“I’ve thought about it,” he said. “I was thinking about it before this happened but now I can’t ask her to marry me.”
“What kind of fucked-up logic is that?”
“Because she’s going to think I’m only asking her to marry me because she’s pregnant,” he explained.
“Aren’t you?” I asked. I was so confused.
“No. Yes. I loved her before she was pregnant and I think I love her even more now, but I can’t tell her that. I have to wait now.”
I groaned. “This is why I don’t do relationships. I don’t like the games. I think it should be way easier than all of that. If you want to marry her, marry her. If you don’t, then just keep things the way they are. It’s worse than navigating a minefield. I like what I have with Saige. There aren’t any questions. There’s no drama. If we happen to be alone and the mood strikes, we have sex. When we’re done, we go on with our lives. There is no conversation about what I should and shouldn’t do. It’s just easy.”
“Bullshit,” he scoffed. “You’re thinking about her even if you pretend you’re not. You’re all up in her business, literally, because you like her.”
“It’s my business,” I reminded him.
“But you don’t have to be there. She could run it for you.”
“Yes, but I need to be there to make sure it’s going the way I think it should. She doesn’t plan on staying long anyway. I need to hire a replacement and then supervise the training.”
“Good excuse. You just want to hang out with her a little longer.”
I shrugged. “It’s not all that bad.”
Chapter 41
Saige
“I see them,” I said to Jace as I waved to Joss.
They were already seated in a booth at our favorite diner that served the best brunch in the city. Jace practically floated toward them. He was thrilled to see them. I knew it was because he couldn’t wait to tell them all about his exciting day yesterday. I had purposely kept my own explanation of our day to a minimum so he could have the pleasure of telling Joss and Caitlyn.
“Hi, guys,” I said as we slid into the booth.
“Guess what I did?” Jace said. His eyes were so full of joy. It made my heart so happy to see him in such a good place.
“What?” Caitlyn asked.
“I went fishing!”
Joss looked at me. “Fishing?”
“Yep,” Jace answered. “I caught two fish. I didn’t keep them because I didn’t want to kill them. Nash said he was going to show me how to cut them up later.”
“Nash said?” Joss repeated again.
I smiled and nodded. “Yes, Nash took us fishing. Well, he and Jace fished. I watched.”
“Wow,” she murmured.
Jace was talking a mile a minute as he regaled Caitlyn with every detail of his time with Nash. Joss kept giving me funny looks. We knew each other well enough to be able to communicate without words. I silently told her I would fill her in on the details once we were at the park, which was our next stop. We finished our brunch and headed across the street to the park for the kids to run.
“Okay, spill. I thought Jace was telling us a tall tale.”
“Nope, all real.”
“He took him fishing?” she questioned. “What happened? You hated him two weeks ago.”
“I told you we went to lunch and talked. I mentioned Jace was having some trouble at school. He volunteered to hang out with him.”
“This is the man you hate?” she said.
“Hate is a strong word. We just have very different values and ways of doing things.”
“And yet he volunteered to come over and hang out with a kid he’s never met,” she said with a great deal of skepticism.
I nodded. “He did.”
“Wow. And you still don’t like this guy?”
“It isn’t that I don’t like him. He’s just not my type. We are too different.”
“You certainly seem like you have something in common,” she said with a laugh. “He just did this out of the kindness of his heart? I don’t understand. You’re not telling me something.”
I looked away, watching Caitlyn and Jace sit on a bench and chatter away with each other. “Things have been a little different between us,” I confessed.
“As in working together?”
“Yes and more.”
“I knew it!” she exclaimed loud enough to attract the attention of people around us.
“Shh,” I shushed.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!”
“It isn’t like it’s a regular thing,” I told her. “It’s just so hard to resist him. There is something about the man that makes me a little crazy.”
“You mean horny,” she said and laughed. “I’ve never known you to be so, uh, wild.”
“I don’t know why he does this to me,” I said with a sigh. “I see him and it’s like I’m watching a male model do a striptease in my mind. He’s too sexy for my own good.”
“You could try not looking at him.”
“I can’t. I work with him.”
“Is that why you went back?” she asked.
“No, definitely not. I never expected it to happen after the first time.”
“And then it did and then it did again and again and again.” She laughed.
“No, not that often.”
“What about yesterday?” she asked.
“What about it?”
“Was it an overnight visit?” she asked in a low voice.
“No. Yesterday was absolutely innocent. There was nothing happening. He really was completely focused on Jace. I was only there as a chaperone. The two of them talked and fished. Jace soaked up everything Nash said. It was so cute to watch him try to imitate everything Nash did, right down to the way he stood.”
“That’s what little boys do with their daddies,” she said.
“He needs a male figure in his life. I wasn’t sure before, but I am now. Look how happy he is. All he could talk about last night was how awesome Nash was. He gave me play-by-play details of everything Nash said and did several times.”
“I think it’s sweet, and I am glad Jace got to have a fun day, but I think you have to be very careful.”
“What do you mean?”
“You hated this guy up until a few days ago,” she reminded me. “You said over and over he was not a good person and you didn’t want to work for him. You told me how poorly he treated your staff. Those are adults with thicker skin and lower expectations. I think Jace is a little more vulnerable.”
“I would never do anything to hurt Jace,” I told her. “I’ve never dated anyone or brought a man into the house. I think that shows, with the way he’s all over Nash. He is starving for that male attention.”
She nodded as she watched the kids. There was a dad there with his three kids. She could warn me off of Nash, but I knew she was longing for the same thing. Watching a man treat his children well was something every woman craved deep in their soul. It was sexy and appealing on a much deeper level.