Chapter 11
Kaylee
Porter sounded sincere in his invitation to eat lunch with him, so I relented. He had come over and helped me out when I was sick, after all. He didn’t know anyone here in Bluewater, besides his brother, so he probably felt weird just going out and hanging in the office with the other lawyers.
Besides. He intrigued me. I’d indulge myself in figuring out why he’d helped me when I’d been nothing but abrasive toward him. Sure, he’d stolen my house from me, but I could’ve been a little nicer about it all.
I sat in one of the chairs he’d turned and crossed my legs, then shifted because that felt too intimate.
Why was I so worried about how my legs were?
What was it about Porter that made me want him to think I was more than my job?
Classy and tasteful, and all the things that it was entirely possible to be while still being an adult entertainer, but most people didn’t realize it.
I wanted him to realize it, but fuck all if I knew why. He was attractive, sure. But it wasn’t like he was going to be my next love interest or something. Not even slightly.
But even with telling myself not to worry about it, I demurely crossed my ankles under the chair and sat with my knees together like the damn queen of damn England and cursed myself for doing it.
He took a big bite of some sort of macaroni salad, then shifted the plate so it was in the middle of the desk beside us and in my reach. I’d already eaten, so I grabbed a finger sandwich to nibble.
And there we sat in silence. Awkward, uncomfortable silence.
Until he opened his mouth to talk. “Why did you withdraw your bid?”
I sighed and set the sandwich down. Might as well be honest with him at this point.
“Because banks are enormous dicks. Or, if my banker is to be believed, federal regulations are dicks. But someone, somewhere, is a big ol’ dickface.
They won’t count my income increase from this year.
” I studied him for a moment and decided to continue being honest. “And pardon my bluntness, but it’s something you and the bank have in common. Thinking my job isn’t a real job.”
He choked on his mouthful of macaroni salad, making a gargling, strangled sound. I handed him a napkin and waited while he got his composure. “On that note, I do owe you an apology.”
Fuck, yeah, he did. I tried to keep the shock off my face. I knew he’d judged me, but I hadn’t thought he knew it.
But I owed him one, too.
I’d let him go first.
“You’re right. I passed judgment too quickly on you and your profession.” He sucked in a deep breath and looked me in the eye. “It isn’t up to me to judge or have any opinion about what you do.”
It was nice to hear, but why now? “What caused this change of heart?” I asked with the corners of my eyes narrowed to show him I suspected his motives.
He held my gaze, and the intensity of his stare burned me down to my soul. Hot damn, boy. I shifted in my seat and waited for him to answer, but he never did. He just looked at me, hot and personal.
My apology died in my throat as I stood on shaky legs. “I’ve got to run,” I whispered. All I knew was that I had to get away from the weight of the emotions in his gaze. “My grandfather is expecting me, and I’ve got some work to do.”
Backing away, I waved and nodded my head at him as I beat my retreat. I wasn’t lying. I had plans to meet with Bianca to help her edit a holiday makeup tutorial that we planned to upload this afternoon.
Porter stood and followed me halfway to the door of the surprisingly large office. Why was it taking so long for me to get to the door? Had the office grown while I was here?
“Thank you for bringing me lunch and eating with me.” He kept coming so I opened the door and stepped into the hall before he snared me again with his crazy eye-power. “I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.”
I stuck my mouth close to the crack in the door as I shut it. “You too!”
Holy shit. I had to get out of here. I spotted my grandfather down the hall laughing at something one of his lawyers had said.
He truly enjoyed these parties with his employees and considered them his extended family.
Against my better judgment, I turned back, opened the door again and stuck my head in.
Porter froze with a bite halfway to his mouth.
“You shouldn’t be sitting behind a computer all day. You’ve got a family that loves you and an office full of people who would love to be your friends.”
Porter’s mouth was already open, prepared to take a bite, but it widened as his eyebrows went up.
“It’s something you shouldn’t take for granted.”
With that, I shut the door and didn’t stick around to find out if he had anything to add.
My grandfather was my only family. I left my parents and their addictions behind long ago.
The family that knew what I’d gone through in my life hadn’t ever lifted a finger to help me or even see if I needed help.
