Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Wade
“Are they still taking pictures?” Mom laughs. “Bellamy might have Dara in there all afternoon if we don’t have them come in to eat.”
“I would too if that baby were mine,” Jaxi says, handing Mom a stack of plates. “Kel is so beautiful.”
Mom beams. “He is. He’s such a good little boy. Coy and Bells are so lucky.”
I try not to make a face as I lift my glass of sweet tea to my lips.
“I wonder who will have a baby next out of you all?” Mom asks, arranging meats and cheeses onto two huge boards.
“Me, if Boone has his way.” Jaxi laughs. “I keep asking him to wait until the first of the year. I’ll have a new manager at the apartments and can step back a little then. But this whole thing with Kelvin has made Boone want babies now.”
Mom grins. “I wouldn’t be disappointed.” Then she looks at me. “How are things with you and Dara, Wade?”
She didn’t just do that.
I narrow my eyes, silently asking my mother why she chose violence today. She grins like the matriarch that she is, knowing that there’s really nothing I can say back to her to express my displeasure.
Or so she thinks.
I set my glass on the counter with a thud. “Do you remember Gran’s tea? Remember how sweet it was?”
Mom lifts a brow. Her lips form a thin line. “I do.”
“I really wish we had that recipe in the family.”
I look Mom in the eye and smile. She places a little jar of fig jam onto the board with a touch more force than necessary.
“You’re bringing out the big guns today, huh?” she asks, trying not to laugh.
I roll my tongue around my cheek. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“So, I’m taking it we aren’t Gran fans?” Jaxi asks, looking back and forth between us.
Mom presses a hand to her hip and looks at Jaxi.
“My mother-in-law was insufferable. No matter what you made, baked, bought—it was never, ever as good as hers. All we heard was how everyone just died over her pudding. Her meatloaf won a ribbon at the County Fair back in the thirties—I don’t know.
” She sighs. “I’m sorry she’s gone, and may God rest her soul.
But …” She looks at me with a warning glance. “My sweet tea is the best.”
Jaxi grins cheekily. “I’m also taking it Wade isn’t going to tell us about him and Dara?”
I flip my eyes to her. “I like you, Jaxi. Let’s keep it that way.”
Her grin breaks into an ear-to-ear smile. “Come on, Wade. Give us something. What’s going on with you two?”
“She’s here,” Mom says. “On a weekend. For dinner. With the family.”
“And taking pictures of Kelvin,” Jaxi offers, watching me carefully. “I think it’s great. I adore her. She’s exactly what you need.”
“And what do I need?” I ask her. “I think you’ve been spending too much time with Boone if you think you know what I need all of a sudden.”
Jaxi laughs. “You need someone who makes you do this.”
She crosses her arms over her chest and looks at me like she just made her point.
Bullshit.
Kind of.
I blow out a breath and carry my glass to the fridge. I take my time refilling my glass.
This was to be expected. I can’t bring a woman here after explicitly not bringing anyone here before and not anticipate a little ribbing from my family.
But she’d met them before, albeit quickly.
And the opportunity for her to get to know Coy and Bellamy was perfect.
Who knows? If things go well, maybe Dara could take some pictures for Bellamy’s real estate company?
“I like her,” I say.
The words tumble out of my mouth like a juvenile admitting his first crush and not with the confidence that a man like me should have.
My cheeks heat as my admission saturates the room. I don’t turn around. I don’t want to see Jaxi or my mother’s face.
“We know you do,” Mom says, her words gentler than before. “That’s okay, you know.”
“Yeah.”
I clutch my glass like it might run away if I don’t hold on tight. Or maybe I might run away if I don’t because escaping this situation sounds like a damn good idea.
Of course, I know it’s okay that I like her. I know it’s reasonable for a man to admit this to his family as well. But I haven’t worked this all out. I haven’t deciphered what this might mean in the grand scheme of things.
I have no idea what it even means or if it matters.
The Wade Mason that she knows is a carefully constructed version of myself that I’ve allowed her to see.
