White-Hot Hack (Kate and Ian #2)(61)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Rob pulled up in front of the house, walked around to the passenger door, and opened it for Kate. She’d told him he didn’t need to do that, but he’d insisted. He had conceded on the matter of letting her sit in front, but only because she’d argued he was her security detail and not her chauffeur. She’d adjusted quickly to the protocol Ian put in place, and it no longer seemed strange to text Rob when she needed to go somewhere.

“Good afternoon, Diane.”

“Hi, Rob. How are you?”

“Can’t complain. Where are we off to today?”

“I’m meeting a friend at Tuscarora Mill in Leesburg.” Jade was working on a design job in the area and had asked Kate if she wanted to meet for lunch.

“That’s one of my favorites. I’ll have you there in half an hour, give or take.”

“Great.” That would give Kate plenty of time to come up with an excuse for Jade about why she hadn’t driven herself.



She still hadn’t thought of anything by the time they pulled into the parking lot, but Kate needn’t have worried because Jade was already inside the restaurant, sitting at a table and sipping a glass of wine. They hugged, and Kate ordered a glass of chardonnay and opened her menu.

“I hope you haven’t been waiting long,” she said.

“Nope. I just got here five minutes ago.”

“How have you been?” Kate asked.

“Good. This job is keeping me really busy. You should see this home. It’s almost as beautiful as yours.” Jade stifled a yawn with the back of her hand. “Sorry about that. I went on a date last night with someone I met online, and I was up later than usual.”

Kate smiled. “It must have gone well.”

“It started off great. We’re the same age and he’s a widower, so I figured we’d have a lot in common, and we did. At dinner there were no awkward lulls in the conversation. We went to a movie afterward and I felt like we’d been seeing movies together for years. But toward the end of the evening, he started asking these weird questions about whether I’d ever consider dying my hair red and if I liked to wear dresses. I finally realized he was looking for someone to fill the shoes of his late wife in a rather literal way, and it creeped me out.”

Kate grimaced and took a drink of her wine. “I know it works for a lot of people, but I didn’t have the best luck with online dating either. Luckily I met Ian shortly after my foray into the world of ‘everyone’s lying and the rest of you are just hiding your crazy.’”

“Who’s Ian?”

Yeah, Kate. Who’s Ian?

“Oh, I meant Will. His middle name is Ian. I call him that sometimes. My middle name is Kate, so sometimes we do this whole Kate and Ian thing.” Oh my God, shut up.

“Okay.” Her skeptical expression contradicted her words, and Kate hoped Jade didn’t think she was hiding some crazy of her own.

“Tell me the kind of man you’re looking for. What are some of the qualifications you listed on your dating profile?”

“I want someone who’s kind and will treat me well. I don’t mean that he has to be wealthy or anything. I just want him to be respectful. It doesn’t matter if he’s been married before, but I think maybe a widower isn’t such a great fit after all. Why, do you know someone?”

“I might. I’ll let you know if it pans out.”

Jade insisted on picking up the check for lunch, and as they put on their jackets and prepared to leave the restaurant, Kate started to panic. She’d forgotten about coming up with a reason for why Rob was waiting for her in the parking lot and really should have been thinking about it sooner. Her body temperature rose as they made their way toward the door.

For the life of her, she could not come up with anything to explain the presence of Rob that would even remotely make sense, at least not in the next sixty seconds. She could claim she’d hired a car service because she knew she’d be drinking alcohol, but she’d only had one glass of wine—hardly enough to justify a designated driver. She could say she’d let her license expire, but the obvious solution would be to go to the DMV and renew it, not hire someone to drive you around. She could say her car was having some work done, but how many repair shops gave you a rental and threw in someone to drive it for you?

Kate’s hand was on the door and she was about to push it open when Jade stopped suddenly. “I need to visit the ladies’ room before I head back to work. I’m so happy you could meet me for lunch. I really appreciate your driving all this way.”

Relief washed over Kate. “It was no problem at all.” She and Jade hugged and Kate said, “Let’s do it again soon.”



“I have a fantastic idea,” Kate said over dinner that night.

“All of your ideas are fantastic,” Ian said.

“I think we should set Jade and Charlie up on a date.”

His expression seemed to convey that Kate’s idea was not, in fact, all that fantastic. “Really? Jade and Charlie?”

“Why not? I thought you’d be all over this. They’re fairly close in age. They’re both single. I bet Charlie’s not nearly the player he wants everyone to think he is. We could invite them over for dinner and to watch a movie afterward or play some pool.”