Though Ginny told Kade she could handle a little rain, he insisted he get the car and meet her outside. When he parked beneath the portico, she rushed outside.
By the time she reached the car, Kade was holding her door open for her. She started to thank him, but on the way to his eyes, she got sidetracked by his lips.
She’d never experienced a kiss like that. Soft and tender, warm and insistent. She’d never responded to a kiss like that, either. She’d read about those kind of kisses in romance novels, kisses that make your toes curl. Kisses that make all rational thought flee. She’d always thought those kisses the stuff of fairytales.
She’d been wrong.
Kade’s lips had been perfect.
Right now, they smiled, and her eyes lifted to see the heat in his eyes.
She had to breathe. To think.
To get in the car. Right. She slid into the seat.
A moment later, he joined her. By the time they were on the highway, he’d pulled her hand into his.
The ride was quiet but not uncomfortable. She couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss, and about the things he’d said earlier tonight. That he wanted to be with her. That he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her.
Thank heavens it was dark and he couldn’t see her silly smile.
Did he have a similar one on his face? When she glanced at him, his eyebrows were lowered, his mouth closed tightly.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
He squeezed her hand. “Nothing.”
Well, that wasn’t true. She shifted so she could see him better. “Please tell me the truth. I don’t appreciate being brushed off.”
He glanced her way. “I was thinking about our earlier conversation.”
“Which one? We’ve had a lot today.”
“About your parents.”
Her too-full stomach twisted. “Let’s not talk about that tonight.”
“Okay.”
But she could tell he was thinking about it. “Let’s focus on your meeting tomorrow. Assuming the project gets approved, what’s the next step?”
“We’ll break ground as soon as possible.”
“Within a week? A month?”
“I’ve got everything in place. We just need the town on board and the funding to come in, and we can begin as soon as NEB is available.”
“That’s so exciting.”
“Yup.”
He didn’t seem excited at all. Or particularly happy. Did he regret kissing her? It hadn’t seemed exactly spur-of-the-moment. In fact, he’d taken his time with it. Given her time to stop him. As if that would have happened. She’d looked forward to that kiss for days. And it had well exceeded her expectations. Why would he regret something he’d done so thoughtfully? Something that had been so good?
Maybe it was the project. “Are you nervous?”
He blew out a long breath. “I’m not nervous about my project. It’s going to be fine. The events of the weekend, your sister, the intruder, what you learned today… That’s what I’m thinking about.”
“It’s fine. I’m fine. Why ruin a perfectly wonderful evening with that?”
He pulled onto her street and parked in her driveway. Then, he turned to face her. “How do you do that? How do you just push it out of your head?”
Her house was dark. She hadn’t left a light on or closed the blinds, and the windows were gaping and black. Her heart thumped with fear, and she turned back to Kade. What had he asked her?
Right. How did she push away unpleasant things? “If I don’t want to think about something, I just don’t. I focus my mind elsewhere. If there’s something out of my control, I ignore it.”
“Seriously? Just like that? What a gift.”
“Sometimes. The problem is, some things aren’t out of my control. When I was a kid, I could have made more of an effort to know what my parents were doing. Not that I could have fixed it, but I could have been informed, prepared. But it was unpleasant, so I ignored it. I pretended everything was fine and lived in my own little fantasyland.”
He took her hand again. “It’s like a defense mechanism.”
“Maybe. And when I have a problem”—the dark house loomed over them—“and I don’t know how to fix it, I put it out of my head.”
“How does that help?”
“It doesn’t. Which is how I land in situations like this. By pretending they aren’t real.” Like the duffel bag her mother had given her. She’d put it out of her mind, figuring she’d give it back to her mother when she saw her again. But now… Could she do that, knowing what she’d learned?
Should she turn the money over to the police?
She had no idea.
“What are you thinking about?”
Ginny shook her head. “Nothing. Did you ask me a question?”
“How do you do that, pretend things aren’t happening?”
She put the duffel bag out of her head.
It was just that simple.
“I trust the world will make everything right because… I don’t know. I guess because I’m a decent person, so things should work out decently for me.”
Kade’s eyes narrowed. “Do you think that’s how it works?”
