My first inhale of air was normal, but the second one stuttered, and it didn’t take me long to figure out why. I didn’t even have to look toward the entrance to know who shared the same space with me.
“Hey, babe,” Riley greeted, hopping out of her chair. “What are you doin’ here?” Her feet propelled her toward Kaden, and from the corner of my eye, I saw the moment she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“We had some time before heading back to the clubhouse, so I wanted to stop and see you. You’re still comin’ over later, right?” The hopefulness in his voice was endearing, as if he hardly ever saw her, which wasn’t true at all. They saw each other all the time and would be seeing even more after she finally told the poor guy her plan.
“Of course. And there’s somethin’ I wanna talk to you about, too.”
Continuing to face forward, I stared at my reflection, careful not to look toward where he stood. My ears pricked at every sound made in anticipation of hearing his voice, to which I internally chastised myself for reacting at all.
“What is it?”
“We’ll talk later. My client’s almost done under the dryer.”
“Is it somethin’ I’m gonna be pissed about?” He wasn’t gonna let this go until later. No way that happened.
“No,” my bestie replied.
“Then tell me.” His voice took on a harder edge.
“Kaden.” Riley’s tone tried to mirror his. “Later.”
“Oh, just tell him already, woman,” I blurted, tearing my gaze from the mirror, and twisting my chair to face them. I gave Ace two seconds of visual attention, raking in his sexiness before going back to ignoring him. “You’re gonna make him think something awful. You know how he is.”
“Yeah. What she said.” Kaden pointed toward me before snatching Riley’s arm when she tried to move back. “Just tell me what it’s about. That’ll be good enough for now.”
“It’s about movin’ in together.”
“What about it? You gonna tell me no for the hundredth time?” His teeth played with the corner of his bottom lip, and because I knew him so well, I could tell he was becoming annoyed with the subject matter, thinking she was going to refuse his offer again.
Riley didn’t answer. Instead, she stepped into him, then shook her head.
“Does that mean you don’t wanna tell me or that you’re not gonna say no?”
A brief quiet stole over the space between them, and because I was an impatient person by nature, I snatched her thunder. The aftershocks, anyway.
“She’s deserting me and shackin’ up with you. So, you better make sure I have space to hang out when I come over to see my girl.”
Kaden’s eyes flicked to me, his lip popping free from the imprisonment of his teeth. Then he stared at his woman, his mouth curving into the biggest smile I believed I’d ever seen. He beamed, and even though I ruined her surprise, his reaction was priceless.
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“I don’t want to jinx anything, but why did you change your mind?” He wrapped his arms around her waist and tugged her closer, if that was at all possible.
Keeping my eyes on them was the goal because I didn’t have anything to say to Ace; therefore, I didn’t even want to look at him. I mean, I did, but nothing good would come of me giving him attention right now.
The way he left my house this morning was… shitty. Laying out an ultimatum like that, then expecting me to have an answer in just twenty-four hours was a dick move. Was I mad because I hadn’t given him one first? No. That couldn’t be it because I wanted to keep things as they were, but apparently, he didn’t. Simply contemplating what was gonna happen made my temples start to throb. I was confused about what to do and the short timeframe only made things worse.
“Other than wanting to get you to stop asking me?” He nodded, that smile still plastered on his gorgeous face. “I thought it was too soon after getting back together, and the whole issue with my dad weighs on me, but what am I waiting for? You’re stuck with me forever now, so there’s really no difference if we move in together now or a few months from now. Besides, I’m tired of lugging some of my stuff between your place and Chelsea’s.”
“Whatever the reason, I’ll take it.” He kissed her, and what started off as a happy peck turned swoon-worthy seconds later. But their embrace was interrupted when Natalie strolled through the door, scoffing when she saw Kaden and Riley’s show of affection. Her attention drifted to Ace, but she didn’t flirt with him like she normally did. In fact, she looked downright miserable.
“Can you not do that in front of me?” she grumbled, moving past Riley and toward her chair.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked, catching her eye as she walked by me. Recently, I’d avoided Natalie because I thought there was a possibility Ace liked her, but after him swearing over and over that he never even gave her a second thought, much less a first one, I believed him. As much as I could, given my trust issues.
“Guys are assholes.”
“Tell me about it,” I replied, glancing at Ace right after I spoke. And sure enough, he was looking at me. I wasn’t sure if he heard what I’d said, and the pinched brows and the scowl weren’t an indicator because he often looked like that.
He stood off to the side of the entrance, leaning against the wall, trying to look inconspicuous, but there was nothing discreet about him. Never mind the leather cut he wore, screaming he was some sort of badass, his dark-colored jeans and black T-shirt showcasing his amazing physique, accentuating some parts while leaving others to the imagination, heightening his sexiness.
I hated that my hormones churned into overdrive whenever I saw him, and because I didn’t want him to catch a whiff of what I was thinking, I averted my gaze from his.
“You two wanna grab somethin’ to eat with us later?” Riley asked.
I’d opened my phone and started scrolling through Instagram, not paying any more attention to our guests.
“Hello?” Silence. “Hey.” More silence. “Chelsea?” she shouted. I snapped my head up and looked at her. “Do you and Ace wanna grab somethin to eat with us later?” she repeated.
I answered no a millisecond before he did.
Not wanting to spend any time with him, while also dying to be alone with him, tore at the last few threads of my reserve, not that I had much to begin with.
I was tired of being confused.
I was tired of thinking the worst was gonna happen.
I was tired of the back-and-forth, the hot and cold between Ace and me.
But when he gave the same answer I did, the tone of his voice dripping with annoyance and possibly anger, I became so incensed that any words I’d normally throw his way evaporated.
My best friend knew me well enough to see from the tightening of my jaw and the slight tremble of my chin that I was upset.
“Another time, then.” She gave Kaden a kiss, whispered in his ear and pushed him toward the door.
“I should be home around six,” he said.
“Make it at least seven because we gotta meet with everyone,” Ace corrected, completely ignoring me before exiting the salon.