Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
KAIA
I had to start telling Daisy to work from home. For the past several months I hadn’t been able to get much work done if I wasn’t in the back.
Every day it was the same routine. Every day I’d start working. Every day I would get about an hour in before my head forced me to look at her. And every day she’d wink or lick her lips, and I’d have to make an excuse to go in the back and cool down.
Some days she would follow me and I’d have to force myself not to do anything more than make out. Some days when it was too much, we left early.
Today was becoming one of those days. She had unbuttoned the top of her dress, and I swore she did it on purpose to tease me. I was trying to focus on the email I needed to send, but I was failing.
I forced my eyes away from Daisy when I heard Drea’s voice. “Hey, Cara!”
Cara looked like her usual business professional self with a red pantsuit. Paired with black stilettos, she looked like the intimidating publisher she was.
“Hey, doll, how are you? Hey, Kaia.”
I waved and exchanged a hug before she turned to hug Drea. “I’m good, love. How are you? What brings you down to my neck of the woods?”
She laughed. “It’s been a day, so I thought I’d see if you wanted to grab lunch? My treat.”
Drea shook her head. “Not a chance. I still owe you.”
“Dre, it’s been, what? Almost five years now? We’ve moved past it. Please let it go. All is forgiven. Do you want to go out or not?”
Drea smiled and blew out a breath. “Don’t say I didn’t try. Yes, we can go. Let me grab a few things.”
When Drea left, Cara turned to me. “So, Blair tells me you and Daisy are finally together. How exciting!”
I smiled and looked toward Daisy, who was smiling at me. I winked and caught the kiss she blew me before blowing one back. I turned back to Cara who was grinning at me. “Shut it. We are just—”
“Just friends? Just existing? Don’t pull a Drea on me. Try again.”
“You two hang out too much, you know that? I don’t know what we’re doing.
I mean, we haven’t talked about it. I’m not dating anyone else, and neither is she, but we haven’t made things official.
Right now, we are just seeing each other.
I guess we are casually dating? Maybe friends with benefits, but that seems so wrong to me and I’m not sure what she thinks. ”
“Wow. That was a lot. Well, whatever you two are doing, I’m glad it finally happened. It was making me sad to see you pining over her for so long.”
I laughed. “You and me both.”
Drea came back out, cutting off the conversation, which I wasn’t totally mad at. “Okay, I’m ready to go. Kaia, are you good here?”
I laughed. “Of course, Dre. Go.”
She hugged me and smiled softly. “I’ll pick you up a hot chocolate on the way back. Let me know if the construction team comes back while I’m gone.”
I nodded and shooed her away. She turned back toward Cara. “Oh, Cara! You just missed the construction team. The leader is a superhot butch. She could be perfect for you! Want me to get her number or something?”
I chuckled, trying to picture the two of them together. I’d never seen Cara with someone like Vera. I didn’t think she was her type. She usually went for the soft femme types like Fallon.
“Oh, uh, no thanks. That’s not really my type.” She shrugged, but her eyes told me there was more to that statement.
Drea wasn’t a quitter, though, and she pressed on. “Maybe that’s what you need. Someone who isn’t your type. Your type hasn’t really worked out in the past. Maybe that’s the problem? I can invite her to the New Year’s Eve party, and we can see what happens.” She shrugged.
Cara rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what the problem is, maybe, but I’ve got to decline. I actually have work I need to catch up on, so I won’t be there.”
“Cara,” Drea deadpanned.
Cara sighed. “What? I do actually have work to do, okay? But… I’m taking time off from dating for a while. I’m so tired of the failed dates, Dre. Can we go now? Please?”
Drea’s smile softened, and she nodded. “Okay, love. I’ll drop it. We’ll miss you, though, and if you change your mind, you know where we’ll be. Let’s go.”
I waved them off and turned as soon as the door shut behind them. The store was pretty much cleared out, and Daisy was sitting in a chair in the very back, practically hidden unless you were behind the counter.
I ran over and stopped in front of her, waiting for her to notice me. She popped her head up from her laptop and smiled when she saw me. I grabbed her face and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me closer.
