Series: The Laws of Opposite Attract Series by Vi Keeland
Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
“Well then…” He grabbed my hand and dragged me through the lobby. “Let’s go, woman. Chop, chop.”
I laughed. “How about I take a quick shower, and after I’ll meet you down here? We can grab a quick bite in the hotel restaurant and maybe bring a bottle of wine back to my room when we’re done?”
“That sounds like a birthday gift for me.”
“How does an hour sound?”
“Like fifty-nine minutes too long. But okay.”
My body hummed as I took a shower and got ready. Now that I’d made the decision to sleep with Brayden, it couldn’t happen fast enough. I almost texted him and suggested we skip dinner, but the way I was feeling, he was going to need his energy.
Anxious, I headed down to the lobby a few minutes before we were supposed to meet. When the elevator doors slid open at ground level, I stepped off but stopped when I caught sight of a woman standing with her luggage.
My brows furrowed. “Caitlin?”
She threw her arms up. “Surprise!”
I hugged her. “Oh my God. What are you doing here?”
“We’ve spent every one of our birthdays together since I was a kid. I didn’t want to break tradition. Besides, when we texted yesterday, you said youngblood wasn’t going to be around for your birthday. So I thought I’d take you out.”
“Oh.” I forced a smile, not wanting to hurt her feelings and tell her Brayden had changed his plans and I’d very much been looking forward to our private night together. “Thank you.”
A few seconds later, the other elevator car dinged. Brayden stepped out looking freshly showered and shaved. He smiled when he saw me and walked over.
Caitlin turned, and her eyes grew wide. “Brady?”
“Kate?”
Maybe I was in denial, but I didn’t immediately understand what was going on. I stood there confused while my stepdaughter swamped Brayden in a big hug.
“It’s been forever. How are you, Brady?”
I looked at Brayden, still lost. “Brady?”
Caitlin stepped back. “Alex, remember the guy I went out with for a while in college who was supposed to go skiing with us over Christmas break? You and Dad had a big fight over it because he still wanted to treat me like I was twelve and insisted that if a boy was coming on the trip, we’d have to stay in separate rooms? But then Dad wound up having to cover someone at work so we never went.”
I blinked a few times. “I…I think so.”
She pointed to Brayden. “Well, this is him. Brady and I went out during my junior year of college.”
CHAPTER 13
Brayden
The room felt like it was swaying. Kate…was Alex’s stepdaughter, Caitlin? The Kate I’d dated for a few months in college. The Kate who was so sweet I didn’t know how to break her heart when I began to lose interest, so I’d just distanced myself until she ended things. That Kate. The Kate who deserved better than the immature guy I’d been back then. The Kate who was from fucking Connecticut and used to talk about her beautiful, young stepmom she looked up to. That Kate.
Fuck!
Caitlin.
Kate.
This can’t be happening.
There was no time to figure out the best way to handle this situation. I had to move quickly. My gut instinct was to protect Alex. And the only way I knew how to do that was to pretend she had nothing to do with me.
“Nice to meet you.” I smiled as I stared into Alex’s eyes, silently pleading with her to forgive me. Please forgive me.
She swallowed, her voice barely audible as she began to play along. “Hi.”
“What are you doing here in Seneca Falls?” Kate asked.
In a daze, I turned back toward her. “Just, uh, here on business.”
She nodded. “What are you up to these days?”
I glanced over at Alex, whose face had turned practically white. Feeling outside of my own body, I said something trite to Kate about my job—I mentioned living in New York and the building. I might’ve asked her what was going on in her life, but I sure as hell didn’t absorb the answer. My brain was on autopilot while my heart was going a mile a minute trying to make sense of this. How had this never occurred to me? Surely there were clues I’d missed.
I needed to get the hell out of here, because standing in front of them and lying through my teeth while Alex was clearly hurt wasn’t something I could continue for much longer. “It was so great seeing you again after all this time, Kate. Truly. But I’m late meeting someone, and I forgot something upstairs, so I’d better go.”
“Good seeing you, too,” she said. “Take care.”
“Enjoy your evening.” I gave Alex one final apologetic look before walking away.
My heart raced as I dashed back into the elevator.
It felt like I was floating down the hall as I headed to my room in a surreal fog. How had this night, that was supposed to be epic, turned into my worst nightmare?