Page 53 of Hush Money
I put my hand on his face.
“Keat, you know what I meant,” I say. “I just wanted?—”
“I know, honey,” he cuts me off. “And it worked. But I will never fuck you and it not mean something. And I will never,everget you out of my system.”
We get dressed and clean ourselves up bit, and he waits for me to attempt to fix my hair and makeup, which is a joke.
“Ready?” I ask him when I come back into the room. He smiles.
“I’m ready.”
The restof the night goes off with nothing really to report. We mostly hang with Julian and Sawyer, Brooks dropping in now and then. He doesn’t mind the social climbing as much. He is still basking in the fruits of his family’s labor.
Around eleven, Julian and Keaton give each other a look.
“I think three hours is enough to punch our timecard,” Julian says. “Shall I call the cars?”
Sawyer scoffs.
“God, you sound like a rich prick when you say shit like that.” She giggles, a little bit wine tipsy. He shoots her a playful glare before leaning in to playfully pinch her sides.
“Watch it, baby girl,” he says, and Keaton makes a playful puking sound behind them.
We say our goodbyes and go surprisingly unnoticed as we make our way out to the driveway. Sawyer gives me a big hug goodbye, and we get in our separate cars and make our way back to the city.
When we get back, Mac pulls the car around to the gate, when I stop him.
“I want pancakes,” I say.
Keaton looks at me, raising an eyebrow. Then he smiles.
“Can you take us to the diner, Mac?”
“Sure thing, boss,” he says, flipping a U and heading back in that direction.
We get there about ten minutes later, and Mac drops us off at the door while he finds parking. I walk through the doors, my gown and heels raising some looks from the late-night customers as we walk inside. Sean, the cook, sees me first and lets out a long whistle.
“Well, look at what the cat dragged in,” he says, “and dressed so nice!”
I laugh and make my way toward him for a hug. I turn and reach an arm out for Keaton.
“This is Keaton,” I say. Sean’s eyes are wide as he shakes his hand.
“Mr. Everett,” he says. “It’s a pleasure. What can we get for you all?”
“Nice to meet you, Sean,” Keaton says with that panty-dropping smile that dropped my panties just a few hours ago. “I think we will just take two stacks of pancakes, yeah?”
I nod enthusiastically as Sean leads us to an empty booth toward the back. Within minutes, we are laughing and stuffing our faces with diner pancakes like we didn’t stuff our faces with a gourmet meal just a few hours back. I get up to refill our drinks behind the counter, but when I turn back, I freeze.
Because my motherfucking husband is staring back at me.
KEATON
The hair on the back of my neck instantly stands up when I notice the look on her face.
Fear.
I whip my head toward the front door of the diner, and I see him.
