“Thanks. It’s going to take a lot more than this to get this place where it needs to be.”
“Do you plan on sticking around to whip it into shape?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” He flips his eyes back to me.
I come to an abrupt stop. “Relax. I don’t know what your plans are. I only imagine you have a life back home.”
“Right.” He turns away from me, closing himself off to any emotions.
He heads to the dining room and I follow. I go to help Joey arrange all the dishes and utensils. It gives me something to do with my hands.
There was a time when Kade stirred the opposite reaction in me. Being around him now? I want to get everything sorted here then leave with my tail between my legs.
People from the ranch—people I recognize—start filtering inside to grab plates and get lunch. I smile at them, trying to keep my nerves at bay.
But when Kade appears behind me, I startle.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Kade asks.
I nod, wiping my hands off and following him to a small alcove by the kitchen. “Is everything okay?”
“Look, Pres.” Kade rests his ass against a table, crossing his ankles as he faces me. “I want to know Poppy.”
I suck in a deep breath. I knew this would be coming. I didn’t know when, but I knew it would be. Because Kade is a good person, and why wouldn’t he want to know his daughter?
With everything else going on in my life, what’s one more complication?
“She doesn’t know you’re her dad,” I say. “There’s enough going on in her life right now.”
“What’s going on?” he questions.
I ignore the question—I don’t need to get into my separation and issues with my dad’s estate. “Enough that I don’t want to add more stress to her plate. I get you want to know her, but I decide when she learns the truth.”
His jaw ticks. He’s not happy, but he nods his head. “I guess I’ll take what I can get.”
“Why don’t I bring her by the ranch tomorrow? I have the day off with her.”
“Okay.”
“I mean it, Kade.” His name feels foreign on my tongue. “That’s the one nonnegotiable. You can’t tell Poppy who you are. If you’re not going to be sticking around?—”
He stands, closing the distance between the two of us. “You keep saying that. I have responsibilities here now.”
I steel my spine, tilting my chin up to face him. I won’t back down from him. “You left once. Forgive me if I don’t exactly trust you.”
“And why did I leave, Presley?” He cocks his brow at me.
“It’s not my fault.” I poke a finger in his chest. “One minute you were here, the next you were gone.”
Tension swirls between the two of us. It’s that same feeling from the other night in the diner. Kade’s eyes dart down to my mouth. I don’t miss the way his tongue peeks out to wet his bottom lip.
How is it I can want someone who makes me so crazy? Except before either of us can close the distance between our mouths, a voice rounds the corner.
“Hey, boss?” comes a woman’s voice.
I jump back, hitting my back against the corner of the wall.
“Yeah?” Kade scrubs a hand down his face, turning away from me.
