Chapter 5
Chapter five
Tristan
Hindsight was always twenty-twenty.
I should’ve gone with my gut instinct to skip breakfast and head into the office. But since I figured I owed my best friends some explanation why I dropped off the face of the earth the previous night, I ignored the warning bells. Now here I sat staring at the disbelief on both their faces.
“You’re kidding, right?” Rafe asked.
“Yeah,” Liam added. “Thought this was a done deal.”
You and me both, man. I gritted my teeth. “Apparently not.”
I was still pretty sour over the partner thing. Mostly because Mr. Livingston hadn’t said a damn word about hard work. All of this bullshit came down to my personal life which, in all honesty, didn’t have a fucking thing to do with my work ethic.
“So what now?” Liam wanted to know.
I shrugged. “Now I work two times harder and hope it’s enough.”
Maybe I should have told them what Mr. Livingston had hinted at. If anyone understood, it’d be Liam. He was basically forced to marry to keep his company. Heck, Rafe was even the one to find his wife.
Not that I needed a wife specifically. A girlfriend would do fine. Anything for the rest of the board members to see I wasn’t as uninterested in a committed relationship as I really was.
My friends would help, I knew they would, and yet, I couldn’t bring myself to utter a single word about it.
“Good morning, my name is Angela, and I’ll be serving you today.”
Thank fuck for Angela’s timing.
“What can I get you?”
Rafe ordered first. An espresso with a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel. When it was time for Liam to order, she perked up. I knew why too.
“Oh, your accent.” Her cheeks turned red.
I grunted. Women always fawned over that damn British accent.
Before Everlee came along, Liam wouldn’t even have acknowledged the woman’s presence, but clearly things had changed. Because my usually broody friend looked poor Angela straight in the eye and smiled.
“Thanks, my wife loves it too.”
I had to bite back a laugh. I’d enjoyed his company pre-Everlee, however, this version of him was far more entertaining.
Not that our server thought so. When she turned to me to take my order, her expression was eerily like someone who’d sucked a lemon.
I jerked my chin toward Rafe. “I’ll have the same but change the espresso to a large Americano.”
After she scribbled our orders, she hurried into the café.
“Cavolo. This ordeal really did a number on you.” Rafe’s amused voice filled my ears.
A frown tugged my brows together. “What?”
“This is usually the part where you ask the pretty server girl if she has plans tonight.”
He wasn’t wrong. My gaze drifted to where Angela had disappeared to. Instead of seeing our server though, another familiar face filled my vision. One I’d spent way too much time wondering about last night.
Without thinking, I pushed to my feet and fished out my wallet.
“I gotta go.”
I dropped a few bills on the table and made a quick exit. Both Rafe and Liam’s confused voices followed me. I ignored them and picked up speed until I spotted Kate on the sidewalk.
“Kate,” I called out.
She didn’t stop.
“Dammit.” Widening my strides, I hurried after her and slipped my hand around her elbow. “Did you not—”
Kate’s open palm connected with my cheek. The stinging slap made my ears ring.
“What the fuck?”
“Oh crap, I’m so sorry.”
We spoke at the same time.
Grinding my jaw, I pressed my palm against my fiery skin.
Kate furiously pointed to her ears. “I didn’t...” Shaking her head, she heaved out a sigh then pulled out two small buds. Dropping them into her palm, she held her hand between us.
The bass of an upbeat song drifted into the air.
My lips curved. “It’s not good for your ears to listen to music that loud. It can cause permanent damage.”
She shrugged. “Can’t listen to my favorite song with the volume down.”
“Oh?” Intrigued, I reached for one of her pods, but she was faster.
Curling her fingers into a fist, she shoved her hand into her coat pocket. “Did you need something?”
“Yeah.” I invaded her space some more. “Imagine my surprise when I returned from my meeting and couldn’t find you anywhere.”
She swallowed, and for whatever reason, my gaze shot to her throat. I was oddly fascinated with how incredibly smooth and silky her skin seemed.
“I had dinner plans.”
Her statement yanked me back to reality and along with it an uneasiness behind my breastbone.
“Oh yeah? Another date?”
The words did not roll off my tongue easily, and I had no fucking idea why.
“With my parents,” she snapped. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
She was absolutely right. What she did in her free time was none of my damn business. That still didn’t stop me from inching even closer. Dipping my head, I searched her eyes, and dammit, the sadness from the day before was still there.
“Why are you sad, Kate?”
Her mouth popped open, and her gaze hardened. “Oh, would you give it a rest already.” With a sharp shake of her head, she sidestepped me.
I wasn’t ready for her to go.
Shooting my arm out, I grabbed her by the elbow again. The murderous look she shot me would have made a lesser man cower at her feet. But unfortunately for Kate, I was fucking relentless when I wanted something.
And right now, I wanted Kate.
No, that wasn’t right. I only wanted to know why she looked like someone kicked a puppy in front of her so the image of her sad eyes would leave my damn brain.