Why should I bother myself with them?
I’d been here a while by the time I’d made my way into Porter’s office, so I was able to quickly say goodbye to my grandfather and promise I’d be over tomorrow for Christmas dinner.
On the drive home, I thought about what my parents might’ve been doing for Christmas. We hadn’t spent a holiday together in so many years that I’d lost count. I hoped they were warm and safe. I wanted them to eat and be happy… just not at my table.
Bee was in the parking lot waiting for me when I pulled in. “We’ve got a lot of work to do!” I said, totally excited to be doing this with her.
She looked like she was ready to jump up and down. Laughing, I slung my arm over her shoulder. “Come on, Bee. Let’s do this.”
We got right to work, and as soon as we started, I knew that this was what I wanted.
The part of my job where I took my clothes off and taught guys how to pleasure a woman, that made me the big bucks. But editing was my passion. I loved doing it. Unfortunately, my videos tended to be live, which required no editing.
There were a few parts of Bee’s videos we had to reshoot, stuff she wasn’t happy with. She’d worn the same clothes and had done her makeup the same way. I carefully studied the screen and then her face, pointing out anywhere I saw inaccuracies.
“This is why it’s important to always use the same lighting, backdrops, and so on until you get your videos edited. You never know when you need to reshoot.”
We positioned her behind the camera, and I checked to make sure it looked as close as possible. “Ideally, you’d shoot in the morning and edit in the afternoon, and that way you could do any reshoots the same day.”
She nodded and listened, soaking up any bits of information I handed out. I’d learned a thing or two over the past two years. It was nice to have someone to pass it down to so she wouldn’t have to go through all this the hard way, by trial and error, as I did.
Editing was always my dream, but it’d never happened for me, so I just edited my own videos and now I got to help Bee. Maybe I’d be able to help others in the future, too. That would be cool.
When the video was finished, we uploaded it and worked on her logo and website design. She was comfortable with this part of it, as most people her age were.
She’d saved up some money for ads, and I showed her how to set up the ad account and get into the video hosting website’s algorithms.
“I’ll post your stuff in the ad space on my website, too. I have a small following of women, so you never know. You might get a hit.”
Bee threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. “You’re the best. If I can ever repay the favor, please tell me how. I don’t know how I would’ve done this without you.”
I hugged her back, genuinely happy at how our day had gone. “It was my pleasure.”
Looking at my phone, I gasped. “You gotta go!” She was due at her parents’ house for Christmas dinner with Hayden, Bri, and her parents. Bri would kill me if Bee missed it.
“I’ll be there a little later,” I said as she hugged and thanked me again. “Don’t sweat it.”
Bri had invited me to hang with them tonight, but I wasn’t going to intrude on family time. I’d go a little later and have dinner with them. I didn’t want to be rude after she’d so graciously invited me.
I changed clothes and fiddled with my makeup, trying a couple of the techniques Bee had put on her video.
When I pulled into Bri’s parents’ driveway, I noticed a car I didn’t recognize but didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t up to me who they invited. Skye’s SUV was there too.
I pressed the doorbell with a big smile on my face, holding a bundle of wrapped presents.
I couldn’t come empty-handed, and I only had my grandfather to buy for.
I’d bought gifts for Skye and her family as well.
Good thing I’d had them in the car since I wasn’t sure if they’d be here today of if I was the only non-family member invited.
The door opened to a lot of noise. Hayden raced by chasing the twins, who had progressed from walking to full-on running, and voices carried out of the dining room into the hallway where Bri held the door open.
She reached out and took one of the baskets of presents from me. “You’re late!”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt family time,” I said. “Thank you for inviting me.”
I took off my coat and hung it on their hall tree and turned just in time to see Porter walk by the dining room entryway.
He noticed me and paused, and there was that intense stare again.
Within seconds, I was pulled into a bunch of hugs, starting with Skye. “Congratulations,” I said warmly. This was the first I’d seen her since I found out she was pregnant again. “I’m so happy for you. You were made for motherhood, I swear.”
“Thank you.” She grinned proudly, like only a mother could. “It’s going to be absolutely crazy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
She was right. It would be crazy. What would that be like?