20. Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fourteen
He Makes Me Want More
Luke
A lmost 30 minutes have past when Kaden finally comes back out of his building. I would have gone in there to look for him but knew there was no way I’d find him even if I could get in the lobby doors.
He looks comfortable in jeans and a polo shirt. I’m glad to see he brought a light jacket he’s holding over his arm. A good sign he plans on letting me keep him out late enough to get cold and have to wear it.
Climbing in the Jeep, he side-eyes me, “Hey, sorry I took so long. Had to make a call to Lanie and let her know my plans changed for tonight. Hope you weren’t too bored.”
His hair is wet, and his skin is flushed. Facing forward out the windshield, purposely not looking my way.
“Did you shower?”
He briefly glances at me, “Yeah. I felt grimy from being around people all day. I had to quickly rinse off.” He fake smiles at the windshield.
I contemplate not asking but ultimately cannot resist, “Did you take a shower so you could jerkoff, Kaden?” I do my best to hide how amused I am at him being nervous I will find out.
Still facing forward, he makes a request that sounds more like a command. “Can we get going? I’m getting really hungry. I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
I barely stifle the laughter escaping my throat. “Sure, I’m hungry, too.” I decide to let this one go, for now.
He remains quiet on our way to the restaurant. I put some music on to ease the discomfort. I hope I didn’t hurt his feelings or embarrass him. I don’t want to make a big deal about it, but I also don’t want to be a total dick.
“If it makes you feel any better, I rubbed one out before I went to your office,” I tell him with a smirk, and nudge him with my elbow over the armrest.
“Well, at least I wasn’t the reason you had to do it. It was your relentless teasing that made it necessary, otherwise we may have not made it to the restaurant.” The indignation riddled in his voice makes me chuckle.
“First of all, who said you weren’t the reason I had to come before seeing you today? And I would love to hear more about why we wouldn’t have made it to the restaurant. That sounds very interesting.”
Kaden rolls his eyes and gives a muffled laugh, shaking his head at me. “You’re persistent, I’ll give you that.”
I tell him with certainty, “Like I said, when I know what I want, I go after it.”
Kaden’s eyes meet mine for the first time since he got back in the car. I don’t know what to make of the bewildered expression on his face. I direct my attention back to the road instead.
Fortunately, we arrive at the restaurant a minute later. I park and jump out to open Kaden’s door, only to wind up meeting him in front. I’m suddenly nervous, like I need to be careful how far I push him.
We walk to the restaurant side-by-side, throwing my hands in my pockets to keep them from where they instinctively want to go. I grab the door, opening it to let him walk through first. He allows it, giving me a slight smile and nodding in appreciation.
“Welcome to Red Oak Steakhouse! Do you have a reservation?” the host’s sunny personality snaps me out of my head.
“Yes, Stonewood party of two.”
“Ah, yes. I have your table ready for you. Follow me, please.”
I make a path for Kaden to follow the host first, resting my hand on his lower back. I feel him inhaling sharply at the touch. I quickly drop my hand beside me.
“When did you make a reservation? Did you assume I wouldn’t say no?” Kaden whispers accusingly.
“More like hoping and preparing in case I got lucky.” I see the corner of his lip raise the slightest bit. I’ll take it.
“Here we are,” the host places our menus on the table. “Your server this evening will be Mia. I’ll let her know you’ve arrived.”
We take our seats and start looking through the menu when I catch him glancing at me over the top of his.
“Good evening gentlemen. My name is Mia, I’ll be your server tonight. Can I get you something to drink to start? We have a large wine selection in the back of the menu?” Mia introduces herself as she pours water in our glasses.
I decide to order first since I’m getting the feeling Kaden is uncomfortable with me treating him like my date.
“Hi Mia. I’d love a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon, please.” I give a friendly smile and turn towards him.
“I’ll have the same, thank you, Mia.” Kaden says to her, his eyes returning all too quickly to mine.
I don’t hear Mia leave as we enter a standoff, neither of us wanting to back down from the intense eye contact we’ve fallen into.
After a minute that felt like an hour, Kaden breaks the silence, “What are you doing, Luke?” His tone is skeptical.
Confused by the question, I take my usual route leading with humor. “I’m about to order a steak so rare it’s one chest pump away from slapping a bell on it and putting it back out in the pasture.”
