Page 43 of Next Door Billionaire's Surprise Baby

“Kane. Hey…wake up!”

A hand forcefully taps my shoulder, waking me up. I grumble and nudge my head deeper into the pillow.

“Wake up, Kane. We’re going to be late.”

Chloe adds a lot more force to her taps, and that's what it takes to make me open my eyes finally. Her face is the first thing I see hovering over me. When she sees I'm awake, she stops tapping me and brings her hands to cup both sides of my face, whispering,

“There you are. Good morning.”

Her voice, scratchy from sleep yet softer than silk, caresses my ears lovingly. My hands slide up to cover her hands on my face, and I rumble out huskily, "Good morning." My eyes leave her face for a second to look around the room. From the bed, I get a clear view of the window, and I notice no light peaking through the curtain, and it’s still dark outside.

No wonder I’m groggy. It’s too early.

I give Chloe a questioning look, “Is anything wrong? Why are we up?”

Her eyes narrow slightly as she hisses, “Why are we up? It’s five am!” She straightens up and walks over to the window to peek between the curtains, “I don’t know if you forgot, but it’s Monday.”

My eyes follow every movement she makes, her black camisole molding around her body in an effortlessly appealing way.

"I know," I tell her, "But I don’t get up until six thirty.”

She turns away from the window and heads for the door, calling out as she goes, “Well, I do!”

I listen to the sounds of her retreating footsteps as she heads back to her room. I rub at my tired eyes, groaning at being forced to wake up. I contemplate going right back to sleep, but I know it’s going to be difficult to fall back asleep right now.

Letting out another tired groan, I crawl out of bed and trudge into my bathroom.

After a long shower, I’m dressed for the day, and I head downstairs for breakfast. Chloe is already in the kitchen, and she’s packing a bag for Skye.

"Diapers, check. Wet wipe, check. Extra clothes… there's no way I'm forgetting that." She stuffs the items into the bag and zips it up before placing it down on the table. Then she looks up at me and asks me out of the blue, “What’s wrong?”

I walk into the kitchen, grab a seat at the end of the table, and send her a confused glance, “What?”

She picks up her cup of coffee and holds it close to her lips, clarifying, “You look awful. Are you not feeling well? What’s the matter?”

My entire body feels heavy, and I’m a second away from heading over to the couch and crashing on it.

“You woke me up an hour and a half earlier than usual, Chloe,” I tell her in a low, drowsy tone, “I’m still trying to wake up.”

The sides of her mouth twitch with dark amusement as she snickers, “You’re definitely not a morning person. Maybe you’re too old to recover quickly from the day before.”

Rolling my eyes at her teasing, I yawn, “Funny how you couldn’t get enough of this old guy yesterday.”

After finishing a quick breakfast, we walk over to Skye’s bedroom to get her ready. Soon, we’re out the door and on our way to the garage to get a vehicle and leave. Once inside the garage, I pick out a car and head over to it, only to find Chloe walking in the opposite direction.

She’s going to gethercar.

“What are you doing?” I ask, and she lifts her hand to jingle her keys at me.

“I’m taking Skye to Fiona’s,” she explains, “I’ll see you at the office.”

From her tone and posture, I can tell there is nothing I can do to change her mind. So, as much as I want to persuade her to let me give them a ride, I don’t bother arguing. I simply usher Skye into her mother’s car before she follows me to my car, winking at Chloe as I do, “See you later, girls.”

Standing behind the floor-to-ceiling windows in my office, I look out the city. The busy roads are crawling with vehicles, and the streets are filled with pedestrians bustling to get to their various destinations.

I was like them once, rushing to get to my tiny central town office. I didn’t have a car because I sold everything to get the business up and running. Now, almost two decades later, my office is on the top floor of the high-rise building that towers over most of the city.

“And those are the reasons why I’m the only person who can send emails in your place, Kane.”

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