I ended the kiss, and she licked her lips. “What was that for?”
I shrugged. “I just missed you, that’s all.”
She smiled and brought me in for a more tender kiss. “Well, miss me more often, please. But is everything okay? What did Cara want?”
I nodded. “Everything’s fine. I just really wanted to kiss you. They’re going to lunch. Drea was trying to pass her off to Vera, but Cara’s kind of giving up on dating, which is so sad but understandable. She’s tired.”
“I get that. I’m glad I don’t have to do that anymore.” She smiled and laced our fingers together.
“Is that what we’re doing? Dating?” I was so afraid of her answer, but I needed to know.
“Well, yeah, Kai. I’d say we’re dating. What would you call it?”
I shrugged. This wasn’t the time or place I wanted to have this conversation, but I had started it. “I don’t know. Friends with benefits? I mean, we are friends and getting all kinds of benefits, right?”
Her smile fell, and I didn’t know what I had said. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
She set her laptop on the table and stood up. Did I upset her? She took a step closer to me, brows furrowed. “I want you to really pay attention to my words. Understand them and believe them, okay?”
I nodded without a reply and let her go on. I was paying attention and prepared to believe whatever she said.
She took a deep breath. “Kaia. We are best friends. I love all the benefits we both are getting, but we are not friends with benefits. You mean a lot more to me than that. Please know that. We are dating. I’m not seeing anyone else, and I know you’re not either.
If that changes, we can talk about it then, but right now, that’s what we’re doing, okay? ”
The smile that took over threatened to crack my mouth. That was more than okay with me, and her saying it made it seem real. We were dating. Like dating, dating.
“I don’t plan on dating anyone else. I need you to know that, but if you want to—”
She shook her head. “No plans.”
I bit my bottom lip and pulled her in for a kiss. “Good. So we’re dating. Can I call you my girlfriend? Can I change my Facebook status? Should we FaceTime your parents?”
She rolled her eyes. “You can call me whatever you want. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve already changed mine, and no, we should not call my parents. They already thought we were together long before now, but we can tell them when we go over for dinner next time.”
My heart skipped a beat. She already changed her status? How long had I been in a relationship with my dream woman and not known? This was what I got for not speaking up about the things I wanted!
I didn’t have anything else to say, so I let my lips do the talking and kissed her. She rested her hands in the pockets of my jeans and lightly squeezed. I smiled into the kiss but broke it before I dragged her into Drea’s office. With my luck, Drea would walk in right before—
The phone rang, cutting off my steamy train of thought. I groaned and kissed Daisy goodbye before I returned to work.
“Hey, Rylee?” I called before I answered the phone.
She popped up from behind the counter and grinned at me. “Yeah, hon?”
“Do you think you could take Daisy her usual? Tell her it’s from her girlfriend.” My grin was giddy and stupid, but I didn’t care.
She squealed. “Oooooooo. Finally! We’ve been waiting to hear that! Yeah, I’ve got you!”
I rolled my eyes and turned to answer the phone. “Thanks for calling Open Book. How can I help you?”
“Hey, Kai. Long time no talk. How are you?”
I froze, glancing at Daisy, who was looking at me with a cocked head and furrowed brow. My expression must’ve given something away, but I couldn’t help it. It had been almost five years since I’d heard that voice, and while it wasn’t unwelcomed, I hadn’t been prepared for it.
I mouthed and signed to Daisy who was calling, and her eyes widened with as much shock as I felt. “Skylar. Hey. Yeah, I’d say it’s been a while. I’m good, how are you? How’s New York?”
A soft laugh came from the other end and I fidgeted with my pen. I didn’t know what else to do.
Skylar and Drea had dated on-and-off for about three years before they broke up at Fallon’s birthday party because Skylar had gotten a promotion and an offer to move to New York, and Drea wouldn’t give up her life here.
About a year later, they ran into each other and closed that chapter of their lives. They parted on good terms, but Drea took the breakup really hard. She drank and slept her way around the city until Mackenzie forced her to make a change.
