by Taylor Hart
After getting out of the pool, he rushed to his room and into the shower. The only thing he could think about was he didn’t know a lot about Felicity Song, and what he did know wasn’t nearly enough.
Oh no, they weren’t done. If she thought some silly contract would keep him away, she obviously didn’t know him as well as she thought.
Chapter 15
Over the next two days, Felicity slowly recovered. She lay low and took it easy. Her mother chastised her for working too hard, and she finally told her the truth—they had the house because of Kade Kincaid. When her mother realized this, her tune changed. She was so grateful to her and to Kade.
Kade called her cell phone, but she didn’t pick up the phone. He texted a million times, and she texted back once: Go away.
On Monday, she called her boss and told him she was sick.
Mr. DaVinci texted back telling her she deserved the day off and he was impressed by the date. He’d been more than pleased when she’d told him last week they’d decided to have her go.
She was on track for getting a quarterly bonus and promotion. She hadn’t even known there was a quarterly bonus. Good, good.
The story was already rerunning on the mainstream media. They were affectionately calling the couple KadeSong. She hated the name. Seeing herself with Kade on the television and how happy they were unsettled her more than she wanted to admit, and knowing that could never be them made her angry.
After watching too many hours of coverage on different networks, she shut off the television and closed her eyes. The memory of kissing him after skydiving assaulted her. Flicking her eyes open, she grabbed the bottle of water on her bedside table and threw it across the room. “There will never be KadeSong!”
For some reason, that thought didn’t comfort her.
Tuesday morning, Felicity sat in her office, feeling very much recovered physically, but still vulnerable. She’d had dreams about Kade every night: being in his house, playing his piano, watching him walk toward her, wearing the cowboy hat from the dinner cruise. She would laugh and reach for him, but then she would fall. It was like she was standing on the edge of a cliff and had just walked off.
Pressing her eyes closed for a moment, she was grateful he’d stopped trying to text her yesterday. She had to get back to normal life and put it all behind her.
Mr. DaVinci called an informal meeting with most of the other staff to get details on the date, and to make sure everyone in the firm was on the same page with the Kincaid account. That’s all he could be to her—an account.
After the debriefing, Mr. DaVinci passed over a new file. “Here’s some more information about the senator’s daughter. If you could get out there tomorrow and talk to the family, that would be great.”
“On it.” The new assignment helped to heal her aching heart, but only a little bit.
She went back to her office and scoured the file. It appeared the daughter of the senator, Marissa, was causing lots of problems on social media.
There was a brief knock on her office door before it opened. Lo and behold, in walked Zeus himself. “Hey there.”
Her heart beat faster. She simultaneously wanted to jump up and run to him and send him away.
Mr. DaVinci hovered at his side. “Mr. Kincaid, so nice to have you come for a visit.”
Kade grinned at Mr. DaVinci. “Can I speak with Ms. Song for a moment?”
“Sure.” Mr. DaVinci gave her a pointed look and backed up. “Take your time,” he said as he closed the door.
Felicity was irritated he was here, even though he looked amazing. He wore jeans, flip-flops, and a leather jacket. His model hair was messy and fell into his eyes. Jerking his head back, he said, “So … KadeSong, huh? It’s catchy.”
Anger boiled within her, but she kept her face impassive. “Mr. Kincaid.” She pulled her hands back from the file and crossed her arms. “The agreement states you don’t communicate with me in any kind of social way after the date, does it not?” She was tempted to pull out the contract she had filed away in her desk as proof.
Putting up his hand like he was surrendering, he shook his head. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I just wanted to give you this.” Taking a couple of steps forward, he put a small red box on her desk. It had a cute white bow on top.
Looking at the box like it was a poop bomb her brother and his friends used to leave on each other’s doors in high school, she glared at him. “What is this?” She was in no mood for gifts from him. It was already enough how merely seeing him caused some reaction inside of her. It hadn’t helped she hadn’t been able to get that kiss they’d had after skydiving out of her brain. Now he was here, looking so amazing and giving her a present. No, no, no. He needed to go away!
Sitting on the edge of her desk, he crossed his arms and looked very pleased with himself. “Let’s just say I’m making amends.”
Curious but not wanting to encourage him, she slid the box toward him. “No, thank you.”
“You wouldn’t return any of my calls or texts this past weekend. I worried about you.” He glared at her, but his voice was soft.
“You shouldn’t even be thinking of me,” she stated quietly. “I’m fine.”
“Just open the box, Felicity.”
Crossing her arms again and looking every bit as dangerous as him, she shook her head. “The deal was you wouldn’t see me again after the date.”
“This is not a date.”
“But you’re sitting here,” she fired back. “In my office.”
His jaw clenched, and he shook his head, his whole face clouding over. “Contract is not valid anymore. If you ask me, you breeched the contract.”
“What?” He was being insane and ridiculous, and she hated that all she could smell was his spicy, musky cologne. “How?” she demanded.
Cocking his head to the side, he pointed at it. “Just open the box.”
“No.” He could take that box and stuff it where the sun didn’t shine.