That I’ve chosen to share with her. But God knows she doesn’t know it all.
And if she knew my failures, she wouldn’t want to be with me anyway.
Just because I like Dara—because I breathe easier when she’s around, my designs are stronger, and my days go by faster—doesn’t mean that I have the right to assume she would be okay with things.
Because she wouldn’t. She couldn’t.
Not if she’s the intelligent woman I know she is.
“All done,” Bellamy says.
I turn around to see Bellamy and Coy walking in the kitchen. They are on top of the world.
“She. Is. Amazing,” Bellamy says. “I had no intentions of getting my picture taken today, but she convinced me, and … I’m so glad I did it.”
Coy kisses Bellamy’s hand.
“She’s wonderful, Wade,” Bellamy coos.
I take a drink as a response.
“Jaxi, let’s get everything to the table,” Mom says. “Coy, grab those charcuterie boards, please.”
Everyone files out except for Jaxi and me.
“Where is Dara?” I ask.
“In the bathroom, I think.” Bellamy takes a pickle spear off a plate and chomps on the end. “You got a good one, Wade.”
“Thanks.”
She moseys out of the room, nearly running into Oliver on his way in.
“I just got the call of a fucking lifetime,” Oliver says, smacking me on the shoulder. “Bowery just called about a job in Mexico.”
I look up as Dara enters the room. Her smile wobbles as she hears the word Mexico, and I wonder if her grandfather mentioned the project to her like he did me.
“This is going to change everything for us, Wade. Everything.” Oliver looks over his shoulder. “Dara, your grandfather is my favorite person today.”
Dara tries to look happy, but I see the truth in her eyes. It’s a glimmer of fear, of concern. Of uncertainty.
“Come here,” I say, motioning for her to move closer.
She stands next to me. I put my arm around her back and hold her close.
“Grandfather is something else, all right.” She looks into my eyes. “He wants me to come over tonight for dinner. His assistant just called.”
Her attempt to slide in that last piece of information isn’t missed by me. I study her face and see the hesitation brimming at the surface.
And the pain.
His fucking assistant invited her to dinner? What the fuck? What a fucking asshole.
But I don’t say that. I don’t want to make it worse for her.
She won’t like going, but as she’s said before, she wants to know her grandfather.
I can’t blame her for wanting to get to know her blood family, even if the thought of them sits like a rock in my gut.
She can do that easier alone. I get it. I hate it, but it’s logical.
“I’ll go with you,” I say without thinking it over first.
The fuck? Why the hell did I offer that?
“You don’t have to do that,” she says.
I look up to where Oliver was standing, only to realize he’s gone.
My hands ball into fists as I try to work my way through this conundrum. How do I justify my presence when it’s not wanted, and I’ll probably be a hindrance to the point of it all.
Shit.
“You don’t have to go alone,” I say. “You shouldn’t. Not when … not when you look like that when you’re talking about him.”
“It’s fine.”
It’s not.
I brush a strand of hair out of her pretty face. “Let me run interference. If something goes wrong, I can say I had a call, and we can go. I’ll be your out.”
She holds her breath and studies me. It takes longer than I would like, but eventually, the confident woman who has my heart—whether I like it or not—comes back.
She lifts her chin. “I appreciate that more than I can tell you, but I need to do this alone. I need a relationship with him that’s solely mine. I don’t even know this man, really.”
I want to argue. I want to tell her that’s even more reason for me to go with her. But I can see this is important to her and … fuck.
Dara raises on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to my lips. It’s chaste and simple. Meanwhile, she slips her hand into my pocket.
“I’m going alone,” she says, pulling away. “But I’ll come see you after, if you want.”
She gives me a wink and disappears from the kitchen without another word.
What the fuck?
I put my hand in my pocket as I head toward the chaos in the dining room.
Then I pull out my hand and stop.
A pair of black lace panties are in my hand.
My cock hardens immediately as I look at the doorway.
That little vixen.
I grin, sliding them back where I got them and take off to find her.