“Tristan.” Her tone held the same warning as her glare.
I ignored it and her vehement protests as I hurried us to the nearest café—one where my two friends weren’t. The last thing I needed was for them to get on my ass over this.
“What the hell are you doing?” She tried to free her arm, but I held on tighter.
Probably not the best idea, manhandling her like this, but I’d worry and feel bad about it later. And lucky for me, people were so immersed in their own things, no one paid us any attention.
“Sit,” I told her when we reached a booth at the back of the café.
She crossed her arms over her chest—as much as she could with me still holding on to her. “No.”
Reluctantly, I loosened my grip and hoped like hell she wouldn’t storm out. Heaven knew, she had every right to.
“Please, sit.” I tried a second time.
Her eyes narrowed, and she opened her mouth, then slammed it shut again. Shaking her head, she spun around. Two steps, that was all she took before she stopped dead in her tracks.
She stared at something. I tried to follow her gaze, but I only saw people milling about for their morning fix.
“Kate?”
Lowering her head, her shoulders rose and fell with the deep breath she took. She stayed like that for a few seconds before she faced me and took a seat.
Thank fuck.
I slid into the booth too.
“I’ve worked for you for almost five years. Not once have you showed any interest in my emotional state.” She pinned me with a stare. “Why now?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
She made a noise and looked at something over her shoulder. I still couldn’t figure out who or what she was staring at.
“I didn’t make partner.” The words tumbled over my lips without my permission. “Not yet anyway.”
Her gaze snapped back to mine. “What?”
“Turns out Lewis and I have to compete for the spot.”
Confusion marred her features. “Lewis? Why? You work twice as hard and bring in way more clients than he does.”
“I know exactly why.”
Her eyes lit up, and she leaned forward slightly. “You do?”
I leaned in as well. “I’ll tell you...if you tell me what’s going on with you.” It was probably a dick move, but I couldn’t resist.
She was not amused. She threw her hands in the air and fell back against the booth chair with a groan. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“Nope.”
Our server—I didn’t catch her name—chose that moment to sidle up to our table. She eyed Kate’s to-go cup from the previous café then cheerily asked for our orders. Kate didn’t say a word, so I ordered breakfast for us both.
When we were alone again, I leaned back and waited for Kate to start talking. She didn’t. Staring a hole into the tabletop, she nibbled on her bottom lip. Seconds turned to minutes, and still, she said nothing.
I was starting to regret pushing as hard as I had, but when I wanted to apologize and tell her she didn’t owe me any explanation, she looked up.
And fuck me, my heart twisted violently.
Her eyes shimmered, and it seemed as if the weight of the entire damn world was on her shoulders.
“There’s a very real possibility that I’ll lose my little girl.”
I was so stunned she could’ve tipped me over with a feather. “You...you have a kid?” How did I not know this about her? Come to think of it, there were a lot of things I didn’t know about Kate.
Was I that self-centered I didn’t show an ounce of interest in the people around me?
Just like my parents. And shit if that realization didn’t hit hard.
“Millie. I’ve been her guardian for the past three years.” Kate’s voice drew me from my thoughts. “But I love her as if she were my own.”
“I had no idea… You’ve never mentioned her before.”
She gave me a look. “Why would I? It’s not like you and I are friends or make small talk.”
Her words shouldn’t have stung the way they did.
“Right,” I mumbled.
Our gaze locked, and holy shit, time slowed until it rolled to a dead stop. It was only me and Kate and the damn unsettling feeling in my bones.
What the hell was happening?
Whatever it was, I needed to snap out of it. Fast.
“You…uh…said something about losing her?”
Kate nodded and proceeded to fill me in on her late best friend’s sister’s plan to get custody of Millie. I was more educated in corporate law than family law, but even I knew, the courts favored stable family homes.
Which didn’t bode well for Kate.
But as she continued to tell me about the situation, a light bulb went on inside my head. We could help each other. If she pretended to be my girlfriend, fiancée even, Mr. Livingston and the board members would see me in a different light.
And if she could convince the court she was raising Millie in a stable two-parent home, they’d have no reason to take her away from Kate.
It was a win-win.
“Kate.” Without thinking, I covered her hand with mine. The feel of her skin against mine sent tiny pinpricks from the tips of my fingers straight up my arm.
I’d never experienced anything like it.
As much as I would have liked to analyze the feeling, I had more pressing matters to attend to. “I have a solution to both our problems.”
She lifted her gaze from where my hand rested on hers. Her brows pulled together. “You do?”
“Yeah.” For whatever reason, my mouth had gone dry. I licked my lips and swallowed a few times. “Marry me.” Her eyes almost bugged out of her skull, and I quickly added, “Just for pretend.”
Gaze boring into mine, she studied me for a few long, long seconds. Then she slowly pulled her hand out from under mine.
“No.”