Going All In (21 page)

“I’m fine.” In an effort to keep Wade from melting, she cut off the heater fan completely and pulled the edges of her coat tighter around her waist. “I’m just tired and have a lot on my mind.”

Truth was Wade could crank the heat up until the cab became a sweltering sauna and she’d still be cold. Her chill radiated from deep within and until she moved past her discomfort of working with Sunny, she’d likely stay chilled to the bone.

Another concern was Gavin catching onto her personal relationship with Wade.

A stranger would pick up on the simmering attraction between her and Wade, and since Gavin had known her since she was fourteen… yeah, there’d be no keeping secrets there. What would Gavin think about it? Did he like Wade? Even though Wade was a construction worker and didn’t have a large trust fund, would Gavin think Wade was good enough for her?

Do I care what Gavin thinks?

The unexpected thought startled her, but the answer shocked her more. No, she didn’t care if Gavin gave his blessing or not. She carried a complex mix of feelings for Gavin and he would always hold a special place in her heart, but she was finished letting other people influence her decisions. In the past, she might’ve stopped seeing Wade if her parents or friends didn’t approve because she wasn’t strong enough to stand up to the criticism and possible rejection that would accompany their disapproval. But not anymore.

Wade didn’t have money and his background drastically differed from hers, but none of that mattered. He was kind and caring, always considerate, and a perfect gentleman. She liked how she felt when with him and who he inspired her to be even when not together. If the other people in her life didn’t approve, tough cookies.

“I’m sorry you have so much on your mind.” The way his brow furrowed and eyes crinkled at the corners, she had the feeling he was concerned her unease stemmed from their talk and the new direction their relationship had taken. Little did he know he was her “Wheaties” and her life had never been better than now. “Anything I can help with?”

As they took the exit and closed in on Anticue, she clasped his hand and drew it up to her cheek. “You can hold my hand. My overactive imagination often conjures problems where none exist, but when I’m with you, I feel like I can conquer the world.”

*

Wade sat at his desk, a stack of purchase orders in front of him, his stomach reminding him every few minutes they were well past their normal lunchtime. Since their arrival in Anticue, Callie, Sunny, and Gavin had been hard at work inside the Victorian, while he spent the majority of the day in his office, focused on paperwork and ordering materials. He normally wouldn’t have put lunch off until so late, but he wanted to eat with Callie and didn’t want to interrupt her until she’d finished hammering out details with Gavin and Sunny. He also hoped if they worked extra hard and skipped lunch, they might finish up early enough that he could have a little one-on-one time with Callie before meeting up with the guys.

Movement through the window caught his attention and gave his stomach a touch of hope that the trio had wrapped things up and lunch would be in their near future after all. He glanced outside and found Gavin and Sunny standing next to her piece-of-shit Honda that had to be on its ninth life.

Wade laughed and ran his hands over his face, unable to believe she still drove the same car she’d had… well… obviously forever. When he first met Sunny, she and Gavin hadn’t been together all that long and Sunny was saving to send her younger brother to college. But now? They’d been married for well over a year and had a beautiful partnership, personally and professionally. Gavin had recently traded in his Lexus SUV for a pickup truck, but Sunny refused to upgrade. She said she’d drive it until the wheels fell off, and based on the looks of things, that day couldn’t be too far off in the future.

As Gavin leaned over and spoke to Sunny’s belly and then kissed it, Wade muttered to the papers on his desk, “Well, I’ll be damned.”

Now he understood why Sunny seemed so tired and rundown the past few days. Normally as effervescent as a glass of sparkling wine, she’d been dragging herself from room to room, and the day before, he found her propped up against a wall, sipping on a ginger ale.

He cut his gaze back to the car and shook his head. Damned if Callie would drive a rusted-out piece of shit while pregnant, and sure as shit she wouldn’t strap his child into the back of something that would fall apart with a large enough pothole. He might not always be able to keep her in a new Mercedes, but she would drive something safe.

Wait…

What?

He’d barely started getting comfortable with the idea of trusting someone enough to get serious, and now he was thinking about kids?

The problem was he kept finding himself wandering down these mental pathways despite the roadblocks and barriers he threw up to prevent the mental musings. He never meant to take the conversation as far as he had the other night, but the part of him that had been dormant for so long decided to take over everything: his body, his mind, and his mouth.

He’d fallen for everything about her and couldn’t help himself. The way she rambled when nervous made him smile, and he loved her sense of adventure and the wide-eyed wonder with which she approached new things. He admired her incredible inner strength and tenacity and respected her intense loyalty to her friends, even though he felt Jen was mostly undeserving. She had a huge heart and capacity for caring and was sexy as hell in her own unique, unassuming way.

Shit.

He shook off the distressing thoughts as Sunny drove away and Gavin headed back inside, then piled the purchase orders in a stack. From the sound of things, his stomach was concocting a mutiny and wouldn’t be denied much longer, so he locked up the office and went in search of a lunch partner.

The house had a wide, expansive porch that wrapped around all four sides, and the round columns anchoring the porch at the corners were so large Wade couldn’t get his arms around them.

He pushed open the heavy wooden and glass front door and stepped into the foyer, then listened for the sounds of footsteps or voices. It could take a long time to find someone in a house this size without vocal cues, and after a moment, he pinpointed Callie’s and Gavin’s voices as coming from the kitchen.

He turned to the left, cut through the front sitting room, and entered the dining room as Callie said, “Gavin, I need your opinion on something.”

The sound of her voice tossed his stomach and warmed his heart. His body tensed and his ears perked up, going on high alert so he didn’t miss a thing she said or did.

