He grinned at the sight of her, uncrossing his legs and standing a bit straighter. “I take it you got my waffle?”
“Where’s the marching band?” she asked, hands on her hips as she strode out to confront him. “Where’s the fireworks?”
“Marching band got the sniffles,” Cade said. “And I lied about the fireworks.” He held the potted plant out to her. “For you.”
She paused and took the plant from him, baffled. “What’s this for?”
“I wanted to give you a present,” he said. “I thought about a pet, since you’d mentioned that you wanted one and couldn’t have one, but I couldn’t think of anything that would travel well and didn’t require walks. Except maybe Sea-Monkeys.”
Kylie bit back her smile.
“So I thought maybe a nice violet would do. I’m told they’re very hard to kill. And I wanted you to have company. It was either this or a Chia Pet.” His mouth quirked in a lopsided grin. “And you will not believe how many stores are out of Chia Pets at the moment.”
She gazed down at the violet and then sighed at him. “I’m trying to be mad at you.”
His smile widened, flashing a dimple at her. “I know, and I’m not sure what I did to encourage it, so I’m doing my best to be appealing.”
“You’re far too good at it,” she grumbled. “But, really Cade, you should go.”
“Go? Why?” He reached forward and brushed a lock of hair off of her shoulder. “I just got here and I’ve barely had a chance to look at you.”
“Someone will see you here,” she told him. “You need to leave.”
“Not before you tell me what I did wrong.” Cade’s eyes were so somber as he gazed at her. “Tell me what I did to mess things up and I won’t bother you any longer.”
Kylie hugged the potted plant close. Part of her wanted to storm off in a fury. To declare you know what you did and let him stew. But that would be childish. Adults had conversations, and she was an adult, darn it. “You should have told me you were dating Daphne.”
He tilted his head, studying her. “That’s a fair point. And I would have told you . . . if I was actually dating her. But I’m not. Where did you get that idea?”
“From the magazines? The tabloids? And every other word out of Daphne’s mouth about how she’s staying clean because you want her that way?”
His brows drew together, and for a moment he looked really, really confused. “But where are they getting that information? I’m not dating Daphne. I haven’t even seen her since last week. She’s texted me a few times, but I’ve spent all of my time talking to you.” He raised his brows. “You probably see her more than I do.”
“She texted you, huh?” Kylie asked, then wanted to bite back the words. They sounded jealous as hell.
“We’ve texted in the past,” Cade said. “But the only one filling up my phone with love notes this last week was you.”
Kylie snorted, feeling defensive. “Mine weren’t love notes.”
“A guy can dream, can’t he?” He pulled out his phone, tapped the screen, and began to thumb through a few things. Then he offered it to her. “Here. Take a look.”
She knew she shouldn’t be as suspicious as that. She knew she should just turn it down and say she trusted him and let it go. But because she was small and petty and couldn’t really believe that a guy like Cade preferred her to megastar Daphne, she took the phone and peeked through his text history. He wasn’t lying; everything was from her. There were a few short messages to Daphne, but nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing that screamed “we’re dating.” And because she was nosy, she swiped over to his phone records. Daphne’s number wasn’t in the last couple of weeks.
“Find anything good?” Cade asked, grinning.
She handed the phone back to him. “No. I’m sorry if I got all suspicious. But, Cade, you know that we shouldn’t go out.”
“Actually, I don’t know anything of the sort,” he told her, moving a little closer. Heavens, he was standing so close she could smell his aftershave, and he smelled amazing. He leaned in and murmured, “Why not go out with me? Just tonight. We’ll go to dinner, have a glass of wine, see if we still click. If we do, great. If we don’t, I’ll leave you alone.”
He made it sound so simple. Kylie hesitated, then glanced down at her feet. She wiggled her toes in her green flip-flops. She could use her clothes as an excuse to get out of this. “I’m not really dressed to go out.”
“Then we’ll keep it someplace casual,” he said, turning and opening the limo door.
“I should go upstairs and change,” Kylie hedged.
“Absolutely not. You’re not getting out of my sight again until we have a date,” he said, and gestured at the open-and-waiting limo door.
It was like he could read her mind. Instead of being annoyed, though, she was amused. She paused for only a moment longer.
“Someone might see you out here with me,” Cade teased. “It’s safer in the car.”
“Damn it,” Kylie said with a laugh. Then, clutching her potted flower, she crawled into the limo.
No sooner had she sat down than Cade got in behind her. The look he gave her was an intense one, and he gazed at her up and down. “You look great.”
Like a silly girl, she put a hand to her hair and tried to finger-comb it. She was wearing old jeans, a faded T-shirt, and her hair was a mess. Her roots were even starting to show. It wasn’t like she’d planned on going out, of course. Jesus, she was even wearing granny panties. But now that she was here with him, it seemed silly to put up a fight. “Thanks. You look pretty good, too. I’m sorry I canceled on you.”