Chapter 13
KAI
I’ve never been the kind of person to wear his heart on his sleeve. To post all his emotions online or share anything private.
With Leah, it’s all on the table.
"Baby, are you on board? Do you want this to be real and forever?"
Her eyes glow as her lips slowly part. I lean closer, then we jump away from each other.
"There you are!"
We spin to see my mother marching through the foyer toward us. "Kai Lawrence Arthur Wolfe, I've been calling you for half an hour!"
Leah and I both leap to our feet, and I pull out my phone. "No missed calls from you. What are you talking about?"
Mom rolls her eyes, then pulls her phone from her purse. Her eyes narrow on it. "Oh, hell. I've been calling Kane."
"You know, those reading glasses you just bought only work if you actually put them on your face. There have been studies and everything to prove this."
Mom’s lips purse as she attempts to give me her most thunderous glower, which only makes me laugh.
I step back and wrap an arm around Leah, gently edging her forward. “Leah, I'd like you to meet my mother, Elizabeth Wolfe. Mom, this is Leah Wilson. My girlfriend."
I feel every inch of Leah's body tighten against me as she forces a smile. "Lovely to meet you, Mrs. Wolfe."
Mom grins as she shakes hands. "Just Beth is fine. Lovely to meet you…" Her eyes narrow on mine. “Kai’s secret girlfriend that I know nothing about, for some crazy reason."
Luckily Leah laughs with me, saying, "It's…very new.”
Mom grabs Leah's elbow and guides her to the couch. "Wait! You're the girl that got him to go to New York without a fight or a fuss. Thank you for that."
"No problem. I'm kind of on a mission to see the world," Leah explains.
"Oh, really?" Mom shoots me a sideways glance as I sink into the easy chair. “That will help with my own mission."
She straightens up and looks at me with bright, hopeful eyes. "Kayden was asking me to help him organize a rotation of you boys for a new conference circuit starting in two months."
"A conference circuit?" Leah asks hesitantly.
“That's when some huge corporation does sort of a PR tour," I explain.
"Pushing their own technology under the guise of having an open forum with other companies.
They'll run pretty much the same event in a bunch of different cities to achieve global reach and get the snowball effect of PR from each of the participating companies. "
"Like…a touring music festival?" Leah offers.
"Very similar! Yes."
Mom nods. "This one has fourteen cities, and there's five of you. But Kayden really doesn't want to do more than one of them, plus he thinks it would actually help with consistency if one person did all of them."
I'm already leaning forward and nodding. "You know, that's a really good idea. That way instead of "the Wolfe brothers” all the contact could go through just one person. The client relationship would be much stronger."
I reach out to take Leah's hand. "Want to go on tour with me, baby?"
Her beautiful blue eyes grow wide. "Are you serious?"
Mom straightens up, reaching for her purse. "Perfect. Done."
"Wait." Leah looks back and forth between us. “Are you really suggesting I go too?"
"Of course, dear." Mom reaches out to pat her arm.
"I can't remember the entire list offhand, but you can't pass up the chance to go to London, Rome, Tokyo, and Seattle, right?
Top-of-the-line accommodation, first class everything, and I'll make sure that you’re in each city for at least two extra days on either side of the conference so you can do some real sightseeing and have a few bang-up meals. "
"But I don’t work for you," Leah protests. "I'd just be in the way."
Mom just waves her off. "You want to work for us? Sure – your title is…uhh…Kai’s nutritional consultant. Yes! Make sure that he remembers to have breakfast and is properly caffeinated on show day. Oh, and remind him to drink enough water. He always forgets."
She stands and adjusts her sweater. "Leah, it was lovely to meet you. I hope that you two will come for dinner very soon. But now that I’ve settled this for Kayden, I'm going to have him move the bedroom furniture around for me while Conrad is out of the house running errands."
Leah seems confused by my chuckle. "Dad comes home to rearranged furniture all the time and never says a word,” I explain. “Ongoing family joke."
We walk Mom to the door, where she gives Leah a hug and kisses me on the cheek. “She's gorgeous," Mom whispers in my ear, loudly enough for Leah to overhear. “And she loves to travel, too? Definitely keep her."
"That's the plan."
We both wave goodbye as Mom takes off in her sporty deep blue Jeep.
Leah waits until the dust has settled before cuddling against my chest. "Why can I picture her driving that thing in a ballgown and high heels?"
I burst out laughing as we go back in. "I swear, I've seen her do that."
Once we're back on the couch, I slip an arm around Leah, tipping her chin up with my finger and examining her eyes. "Were you afraid that I would be a homebody and never want to leave town, baby?"
"Well…kind of."
"Baby, as long as we have a home base to come back to, and we aren't driving in dangerous weather, we can go anywhere and everywhere you want. I want to see the whole world with you."
"Thank you." She reaches up to cup my face. “I think part of me might always be worried that my world might shrink like Mom’s did. We all have irrational fears, right?"
"For sure." I lean close to whisper, "Feel free to laugh at me, but I’m crazily afraid of sharks."
She does her best not to laugh. "Let me guess – your older brothers let you watch Jaws when you were around seven or eight?"
"Four, actually."
She hugs me, stroking as much of my broad back as she can reach. "I'm sorry. I promise I will never suggest one of those swimming with shark adventures, or even watching Shark Week the next time it’s on."
"Thank you."
My girl is positively glowing as my thumb brushes across her bottom lip. "I really need to kiss you," I whisper.
Her beautiful eyes dance. "Go ahead."
"But the thing is, there's something really important I have to tell you, and I'm afraid I'm going to kiss you, then get all distracted and forget."
"Maybe you could tell me quickly and then kiss me?"
"I don't know… Those lips are pretty inviting…" I barely brush her mouth with mine, then she presses my chest away firmly.
"Seriously, tell me."
"Okay." I straighten up and square my shoulders. "Leah, I want to help you achieve all your goals and dreams. Even the ones you haven't thought of yet. I will never let your life become small or boring. I promise."
Her grin is adorable. "Thank you."
Leaning in slowly, I stop when my lips are barely a hair’s breadth from hers. "Oh, yeah. There’s another thing, too."
"Which is?"
"I love you."