Page 43 of Like Sugar

She didn’t even flinch.I ran my knuckles down her cheek, and she fluttered her eyes open.“Time to go inside.”

She looked around.“We’re at my parent’s house?”

“Yeah.Hold on, I’ll walk you to the door.”I slid out of the car and opened the door on her side, helping her out of the car.She yawned and leaned into my side.Leading her toward the house I asked, “Do you have a key?”

She slid a single key from the pocket of her shorts and handed it to me.When we got to the door, I turned the key in the lock.“Goodnight, Candace.Happy Birthday.”

There was a step up to get in the door, and she tripped over it.I grabbed her by the arm to keep her from hitting the floor.Sighing, I said, “Guess I’m taking you upstairs, so you don’t break something trying to get to your room.”

I shut the door behind us quietly, not wanting to wake her parents.The worst thing that could happen right now is them seeing me drag their daughter in the house drunk and barely conscious.

When we got to the top of the stairs I stopped, not knowing which door was her bedroom.“Time for bed.Which one is yours?”

She let out a giggle, and I covered her mouth with my hand.“Shh.”I followed as she tiptoed to her room and sat down on her bed.

I looked around the dark room quickly, not really seeing much other than the outlines of a dresser and a desk.A light-colored comforter covered her bed, and she wiggled around on top of it as she tried to remove her shorts.That’s my cue to leave.“I’m going to go —”

“Please don’t go.I miss sleeping next to you,” she whimpered.

“Not tonight.You’re drunk, and this is your parents’ house.I really have to get going.I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

She gave a sad nod and slid into bed.I gave a chaste kiss to her lips.“Sweet dreams, Candace.”

“Mason?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s my birthday.Can you call me Candi as a birthday present?”Her eyes were already fluttering back to sleep.

“Happy birthday, Candi.Get some sleep.”I couldn’t resist running my knuckles down the curve of her face one more time and kissing her forehead.It took all my resolve not to crawl into that bed with her.

Chapter26

Mason

“Tell me this tabloid is fishing.”On my laptop screen I saw my father throw a copy of a shitty paper onto the table next to him on his desk.

“What does it say?”I asked, pretending I didn’t see the same headline earlier today.

SENATOR DAVIS AND THE NANNY?

Complete with a picture of me escorting Candace from the club.

“Don’t play coy with me, son.Are you fucking the nanny?”His voice was a whisper-yell.I must have given him some kind of tell because that vein in his neck bulged.“What the fuck is wrong with you, Mason?It’s always something with you.We just barely kept Catherine’s overdose from the press, so you tempt them with a story about you screwing around with your underage nanny?”

“She’s twenty-one, dad.”Fuck.Wrong response.

“It ends now, Mason.Hear me?I won’t have a scandal ruining this election.Call Eleanor and figure out how to handle this in the media.”

“Sir, Eleanor has a job, and it’s not to babysit me and fix my problems.”

“That’s because you fucked that up too, didn’t you?She was perfect.Years of work down the drain because you couldn’t keep your hands off her sister.”He threw his hands in the air dramatically.

I took a fortifying breath.“That’s not why we split up.”

“Bullshit.”His hand slammed onto the desk.“You made that girl feel like a joke and she ran.”

Irritation from his attitude and not being able to do the thing I was being accused of caused me to get snarky.“I’m sorry, but when have youeverseen Eleanor Roberts run from something?She wanted something I couldn’t offer.”

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