Cade, page 5
“I hope to, sir,” Cade replied.
“You should have rescheduled this meeting. When is the big day?” the man started towards the door.
“I’m trying to set it as soon as possible. We don’t want anything big or showy.” Well, he didn’t, anyway.
“That’s a sign of a good woman when they don’t need to show you off. Happiness is about so much more than other people’s opinions on your relationship.” He grabbed the door handle. “Let me know when you’re back to work after the happy day. We can meet then. You might be less distracted,” he laughed at his own words. “Or more. Time will tell.”
Cade walked to the door with him and saw the man out before telling Lauren she could take off for the day. She looked at him questioningly, but didn’t voice any of her thoughts.
He waited until Lauren left before closing the door to his office and picking up his phone to see if April had written him back. It was well into dinnertime now and he’d take her out somewhere nice if she was willing.
April: You can come by my place. I’m tired and not in the mood to fake nice to other people tonight.
Cade snorted. If she only knew what he was about to ask her, she’d probably prefer the public instead.
Cade: I’ll bring dinner so you don’t have to cook. What’s the address?
He knew it already, but there was no reason she needed to know that.
April: I’m already cooking. Feel free to stop by and I’ll feed you too.
She sent her address and Cade didn’t fight the genuine smile that was creeping across his lips. April was surprisingly agreeable tonight, and he could only hope that the trend continued.
Cade told her he was on his way and quickly headed out. He had a feeling time was of the essence, and he needed to get to her before she changed her mind.
Chapter Nine
April
April stood in her kitchen cooking dinner and obsessively checking her phone. She kept waiting for Cade to change his mind and say he wasn’t coming, but he hadn’t.
Honestly, she’d invited him over to her place, expecting him to say no. Now she was cooking dinner for two and still dressed after a long day at work, when she wanted nothing more than to slide into comfy pajamas. The cooking she’d be doing either way, but with fewer ingredients.
He kept surprising her, just not in good ways. Now she was terrified of what he wanted if he was willing to come over to have the conversation. Then again, the man was something to look at it.
No. She shook her head. She did not need to go there at all, she reminded herself. Cade was trouble, and it always ended that way. No matter how her body responded to him, she needed to hold her resolve.
Curiosity was definitely getting the better of her. She should have told him no when he asked to meet. She absolutely shouldn’t have invited him to her place.
It was a cycle she’d been stuck in since she sent her address to him. One minute she was lusting after him, the next she was sick to her stomach with worry over what he wanted.
April pulled the garlic bread out of the oven and set it on the stove to cool. Her shrimp Alfredo was just finishing, and now all she needed was for Cade to show up so they could eat. Or she could start without him just to show that she wasn’t waiting for him.
Before she could fix her own plate and congratulate herself for that thought, her intercom buzzed with Cade’s voice. Her palms immediately started sweating and she wiped them on her skirt before she pressed the button to let him up.
It wouldn’t take him long. She was only on the second floor, no view, but it was cheaper that way. April rushed to the mirror by the door and took a second to fix her hair before he knocked. She didn’t want to look like she was trying, but she wasn’t going to be a mess, either.
Her heart lept into her throat as he knocked and she had to swallow the lump back down. There was no need to be nervous, she reminded herself as she opened the door.
Cade stood there in his tailored suit looking every inch the businessman. She knew he would be fit under that jacket, not that she’d seen him without one in years, but she just knew. Before her mouth could start watering, she moved out of his way and let him in.
“Thanks for having me over,” he said as he walked past her.
Him standing there, looking like a giant in her small living/dining area, made her feel like shit. She shouldn’t, but she couldn’t help but notice that she didn’t measure up to him.
“Sure. Let me get plates and we can take them to the sofa.” April pointed at the sofa, as though he needed help to find it, and then shook her head at herself.
He made himself comfortable as she put dinner together. It didn’t take long and she carried two plates to the coffee table. “Can I get you wine or water?”
Cade cleared his throat, “water, please.”
She nodded and went to the kitchen, coming back with a bottle for each of them. “Bottled okay?” internally, she groaned. It wasn’t like she had another option unless he wanted tap.
“Thanks,” Cade took the bottle from her.
April took an awkward seat next to him. As they ate in silence, she cut her eyes to him and noticed that he wasn’t relaxing. He sat on the edge of the sofa, holding his plate.
“Sorry,” she said after finishing her next bite. “We probably should have gone somewhere instead. I was just really tired and not wanting to go out.”
“This is fine. The food is really good.” He said it, but he still looked incredibly out of place.
“Thanks,” she mumbled.
It was like he had looked around her place and judged it, finding her wanting. Taking her plate to the kitchen, she took a moment to gather her strength before facing him again.
“Where do you want these?” Cade’s voice came from directly behind her.
“Oh,” she squeaked. “Umm, just in the sink is fine. I’ll do the dishes later.”
