Chapter 30 Lainey
LAINEY
The camera lights were too bright and the interviewer's smile was too wide and I felt like I might throw up any second. They’d been here for twenty minutes already and I just wanted them to leave.
"So tell us, Lainey, how does it feel to have raised over four hundred thousand dollars for cancer research?" The woman stood beside me with her microphone extended, fake-smiling to her camera man.
I forced a smile and tried to focus. "It feels incredible. This cause is so important and I'm honored that people showed up to support it."
"And the publicity for your bakery has been overwhelming, we hear. Orders are flooding in?"
"Yes." I glanced at Wren, who stood off to the side giving me an encouraging nod. "We've been getting orders from all over Nevada. It's been amazing, and we'll be incredibly busy keeping up for a while."
I wanted to feel happy about all of this, but I felt hollow. I had since Friday night.
"There's been a lot of speculation about your relationship with Kade Kingston," the interviewer continued. "Can you address those rumors?"
My stomach twisted. "I'd prefer to keep my personal life private and focus on the bakery.
" I knew this would happen and I wasn't really prepared for it at all.
Without my sister's encouragement, I'd have just sent the reporters away.
I was in no mood to deal with drama and gossip. I wanted my life back.
"Of course, but our viewers are curious—"
The bakery door opened and Kade walked in with his chest puffed out and his eyes locked on me. The interviewer stopped mid-sentence while her cameraman swiveled to catch him. Wren's eyes went wide, and I watched her mouth move as she whispered, "Oh God..."
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Kade said, but he didn't sound sorry at all. He walked straight toward the camera. "But I need to say something."
The interviewer's giddy smile got wider, if that was possible. It was like she was feasting off the glee of ruining my poor private life.
"Kade," I started, but he held up his hand and sighed hard as he stopped in front of me. He was ignoring the camera entirely. The only person in the room that he saw was me. It made tears well up in my eyes.
"Let me say this." He pulled an envelope from his jacket pocket and tapped it on his open palm. "I sold my Lamborghini and I gave my parents back the keys to the house. I emptied my bank accounts... Lainey, I tried to tell you and maybe this is the only way you'll believe me.
The interviewer gasped. The cameraman moved closer, angling to get Kade's face in the shot.
"I have a check here." He held up the envelope. "For four hundred, seventy-nine thousand, two hundred and twelve dollars and thirteen cents. It's every penny I have in my name."
"What? No..." I mumbled, covering my mouth with my fingers.
"Use it for your bakery, the baby... whatever you need. I don’t want it anymore."
The word "baby" echoed through the room and I felt my knees go weak. No one knew about the baby yet. These people had cameras rolling. What was he doing?
"I don't want anything unless I have it with her," he continued, directing his words at the camera, though his eyes were on me. "I don't want the money or the cars or the life I had before. I just want her."
Then he got down on one knee.
Right there in front of the cameras and the interviewer and Wren and everyone watching at home, Kade Kingston dropped to one knee in my bakery. I pressed a hand to my belly and felt it rumble, then gritted my teeth to hold back the tears.
"Lainey Rowan." His voice trembled, and his hands shook as he reached up to take mine. "I love you. I've loved you since Vegas and I was too stupid to realize it. I treated you so badly and I had no idea how much I hurt you until someone else told me.
"You are the best thing that has ever happened to me and I will gladly give away my entire life, my name, the fame, the money. I don’t want any of it if you're not a part of my life. You are the only thing in the world that matters to me. Please... say you will be my wife, for real."
I couldn't breathe. All I could see was him kneeling there with his hand wrapped around mine, and when I looked down I noticed his wedding ring was back.
Tears streaked down my cheeks. My breath felt lodged in my chest, painfully refusing to come out, and my whole world felt ready to tip sideways.
"Say yes," Wren hissed from somewhere behind the camera. "Obviously say yes."
I nodded because words wouldn't come, but it happened so fast I wasn't sure I'd actually agreed to it. I felt dizzy and lightheaded; my palms were so sweaty, and when Kade moved, I thought I'd fall over.
He stood and pulled me into his arms, and kissed me so hard I forgot the cameras were there. All I knew was his mouth on mine and his arms around me, and the way he held me like he'd never let go.
When we finally pulled apart, the interviewer was fanning herself. The cameraman was still filming, and Wren was grinning like she'd won the lottery.
"We're going to need a minute," I said to the interviewer.
"Of course." She turned to the camera. "You heard it here first, folks. A proposal just happened at the Bake Me Happy bakery. We'll be right back after this commercial break."
I grabbed Kade's hand and pulled him toward the back of the bakery. Away from the cameras and the lights and into the kitchen where we could be alone. My knees felt so weak and my pulse thready, but I stayed upright long enough to get the door shut and slump onto a stool by the oven.
"What did you just do?" I asked once the door closed behind us.
"I proposed." He was breathing hard. "Was that not clear?"
"You sold your car?" I rubbed my face and shook my head at the same time.
"I gave back everything." He crouched in front of me, resting both hands on my knees. "I told them I was done living by their rules. If they want to cut me off, fine. I'll figure it out."
"Kade—"
"I mean it." His hands cupped my face, brushing tears from my cheeks with his thumbs. "I don't need any of it. I just need you."
I looked up at him and saw something I'd never seen before. There was no hesitation or doubt in his eyes. He was dead certain this was what he wanted, and it made me bawl.
"What about your parents?" I asked. "They're going to be furious."
"Let them be furious." He kissed my forehead. "They don't get to decide my future anymore. I do. We do."
It was everything I'd needed to hear. Everything I'd been too scared to hope for.
I kissed him hard and he responded immediately, pulling me against his chest and deepening the kiss until I couldn't remember why I'd ever walked away from him.
I didn't care who he was or what life he lived; this feeling of absolute bliss and euphoria was the only reason I’d felt hesitant to marry Brandon.
I knew it existed and I knew I wanted it, and I knew I never had it with him.
But Kade changed everything for me.
"I've loved you for a while," I whispered against his chest. "I was just scared to admit it. I thought you'd break my heart."
"I'm terrified of being a father," he said quietly. "I have no idea what I'm doing. My own father was a disaster and I'm afraid I'll mess this up completely. But we'll figure it out together, right? Isn't that what being in a relationship is about?"
"Your parents are really going to hate me now," I groaned, burying my face deeper into his chest.
"They'll get over it," he said, making me look up at him.
I wrapped my arms fully around him, still feeling a little unsure if this was actually my life, but it felt right.
Kade was what I wanted, even when I didn't know what I wanted.
And it wasn't because of his money or his fame.
I'd rather have had him all to myself, because I knew single women out there probably drooled over him.
This was about the man I met when no one else was looking, who swept me off my feet and drew out the inner adventurer from within me.
He made me a better me, and I loved him for it.
"I love you, Lainey," he said as he pressed a kiss to my forehead.
And I believed him.
Now, if we could work everything out so he didn't have to lose his family, it would feel like the dream come true I prayed for.