“I don’t know how it works, whatever it is. I know what you believe. I’m not against what you believe. It’s just…” She glanced at the clock. How was it nearly eleven? And how did they get into this conversation? “You have a meeting tomorrow. I should go.”
For the first time since they’d left the restaurant, he smiled. “You do that to me, make me forget everything else.” He opened his door.
“You don’t have to come in with me.” She swallowed and kept her gaze away from the house. “I can manage.”
As if she hadn’t spoken, he walked around to open her door. The rain had stopped, though moisture lay heavy in the air. At the house, he took her keys and turned the lock, then stepped inside. The alarm beeped the warning that it was about to go off, but Kade was in no rush. After a moment, he moved out of the way so she could follow him in and make the beeping stop. She flipped on the foyer light and turned to him. “Thank you for—”
He closed the front door. “I’m going to take a quick look around, if that’s okay.”
“Why?” Fear bubbled in her middle as she remembered the last time she and Kade had come in together. “Did you see something?”
“Nope. But unlike you, I can’t just put unpleasant things out of my mind. So if I want to sleep tonight, I need to know you’re safe. Stay put.”
Before she could raise a protest, he moved away from her. He searched the downstairs, flipping on lights as he went. He opened all the doors and looked behind the sofa. A moment later, he bounded up the stairs. She heard doors opening and closing, and then he came back down.
“I really appreciate you doing that.”
He smiled and walked past her to the door that led to the basement, opened it, and went down.
A moment later, he returned with a smile. “Nothing but dust bunnies.”
“You didn’t check the attic.”
His eyebrows lowered in that concerned look she’d come to know. “I didn’t think of that. Where’s the access?”
“I was kidding.” She put as much amusement as she could into her voice. “The access is in the second-floor hallway, but there’s no way to climb them and pull the steps up behind you. It’s designed that way to keep people from getting trapped.”
His eyebrows hadn’t budged.
“Seriously, I was kidding.”
“If you’re sure.”
Man, he was cute when he was worried. And when he wasn’t. “I’m sure. And I appreciate you doing that. As confident as I tried to sound, I was scared to come into the dark house by myself.”
“Good.”
She stepped back. “Wow, thanks.”
“You should be scared, Ginny. After everything you told me today—”
“Let’s not. We both need to sleep.”
“I’m just saying, you need to stay on your toes.” He stepped closer and took her hands. “I need you to protect yourself.”
“I will. I promise.”
“Have you been keeping your gun nearby, practicing holding it?”
She didn’t want to lie, but she didn’t think he’d appreciate the truth. She shook her head.
“Tomorrow, hold it over and over until it feels natural. When the weather clears, we can go shooting again.”
“You don’t have to—” His eyebrows lifted, and she cut herself off. “Okay.”
“Thank you.” He stepped closer, and for a moment she thought—hoped—he’d kiss her again. But he just gave her a quick peck on her forehead. “Get a good night’s sleep.”
Ginny was dropping her whole wheat toast into the toaster the next morning when her phone dinged with a text.
It was from Kade. Are you awake?
She typed, Fixing my avocado toast.
She was watching for the blinking dots to tell her he was responding when her phone rang in her hands.
She answered, not caring if he thought she was overeager. “Good morning.”
“Did you sleep?” His voice was deep and soothing. It somehow calmed her and energized her at the same time.
She flipped her frying egg. “I had good dreams.”
He chuckled. “I had some memorable dreams myself.”
She felt that silly smile again and thanked the heavens he couldn’t see her warming cheeks.
“What in the world is avocado toast?” he asked.
She explained her favorite breakfast concoction.
“No offense,” he said, “but that sounds really gross.”
“I’ll make it for you sometime. It’s delicious.” She mashed half an avocado. “Are you ready for the meeting?”
“About that,” he said. “I wanted to ask a favor. After our talk yesterday and all your help, I feel like you know as much about the project as I do.”
“Not even close.”
“Enough to be helpful, though.”
Her toast popped, and she spread the mashed avocado on top of it, then slid the egg over it. “I’m happy to help. What do you need?”
