so fast I can’t keep up, and you’re telling her you want to stop?”

“Don’t give me that crap, Mom. You know what this is about.”

“I don’t, actually. How about you give me a clue?”

She is going to make me spell it out; I know it. And I’m not about to tell her the truth about me and Jade. I try to take it slower so I don’t end up blurting out what I actually did.

“You’re trying to match me up to Jade, aren’t you? You go there under the pretense of taking Katie and then try to fish out if Jade is up for a date with me. Well, it’s not happening.”

Mom looks amused.

“I thought I was being more subtle than that. But I didn’t go there to do that originally.”

“Then why?”

“Because Katie genuinely wanted to read more, and initially, she wanted to check out Jade’s store. She liked it so much that she wanted to go back.”

“How many times have you been there?”

I’m not sure I’m going to like the answer.

“Once a week.”

Once a week? I can’t believe I didn’t see it. I shake my head as I run my hands through my hair.

“Mom, you need to stop taking her there. You’ll end up with Jade’s store in the house at this rate.”

“Oddly enough, Jade said something similar to that.” Mom looks pleased. “At least you two are on the same wavelength.”

“That’s not funny.”

“It wasn’t meant to be.” Then Mom’s smile faded a little. “But I think you should talk to Jade. And not due to what you think.”

Now that’s gotten my attention. Mom looks concerned and is not the type to get unduly worried. It rubs off on me when that happens.

“What is it? Is something wrong?”

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