26. Influenced Your Decision

26

INFLUENCED YOUR DECISION

“ C ongrats, new Daddy,” Kelly said to Cade two days later.

“Thanks,” Cade said, coming in to shut her door. Oh boy, here it comes. “Maybe I should say congrats to you instead.”

“What does that mean?” she asked.

Might as well get him to spell it out even though she knew Cade was aware.

“Short of ending up with a guy whose last name is Fierce, you can’t get much better than Michael.”

She grinned. “I think he’s pretty great. Kind of slow and naive like you. Had no clue I’ve been looking at his ass for years.”

Cade burst out laughing. “He needs that in his life too. Might keep him on his toes. If anyone deserves some of your sunshine, it’s Michael.”

She always loved Cade as a boss, but that comment just melted her heart.

“Thank you,” she said. “What a nice thing to say.”

There was a knock at her door and then Ella walked in. “What am I missing? Did you start without me?”

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“Cade said he was going to talk to you this morning. I said not to start without me,” Ella said.

“Kelly works for me and Michael is related to me by marriage. I should be able to start without my baby sister having to stick her nose in everything.”

“Hey,” Ella said. “Be thankful that we clue you in half the time.”

“I figured this one out all on my own. Didn’t need you,” Cade said.

“So let’s get to the good stuff.” Ella was rubbing her hands together.

“What is the good stuff?” Kelly asked.

“How you’re going to let my mother know and when. Is this still a secret?” Ella asked.

“Who did you two tell other than Alex?”

“Aiden and Brody know,” Ella said. “I had to give them a heads up where Mom’s head was at now.”

“So she is thinking of Michael?” she asked. This was news to her but promising too.

“It’s been there for several months,” Ella admitted. “I never said a word to you. I’m not someone to give a push. If you knew, then it might have influenced your decision. I knew you were watching him too. I’m sure my mother saw it at times. You’re not as subtle as you think. Not if Cade caught on.”

“Actually,” Cade said. “Alex noticed something months ago. First it was you looking at Michael and then another time him looking at you.”

“So you had a clue,” Ella said. “I knew there was no way you figured it out on your own.”

Kelly smiled at the thought that Michael had been watching her without her knowing.

And he didn’t make a move.

If she’d known he was interested, she would have done it a long time ago.

She’d only gone ahead with it because she was feeling feisty to make the bet.

But it made sense that he agreed because he might have been thinking the same way too.

“Hey,” Cade said. “I still knew pretty fast this time.” He turned to look at her. “So, what is the game plan?”

“You haven’t talked to Michael?” she asked.

“Not about this. Guys don’t talk about this shit,” Cade said. “I was only catching up with work with him.”

“We don’t have a solid plan,” she said. “But we talked about it this weekend. He met my parents and I met his and Ty.”

“Okay,” Ella said. “So then it’s serious.”

“Michael would never bring anyone into Ty’s life if he wasn’t willing to take the next step,” Cade said. “This is the first person I’ve even known that he’s dated since Ty was born.”

“He’s dated,” she said.

“Sure, if you want to call it that,” Cade said, smirking.

Ella slapped his arm. “Don’t say those things.”

“It’s fine,” she said. “It’s not as if he was a virgin. Neither was I.”

“Anyway,” Cade said. “Before Ella interrupted, I said that Kelly might be the best thing to happen to Michael.”

“No,” she said. “You didn’t say that. You said that he deserves to have some of my sunshine.”

“Cade,” Ella said softly. “That might be one of the nicest things you’ve said. How come you don’t say those things to your sister?”

“I normally reserve them for my wife and daughter,” Cade said. “Now I’ve got two daughters, but I mean it, Kelly. He’s a great guy.”

“He is,” Ella said. “So the important thing is, what is going on with my mom?”

“We haven’t put any thought into telling her. I mean, we aren’t the announcement type of people. We don’t live and die for her enjoyment and I’m not looking to make some event out of it. I don’t know. I don’t want to make a big production about it. I don’t like the attention and I don’t think Michael does.”

“You love attention,” Cade said, laughing.

“Not on my personal life though,” she said.

Mostly because it’d been so dismal.

“Fair point,” Ella said.

“As for your mother, no clue. Michael commented that he’d like to come have lunch with me at times once everyone knows.”

“Then do it,” Ella said. “The four of us in the building know.”

Which meant all the spouses knew too. “Does Mason know?”

“I told him,” Cade said. “Not that Michael is over there much, but he does know.”

“Then it’s just having your mother show up when Michael and I are having lunch,” she said. “Then it’s out. That seems simple enough. Or it will get back to her if others see us.”

“Leave that to me,” Cade said. “I’d love to do it.”