“I was thinking, since you know the project, and since you have so much experience with real estate developments, maybe…” He paused, cleared his throat. “Will you come to the meeting with me? You can act as, I don’t know—”
“An assistant?” She carried her plate to the table.
“I don’t know if that’s the right word, but—”
“You’re asking me to assist you, so assistant feels appropriate.”
“But not like you work for me or anything. I don’t want you to think I see you like that.”
“I’m not offended, Kade.” She sprinkled her breakfast with salt and pepper. “I’m flattered you think I can add anything. What time is the meeting?”
He blew out a long exhale as if he’d been nervous to ask. “Two.”
“Hold on a sec. Let me check my schedule.” She put him on speaker, then navigated to the calendar app. “I have a closing at ten but nothing this afternoon. Assuming the closing doesn’t get moved, I can be there. Is there anything you want me to do beforehand?”
“Could you meet me at one-thirty just to talk it through with me? I want to make sure I’m not missing anything.”
“I’ll be happy to meet you. The proposal was perfect, though. I’m sure you have it well in hand.”
“Still…”
She found the concern in his voice honest and endearing. “You have a lot riding on this.”
“I have to get it right.”
She tapped the calendar to add an appointment. “Where shall we meet?”
“McNeal’s?”
“Perfect. See you there.”
A phone call that afternoon from a client kept her at the office longer than she’d planned. When she finally got off the phone, she walked in the waning mist to McNeal’s. She was five minutes late, and Kade was already seated in a far booth focused on the paperwork spread in front of him. He stood when she approached and kissed her cheek. “Thank you for doing this.”
She sat and looked at what he was studying. It was the binder she’d given him. Yellow sticky notes were poking out all along the sides.
“I’m worried I don’t have enough information,” he said. “What if they ask me about this stuff?” He pointed to a blank spreadsheet with columns labeled for every tiny detail of a project.
“Maybe giving you that binder was a mistake.”
He ran his fingers through his hair. “I don’t have all this information yet. I don’t know how I could.”
“You’ll fill this out as the project goes along. It’ll help you track costs. More than that, it’ll help you with your next project to know exactly where your money went.” Gently, she closed the binder. “You’ve got this, Kade. I have no doubt.”
The little wrinkle between his eyebrows showed he was unconvinced. He sipped his drink. A glass of iced tea sat in front of her. “I hope you’re right.”
“You’ve done this before, right?” She slid the tea closer and added sweetener. “You’ve gone before the planning committee?”
“A few times. And they always approved me until January when I went with this project. It was one thing to get turned down mid-winter. It wasn’t as if I would have broken ground then. But if they don’t approve it today, it’ll be late summer before I can try again, which means we either build in the winter or wait until next year.”
She sipped the tea. “You don’t want to build in the winter?”
“There are so many days when the guys can’t work because everything’s buried under snow or ice. It takes longer and costs more.”
A good point. But something she’d heard in church—his church—on Sunday prickled in her memory. “Isn’t this exactly what the pastor was talking about? You make your plans and do your part, and you trust Him with the results? Because God’s got a plan, right? I’m sure I’m butchering it, but wasn’t that the point?”
His eyebrows lifted, erasing the concern on his face. “You were listening.”
“Of course.”
He nodded. “You’re right. I’ve prayed about it for months. I’ve done everything I can to prepare, and I even asked for help along the way—something I’m not very good at, to tell you the truth. I’ve done my part. The rest is up to God.”
She nodded, though she wasn’t so sure about the God part. Did He really care that much about a little real estate project in New Hampshire? Didn’t God have better things to worry about?
Kade took her hands. “Thank you. We haven’t even gone to the meeting yet, and you’ve already helped me.”
She looked down to hide the smile she knew was beaming on her face.
He squeezed her hands and let go. “If you can just take this”—he opened the binder to one of the sticky-noted pages and turned it toward her—“and keep this section open. Most of the details I think they’ll ask about are here. If I can’t pull an answer from my head or find a number quickly, can you supply it?”
“Absolutely.”
“And if I look lost or… if I need help—”
“I’ll jump in. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
He stood and dropped a couple of bills on the table. “We’ll see.”