Kaden laughs loudly, drawing attention from other diners causing him to slap a hand across his mouth to stifle the disturbance. Before he can stop himself, I find myself joining, his smile and laugh being too infectious to resist.
“You’re something else, Mr. Stonewood, you know that?”
“Eww, don’t call me that. Sounds too serious to be coming from you. Hard pass.” Aiming to continue breaking down that wall he built up earlier, I stay with the humorous approach. “I’d rather you stick to something more flattering, like Big Guy or Stud Muffin. Oh wait, how about Snugglebug? I’m an expert at snuggling. Yep, I like that one. Let’s go with that.”
Kaden’s shoulders visibly shake as he fights to contain his laughter. His smile is slowly becoming my new favorite thing in the world, and I love being the one to draw it out of him.
Mia shows up with our wine and takes our orders. Kaden ordering his steak medium-rare makes me overcome with joy. The man knows how to eat a steak. If he had said well-done, I’d have no choice but to walk out of the restaurant, my head hanging in shame.
We’re alone once again, steadily watching each other grinning from ear-to-ear.
“Tell me something I don’t know about you,” I ask him.
“What do you want to know, Luke?”
“Everything.” I’m not going to get what I want all at once, so I make the effort to be practical, “but let’s start with your favorite childhood memory.”
“That’s easy. Sunday dinner and game nights,” Kaden says with no hesitation.
“Tell me more.”
“When my mom was a kid, my grandparents worked a lot. They weren’t the sit down at the table and eat dinner every night type of family. When my mom had my sister and I, she decided she didn’t want that for us. I was about five years old when it was mandatory to have a sit-down dinner with all four of us. Of course, there were times when one of my parents had to work late or whatnot. But they did their best to make sure it was an almost every night occurrence.”
“And I suppose that morphed into Sunday dinner and game night at some point?” I question, more than curious.
“Yeah, once we got older, we started having social lives and wanted to hang out with our friends all the time. Typical teenage stuff. My parents agreed to a deviation, on one condition, we make it Sunday dinner and game nights every weekend. Lanie and I agreed, reluctantly because of the board games part of the deal. After the first few games my dad introduced us to on those nights, it became our favorite part of the week. Spending time laughing and of course shit talking about who’s going to win the games, turned out to be a lot of fun.”
“Sounds like you all are close. When did your parents let you out of the deal?”
“I’ll let you know when they do,” Kaden chuckles at his jest.
“Really? You both still go to your parents’ house every Sunday for dinner and play board games?”
“Every Sunday. We love it, honestly. My parents are really fun to hang out with. Is that weird to say?” He shyly smiles, lowering his head like that’s embarrassing to admit.
“Not at all. You’re pretty lucky. Some people wish they had that kind of relationship with their family. You should be proud.”
Raising his head again, his eyes meet mine as I nod in assurance.
I’m one of those people.
I want to tell him but now is not the time to dump all my family baggage on him. I don’t want to scare him off before we even get a chance to get to know each other better.
“Your turn. Favorite childhood memory?” Kaden asks before I can get another question for him out. I have many.
“A few weeks after I turned 10 years old, and my Aunt Brenda was in the kitchen cooking dinner for a couple of her friends coming over that night. She was making fried chicken and mashed potatoes. I always liked watching her cook. It seemed…peaceful. She’d never let me help until then, worried I would make too much of a mess. She asked me to help season the breading mixture for the chicken, because seasoning the buttermilk was not enough, she always said, then she handed me the masher for the potatoes.” I smile, remembering how she faked her hands hurting so she had an excuse to ask me to mash the potatoes. “At the dinner table, she gave all the credit to me when everyone said the food was delicious. I think that’s the moment I fell in love with cooking. People enjoying something you created. I guess you could say my aunt letting me feel useful turned out to be the start of my career. I dove headfirst into watching every cooking show I could find, helping both my aunts with dinner the nights I spent with them. Cooking consumed my every waking thought, still does.” I pause, then reconsider. “Well, every waking thought until recently, that is.” I gesture towards him with an open hand to signify my statement.
“Unapologetically, straightforward as ever, huh?” Kaden shakes his head with a smile.
“I’m not one for subtlety. I don’t have time in my life for nonsense,” I say with sincerity. I’m still not sure how a little over a month ago I was ready to die on the ‘I don’t want to be in a relationship’ hill, but now here I am willingly running down said hill, directly towards Kaden.