Page 28 of Earned Husband

Me: I can’t wait.

Colin: Looking forward to seeing you.

The admission caught me completely off-guard, but when I reread it, the words remained completely unchanged and I smiled so wide, my cheeks started hurting.God, it’s refreshing to find a man who doesn’t play games and doesn’t pretend about anything.

All too often, the guys I’d met had turned out to be such disappointments in this early stage of a relationship. Not that Colin and I were in one of those, but he was mature enough not to care about making me wait or leaving me to wonder if he even remembered I existed.

He wasn’t pretending to be too busy or too important to show that he actually wanted to spend more time with me. As far as I was concerned, this was a man. Those other idiots had all been boys. Emotionally, at least.

When it became apparent that our exchange was over now that the plans had been made, which was equally refreshing, I forced myself to put down my phone and headed downstairs. Almost as soon as I left my room though, I noticed that the house was unusually quiet.

At least by our standards—and especially when Khaled and my father were in residence.

There were no booming voices and no phones ringing off the hook. It was almost eerie, but I soon found out it was because they weren’t, in fact, in residence.

Gabrielle was alone in the kitchen, patiently waiting for a freshly baked loaf to finish in the oven. She lifted her gaze away from it to smile at me when I walked in. “Good morning, sweetheart.”

“Morning,” I said, looking around to confirm that we were, in fact, alone, but there really was no sign of anyone else. Not even a dirty tea cup or plate left behind from their early morning routines. “Where is everyone?”

“Your father and Khaled have left for a brunch meeting with the Westwoods, and Ashanti is upstairs. She should be ready any second now. I think the kids are finishing up breakfast in front of the television.”

Her nose wrinkled a little bit, but she donned an oven glove and pulled the bread out before she looked at me again. “I know it’s summer, but so much screen time isn’t good for them.”

“Like you didn’t let me watch cartoons while eating breakfast when I was growing up,” Ashanti said, breezing into the kitchen fully dressed and clearly ready to leave. She rolled her eyes at her mother, but I saw the smile she was trying to hide. “Your generation just likes to pretend you didn’t parent the exact same way we do. I think it’s because you’re jealous you didn’t have all the same resources.”

“Smart phones are not a resource,” Gabrielle argued lightly as she set the bread on a cooling rack. “They’re the devil.Yourgeneration are just too addicted to your own to see it.”

Ashanti finally let the smile break free. “Says the woman who has more followers on TikTok than I do.”

Gabrielle smirked. “I only share all the funny videos and memes that get sent to me. If they can make me smile, they deserve to be out there, brightening up the day of anyone who needs something to smile about.”

Ashanti blinked a few times, but then shook her head and relented. “It’s hard to argue when you put it like that. Anyway.” She turned to face me, sliding Khaled’s black credit card out of her pocket and pinching it between two fingers. “Get dressed. We’re going shopping, courtesy of your brother.”

“Why?”

She gave me a weird look, like she was trying to come across as perfectly innocent, but that only made me more suspicious. “Why what?”

“Why is my brother sending us on a shopping spree? He complains when I ask him to buy me a cup of coffee. And now he wants us to go shopping on him? I smell a rat.”

Ashanti stared back at me for a long moment before she finally nodded, a tiny flicker of guilt passing behind her eyes. “We’ll talk at lunch. Just go get dressed, will you?”

CHAPTER 13

COLIN

By the time Isaac and I arrived at the clubhouse, I was starting to wonder if agreeing to brunch had been a mistake. This place was one of the most exclusive spots in downtown Chicago, even eggs apparently tasting better when served in the light of crystal chandeliers with your feet firmly planted on imported marble.

Generally speaking, I enjoyed coming here. The food was amazing and the Bloody Marys were out of this world, but after that weird conversation I’d had with Basel, I wasn’t convinced I should be seeing him at all until Jane had had the opportunity to thoroughly consider his proposal.

As a result, I’d spent the whole drive here spiraling. It wasnota state I usually indulged in, but Basel Saad had thrown me for a loop last night.

Isaac climbed out of the car after I’d parked, adjusting his sunglasses. He waited for me before we started toward the entrance together. “You look stressed.”

“I am stressed.”

“Why?”

I glanced at him. “Have you not been listening for the last thirty minutes? Basel wants us to do a lot more than overhaulone of our facilities for the perfumery. I told you, he has all these plans and I think today is about pressuring us to make the deal.”