Playing for Keeps Read online

  “Too late.”

  Caleb rolled his eyes. “Sadie, this is my brother-in-law, Niles. Niles, this is Sadie. And I’ll owe you big if you get the girls out of here in the next sixty seconds.”

  Niles grinned and the two men did one of those guy backslapping hugs and then some complicated handshake.

  “Heard from my nephew,” Niles said. “Thanks for scaring him straight. I’m pretty sure he’s not done being a dumbass though, so don’t go soft on ’em. My sister says to keep giving him hell and make sure he’s good and terrified about stealing from you. She wants him to think he could go to juvie any second.”

  Caleb nodded. “What are you guys doing here anyway?”

  “Sienne and Kayla are stocking your freezer.”

  “Kayla nesting again?”

  “Yeah, but she needed an assist. That girl’s big as a house.”

  “I am not nesting!” presumably Kayla yelled from inside the house. “I just don’t want the people I love who have penises to starve to death or eat junk food because they don’t take the time to take care of themselves!”

  Caleb looked down at the bag of food in his hands and put it behind his back.

  Niles grimaced and rubbed a huge hand over his bald head. “Apparently she’s having trouble regulating her hormones.”

  “I am not!”

  Niles grimaced again, fist-bumped Caleb, nodded at Sadie, and vanished inside the house.

  A few seconds later, the front door slammed shut.

  “My sisters Sienne and Kayla,” Caleb said. “And Sienne’s husband, Niles. Kayla literally goes insane when she’s in the last trimester of her pregnancies.”

  “You guys really are close.”

  “We are,” he said. “For better or for worse. And let me tell you, some days there’s lots of worse.”

  Sadie followed him through the door and into one of the biggest kitchens she’d ever seen. “Wow,” she said, but in truth her mind was very busy processing the things she’d learned about Caleb tonight. First, he had tattoos, which he’d not once mentioned in all the time that she’d known him. And she’d known him for a damn year.

  Worse, she’d judged him for being . . . What? Normal?

  He was the furthest thing from any of the “normal” people she’d ever known. He was smart as hell and also private as hell. Not in a negative way, but as if he’d had to guard himself all the time.

  Something she knew a little something about.

  But what she’d learned about him tonight was more than the fact that he had tattoos and was close to his family. She’d learned he’d had a troubled life too, and that made her a terrible person for assuming he’d had a fairy-tale life growing up.

  She blew out a sigh, and that’s when she saw them, on his shiny, very clean tile floor: Lollipop’s food and water bowls, which caused a ridiculous tug on her heart. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

  He looked over at her.

  “I’m an ass,” she clarified.

  “You have the best ass on the planet,” he said. “If that’s what you mean.”

  “It’s not.” She stalled with a few French fries. “I’ve got a confession.”

  “Is this going to be a dirty confession?” he asked hopefully.

  “No! And never mind.”

  He took the last bite of his first burger, crumpled up the wrapping, and tossed it over his shoulder, landing it into his trash can without looking. “Come on. Tell me.”

  “No, forget it. You ruined it.”

  “Okay,” he said easily. “Then I’ll tell you. You want to confess to being a Miss Judgy Judgerson.”

  Chapter 20

  #HotMess

  “What?” Sadie gaped at Caleb. How the hell had he known? “I’ll confess to no such thing,” she said. “That’s not even close to what I . . .” She trailed off when he just stood there so composed while she was . . . not composed.

  Because he’d spoken the truth. She was indeed a Miss Judgy Judgerson. “It’s all your suits’ fault,” she said.

  He looked at her for a long beat, his eyes a good part amused, but also there was frustration there. “Here’s what I think,” he finally said. “I think that when you get uncomfortable, you look for a way out. You were uncomfortable with me from the very beginning, in the best way possible. Meaning you were attracted to me. And that scared you, so you’ve been looking for a way out ever since.” He held her gaze. “A suit is my work uniform, Sadie, nothing more. It’s business, and also about professionalism and maturity, and to a lesser degree, image. I’m not going to wear a T-shirt and jeans into a business meeting with NASA, for example. Not when we’re going to sit down and discuss future projects that could add up to billions of dollars. I’m not hiding behind my clothes, but I’m not being inauthentic either.”

  He was right, and worse, he was as authentic as they came, whereas she tended to go for shock value, a fact that proved her immaturity more than anything else. Sagging back against the counter, she crossed her arms and looked into his knowing eyes. “It must be hard to be perfect.”

  He laughed. Laughed.

  “I don’t know why that’s funny,” she said. “And you know what else you are? Way too calm, which pisses me off.”

  “It’s my black heart.”

  “So nothing gets it pumping?” she asked.

  “You know exactly what gets my black heart pumping.”

  She felt her face heat, which really got to her, and she closed her eyes. Because yes, she did know exactly. When he’d been buried deep inside her so that she could feel nothing but him, his heart had pounded hard against hers and it’d been thrilling. She opened her eyes and found him standing right in front of her.

  Smart, sexy, and he moved like smoke.

  “FYI, I’m not even close to perfect,” he said. “I’m bossy, demanding, I don’t seem to know when to give up, and . . .”

  “And . . . ?” she prodded when he trailed off.

  “I’m not exactly proud of this.” He ran a finger along her temple, tucking a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. “But I’m also emotionally detached.”

  “From . . . ?”

  “Just about everyone,” he said.

  “Except your family.”

  “Sometimes even them. I don’t do vulnerable very well. Had too much of it growing up. So I hold back, specifically with women.” His finger stroked over her earlobe now, his eyes on the movement. “My last girlfriend dumped me for it. And the one before that too. I think ‘coldhearted bastard’ was a common theme.”

  She took that in, watching him watch her from those still hooded eyes. She wasn’t the only one of them who was messed up. The realization should’ve scared her, but instead it comforted. She glanced around at his huge house that she was pretty sure he’d not brought any of their common friends to . . . but he’d brought her. “You’re testing me,” she realized.

  He just looked at her.

  “You are,” she said slowly. “You’re throwing everything you’ve got at me so I’ll realize you’re just as screwed up as me and dump your ass.”

  He gave a slow shake of his head. “When I think about us being in a relationship, I don’t picture the dumping-my-ass part.”

  This shut her up for a beat. “You think about being in a relationship?” she asked. “With me? Because let’s be honest. Your heart isn’t even close to black. But mine is.”

  “I like your black heart,” he said. “And yes, I think about being in a relationship with you. Why does that surprise you?”

  “Because I’m a hot mess!”

  He smiled. “You’re hot,” he said, “but you’re not a mess. You’re strong, determined, resourceful, unpredictable—” He smiled when she grimaced at the truth of that.

  But it was truly shocking to her that he remembered everything about her. He knew her, like really knew her. After living her life surrounded by people who’d barely noticed her, being around Caleb was revolutionary.

  “—And,” he add