“I want to,” Ella said. “Have Michael come to lunch today.”

“He could be busy,” she said. She didn’t want to bother him with these things. It felt petty and immature on her part.

“Nope,” Cade said, pulling his phone out. “I’m taking care of it.”

She watched as Cade texted something and then put his phone away.

“What did you say?”

“I told him I wanted to rub my mother’s face in this for being the first one to know. I never get to do it and if he’d be a bro and let me do it by coming over in an hour since I was here today.”

“That’s low,” she said, laughing.

Cade pulled his phone out and smirked. “He’ll be here at noon.”

Her phone went off on her desk. It was Michael asking if she knew what was going on.

She replied yes and then said, “Guess we’ll see what you’ve got, Cade.”

She went back to work and, an hour later, looked up when Michael was standing in her doorway.

“Hi,” he said. “You’re okay with this?”

She shrugged. “Ripping the band-aid off. Though no one is telling me what is going on. Do you know?”

“Nope,” he said. “I’m just here for lunch with my girlfriend.”

It was said loud enough that there was silence in the office after that and lots of feet moving out and coming toward her office.

“Wow,” Kendra said. Kendra had been one of the setups and was married to Cade’s cousin Ivan. The last time she’d asked Jolene to set her up was at Kendra and Ivan’s wedding. “How long has this been going on and does Jolene know?”

“It’s been about two months now, right? Just short of it,” she said. “And she’s about to find out.”

“This is going to be fun,” Kendra said. “I’m sure we’ll hear all about it.”

“Let’s go get some food,” she said. “I’m sure you’re busy and it’s nice you took the time out to do this.”

They walked down the stairs and into the pub. Brody pointed to a table where he had a clear view. “I need to see my mother’s reaction when she comes in. Cade and Ella will be back here too. Best seat is over there.”

“Brody,” Aimee, Brody’s wife, said, moving over. “You guys are all horrible.”

“It’s fun and you know it,” Brody said, kissing his wife. “I thank my mother all the time for her setup, but it’s still fun to yank her chain.”

“You didn’t think it was so much fun when you were the first,” Aimee said.

“We’re all used to it now,” Brody said. Kelly and Michael went to the table that Brody had pointed to after giving Brody their drink orders.

They both got a soda and took a seat, the server moving over to get their food orders. She knew what she was getting since she’d looked at the special menu prior.

Before their food was delivered, they heard, “There is no way this is work related with that picture I just got.”

They both turned their head to see Jolene moving over quickly, Cade, Ella, Brody and Aimee laughing behind the bar. Aiden and his wife, Nic, were there too and Kelly hadn’t been paying enough attention to see them all gathering, meaning it was going to happen soon.

She was too lost in her boyfriend to notice anything else in the bar.

“It’s lunch,” she said.

“We are talking about work,” Michael said.

Jolene frowned and then flipped her phone over. “That looks like more.”

Kelly pulled the phone out of Jolene’s hand and noticed a picture of Michael putting his hand on her lower back when she sat, then a second picture where her head was tilted as she looked into the man’s eyes she loved.

“Maybe it is more,” she said.

Jolene slid into the seat next to her. “Fill me in.”

“Not much to say,” Michael said. “We are dating.”

Jolene looked at her. She was going to take Michael’s lead on this. “He’s right. We are dating. It’s not like we’ve got much time to see each other.”

“How long have you been dating?” Jolene asked.

“Less than two months, but you know Michael has a son. So I’m not taking any time away from that.”

“So it’s nothing serious?” Jolene asked.

She wanted to argue it was, but Michael shrugged. “We are taking it at our own pace. Is that a problem? Wasn’t aware I needed to give an update to everyone. It’s easier to come here to have lunch, but we could go somewhere else next time.”

Kelly heard laughing from all the siblings behind the bar again. She still wasn’t sure what was going on and wondered if Cade and Michael had something set up.

She wouldn’t be offended if that was the case and worried that he might not be feeling the same as her.

“No,” Jolene said. “You keep coming here. We like that.”

“So you can keep an eye on us?” Michael asked.

“Kelly is here, not you,” Jolene said.

“And you’re not going to bug my employee,” Cade said.

“Why are you standing here watching me?” Jolene asked of Cade. The rest of the siblings had gone back to work.

“Because I want to make sure you aren’t being a nag. You can thank me for giving you a heads up though.”

Jolene narrowed her eyes. “How long have you known?”

“Not long,” Cade said.

“I’ll go find out from Ella,” Jolene said. “She has known for a long time.”

“Both about the same,” Cade said. “I figured it out pretty fast. No one told me. Just pointing that out.”

