Chapter 57
“Your order will be out in a few minutes,” the waitress said with a smile before walking away and leaving her sitting across from the man that hadn’t said anything since he’d picked her up.
Since it had taken them two hours to get to this insanely expensive restaurant in this upscale Boston hotel that she’d never even heard of before, she was, in her opinion at least, understandably nervous. Then again, the fact that he’d disappeared for two days without a word only to send her a text this morning telling her that he was taking her to dinner and asking her to wear something nice could be contributing factors to the anxiety attack that she was currently pretending that she wasn’t having.
“You look beautiful,” he said with a devastating smile as he picked up her hand and brushed his lips against the back of her knuckles as she shot a nervous glance around them, taking in the candlelight, the soft romantic music playing in the background, the lit fireplace, and the fact that their table was located in back of the upscale, and incredibly romantic restaurant and felt her stomach drop.
“Thank you,” she murmured, taking a sip from her water glass as she took in the incredibly handsome man sitting across from her and realized that yes, yes there was ample reason for her to be panicking.
“Mikey’s with Sara?” he asked, as though he hadn’t arranged for her best friend to show up a few hours ago and drag Mikey off with a cryptic message that it would probably be in her best interest if she packed an overnight bag.
Clearing her throat, she nodded a, “Yes,” and took another sip, trying to buy herself a little more time so that she could firmly stay in denial for as long as humanly possible.
“Your wine, sir,” the waitress said with a smile as she set a silver bucket covered with a white cloth down by her table all while Reese watched her with that expression that she couldn’t quite decipher.
“Thank you,” he said, turning their hands over so that he could lace his fingers with hers as she worried her bottom lip, waiting for the moment when it would hit him that she couldn’t have wine, but instead he took her by surprise when the waitress removed the towel off the “wine,” and produced a bottle of chilled apple juice.
Noting the cryptic look that passed between Reese and the waitress was all she needed to remind herself that she’d left her nausea medication in her bag, the same bag that Reese had sent up to the room he’d reserved with the bellhop when he’d checked them in an hour ago. As he shifted his attention back to her, she opened her mouth to tell him that she needed to run upstairs and grab her pills when the food arrived.
The food that he’d apparently pre-ordered when he’d made this reservation, which of course translated into incredibly expensive, was placed in front of her and with a bit of flourish, the covers were removed and-
She was pleasantly surprised to find herself looking at a large piece of chocolate fudge cake until she looked up and found Reese watching her in a way that made her really wish she had her nausea pills. Thankful that the wait staff had made themselves scarce, she pulled her hand away from him, cleared her throat and-
“Reese? Oh, my god, Reese!” a blond bombshell gushed, smiling hugely as she hurried over to their table and leaned over to give Reese a great view of her medically enhanced rack as she gave him a hug. “Oh, my god! I’ve missed you so much!”
“Missy,” the Adonis that had followed her to the table said, shooting Kasey an apologetic smile as he reached for the blonde woman that had yet to release her hold on Reese, whom she liked to point out looked angrier than she’d ever seen him before.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this was the infamous Missy and that the man standing behind her, looking like he’d rather be anywhere but here, was Roger. Although she felt morally obligated to make this woman cry, she also couldn’t help but wonder why they all just happened to be here tonight. Thankfully, Missy cleared that up for her before she could do something stupid like tell the man across from her that she loved him.
“Oh, my god! You’re proposing, again!” Missy said, clapping her hands excitedly before she reached for the fork on Kasey’s plate and-
“Don’t,” Reese bit out, but Missy simply ignored him and stabbed the fork in the cake and pulled it back with a beautiful emerald and diamond ring attached to it.
“Oh, my god! I’ve always loved this ring!” Missy said, as Kasey cocked a brow and took in the murderous glare he was sending Missy’s way.
“Missy, for Christ’s sakes,” Roger, and she was going to call him that until she found out otherwise, bit out.
“This is so sweet, Reese! I can’t believe you remembered!” Missy said and with that, Kasey was standing up with a murmured, “Excuse me,” so that she could reach into Reese’s coat, pluck the keycard for the hotel room that he’d rented for the night out of his pocket, and with a satisfied sigh, turn around and head towards the lobby, deciding that now was a good time to get those pills.
*-*-*-*
“Son of a bitch!” Reese snapped, shoving away from the table and headed after Kasey only to stop and turn around to grab the ring out of the wicked bitch of the east’s hand.
“Reese?” she said in that whinny voice that had always grated on his fucking nerves.
Sending her a glare that had her reluctantly moving out of his way, he went after Kasey only to realize that he wasn’t the only one. Shoving his fingers through his hair, he quickened his step to go after the bastard.
“Kasey!” he said, wincing when she turned around and-
“Oh, crap,” she managed to mutter when whatever she’d planned on saying to him was forgotten as she placed her hand over her stomach and was swept off her feet by the bastard that was going to lose his fucking hands for touching her.
“What room, pumpkin?” Roger asked with an easy smile as he stepped into the elevator with her before Reese had a chance to grab her.
“Hand her over,” he snapped, following them into the elevator.
“Hit the button,” Roger said, nodding towards the wall of buttons.
“I’m not fucking playing,” he bit out, moving to grab Kasey who was pale and looking absolutely miserable, and he knew that it was because he’d seriously just fucked this up.
“Hit the button,” Roger said a little more urgently even as he shifted so that he could do it himself all while he kept an eye on something over Reese’s shoulders.
Frowning, he glanced over his shoulder to find Missy, face bright red, the all-too-familiar murderous bitch expression plastered on her face that she got whenever something didn’t go her way, storming towards them, waving a white letter in her hand and snapping, “This better be a fucking joke!”
“Okay then, tenth floor it is,” Roger said, keeping his eyes locked on the crazed woman bearing down on them as he frantically hit the button to close the elevator doors.
“Roger, you better-” Missy screamed, only to get cut off by the elevator doors.
Once the doors closed and they were moving, Roger sighed long and loud with obvious relief. “Well, that went well,” he said cheerfully as he leaned down to get a better look at Kasey.
“Hand her over,” Reese said, already moving to grab Kasey when she-
“Did you just growl at me?” he demanded in disbelief.
“Yes!” she hissed only to end with a wince as she turned her head to bury her face against Roger’s chest.
“She’s a cute little thing,” Roger said cheerfully as he shifted her in his arms and let out another one of those sighs that had Reese’s hands clenching into fists.
“Drop her and-”
“You’ll kill me,” Roger finished for him with a nod of understanding. “I figured that one out on my own when I caught a glimpse of her belly.”
“Just so we have an understanding,” he said, reaching over and plucked the keycard out of Kasey’s hand and hit the button for the ninth floor, deciding that he’d let the bastard live long enough to get Kasey to their room.
After that…
He was going to wipe that grin off the bastard’s face.