Cade Parkinson preferred his life in black and white. And when a spoiled heiress barged in and started spreading colors to it, he didn't like it one bit. He doesn't want anything to do with her. Even with his efforts of fending her off, she seems to...
His mother had her hands braced in her waist and a motherly frown on her face.
"I'm not," he deadpans and wordlessly looked over to Kathie.
His mother's frown dissolved. "Oh."
"Why didn't you say so?" Chandra grinned.
There were pleased expressions on their faces.
He rolled his eyes. "Don't smile. I'm just going to talk to her. Not ask her to marry me."
"Sure. Whatever you say," Chandra says in a sing song voice.
Cade sighed then headed toward Kathie's table anyway. He wasn't sure why, but he finds himself making his way to her – slowly but unreluctantly.
Surprise registered in her face when his shadow loomed over her.
"I never pegged you as a wallflower." He hears himself say.
Kathie's soft, brown eyes flicked to the dance floor and reverted to him in understanding. "Oh. I'm just resting my feet. I was just looking for a dance partner, actually." The smile she gave her was bright, the mask sliding back on.
Cade nods, his hands going to his hands because he suddenly doesn't know what to do with them. He was never a conversationalist, yet surprising himself, he opened his mouth. "Do you want to dance?"
Before he could regret his dumbest attempt for a conversation, her smile goes a lot brighter. And her eyes sparkled.
They... sparkled.
All of a sudden, he felt rewarded. But then his gut twisted when her answer got delayed for a full second. "It's fine if you—"
"Let's go." Kathie bounces to her feet, taking a hold of his hand before he could back out. "You're not allowed to change your mind." She led them onto the dance floor, and it had only occurred to him that he never liked dancing.
Kathie puts her hands on his shoulders and looks up to him with something that made him want to push aside his dislike toward the "dancing." So, his hands slowly found their way around her waist.
Annnd, then they were dancing.
"Are you this nice on weddings?"
"No."
She lets out a soft laugh. "Your brothers are not lying. Your mother really is hauling you into these parties to match you up. Any luck?"
"There's only doom," he deadpans.
She giggles. And he came to wonder whether it was her quick-to-laugh personality that encouraged him to walk the distance between his table and hers.
"It's not that bad. I understand the repulsion toward grave commitments like marriage."
"You having commitment issues would be the world's greatest surprise."
She shakes her head smilingly. "It's not that. I've been playing "wedding" ever since I was a kid. I think everybody thinks about settling down someday. Especially having a fairytale wedding like this one. Who doesn't want to have their feet swept off anyway?"
Cade doesn't know what to say to that, so kept quiet.
"But we all must admit, as we grow older, we all get a little scared of commitments. It's like a cake, really," she continues, her eyes expressing a story themselves.
"Weddings are like icing. It's sweet and so nice to look at. It also covers up the entire cake and you wouldn't know what it tastes like until you cut it and take a bite. And if the cake is too dry, undercooked in the middle or burned altogether, you have to swallow because that's what commitment is."
His brow shot up. "Are you a love guru in your previous life?"
"We'll never know. I can be a matchmaker in this recent life though." She wags her eyebrows at him.
He almost groaned. "No more shoving women at my face."
"I'm not shoving women. I'm just helping you out. I saw Margot Fletcher tonight. Have you?"
He gave her a look.
"But I think you guys would be compatible. You're both smart and into finance."
"No. I need a break from all these matchmakings."
Her smile softened. "It's that bad?"
He shrugged.
"Well, I'm giving you a break. For now. I'll get in touch with her in case you're not fed up with this whole thing anymore."
Cade sighed.
She stares for a moment. Then something flits past her face that she tamped down immediately. It was gone before he could analyze it. But whatever it was, it has something to do with how she suddenly leaned her cheek on his shoulder as if seeking for comfort.
"Thank you, Cadey," she whispers.
His hand lodged on the small of her back. "For what?"
"For being nice to me tonight." Her voice was small, almost sad. For someone who had been smiling all night, she sounded like the saddest person there is.
Hey, guys! How cool are these? 👇👇 Also, just a heads up, I'm doing a little tweaking on the first chapters of the book so if you get notified that some chapters had been republished, don't mind me. It's just a little revising.
What do you think?
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Tell me what you love about Kathie.
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Do you like Cade? What do you like about him?
Shout out to fancyreader98 for making me these awesome aesthetics. She's amazing!
