Page 34 of Mine To Keep (Southern Wedding)

“Door open or closed?” I ask, and I want to kick myself with that question. He’s going to think I want to jump his boner again.

“Closed would be good,” he decides, his voice as soft as it was yesterday. I walk back to the door and close it, the sound of the click echoing loudly in the quiet.

Taking a second to turn around, I see he’s still standing at his desk. “We should—” he says something.

But my mouth is faster than my brain when I blurt out, “Before you start, I know I quit yesterday, but I was angry because, well, because you are you.” I shrug, hoping he doesn’t ask me what that even means. “Anyway, are you married?” I hate myself for being put in this situation. What if he is married, and he kissed me? I can’t even fathom what I would do.

His head shakes from side to side. “No, of course not.” He walks around his desk and stops at the corner of it. “Do you think I would have kissed you if I was?” He runs his hands through his hair, and all I can do is stare at his lips, knowing how they felt on mine. Knowing that his kiss made me dizzy. Knowing in my whole life I’ve never been kissed the way he kissed me. “What kind of man do you think I am?” he asks but doesn’t give me a chance to answer it. “I would never, ever do that. To you or to me. She’s my ex-wife. That was Meadow’s mother.” My mouth opens, and I’m not sure what to say. “She came here to—”

I hold up my hand. “It doesn’t matter,” I say. Something passes in his eyes, but I don’t know him well enough to know what it is. It looks like it’s disappointment, but it could also be relief. “I’m sorry for”—I wring my hands—“kissing you. It was wrong, and it won’t happen again.” He just watches me, his blue eyes putting a spell on me. “We have a big week ahead of us. The gala is this weekend, and for the next couple of days, I’ll be going crazy, so I’d like to ask that we have a truce.” His eyebrows rise. “We can get back to hating each other next week, but for this week, can we just pretend?” He puts his hand in his pocket, very much like Kevin did in the kitchen, but unlike Kevin, my whole body wants to shiver. “Please.”

He nods at me. “Fine,” he agrees, and I turn to walk out of the room before I turn and ask him if we can put kissing back on the table. My hand turns the handle. “Monday it is.” I look over my shoulder, which is a huge mistake because his eyes hold mine captive. “Make sure my schedule is clear after the Monday morning staff meeting.”

sixteen

Caine

“Why can’t I come with you?” Meadow asks from the middle of my bed, lying back on my pillows with her iPad in her hand on her propped knees. “I have a dress.” She looks up at me, a frown on her face.

“Trust me, baby girl,” I say, buttoning the black vest. “You’re not going to have any fun if you come with me.” I pull down the vest once it’s buttoned all the way to the bottom. “I’m not even going to have any fun.”

“But Grandma and Grandpa are going to be there,” she whines a bit, “and Uncle Nash.”

“Good news,” I tell her, adjusting the black tie around my neck, feeling like it’s about to strangle me, “they are all coming here tomorrow for lunch.” Her eyes go big. “And Uncle Nash said he has to take you to the park.” She claps her hands happily.

“Last time, he pushed me high, high, highest in the whole world.” Her voice gets more animated. The doorbell rings right on time, and I look at her with a smile on my face.

“That should be Alexa,” I tell her of the teenage babysitter I hire for the weekends. I know her parents, and she just turned seventeen.

“She’s my fav,” Meadow announces, getting off the bed and running downstairs to the front door.

“She’s my fav,” I repeat the words quietly. “You mean she’s your favorite!” I shout toward the stairs as I watch her walk down. Holding the railings with one hand, she tries to hurry as fast as she can. “Be careful,” I warn at the railing until she gets to the last step and then she runs to the door. I wait, listening for her to open the door, and when I hear the squeals from both of them, I walk back into my bedroom and into my walk-in closet to grab the cuff links my parents bought me when I joined their firm. The CG intertwined in some fancy script. After that, I put on my silver Rolex before grabbing the black jacket from the wooden hanger, slipping it off before putting in one arm and then the other. I pull out each cuff once the jacket is on before looking back into the mirror to make sure I look okay. Pushing my hair back to the side, I turn and grab my cell phone off the dresser before heading downstairs.

Turning toward the family room, I find it empty, seeing Meadow’s iPad on the island. I look out the back windows, finding the both of them. I smile as I make my way to the back door, opening it to find Alexa running around chasing Meadow. Her laughter is the first thing I hear once I step out into the cool air. “Catch me, catch me,” Meadow taunts, looking over her shoulder to Alexa, who is lightly jogging.

“You are too fast for me,” she tells her, making Meadow stop to give her a chance to catch up to her.

“Hey,” I say from the tip of the patio, “come give me a hug and kiss. I’m about to leave.” I look at Meadow, who pushes her hair away from her face with one hand before running over toward me. I squat down and brace myself, knowing she’ll try to plow into me. Once I wrap my arms around her, I kiss her neck. “You be good and listen to Alexa.”

“I will, Dad,” she promises, shortening Daddy before turning and rushing back to Alexa’s side.

“I shouldn’t be late,” I tell Alexa, who just smiles at me. “Probably around midnight, but I’ll let you know if it goes later.”

“It’s fine,” she replies. “We are going to have some pizza for dinner, and then I was thinking of making a fort in the living room and having a movie night.”

I nod at her, my phone beeping in my hand. Looking down, I see it’s from my driver, letting me know he’s here. “Have fun, you two.” Turning, I walk inside and then toward the front door.

The black Town Car waits for me, the driver standing beside the car on his phone. The door slamming shut behind me has him looking up. He places his phone in his back pocket before opening the back passenger door for me. “Good evening,” he greets me once I get close enough.

“Hi.” I nod at him, getting in the back door, and the cool air immediately hits me. The middle console is down and has two bottles of water in the holders. The suit feels like it’s suffocating me, so I grab a bottle and twist off the top, taking a small sip. The driver gets into the car and takes off without another word.

I look out at the passing trees as we make our way out of my development. I look at my watch more times than I care to admit. The ride to the venue is smooth for once, with no traffic. Suddenly, I’m nervous about tonight. It’s been a strange week, to say the very least. I’ve been overly quiet, as Loren said to me yesterday. To be honest, I’ve been biding my time until Grace and I can sit down and discuss whatever the fuck is going on with us. This whole week I’ve been watching her go crazy trying to plan everything for tonight. Wanting it to go off without a hitch, I left her to that instead of dragging her into my office every day to devour her. Instead, I sat with my door open, my head snapping up whenever I heard footsteps outside, thinking it was her. Or movement outside of the window. We exchanged hellos and goodbyes along with some messages during the day, but nothing outside of that. My nerves are on edge when I think about seeing her tonight.

Getting to the hotel, I wait for the driver to come to a stop before I reach for the handle of the car, but the door is opened by one of the valet guys. “Welcome,” he says, and I nod my head at him.

Walking into the lobby through the revolving door, I see a stand with the firm’s name and arrows pointing toward the stairs at the side. Making my way up the stairs and toward the venue space, I spot my parents and Nash right away, standing outside of the open brown doors. My father and brother are dressed in the same suit I’m wearing, making me laugh since we didn’t even plan it. My mother is in a floor-length black gown.

“Well, well, well,” Nash says when he spots me walking toward them, “nice of you to join us.” He brings the glass of whiskey he has in his hand to his lips.

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