“Alright. Fine,” I groaned finally. “But if we’re going, let’s go. Before I change my mind. No last minute trips to the bathroom to primp.”
She arched a brow. “Do I look like I need to primp?”
“No, you look perfect,” I smiled, kissing her forehead.
“Exactly.” She spun on her heels and led us out the door.
I had been trying to go with the flow and not stress about things with her too much. We were both having fun, and we were about to make a lot of money together. I figured—if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. And the only thing that would break it would be if we got caught, which neither of us planned on happening.
Sometimes it was harder than others to talk myself down from a spiraling panic, but I always managed to do it eventually. And that’s exactly what I did that night as the car took off for the restaurant. By the time we got there, I had pushed all of my fears and worries far from my mind.
Even with our reservations and good standing with the owners, we had to wait longer than expected for our table. We were forced into the crowd huddled in the foyer as the waitress made sure everything was ready for us.
“Wow, this place is packed tonight!” Cat shouted over the noise of chattering customers.
“No kidding,” I mumbled, barely loud enough for her to hear it. I was too busy trying to avoid getting my feet stepped on by people as they pushed by.
But once again, Cat managed to chase all of my grievances away. The crowd of people pushed her closer to me, until she was flat against my chest with her hands spread across me. All the noise seemed to stop when I looked into her eyes, and all the commotion faded. When she looked at me like that, it was like getting sucked into a vacuum where nothing else existed but me and her.
“Mr. Ashford?”
Our surroundings came rushing back as I snapped to.
“Your table is ready,” the waitress said.
“Right, thank you,” I replied, reluctantly letting the moment with Cat slip through our fingers.
What was that thing that always rushed over me around her? Why did it put dangerous words dancing around on the tip of my tongue? If we had just a few seconds longer before we were interrupted, would I have said…
The thought was slashed from my mind as I looked up and saw him standing there.
Right there on the other side of the room, staring straight back at me. Mark—Cat’s Dad. I froze under his watchful eyes, unsure of what to do next. There were enough people between us that he couldn’t have gotten to me quickly, no matter how badly he might have wanted to.
And judging by the look on his face, he just saw everything. Us pushed up so close together, me kissing her forehead, the way we looked at each other. It was all reflecting back at me through his eyes, playing over and over again like a bad horror movie.
His lips parted as if he might call out to us, but before he could, we were swept off into the rush of the walkway. People pushed through, trying to make their way to their tables, and we were carried off with them in the direction of our waitress. Cat was walking ahead of me, pulling my hand so we could keep up with her.
I imagined I was white as a sheet as I sat down at our table. Cat’s obvious concern confirmed it for me.
“Are you okay?” Her brow wrinkled as she reached across the table for my hand. “You look pale. Like you’ve just seen a ghost or something!”
Ha. I wished Mark had been a ghost—some vivid manifestation of my worst fears that could just vanish away in a cloud of smoke. But, no. What happened was real. He saw us, and it was all over. There was nothing I could do about it now.
But Cat seemed oblivious. She must not have seen him watching us from across the room.
“I’m fine,” I lied, trying to pull myself together.
What was done was done, and I should have known better. But I kept going down that dangerous road anyway, knowing full well that something like this was bound to happen eventually.
There was no reason to ruin Cat’s mood and night too. Whatever would result from us getting caught couldn’t be stopped now. The least we could do was enjoy one last night together, pretending like everything was normal and fine.
All the while I knew nothing was normal or fine. My head spiraled with the possibilities. Would he be waiting outside for us when we left so he could corner me around back and punch me in the face? Would he ever speak to me again? Was the entire Heartstring deal about to slip through my fingers all because I couldn’t keep it in my pants?
“Did you hear me?” Cat asked.
“Huh? Oh. No. Sorry,” I shook my head. “What did you say?”
“Maybe we could sneak away to Hawaii or somewhere tropical for a few days after the deal is closed and we’re all settled in,” she repeated.
I nodded, swallowing hard. I was finally realizing how hopeless all of this was. How long could we really expect to keep this up? I didn’t know what we were thinking up until now. But if somehow, by some miracle, Mark managed to just let it go—to forget that he saw us behaving so intimately together…we couldn’t go on like this.
I admitted the only
