“Yeah, but now you ruined the surprise.”
“You can still make crepes, Chase… I’ll even tell you how good they are. But I can’t promise any swooning,” she teases, squinting her eyes.
“Nope, it’s ruined,” I insist, shaking my head. “Now I’ll have to give you a different surprise.”
“Like…?” she asks, raising an eyebrow at me.
“Like this,” I say, sweeping her legs out from under her and cradling her in my arms.
“Chase!” she squeals, wrapping her arms around my neck.
I walk her back to the bedroom, and the breath from her giggles tickles my skin as she buries her head in my shoulder.Dropping her onto the pillows, I arch over her to pepper quick pecks down her neck as she giggles even more. Her hands splay around my shoulders, and she smells so damn good that I can’t help but linger, the playful pecking melting into soft kisses. She moves her hands around my face, pulling me up to meet her lips.I swear they’ve gotten softer in the last two minutes.I melt into her, wishing there was a way to get even closer.
“Baby…” she says between kisses.
“Hmm?” I moan in response, more to her calling mebabythan to provide an answer.
Kayla pushes on my shoulders, staring into my eyes with that jade-colored gaze that left me frozen in the beginning. She dips back in, almost to my mouth, before smiling and whispering, “Take your socks off.”
Catching me all the way off guard, I chuckle into her shoulder before sitting up on my knees and pulling the socks off my feet. When I turn back to her, the sultry smile she bites lights my entire soul on fire.She’s everything.My lips are back on hers so fast that a gasp slips from her mouth in surprise.
“I love you, Chase,” she whispers, and I know anything I could have planned this morning could never feel as good as this moment does.
“I love you, too, baby.”
FIVE YEARS LATER
KAYLA
The elevator dings as it rumbles to a stop on the fourth floor, hovering slightly before settling with an audible thud. I grip the green reusable grocery bags around my wrists when the double doors slide open. Hefting them up, I turn sideways as I exit, shuffling down the hallway on my kitten heels. To avoid smashing the bread and eggs against the door, I shift the grocery bags onto the sleeves of my black power suit and punch in the code. Four beeps and a sliding lock later, after kicking the door closed with my foot, I’ve successfully loaded everything onto the kitchen island.
I’m halfway to the pantry with a jar of peanut butter when my phone rings in my purse. I hurry to set the condiment on the shelf and turn on my heel to dig through my bag before it goes to voicemail. There’s only one person who calls me, refusing to get with the times.
“Hey, Mom,” I say, pressing the speaker icon and placing my phone down on the counter. I reach for the loaf of bread, pausing briefly to hear what she’s saying.
“Kayla, hey. Real quick, are you still coming for Thanksgiving? I’m trying to get my time off requests approved for the holidays, and I wanted to make sure.”
“Yeah…” I say, hearing the door to the bedroom open.
Chase shakes his disapproving head at me, still wearing his blue EdTechU polo and black trousers from work. He grabs the bread from my hands, kisses my cheek, and walks to the shelf.
“Yeah, Mom, we’ll be there for Thanksgiving. We’ve both requested the time off already,” I assure her. It took a couple of months for Mom and me to talk things out about the Kendall secret, and things were uncomfortable for a little while. But now, I split holidays between both of my families with no love lost. Sometimes, she’ll even join us for Jackson family outings.
“Oh, good. Okay, I’ll handle things on my end,” she says.
I rummage through another bag, grabbing apples, and turn to open the fridge.
“Don’t you dare…” Chase says quietly, eyes narrowing as he takes the apples out of my hand.
“Hi, Chase!” Mom yells from the phone. “Is Kay giving you a hard time?”
“Oh, just refusing to let me help her with the groceries again…”
“Did you justtattleon me?” I whisper.
“Kayla, you better let that man help you…”
He shrugs, leveling me with a brow raising stare. “Hey, Ms. Harris,” he calls with a cheery tone. “How did your last week in New York go?”
