But there was one thing I knew for certain: this man was no good. I knew he was bad. He didn't make good first impressions—well, not with children anyway.
He was overly confident, and he was a smoker, which Mom always told me was a bad habit. He was a jerk—no, if I was being honest, he was a straight-up asshole. I knew he probably cared more about himself than anyone else—he just gave me that sort of impression.
And despite knowing all of that, I still developed a crush on Mr. Cane.
And I didn't like it one bit.
2
CANE
I hadn’t seen my buddy Derek in eight long months. Work had me slammed, and he had a busy schedule himself. He had a family he was taking care of, and I had a business to grow. We’d finally stopped making excuses for ourselves and agreed to do dinners.
I was glad.
It was nice to hang out with his family. I’d met Mindy before, when she came to pick Derek up from the bar because he was too drunk to drive back. She was a nice woman, a perfect match for D. Kandy was a sweet girl, with an attitude just like his.
I hadn’t spent a lot of time around kids, so it was funny to see her run away from me one moment, and then blush the next when I gave her the chocolates. I guess I needed to work on my manners. I was a bit rusty, but was glad they understood.
She was a smart, sweet girl. Derek wasn’t kidding about how brilliant she was.
“Kandy has straight A’s right now,” Derek bragged after chewing his steak. “She’s a smart girl. Her teachers love her.”
“Dad.” She glared at him, and her cheeks turned rosy as she tried to avoid looking at me.
“What, Kandy? It’s true! You’re a smart girl. You don’t have to be ashamed of it.”
When she finally looked at me, her face was red as a beet. I smiled at her, which made her neck flush, too. She ducked her head down, chewing her food.
“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask how you came up with the name ‘Kandy’ anyway?” I looked at Mindy.
“Oh, gosh!” She wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin. “I’ll let Derek tell you. He’s the one who insisted we name her that, after what happened.”
I focused on Derek, who answered right away. “Oh, damn! I’ve never told you this story before, have I? Well, two days after Kandy was born, Mindy was feeding her and Kandy start choking out of nowhere. There were two nurses in there with us when it happened. One of them kind of froze up a bit, while the other took action and saved our girl. Pretty much saved her life. Milk was coming out of Kandy’s nose and everything. The coughing and sputtering was too much. It was bad.”
My eyes stretched. “Oh man.”
“Seriously? I’ve never heard this story either,” Kandy said, lifting her head a bit.
“That’s ