Over the next two days, Felicity slowly recovered. She laid low and took it easy. Her mother chastised her for working too hard, and she finally told her the truth—they had the house because of Kade Kinkaid.

When her mother realized this, her tune changed. She was so grateful to her and to Kade.

Kade called her cell phone, but she didn’t pick up the phone. He texted a million times, and she texted back once, 'go away.'

Monday, she called her boss, and told him she was sick.

Mr. DaVinci texted back telling her she deserved the day off and he was impressed by the date. He’d been more than pleased when she’d told him last week they’d decided to have her go.

She was on track for getting a quarterly bonus and promotion. She hadn’t even known there was a quarterly bonus. Good. Good. Good.

The story was already rerunning on the mainstream media. They were affectionately calling the couple KadeSong.

She hated the name.

Seeing herself with Kade on the television and how happy they were unsettled her more than she wanted to admit, and knowing that could never be them made her angry.

After watching too many hours of coverage on different networks, she shut off the television and closed her eyes. Immediately, the memory of kissing him after skydiving assaulted her. Flicking her eyes open, she grabbed the bottle of water on her bedside table and threw it across the room. “There will never be KadeSong!”

For some reason, that thought didn’t comfort her.

* * *

Tuesday morning, Felicity sat in her office, feeling very much recovered physically, but still vulnerable. She’d had dreams about Kade every night. Being in his house, playing his piano, watching him walk toward her wearing the cowboy hat from the dinner cruise. She would laugh and reach for him, but then she would fall. It was like she was standing on the edge of a cliff and had just walked off.

Pressing her eyes closed for a moment, she was grateful he’d stopped trying to text her yesterday. She had to get back to normal life and put it all behind her.

Mr. DaVinci called an informal meeting with most of other staff to get details on the date, and make sure everyone in the firm was on the same page with the Kincaid account. That’s all he could be to her—an account.

After the debrief, Mr. DaVinci passed over a new file. “Here’s some more information about the Senator’s daughter. If you could get out there tomorrow and talk to the family, that would be great.”

“On it.” The new assignment helped to heal her aching heart, but only a little bit.

She went back to her office and scoured the file. It appeared the daughter of the senator, Marissa, was causing lots of problems on social media.

There was a brief knock on her office door before it opened.

Lo and behold, in walked Zeus himself. “Hey there.” He grinned widely.

Her heart beat faster. She wanted to jump up and run to him and simultaneously send him away.

Precipitously, Mr. DaVinci was next to him. “Mr. Kincaid, so nice to have you come for a visit.”

Kade grinned at Mr. DaVinci. “Can I speak with Ms. Song for a moment?”

“Sure.” Mr. DaVinci gave her a pointed look and backed up. “Take your time,” he said as he closed the door.

Felicity was irritated he was here, even though he looked amazing. He wore jeans, flip-flops, and a leather jacket. His model hair was messy and fell into his eyes. Jerking his head back, he grinned at her. “So KadeSong, huh? It’s catchy.”

Extreme anger boiled through her, but she kept her face impassive. “Mr. Kincaid,”—she pulled her hands back from the file and crossed her arms—"the agreement states you don’t communicate with me in any kind of social way after the date, does it not?” She was tempted to pull out the contract she had filed away in her desk as proof.

Putting up his hand like he was surrendering, he shook his head. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I just wanted to give you this.” Taking a couple of steps forward, he put a small red box on her desk. It had a cute white bow on top.

Looking at the box like it was a poop bomb her brother and his friends used to leave on each other’s doors in high school, she glared at him. “What is this?” She was in no mood for gifts from him. It was already enough how merely seeing him caused some reaction inside of her. It hadn’t helped she hadn’t been able to get that kiss they’d had after skydiving out of her brain. She kept analyzing the dreams, and that hadn’t really been fun. Now, he was here looking so amazing and giving her a present. No. No. No. He needed to go away!

Sitting on the edge of her desk, he crossed his arms and looked very pleased with himself. “Let’s just say I'm making amends.”

Curious, but not wanting to encourage him, she slid the box toward him. “No, thank you.”

He glared at her. “You wouldn’t return any of my calls or texts this past weekend. I worried about you.” His voice was soft.

“You shouldn’t even be thinking of me,” she stated quietly. Taking her own reprimand to heart, anger filled her. “I’m fine,” she said.

Looking baffled and a bit angry himself, he glared at her. “Just open the box, Felicity.”

Crossing her arms again, and looking every bit as dangerous as him, she shook her head. “The deal was you wouldn’t see me again after the date.”

“This is not a date.”

“But you’re sitting here.” She fired back. “In my office.”

His jaw clenched, and he shook his head, his whole face clouding over. “Contract is not valid anymore. If you ask me, you breeched the contract.”

“What?” She puffed out, standing. He was being insane and ridiculous, and she hated that all she could smell was his spicy, musky cologne. "How?” She demanded.

Cocking his head to the side, he pointed at it. “Just open the box.”

“No.” He could take that box and stuff it where the sun didn’t shine.

Blowing out a short breath, he shook his head, put both hands down on the desk, leaned over, and shoved his face dangerously close to hers. “You have a heart condition.”

Feeling caught, she froze up.

“You took me on a date that, while it is amazing, could have really hurt you. You put your life in danger.” He spit out the words, and she saw true anger in his eyes. “I figure the contract is void. What if something had happened to you on the date, and I would have been liable? What if something had gone wrong?”

It was clear to her that her mother must have told him this. She hated when anyone knew about it, and it was doubly worse that he knew. For a second, she couldn’t catch her breath. She reflexively put a hand over her heart.

Looking at her hand over her heart, he swore and stood, running a hand through his hair. “Great, and now I’m putting more stress on you.”

She knew her cheeks were red, and she pulled in a long, slow breath trying to calm herself. She pulled her hand back to her side. “I’m fine.” Standing, she pointed to the door. “Get out.”

He swore again and shook his head, closing his eyes briefly. Flashing them open, he turned toward the office doors, waving a hand through the air. “Fine. Whatever. This was not a good idea." He picked up his helmet and trudged to the door, spinning back at the last minute. “But you need to understand something, Felicity. You need to understand I don’t discard important things. I don’t care about the heart condition. I care about you, and I want to see you again.”

Her heart was beating wildly, not because she was having some of kind of breakdown, but because she felt this attraction, this pull between them. She denied it, shaking her head. “No.”

Glaring at her, he flung the door open. “Yes,” he said in a threatening way as he stepped out.

After he left, she had to take long, slow breaths to calm herself. Kade Kincaid left a huge wake when he was in that kind of mood, and she realized she was still trying to catch her breath. She stared down at the package and thought about taking the pretty thing and just throwing it in the trash.

For some reason, she didn’t. She just stared at it, and her mind began to wonder what he would bring her. Anger filled her that she even cared. Shoving the package into the bottom drawer of her desk, she decided to focus on the day's work in front of her.

After making several calls to the senator and his family, she set up a meeting to go out that afternoon and meet with him and his wife and the daughter to talk about strategies for creating some good press as well as strategies for dealing with the press already out.

She went to lunch and headed out to the senator’s house for the rest of the afternoon. It wasn’t very productive because Marissa, the teenager, wasn’t willing to change what she was doing, and the parents looked at her like she could control the daughter.

Getting back to the office around five, the package still niggled at her thoughts. Finally, she got it out and unwrapped it. Stunned, she simply stared at it.

It was the little blue vase.

It looked like the same one that had sat on her desk less than a week ago. The one her momma had given her. But it was cleaner, newer. It shined more. She wondered how he’d done it, where he’d found it. Picking it up, she slid her hand lazily down the glass, loving the softness, the cleanness, the perfection of it.

True art.

It always mystified her how some people could find such value in a certain work of art and others no value. She had thought the artist who’d blown the glass was no longer in business. Quickly, she looked the vase up. Yes, it was one of three originals. She marveled at the fact Kade had found another copy and marveled even more that he’d brought it to her.

Gradually, all her emotion turned to regret and anger. She could not do this. It was insane. There was no way she could have a relationship with Kade. First of all, she was dying. Second of all, she was busy starting a career. Third of all … she liked the way he kissed far too much.