He nodded. “You made dinner?” he asked as he looked around.
April nodded. “Yeah. Can’t afford to eat out all the time, so I learned to make what I liked.” In college, she’d been frugal, but she still wasn’t much of a cook.
“You learned well. No surprise there. You were always good at anything you put your mind to.”
Was that a compliment?
“It was a compliment,” Cade laughed.
Shit, that was supposed to be an inside thought. “Uh, thank you?”
“You’re welcome. I meant it.”
April nodded and tried to catch her breath as Cade overtook the space. He wasn’t doing anything but existing, but he filled the room with power regardless.
“What did you want to talk about?” she asked.
“A few things, actually. Should we go back to the living room?”
April followed him, but as he took a seat on the sofa, she sat on the floor across from him with the coffee table between them.
Cade arched an eyebrow at her, but didn’t comment on her choice of seating. She needed distance.
“I wanted to ask you for a favor. It’s a big one, but I will make it fair to you.”
It was her turn to arch a brow at him. Her mind was blank as she tried to figure out what Cade would want from her, of all people.
“If you agree, I will explain the reasoning, but I’d rather not without your agreement because of the personal nature of it. Then we’d need an NDA and a contract, but I trust you to make the contract.”
More confused, April shifted on the floor and pulled her feet under her. He had her attention. She’d give him that much.
“I’ll be honest, Cade. I can’t think of a single thing I could help you with. You have lawyers that can write your contracts, so it’s not that unless it’s something clandestine, which I’ll save you the trouble and tell you no now.”
Cade coughed to cover another laugh. “You are somehow both very wrong and very close.”
Frustrated, April blew out a breath and ran a hand through her hair, shifting her part. “Just get on with it.”
“I want you to marry me.”
Her mouth fell open, and she had no power to close it. Never in a million years could she have guessed that. “I’m sorry. What?” Not that long ago, she wanted him to ask. Now? Now she was just confused, even as her heart shouted yes.
“It only needs to be for a few years and it would not be in name only. I need children.”
April tilted her head as she studied him. “Are you sick?”
“No.”
“I have questions,” she said before she stood. “I also need a drink.”
“Got anything stronger than wine?” Cade asked.
“No,” April said but poured two glasses. Grateful that he didn’t follow her, she took several deep breaths to get her thoughts in order. “Here,” she said, handing him a very full glass.
“I expected you to have questions, April.”
Her head whipped up. Him saying her name had some weird effect on her. “Why me?”
It was Cade’s turn to tilt his head. “Not what I expected you to go with first.”
It wasn’t what she meant to say first either, but here they were.
“We know each other, and I already know that our personalities are compatible. It would work,” he explained.
“We don’t know anything about each other. It’s been years.”
“People don’t change that much,” he told her.
“They do. They do it all the time. I thought I knew you and then one day you were gone. I never would have thought the Cade I knew would have done that, but he did. Maybe it’s just me that doesn’t know you, then.”
Cade studied her. “I would like to explain. I can’t until you agree.”
“Cade, I know it was your family. I’m more concerned that you walked away from me like that. Why in the world would I want to marry someone who can just leave at the drop of a hat?” April paced across the small living room. “I have nothing to offer here. No money. I know you can find women a lot prettier. No power. I don’t get it and you’re going to have to explain.”
“April,” Cade started.
“No.” She held up her hand. “I wasn’t fishing for a compliment there. I’m not a knockout, but I’m not ugly. I’m comfortable with who I am,” most of the time.
“It would be a contract marriage. You can draw it up and we will agree on our terms and custody up front. I need this, April, or I wouldn’t be asking.”
“No. That’s not good enough.”
“Fine. But please stop pacing. It’s driving me nuts.” April tossed him a look that said she didn’t care. “I need your word that you won’t say anything to anyone about this. No matter what you answer.”
“You didn’t bring an NDA with you?” April asked, honestly shocked.
“No. No one knows I’m here. I trust you to agree not to tell anyone, and I am still hoping that you’ll say yes.”
“You have my word. None of this conversation leaves this bubble right now.” She agreed. They’d often had talks that were extremely private and had stayed in their bubble, as they called it.
“Thank you. My father is behind all the damage to the restaurant and a few other things that you probably don’t know about.”
She was losing count of the times he had shocked her tonight. “Okay?”
“He is demanding me get married and have him grandchildren, and he will stop. It makes as much sense to me as it does to you. I have people looking for him, but right now, the best way to stop the damage is to give him what he wants.”
April did stop pacing as her brain started the mental gymnastics it needed to do to make this make sense. “Your friends don’t know?” she asked.
Cade shook his head. “They don’t, and I don’t want them to.”
She stopped pushing her feelings down and let herself feel bad for him. “You know they won’t think worse of you, right? I’ve met all your friends, and they are great. They would support you.”
