“I want to be,” Brodie stated honestly. It would be so much easier.
His fingers touched her jaw, trailed down her neck. “I know you do, but that’s not happening. Not this time.”
Panic flooded her system and closed her throat. Wanting to protest, Brodie could only look at him with wide, scared eyes. She needed to push him away, to end the emotion swirling between them. “You just want to get into my pants again.”
The only hint of Kade’s frustration was the slight tightening of his fingers. She waited for him to retaliate but he just brushed his amused mouth in a hot kiss across her lips.
“So cynical, Brodie.” He rubbed the cord in her neck with his thumb and Brodie couldn’t miss the determination on his face and in the words that followed. “I want you, Brodie, you know that. But that is a completely separate matter to us raising a child together. One is about want and heat and crazy need, the other is about being your friend, a support structure, about raising this child together as best as we can.”
“We can’t be both friends and lovers, Kade!”
“We can be anything we damn well want,” Kade replied. “But for now, why don’t we try to be friends first and figure out how we’re going to be parents and not complicate it with sex?”
He confused and bedazzled her, Brodie admitted. She couldn’t keep up with him. She felt like she was being maneuvered into a corner, pushed there by the force of his will. “I don’t know! I need to think.”
Kade smiled, stepped back and placed his hands in the pockets of his khaki shorts. “You can think all you want, Brodie, but it isn’t going to change a damn thing. I’m going to be around whether you like it or not.” He ducked his head and dropped a kiss on her temple.“You might as well get used to it,” he murmured into her ear.
Before Brodie got her wits together to respond, Kade walked across the patio to the outside stairs. He snapped his fingers. Simon lumbered to his feet and they both jogged down the stairs. Brodie looked over the balustrade as they hit the ground below.
“And get some sleep, Stewart! You look like hell,” Kade called.
Yeah, just what a girl needed to hear, Brodie thought. Then she yawned and agreed it was a very good suggestion.
* * *
Kade glanced down at his phone, the red flashing light indicating he had a message. He looked across the table to his friends and partners and saw they were still reading a condensed version of Logan’s contract. He slid his finger across the screen and his breath hitched when he saw Brodie’s name.
He hadn’t spoken to her for two days but he kept seeing her in his mind’s eye, looking down at him from the patio of the cabin—bemused, befuddled, so very tired. He had deliberately left her alone, wanting to give her time to get used to the idea of them co-parenting.
Back in the city. Thought that you might want to know.
Kade smiled at her caustic message. Not exactly gracious but coming from the independent Brodie, who’d rather cut off her right arm than ask for help, it was progress.
He quickly typed a reply.
Feeling rested?
A bit.
Any other symptoms?
Do you really want to know? He grimaced at the green, vomiting emoji tacked onto the end of the message.
Ugh. Will bring dinner. Around 7?
Tired. Going to bed early.
Oh, no. When was she going to learn that if she retreated he would follow? You have to eat. I’m bringing food. Be there.
Suit yourself.
That was Brodie speak for “see you later.” Kade tapped the screen and smiled. The trick with Brodie, he was learning, was to out-stubborn her.
“Kade, do you agree?”
“Sure,” he murmured, looking straight through Quinn. He’d have to tell his friends at some point but there were reasons why he didn’t want to, not yet. He was still wrapping his head around the situation and he wasn’t ready for his friends to rag him about it. He still felt raw. The situation was uncertain and, consequently, his temper was quick to the boil.
Besides, it was one of those things he needed to discuss with Brodie... Was she ready for the pregnancy to become public knowledge?
He didn’t think either of them was ready for the press. Especially since Brodie was supposed to be finding his dream woman. His next date. She was, after all, his damned matchmaker.
No, he definitely wasn’t ready for the news to be splashed across the papers and social media. It was too new and too precious. Too fragile. Kade half turned and put his hand into the pocket of his suit jacket, which was hanging off the back of his chair. Pulling out a container of aspirin, he flipped back the lid and swallowed three, ignoring the bitter powder coating his mouth.