Blowing out a short breath, he shook his head, put both hands down on the desk, leaned over, and shoved his face dangerously close to hers. “You have a heart condition.”
Feeling caught, she froze up.
“You took me on a date that, while it was amazing, could have really hurt you. You put your life in danger.” He spat out the words, and she saw true anger in his eyes. “I figure the contract is void. What if something had happened to you on the date, and I would have been liable? What if something had gone wrong?”
It was clear to her that her mother must have told him this. She hated when anyone knew about it, and it was doubly worse that he knew. For a second, she couldn’t catch her breath. She reflexively put a hand over her heart.
Noticing the movement, he swore and ran a hand through his hair. “Great, and now I’m putting more stress on you.”
Her cheeks, and she pulled in a long, slow breath, trying to calm herself. She pulled her hand back to her side. “I’m fine.” Standing, she pointed to the door. “Get out.”
He swore again and shook his head, closing his eyes briefly and waving a hand through the air. “Fine. Whatever. This was not a good idea.” He picked up his helmet and trudged to the door, looking back with his hand on the knob. “But you need to understand something, Felicity. You need to understand I don’t discard important things. I don’t care about the heart condition. I care about you, and I want to see you again.”
Her heart was beating wildly, not because she was having some of kind of breakdown, but because she felt this attraction, this pull between them. She denied it, shaking her head. “No.”
“Yes,” he snapped, and he stormed out.
After he left, she had to take long, slow breaths to calm herself. Kade Kincaid left a huge wake when he was in that kind of mood, and she realized she was still trying to catch her breath. She stared down at the package and thought about taking the pretty thing and just throwing it in the trash.
For some reason, she didn’t. She just stared
at it and wondered what he would bring her. A pulse of anger cut off that train of thought. Why should she even care? Shoving the package into the bottom drawer of her desk, she decided to focus on the day’s work in front of her.
After making several calls to the senator and his family, she set up a meeting to go out that afternoon and meet with him and his wife and the daughter to talk about strategies for creating some good press, as well as strategies for dealing with the press already out.
She went to lunch and headed out to the senator’s house for the rest of the afternoon. It wasn’t very productive, because Marissa, the teenager, wasn’t willing to change what she was doing, and the parents looked to Felicity like she could control the daughter.
As she got back to the office around five, the package still niggled at her thoughts. Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, she pulled it out and unwrapped it.
It was the little blue vase. It looked like the same one that had sat on her desk less than a week ago. The one her momma had given her. But it was cleaner, newer. It shone more. She wondered how he’d done it, where he’d found it. Picking it up, she slid her hand gently down the glass, loving the softness, the cleanness, the perfection of it.
It always mystified her how some people could find such value in a certain work of art and others would grant it no value. She had thought the artist who’d blown the glass was no longer in business. Quickly, she looked the vase up. Yes, it was one of three originals. She marveled at the fact Kade had found another copy, and marveled even more that he’d brought it to her.
Gradually, all her emotion turned to regret and anger. She could not do this. It was insane. There was no way she could have a relationship with Kade. First of all, she was dying. Second of all, she was busy starting a career. Third of all … she liked the way he kissed far too much.
Chapter 16
Three days later, Kade was not proud of the fact he was sitting in a dog park.
It just so happened to be the dog park next to Felicity’s house. The one her mother said she would visit at seven every morning. Yes, he’d resorted to texting her mother, who did return his texts and was a delightful woman, he might say if Felicity ever asked.
After leaving the vase with Felicity, he’d expected something. It wasn’t like he sat around waiting for her to contact him. He did have a life. The night before, he’d gone to one of the social events at his father’s home. There were always lots of high-society people there, or lots of girls his father had handpicked for him to date or marry, or both. Much to his father’s chagrin, he couldn’t give them much attention because he had to keep looking at his phone to see if Felicity had texted him back yet.
Later his father had asked him, “What about that Song girl, the one you did the big date with? What happened with her?”
To which he’d replied, “She’s not interested.”
With a belly laugh, his father blew cigar smoke in his face. “If she’s not interested in a Kincaid man, something’s wrong with her.”
His father had more faith in him than he had in himself at this point, sitting on a park bench, watching other people jog their dogs around. He felt like a loner on the bench with his hoodie on, trying to keep his identity to himself as much as possible. Where was she? He checked his phone. It was seven-twenty.
Catching a glimpse of red hair, he saw her enter the park. Even though she wore black stretch pants, a T-shirt, tennis shoes, and a white headband, she looked amazing.
The silly dog he’d seen the other night when he’d dropped her off panted at her feet.
Unable to stop the grin on his face at seeing how good she looked, how healthy and happy she was, he stood. So what if she rejected him again? He would find a new play and try again.
Over the past couple of days, he’d done his best to get her out of his mind. The thing that haunted him the most was the memory of her sitting at his piano.
Watching her move through the park made his heart rate pick up. She pushed her face up toward the sky and closed her eyes. He drank in the picture she made, and the center of his chest constricted.
