me crazy. I want her to burrow her hands beneath the fabric so I can feel her skin against mine. When I can’t take it anymore, I guide her hands up to my neck and love that first touch of her hands on me.
I lean back, hoping she’ll inch her way closer to me, but just then my phone vibrates in my pocket. Fuck. I know who it is without even checking.
“Your phone is making a noise,” she says with a smile. “Do you want to take that?”
Shaking my head, I slide my hand around the back of her head and pull her mouth to me. “No. They can wait.”
But a few seconds later, my phone vibrates again. Three more times it interrupts us, and I know it won’t stop unless I call him back.
“Maybe you should take that. It sounds like someone really needs to talk to you.”
I take a deep breath in and let it out slowly as a combination of anger and frustration fills me. “They don’t, but they’ll keep calling. Just give me a minute and I’ll be right back.”
By the time I get into the kitchen, I’m barely able to contain my anger. I know what I’m supposed to be doing tonight. He doesn’t have to call fifty fucking times to remind me. It’s not that late yet, and that place can do without me for a few more goddamned hours.
Before I can call him back, my father calls yet again and this time I answer it. “You know, calling a dozen times isn’t going to make things happen any faster,” I say in a low voice. “I’ll be there soon.”
“You were supposed to be here for eight, Cade. You’re an hour and a half late right now, and something tells me you aren’t anywhere close to this building.”
“I’m coming.”
I want to say so much more, but I keep it all in. He wants this from me, but I want something, and right now, that’s far more important to me.
“Are you going to be here by ten?” he asks sharply.
“Probably not, but I’ll get there. I told you I would.”
Lost in my anger at this whole situation, I don’t see Hailey standing in the doorway. When I look up at her, she’s shaking her head and looks upset.
“I have to go. Bye.”
I stuff my phone into my pocket. I hurry to try to explain away the call, but she’s already walking away toward the front door.
“I knew you were too perfect to be real,” she says with so much sadness in her voice that my chest hurts just hearing it. “I’m going, Cade. Goodbye.”
She doesn’t get to the door before I catch up with her. “No, don’t go. That wasn’t anything. I’m sorry they interrupted us. Let’s go back and pick up where we were.”
Hailey spins around to face me and shakes her head at me again. “Who was that? It sounded like a wife or a girlfriend. I’m so stupid. Why would anyone like you want someone like me? All my joking about red Jag girls. You already have one of those. Just wanted to go slumming for a little while? Was that what I was? And I was so naïve to fall for it all. You must think I’m just some moron, don’t you?”
I open my mouth to tell her that call was definitely not from the wife or girlfriend I don’t have, but she doesn’t give me a chance to get a word in. When she finishes, she turns to leave again, but this time, I grab hold of her arm.
“Let me go! I’m leaving!”
“Don’t. I swear. That wasn’t a wife or girlfriend. Honest. I don’t have either. And none of what you said is right. I like you. Why can’t you believe that?”
She rips her arm from my hold and shakes her head, but this time her eyes are full of tears. “Why? Because I know what I look like, Cade. I know what I do for a living. You’re not the first guy I’ve ever wanted to be with who was just playing. I just didn’t think I was stupid enough to fall for this trick again.”
I stare at her in confusion, knowing I should tell her just how beautiful she is and how much I like being around her. That isn’t what I want to do, though, and why should I? It hasn’t worked yet.
Actions speak louder than words, and I’m done talking.
Pulling her to me, I kiss her