He skidded to a stop in the middle of the dining room and shook his head. It might be too early to think about marriage and baby carriages, but there was no denying he was deeply infatuated with everything about her.

A thud, as if Gavin dropped a heavy box, rattled the floor and echoed through the house. “Sure. What’s up?”

Callie’s slow response had Wade smiling as he imagined her chewing on her finger, debating the best way to approach Gavin about granite countertops or pine flooring. “For the past six months, Tiffany’s been taking cooking classes.”

Tiffany?

Wade cranked his head to the side and pulled at his ear, like he needed to clear things out because his hearing had gone wonky. Did Gavin know Tiffany?

“She’s started talking about opening a catering business.” The words spilled out in a rush, like she feared Gavin would interrupt her before she finished if she didn’t talk at supersonic speed. “Everything she cooks is amazing and she’d be really good at it. She’s got the contacts, especially if you add Jen’s family’s contacts and my mother’s. Believe it or not, she has a great work ethic.” She giggled. “I mean, who would’ve thought I’d be working my little fingers to the bone, right? Anyway, she loves cooking, and she’s developed and mastered some unique, interesting dishes. She’s excited about opening this new business, and I’d like to encourage her to go for it.”

When she stopped to suck in a breath, Wade found himself grinning like a fool. He adored her nervous ramblings, and pride at her concern and desire to help her friend puffed up his chest.

However, he was also confused.

Why have this conversation with Gavin? How well did they know one another?

When he and Callie arrived, Gavin greeted Callie with more enthusiasm than he’d ever greeted other Mazze Builders’ employees. Thank God he’d never cuddled Wade in a giant hug or nuzzled his face in the crook of his shoulder; Wade would hate to get fired for punching a client in the face. At the time, Wade assumed Gavin and Callie met while working on the fishing pier and restaurant renovations, but now he wondered if they had another connection.

“I think encouraging her is fantastic.” Another thud as Gavin dropped another box, then water running in the sink. “I assume you have something other than verbal encouragement in mind, though.”

Callie’s indrawn breath was so deep Wade heard it from the dining room. “I want to invest in her business to show her how serious I am and that I believe she can be a huge success.”

Wade shook his head once, then blinked a couple of times and shook it again. The woman who ate brownbag lunches wanted to invest in a friend’s business? Just to give her a shot of confidence? Where would she get the money? Surely she didn’t plan on taking out a second mortgage.

As the silence expanded in the kitchen, Wade eased closer to the door. He felt like an ass eavesdropping, but it was past time for him to join the conversation, and he sure as hell wasn’t leaving until he’d gained some insight into this baffling conversation.

“Callie”—Gavin chuckled—“how much do you think she’ll need to get started? Just a ball park?”

“I don’t have any idea. I don’t know if she has any money saved up or if her parents will help. She’s not going to open a full restaurant, just a catering business, so she won’t need as much start-up capital as she would for an entire restaurant.” She paused and took another deep breath. “I haven’t said anything to her yet because I wanted to talk to you first.”

Wade ran his thumb and finger back and forth over his forehead, like massaging his brain might help him understand better.

“The first thing you need to do is have a long conversation with Tiffany where the two of you lay out everything. I’ll help you put together a list of questions and topic points. If you both agree, then you need to put everything in writing before you proceed. I mean everything.” His voice took on a hard, bitter edge. “You and I both know how quickly a business arrangement can turn deadly. There’s a need to be wise with your investments, but really… You have a thirty million-dollar trust fund, so investing in Tiffany’s business isn’t a big deal. But I’d hate to see you ruin a good friendship. If it were Jen, I’d tell you to go for it and not worry about fucking up a friendship. But Tiffany is different. You need to be careful.”

Wade’s boots were anchored to the floor, his limbs numb, lungs frozen, mind cramped, heart cracking and separating from his chest cavity with every passing second.

Did Gavin just say Callie had a trust fund?

A thirty million-dollar trust fund?

As in a three with seven zeroes after it?

Thirty… million…

Thirty… fucking… million…

No matter how many ways he tried to reframe it, he couldn’t get a good reference point for just how much money that was. Or what having that much money even meant. Aside from having the clear understanding Callie sure as shit didn’t need to save for a pair of boots, or anything for that matter.

A disembodied image of Miranda’s head, split wide with laughter, danced around in his mind’s eye. Callie
was
Miranda all over again, and since she obviously wasn’t broke, he wondered what else she had lied about.

Was her father really in prison? She obviously hadn’t been as desperate for a job as she made it sound, so had she made up that entire story?

As feeling slowly returned to his arms, he circled his hand over his chest, trying to ease the ache that expanded with each intake of air that failed to get past the hard lump in his throat.

How could he have been so stupid? Again.

But how could he have known? How would he have suspected anything was off when she ate ramen noodles—why on God’s Earth would someone who didn’t have to eat those—and aside from her luxurious shower, her apartment didn’t have the appearance he would expect from someone sitting on thirty. Million. Dollars.

“I have something to share with you too.” Gavin’s voice was serious and subdued, and while Wade really wanted to turn tail and haul ass back to his trailer, he couldn’t make his legs move. “Sunny’s pregnant.”

Since seeing Gavin and Sunny together moments before, this wasn’t news to Wade, but apparently it was to Callie. This should’ve been the point where she gasped with excitement and said something along the lines of
Oh my God!
or
That’s awesome!

But all he heard was a whole lot of silence, followed by a quiet, “Oh,” that sounded like it had been ripped from her chest.