I know. The Wind Dragons MC is built on it, and I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of that.
I look at him and flash a small smile. “I know, and I would do the same for her. You’ve known Felix and Clover for years, huh?”
He nods, taking another sip of coffee. “Yeah, Felix is one of my closest friends. I don’t know Clover as well, but she always gives me a hard time when I see her.”
“I’m sorry if she was nosey last night. She’s just a little protective.”
“No need to apologize; I respect that. To be honest, I never really shared too much with her when she pried. She was taking advantage of the situation. And you know what? I’m the same with my little sister,” he admits, lifting the toast to his lips and taking a crunchy bite. “You know, speaking of my sister, I can’t remember the last time anyone made me breakfast aside from her.”
“What? Your one-night stands don’t feed you in the morning?” I tease, lip twitching.
He puts his piece of toast down and flashes me the most charming smile. “I usually don’t stick around long enough for that.”
I knew he was going to say something like that. “Yet here you are, sticking around even after we didn’t have sex.”
He laughs. “You are different, I guess.”
Our eyes connect and hold.
I look away first.
“I’m glad I met you. I owe Constance one,” he adds.
“I forgot all about that,” I admit, wincing. “When do you think you’ll be able to get that background check on her?”
He nods. “When I get back home, I’ll send you the paperwork and I’ll get started. I should have information to you by the end of the week.”
“That’s great. Thank you. I guess, depending on what you find, I should reach out to her soon.”
“You could come and visit her,” he suggests, tone playful. “You could stay with me, let me return the favor. Unfortunately I have a guest room, so there’ll be no excuse to spoon again, but it’s all yours.”
Feeling guilty because I also have a guest room, I laugh and shake my head at him. “I thought we weren’t going to bring that up, but of course you had to.”
“What? I had a great night’s sleep. Best in a long time, actually. You even rubbed my abs in your sleep, I found that pretty...soothing.”
“Okay, that’s enough out of you.” I smirk, finish up my breakfast and put my plate in the sink. “I’ll go do my hair, and then we can leave.”
I put my hair in a high bun and slide my heels on while he washes our plates. Then we both get in my car.
“I like the security you have,” he comments as the gates close behind us. “No one is getting in there.”
His mentioning of security has me cringing for once again forgetting about Rhett and that he probably thinks the worst of me.
“Yep, you can never be too careful, especially with who my dad is and who I...live with.” I can’t sugarcoat the awkwardness of the situation. “I think that’s why I’m a little worried about Constance reaching out. It’s more than likely that she wants something from me, or her dad does. I guess we will all find out soon.”
“You should tell your family about it,” Decker advises me. “If there’s a chance that she might not be genuine, you need your people around you. They’ll likely notice something is amiss before you, because they have no emotional investment in it.”
“I know. I will tell them—I just wanted to process it first.”
“And if you want me to be there when you meet her, to have your back, I’m happy to do that, all right? Anything you need,” he says sincerely.
I glance over at him from the corner of my eye. “Okay, and thank you. That does make me feel better.”
He pulls out his phone. “What’s your phone number? I’ll add you and send you a text so you can have mine.”
“You’re a PI; as if you don’t already know.”
He laughs. “I’m just being polite. Consent is important.”
I tell him my number and he saves it in his phone. We arrive at Rift, and I park just behind his car, the only one still there. “Looks like no one else made any bad decisions last night,” I tease.
“Just me apparently, but hey, I met you, and I had a good night. Thanks for everything, Cara. I’ll be in touch about the information I find on Constance.”
He kisses me on my cheek, flashes me a panty-dropping smile, and then gets out and closes my car door.
I watch him get into his car and drive away. And then I head to work, trying to process my reaction to Seth Decker.
I come up short, because I have no fucking idea.
Maybe I just want to sleep with him.
Maybe I just want to be his friend.
Or maybe, just maybe—I want both.
Either way it doesn’t matter what I want. He’s leaving and it’s probably for the best because I need to work on myself. Being single or alone doesn’t scare me at all. In fact I’m looking forward to the change. No more waiting for Rhett to text, or sitting up for him at night, or wondering what he’s doing.
Right now is all about me, and figuring out what I want to do with my life.
It’s about me being happy.
But first I need to make it through a day of class.
Chapter Nine
Decker
The drive back home is pretty painful, not going to lie. I definitely regret letting loose as much as I did, but I really did have a good time.
I email Constance asking for a meeting, since I’m going to have to tell her I found Cara and that she will get in contact with her when she is ready. Not really the usual protocol—in fact, I probably won’t even charge Constance for this case, because I didn’t really have her best interests at heart; I let Cara have the upper hand.
And then I let Cara hire me to investigate Constance in turn.
Probably unprofessional, even if all I gave Cara was Constance’s full name and contact information.
I send Sim a text checking in, and Nadia calls me just as I get home, asking about how the trip went.
“Yeah, it was good,” I say with a wide smile. “As you know, I found our person of interest.” And she’s now my person of interest. “And then she hired me.”
“So you went with that, huh?”
“I did.”
“I was going to call you to ask if you have decided if you want to become partner, but I’ll wait and see how this plays out before that.”