Page 135 of Scandalous Contract

I could tell he sensed it too because the smile was gone from his face and his eyes. His gaze snapped to mine.Intense. Heated. Surprised. I was doing the opposite ofnotleading him on.Shit. Before I could step away or mumble something awkward, his voice cut through the moment.

“Don’t overthink it.” His smile returned, but the look in his eyes was still intense. “Sit down and get ready to eat.”

I turned and walked away, my body moving to the table even though my brain was still lagging behind. I’d kissed his cheek. Of course, the act was no big deal. But for me, it felt like a big deal.

The way I’d been behaving this morning felt like a big deal. I’d admitted to myself that I loved Julian Cattaneo. And now my actions were mirroring what I felt inside. But I wasn’t ready for that. Not yet. I slowly sat down at the table.

“You’re still overthinking it,” he called out.

I stared up from the table to find his eyes on me.

“No, I’m not,” I fibbed.

“Little liar,” he said before continuing to prepare the plates.

He brought my plate to me and set it down in front of me. It smelled divine.

“Since it’s already lunch time, I decided on chicken and homemade waffles,” he told me.

“Who taught you how to make chicken and waffles?” I asked, smiling as he drizzled syrup over my food for me.

“My mom. We once went to Atlanta to visit a cousin, and we had chicken and waffles at this little diner. She fell in love with it and has been making it ever since. She once had a cook-off with the mom of one of my cousin’s ex-girlfriends. Her name is Tatianna. Her mom challenged my mom to a fried chicken cook-off.”

“Who won?”

“Tatianna’s mom. But her mom told my mother that her chicken was amazing. The compliment made my mom happy. She’s been trying to perfect her fried chicken ever since. She gets Tati’s mom to taste it and give her advice. If my cousin knew she was still talking to his ex’s mom, he’d have a fucking fit.”

I chuckled. “Your mother sounds like a wonderful woman,” I told him, hoping my voice didn’t sound strained.

“She is. You’ll love her.” He kissed my forehead and moved over to the coffeepot.

I’m sure I would. His mother sounded like a wonderful woman, and I could tell from the way he spoke of her that he loved her dearly. The question was, would she love me? Would she be okay with her precious son dating a woman who was ten years older than him?

And when she found out that woman wasme, the mother of her daughter’s roommate, the woman she’d encountered all those years ago, would she accept or reject the idea of having me be a part of her son’s life?

After all, she knew exactly what I’d done to my husband. That hadn’t stopped her from agreeing to allow our daughters to be roommates. But it could make her forbid her son from dating a woman who’d killed her husband on the day he decided to leave her.