Chapter 16: Eight Minutes

“You turned your phone over,” Kade said, lifting his head from my sweater.

“What?” I asked.

“When it buzzed, you looked at it, and you turned it face down against my shoulder, I felt you do it,” Kade said.

“It is nothing, it is just Zola,” I said, and then I heard myself, and I closed my eyes.

“Mina,” Kade said gently.

“I promised myself I would not do this again, I promised it in the kitchen last night, and I did it again in under a day,” I said.

“Do what?” Kade asked.

“Hide something, I got scared, you were sitting there with your face in your hands, and I thought, he cannot take one more thing today,” I said.

“That is not your decision to make, Red, I am not made of glass, give it to me,” Kade said, holding out his hand.

I took out my phone and unlocked it, and my fingers did not want to let go.

He read the message twice, and I watched his thumb tighten on the edge of the screen.

“Do you want to know who else in his house is lying to you,” Kade read out loud, very softly.

“It is the same number that texted Tamsin, the same one that sent me the pharmacy photograph, and the same one that told me to ask my father about the Voss family,” I said.

“Someone in my house,” Kade said.

“Maybe it only means that, maybe they want you to start suspecting everyone you love, maybe that is the whole point,” I said.

“It is working, I have been looking at Brandt for ten minutes, and he has carried my keys for six years,” Kade said, and he laughed, but there was no joy in it.

“If you stop trusting everybody, that is how this person wins,” I said.

“Then who do I trust?” Kade asked.

“Me, Zola, your grandmother, I think, and a grape,” I said.

He stared at me, and then he started to laugh, a real laugh, bent over with his hand on his stomach.

“A grape,” he said. “I am putting my whole life in the hands of a grape and a girl who hid a text for ten minutes.”

“Eight minutes,” I said, sniffling.

“Thank you for telling me, it took you eight minutes, last time it took you a whole night, I call that progress,” Kade said, and he took my face in both hands.

“I am trying, I am really trying, I have never had anyone to tell,” I said.

“You have me now, rule three says no feelings, but it does not say no honesty, and I would like to add a clause,” Kade said.

“What clause?” I asked.

“Whatever scares you, you tell me the same hour, whatever scares me, I tell you, no windows, no closets, no clippings in bags,” Kade said.

“That is a very long clause,” I said.

“My lawyers are expensive, they will make it sound short,” Kade said.

He picked up his phone and dialed with one thumb. “Brandt, find me a name behind that number, not a prepaid, a real name, and keep it between us,” Kade said, looking at me the whole time.

~~~

Two days later the lawyer’s conference room smelled like coffee and fresh paper, and Nana Rose sat at the head of the table in a gold shawl, because she had refused to let anyone sign anything without her watching.

“I am the witness, I have witnessed two wars and a Christmas dinner, I can handle one contract,” Nana Rose said.

“Nana, you are scaring the lawyer,” Kade said.

“Good, lawyers should be scared, it keeps them honest,” Nana Rose said.

The lawyer, a thin man named Pierce with round glasses, cleared his throat and slid a stack of pages toward me.

“Miss Hale, section nine, in the event of a paternity challenge, Kade Voss agrees to cover all legal costs and to recognize the child as his own, regardless of the result,” Pierce said.

“Regardless of the result?” I asked.

“I told him to put that in, the baby is mine, whatever a paper says,” Kade said.

My eyes stung. “You did not tell me that.”

“I wanted it to be a surprise, apparently I cannot keep a surprise, I cannot even keep a sandwich from burning,” Kade said.

I picked up the pen, and I looked at Nana Rose’s ring, and then at him, the rude billionaire who had left a light on since he was nine.

“Sign, child, before he changes his mind, he has been known to,” Nana Rose said.

“I have never changed my mind about anything important,” Kade said.

“You changed your mind about the tie,” Nana Rose said.

I laughed, and my hand finally steadied, and I signed, Mina Hale, in handwriting that looked a little more like mine.

Kade signed beside me, and Nana Rose signed as witness with a flourish, and the lawyer stamped each page like a man performing a small miracle.

“It is done, you are legally engaged, the ceremony is Saturday at noon at the courthouse, and the paperwork will be filed,” Pierce said.

“The courthouse,” Nana Rose said, in the voice of a woman hearing a rude word.

“It is fast and quiet, Nana, that is the whole point,” Kade said.

“I wore a veil to my first wedding, and my feet hurt for three days, and I was never so happy, you will have a proper dinner after, I will see to it,” Nana Rose said.

“Nana, thank you,” I said, and I reached across the table and took her small hand.

“Do not thank me, thank me when you give me a great grandchild with my nose,” Nana Rose said.

The door burst open, and a man walked in with a bottle of champagne held over his head like a trophy.

“Nobody told me my best friend was getting married, I had to read it in the newspaper like a stranger!” he said.

“Bash!” Kade said, and he stood up and laughed for the first time that whole week, a real, relieved laugh.

Bash was tall and broad shouldered, with sandy hair, dimples, and warm brown eyes, and he pulled Kade into a hug that lifted him off his feet.

“You are insane, and I love you, and you have terrible taste in secrecy,” Bash said, and then he turned to me and bowed low.

“And you must be the woman who finally caught the great Kade Voss, I am Bash, I have been his best friend since we were nineteen and shared a dorm room with a very angry mold problem,” Bash said.

“Mina, it is nice to meet you,” I said, shaking his hand, and his palm was warm and dry and steady.

“I have heard nothing about you, which means he is terrified, normally he talks about girls for ten minutes and forgets their names,” Bash said.

“Bash,” Kade said.

“I am kidding, mostly, you are the first one he ever hid from me, I should be offended, instead I am delighted, congratulations to you both,” Bash said, and he popped the cork.

Nana Rose narrowed her eyes. “Sebastian, you are drinking champagne at eleven in the morning.”

“It is a celebration, Nana Rose, and I am a man of principle, I celebrate at all hours,” Bash said, kissing her hand, and she swatted him but she was smiling.

“Come on, best man, you are standing up for me Saturday, no argument, I already bought the suit,” Kade said.

“I accept, with tears in my eyes, I have been waiting for this day since sophomore year,” Bash said, and he draped an arm around Kade’s shoulders.

“I have been telling him to settle down for years, and now look at him, a wife, a baby, and a courthouse,” Bash said to me, and his smile was so warm that I almost forgot to be nervous.

“I will try to make him very boring,” I said.

“Please do, it is my life’s goal,” Bash said, laughing, and the whole room laughed with him.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I slid it out under the table with a smile still on my face.

Smile, Mina, the wedding photos start now. Which one of them do you think is lying?

I looked up slowly, and Nana Rose was pouring champagne, and Pierce was straightening papers, and Brandt stood at the door, and Bash was laughing with his head thrown back, and every single one of them was holding a phone.

Kade leaned close and whispered, “You are pale, what is it?” and I held the phone up under the table so only he could see it, the way we promised, and I watched his smile stay on his face while his eyes went cold.