“I don’t want them involved in this. Besides, I can’t find him anywhere to do anything about it, and he’s just sending others to do the damage for him.”
“What exactly does he want from you and, by extension, me?”
“For me to carry on the family name and create an heir.”
“You could do that with a surrogate,” April argued.
“If you don’t want to make this marriage that real, we could do that. Or even IVF.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know. I can also make you look much more desirable for the partnership in your firm. I have power and influence, and you would, by extension.”
Ironic that what he was offering was so far off from what she wanted. “I need one thing from you before we can talk, Cade. Why did you leave before, and what would I have to say that it wouldn’t happen again?” She waited for his answer, needing to know what it was.
Cade sighed. “I can’t answer that one without your agreement on this.”
April put her hands on her hips and stared him down. “That doesn’t make any sense. Whatever it was that I did to upset you back then can hardly just be talked about after I agree to marry and sleep with you.”
“April—” Cade started, but she cut him off.
“No. I’m done.” Shaking her head at herself, she tried to make sense of the last few minutes and what had happened to her rational brain just because Cade was the one with this insane offer. “I can’t believe that I was even entertaining this thought. Why would I? So I could be in custody court with you later on when I do something else to piss you off? Get out, Cade.”
April pointed at the door. Cade looked like he wanted to say something, but wisely kept his mouth shut and let himself out.
She sunk down onto her sofa after locking the door. There was no reason for her to entertain that offer. It was bizarre, and she was better than that. It was better than tying her life to a man who so clearly didn’t want her and ending up stuck in a one-sided marriage for who knows how long.
It wasn’t Cade she was mad at. It was her for nearly giving in to what he wanted, despite her own needs. She needed to do better at shielding herself around him or work better to not be around him. Anything was better than the way she felt right now, angry at herself, embarrassed, and alone.
Chapter Ten
Cade
“You know that Lauren is my employee, right? Like she has actual work to do?” Cade asked his sister, Catherine, as she took a seat in his office.
“You know that I don’t buy that tough guy act, right?” Catherine waved him off. “Besides, this time, you invited me here.”
“To talk to me. Not to stand out there and talk to Lauren for half an hour,” Cade persisted.
“Whatever. You have no issues with how she does her job. We both know all this is nonsense, and I’m not even sure why you bother with it.” Always one to call him out, Catherine didn’t wait for him to acknowledge that he was right. “Now, I have been up here too long already, so if you wouldn’t mind getting to the point.”
He had no issues with Lauren’s job. She was right on that front. It was more of a habit now to tease the two women about being friends whenever Catherine visited his office. Lauren would never let her job slip in favor of chatting.
It also gave him a bit of a buffer right now because he needed to be delicate about what he wanted to ask her. He hoped she had a clue where their parents were, and if he could just get a line on him, he might figure out what his next move would be.
“Do you know where mother and father are?” Cade asked directly.
Catherine shook her head. “Mother calls here and there, but never from the same number, if it even shows up on my phone, usually an unknown caller. Why?”
Shit. He was really hoping for more information. “I’d like to know what father is up to and he keeps calling and blustering, but I don’t know where he is.”
“As long as it’s just his nonsense yelling, then it’s not too bad. At least he hasn’t shown up here again in a while,” Catherine offered.
“I’m worried he will. I have nothing to back that up, but I’d like to know where he is. It would tell me if I need to be on guard or not.” All of that was true, even if he left some of his concerns out.
“I’ll press mother the next time she calls and I answer. You can always use Ryker’s hacker guy,” she said.
Cade laughed. He already had. “You know he has a name, right?”
“Yep. Hacker guy.”
He rolled his eyes at his sister. “That’s not it, and you know better.”
“He said I can call him that so there.”
“You’re just doing that to try to get to Ryker.” His sister had been interested in Ryker since the first time she met him. Hell, it had been obvious to anyone and still was, for that matter. Ryker didn’t give her the time of day, though.
“I’m going to go back to my job now. I’ll let you know if I find anything out about where they are.”
She let herself out, leaving the door to his office wide open just to piss him off. He got up and closed the door back before returning to his desk and opening the email that ‘Hacker Guy’ had sent him just this morning.
He had looked into April’s past and present, trying to decide what he could offer her to get her to agree to his offer. He hadn’t really read it before going to her place, thinking that he would offer his name to get her partnership in her law firm and that would be enough. It clearly wasn’t.
Now he needed to read it through and figure out how to use it. He didn’t want emotions involved, and if it helped his cause to let her think that any of their past was her fault, he’d let her, even if it killed him a little. None of what happened had been her fault. That’s why he had left, to keep it from ruining her.
And yet, here he was, willing to look for blackmail to get her to jump into the fire with him, and she wouldn’t even see it coming. With April, he knew he could trust her. Nothing about what he’d told her when they were younger had ever come out in a paper or anything else. She’d told him it was in their bubble forever, and she had kept her word.