Fresh, pure, real. That’s how he felt about her. Which was strange, because he couldn’t remember ever feeling like this about any woman before. For a few more moments, he just watched her walk across the park. She paused, bending to give the puppy a treat before letting it off the leash and throwing a tiny ball.
The dog stared at the ball for a couple of moments, but didn’t chase it.
Felicity went after the ball, picked it up, threw it again, and waited for the dog to chase it.
The dog ran a bit, stopped, and looked back at her.
She pointed to the ball. “Go get it, Bonnet.”
Part of Kade wanted to go to her, to pick up the ball and try his luck, but all he could do was watch.
It only took a couple of moments before her eyes met his. She froze for a second. Then an angry look clouded her face, and she picked up the toy and threw it in the opposite direction. “What are you doing here?” she asked as he approached.
The dog rushed right over to him, and he squatted down to give it a few pets. “Hey there, Bonnet. How are you, girl?” She licked his hand in response.
“What are you doing?”
Looking up at her, he gave her his best smile. “Fancy meeting you here, Felicity. How are you? Did you like the vase?” How long had it been since he’d stood in front of a woman and waited for a compliment? For an acknowledgement?
His first thought was Sadie Henkins, who had been two years older than him when he’d asked her to a sophomore dance. She’d been beautiful, but she’d treated him terribly. Ironically, she’d shown up again about two years ago, and the age difference hadn’t seemed to matter to her anymore.
He stood and tried not to give Felicity an accusing look.
“Kade.” Her voice was resigned, like her previous fire had been snuffed out.
Bonnet whimpered at his feet. “There, there, girl,” Kade said. He pushed the ball to her nose, helping her get a good sniff from it, and then pulled a piece of bacon out of his pocket and slyly rubbed the ball with it. Her mother had told her to do this for Bonnet. “I’m just here, wanting to see how Bonnet is doing.”
Felicity didn’t move or change her expression.
He threw the ball, and now, Bonnet took off after it, gladly snatching it up in her mouth and running back to him. Kade looked up at Felicity, and smiled at the stunned look on her face. He took the ball and threw it again. Bonnet went right for it.
“I’ll be darned,” she said quietly.
Kade gravitated carefully toward Felicity’s side, as if he might spook her.
Bonnet ran back to him. This time, he handed the ball to Felicity. At first, he thought she might order him away, but she grimaced and tossed it. With a yip, Bonnet took off after it and brought it right back to her. She couldn’t help but laugh and bent to pick it up.
Kade’s heart rate quickened. Maybe this morning hadn’t been a bust after all.
Felicity gave him an impressed look. “Kade Kincaid, dog trainer.”
He flashed a bit of a cocky grin and flexed his bicep. “A man of more talents than you figure me for, ma’am.” He said it in his best Southern gentleman tone.
Another laugh came out of her, and she shook her head, throwing the ball again for Bonnet. They both just stood by each other for a moment. “Thank you for the vase,” she said quietly, not looking at him.
“You’re welcome.”
The next time Bonnet came back, Kade picked up the ball and took off with it. The dog chased him and happily yapped at his heels.
“Come on, girl. Let’s give you some footwork drills.” He went into some complicated back-and-forth patterns with his feet, the ones he practiced in football.
The dog yapped louder, demanding the ball. He held it halfway down but would pull it out of reach right before she got it. Finally, he tossed it back toward Felicity. Bonnet lifted her ears as Felicity raised the ball
over her head, then took off into a sprint when she threw it off into the distance.
Kade jogged back to her, and her eyes finally met his. He could swear he saw something in them. Respect. Approval. “What are you doing, Kade?” she asked again, but not in the previous pissed-off way.
Taking a deep breath, he was glad he already had his speech worked out. Actually, he’d worked out a couple of speeches depending on her reaction. “I know you said you don’t want me to fall in love with you.” When she glared, he put up his hands. “But what about being friends?” Yes, he’d decided the night before, that’s how he would approach it. Friendship.
Her eyes met his, and she shook her head. “You don’t need a friend.”
He didn’t want to point out that she might. “Ya know, I haven’t spoken to anyone about the crap between me and my father, like, ever. And yeah, some of the guys know I don’t care for my brother, but it’s a lot to keep it all in here.” He hit the center of his chest. “I could use a friend that knows all of the things I hate the most.” He flashed a grin.
Her eyes looked raw and vulnerable, but a smile played at her lips. “I’m not happy my mother told you about my heart condition.”
There it was, the opening in the defense in the fourth quarter of a close game. A game filled with obstacles, rain, mud, and injured players, but when the defense opens, you have to pounce. “I don’t see your heart condition as a weakness.” That was partly a lie, because he wanted to know more so he could help her, but he knew about tactics, what plays he should run and which ones he should keep in his pocket. This play was in progress.
“Really?” she said skeptically.
Acting casual, he focused on Bonnet and threw the ball for her. “I care about you.” He let out a soft laugh. “We all have stuff in our lives that have made us stronger. Things we don’t reveal to the ‘public.’” He made air quotes, flashing her a smile. “But I’m not the public anymore.”