“You’re so proud of yourself, aren’t you?” Kelly asked.

“I actually am,” Cade said. “Now come on, Mom. Leave them to figure things out on their own.”

“Good seeing you again, Jolene,” Michael said.

Their lunch was brought out and the two of them started to eat.

“What am I missing?” she said.

“No reason to tell Jolene what we feel for each other. Let her keep guessing. It will give her something to do.”

“True,” she said. “I didn’t think of it that way.”

“We don’t need anyone’s approval,” he said.

“Not true,” she said. “We both wanted it from our family.”

“That’s different,” he said. “It’s nice to have it, but I don’t need it. I do what I want. I don’t let other people influence my decisions. You should know that by now.”

“I do,” she said, reaching for his hand and squeezing it. “Let’s get this lunch eaten and you can go back to work.”

“Thanks,” he said. “We can talk about what to do this weekend with Ty too.”

“I’d love to,” she said, picking up her sandwich and taking a huge bite. Guess that worked out better than she thought.

“You two both suck,” Jolene said to Cade and Ella upstairs in Cade’s office. “I can’t believe you’ve known and haven’t said a word.”

“You don’t need to know everything,” Ella said.

“But you know I was trying to set her up. I had Michael in mind too. Let that be known too. I don’t want anyone to say that I wasn’t thinking it.”

She always had to get that in there. It was the truth though. She’d been saying Michael’s name around Kelly for over a year and no one bit.

She wondered if maybe that did help Kelly look at Michael differently or not.

She’d keep that part to herself for now or her kids would get on her case about her always having to be right.

“You were thinking of a lot of people for her,” Ella said.

“But Michael was at the top,” she said. “Fill me in, Cade. You have to know the most.”

“Not a lot to say,” Cade said. “I just found out but have been busy with a baby at home. We decided to tell you so that you could leave them alone.”

“We?” she asked. “Everyone has known?”

Jolene expected her children in this building. She’d seen them all behind the bar watching her reaction. “Those in the Brewery too?”

“A few,” Cade said.

She scrunched her nose. “Does your father know?”

“No,” Cade said. “I haven’t said anything to him. You know he doesn’t get too involved in these things.”

“Your father loves doing this,” she argued.

“He humors you,” Ella said. “Now that immediate family is all matched up, he’s hands off and just keeping you in line.”

“And this time I’m keeping you in line,” Cade said.

“Like you think you can handle me,” she said, laughing. “I’ll just toss you in the car and take you for a ride.”

Ella snorted. “I think you’d have a hard time throwing him in the car.”

“I’ll feed the kids prunes when he’s got them and they will need help wiping or he has to do dirty laundry with leftover skid marks. I know lots of ways to get back at Cade. He’s easy.”

“She has you there,” Ella said.

Cade was almost gagging at the thought and Jolene wanted to pat herself on the back for that one.

“Listen,” Cade said. “Let them go. Michael isn’t interested in your games. He hasn’t dated anyone since Ty was born. For him to consider dating someone is a big step. He moves slowly, and if you push, you might push him away. I’m not going to deal with it. I’m not joking here either.”

Jolene looked at her son and saw he was serious. “So you wanted me to know that you found out first and that you’re being protective of Alex’s cousin? Or is it of Kelly?”

“Both,” Cade said. “But Michael. He’s a great guy who was dealt a hard hand. He doesn’t need any more crap in his life.”

She sputtered. “Crap? I’m just having fun. Everyone knows it. He was yanking my chain down there. You all saw it.”

She was hedging her bet on that since Michael had to be in on what happened today.

“He might have been,” Ella said. “But I’m with Cade. Let them be for now. Find someone else to work on.”

She wasn’t sure who that would be. “We’ll see,” she said. “What time does Kelly’s lunch end?”

“No,” Ella and Cade said at once.

“What?” she asked innocently. “You said to leave Michael alone, not Kelly. Kelly is a good sport. She asked me to set her up, you all know that.”

“She did but did this on her own,” Ella said. “Don’t get in the middle of this. At least not yet. Make a promise or I’m telling Dad.”

Her lips were twisting around. Gavin would lecture her and sometimes that was worse because, as much fun as it was, it wasn’t when her husband let her know not everyone enjoyed her matchmaking.

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll give them space...for now. But you can keep me in the loop, right?”

“If there is anything to report,” Ella said. “There isn’t. They are dating. End of story.”

“I think there is more to it, but I’ll let it go for now. I can follow instructions.”

“Only with the threat of Dad looming over you,” Cade said. “I’ll walk you down to the kitchen and out the door.”

So much for trying to sneak back into the pub. Her kids did know her well.