Now there we were two years later, Drea engaged, and me owning half the bookstore. I wouldn’t change a thing about the way we got here. We both needed the experiences we’d been through, together and alone, to come out of it changed people.
“New York is still amazing, but I miss everyone in Seattle. I got married last year, and we are trying for a baby, but I didn’t call to talk about me. Is Drea there, by chance? I heard she got engaged, and I wanted to congratulate her.”
“What? That’s amazing. Congrats, Sky. I’m so happy for you. Uh, no, she’s not here. She actually just left for lunch with Cara, but I can tell her you called. She did get engaged, right before Christmas. Who told you?”
She laughed. “Her mother, actually. She still calls me sometimes. I don’t know if Drea knows that or not. We haven’t talked in a while. But I wanted her to know that I am happy for her and Blair. I still can’t believe she’s marrying Blair. That’s the last person I would’ve expected to hear.”
I couldn’t hide my snort. “Yeah, that was a shock, for sure. But they’re happy.” I felt bad for saying that, but Skylar had moved on.
“I’m glad. She deserves to be happy. And how are things with you? Are you seeing anyone?”
I smiled and looked over at Daisy, who was still looking at me. I waved and blew her a kiss, which she caught and pretended to put in her pocket. She was such a dork sometimes, and I was obsessed.
“Things are okay. My dad passed a few months ago, so I’m still dealing with that, but I’ve got the store to keep me company, and now I’ve got Daisy. She’s been amazing through it all.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I know you two were really close. And Daisy? Who is Daisy?” Her tone sounded like I had given her the faintest hint at some gossip.
“Oh yeah, I didn’t know her when you were still here. You remember that woman who came in and always sat in the corner? Dark-blonde hair?”
“I think so. Never said anything? Rarely bought anything? Cute little smile?”
I groaned. “It’s a perfect smile, but yes. Well, we kind of became really good friends, and at Drea’s Christmas party this year, we became more than friends. It’s a really long story.”
She laughed. “That’s amazing! I’ll have to hear that story sometime. I better let you go. Can you just tell Dre I called? And if she wants to call me back, to feel free, but if not, I wish them nothing but the best.”
“I will. It was so good to hear from you, Sky. You take care of yourself, okay?”
“I will, Kai. You tell Daisy to take care of you. You deserve it.”
I smiled. “She does. But I’ll tell her. Bye.”
As soon as I hung up the phone, Drea walked through the door. Perfect timing. “Hey, Kai. Everything go okay?” Drea asked.
“Of course. Where’s Cara?”
“Oh, she had to get back to work. Something about an author crisis. I called Blair to make sure it wasn’t her crisis. She was irritated that I woke her up from her nap, but said she’d call Cara to make sure everything’s okay later.”
“That’s so sweet. Nothing really happened except I just got off an interesting phone call.”
“Really? Who was it?”
“Sky.”
Her eyes widened and I chuckled. “Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Apparently your mother still calls her. She heard about your engagement and wanted to congratulate you.”
She groaned. “Mother. That was nice of her. Thanks for letting me know.”
I looked at her. “Are you going to call her back?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. I want to talk to Blair about it first, and then if she’s comfortable with it, maybe.
Just to say thank you. That chapter of my life is closed, and I don’t really see a need to keep in contact.
I hope she’s doing well, but my heart is here with Blair, and that’s all I’m focused on. ”
“Of course,” I said. “She said either way, she wishes you both the best.”
“I appreciate it. I’ll talk to Blair tonight. You should take Daisy and get out of here. I’ll train Alexis and Farrah on how to close up. There’s no reason they can’t learn. They’ve been doing a phenomenal job with things, and I think they deserve to have a little more responsibility.”
I nodded, agreeing with her but also loving the idea of going home with Daisy earlier than normal. “I agree. Thanks, Dre. I’ll see you Saturday night.”
Drea was having a New Year’s Eve party at her house, and I was actually looking forward to it. Her last party ended up being amazing, so I had hope this one would be just as perfect.