Page 38 of Cade

“Fair enough. Tomorrow, take the car service. I know it may not be what you’re used to, but it is safer and if anything ever changes in your day, you can call them at any moment.” Cade looked out the window instead of at her when he spoke.

“Okay.” This wasn’t a hill she was going to die on. Not driving around the city made her life easier, no arguments from her.

They pulled up in front of Cade’s house and he stepped out first before reaching back to give her a hand. Her bags were already being grabbed by the driver, so she followed Cade into the house.

“Let me know if you have any issues with the contract. I would like to get that settled as soon as possible.” Cade dropped her hand as they made it in the house.

“Sure,” April answered. She waited for the driver to set her bags down and then picked them up and headed for the stairs.

“I didn’t think to create an office space for you. I can clear some space in my office if you’d like to share. We can also use one of the spare rooms upstairs. Just let me know what you want to do, and I’ll make sure it gets done.”

She nearly laughed at him. He’d been in her apartment, she didn’t have one there, wasn’t worried about it now. “I’m good. I may post up in your living room sometimes, though.”

“Whatever you need,” he told her. He looked like he wanted to say something, but shook his head instead. “I’ll see you in the morning unless you need anything?”

April shook her head. “I’m pretty tired, actually. I’ll look over your contract and then probably go to sleep.”

They went their separate ways. The awkwardness of that conversation stuck with her as she reviewed the contract. It was weird that after all they’d done, getting married, sleeping together, not to mention their past, that something as simple as good night was that uncomfortable.

The contract was very generous in her favor. Nothing was out of order aside from that and he’d even added a clause should one of them not be able to have children that put no fault on her. It wasn’t something she’d considered, but now that she saw it there she was glad that he had.

She signed it and set it on her side table before laying back on the bed. Flipping on the TV, she ignored the work she’d brought home and let herself zone out, only thinking of Cade a few times.

Chapter Eighteen

Cade

Cade and April had settled into a sort of strange routine. It was a bit like living with a stranger but they made it work. Breakfast was usually had together and they took turns making things on the weekend, during the week she seemed to exist on tiny amounts of food.

It was Saturday and Cade had gotten up early, pulling together a big breakfast for the two of them. Bacon was cooked, he was flipping the last pancake and the eggs were ready to go in the pan. Having a cook was never his style and he’d been happy that April hadn’t requested one, not that he thought she would.

April had been quieter than normal this week and barely eaten before work. Dinner hadn’t been something they’d shared since right after they’d moved in, but he noticed little was gone from the fridge. If she was ordering food then she wasn’t eating it here because he hadn’t seen any takeout trash.

This morning he planned to remind her, again, that this was her home now too and she was welcome to anything. He didn’t have a cook but he did have a driver and a few people that shopped for him. Anything she wanted he was more than happy to get for her but she hadn’t asked for anything.

She worked a lot. That was one of the first things he noticed and he hated it. He wanted her to cut back on her hours and take better care of herself, but knew he had no right to say those things to her. Still, maybe little by little he could convince her his idea was better, starting with a big breakfast this morning.

It felt like she was avoiding him and had been since their flight back from Vegas. He needed to fix that but didn’t know where to start. He was also still deal with looking for his father which was turning out to be a waste of his time.

The man called several times a week, Cade didn’t answer. Then his father would send a text and Cade would ignore that too. No one had been able to find out where he was sending it from, the encryption too thorough.

It was odd. They worked in technology but hiding things wasn’t what they did in their company. Though, his father may have made contacts, he found it hard to believe that someone would help him like they were. Then, most people had a price and his father clearly had money stashed somewhere.

Usually, April was up just as early as him but he hadn’t seen her yet. He wasn’t going to hold sleeping in against her, but it seemed out of character for her. As he fixed the last of the eggs, he made up his mind that he would check on her if she didn’t come down before they were done.

“Morning,” April said, walking in the kitchen.

He turned to face her and watched as she took in the food on the counter. In the next second, she threw her hand over her mouth and ran away.

Cade set the eggs down and turned off the stove as he debated what to do. It seemed like anything nice he did for her was making her upset, including being near him. There could be only one reason for that, maybe she was in on things with his father.

It didn’t make sense and she had no reason to work with him. Nothing she could get out of it that he could quickly puzzle together other than more money. Hadn’t he just been thinking that everyone had a price? It seemed that maybe someone had found hers.

Cade went in search of her, not wasting any more time thinking about it. She had shut herself in her bathroom. He knocked on the door, waiting for a response.

“April?” he called out when she didn’t answer. “If you’ve done something that I need to know about just tell me.”

He wasn’t going to make fake promises not to be mad, but he needed to know. Only silence greeted him from the other side of the door. Knocking again, Cade stared at the handle and debated his next move.

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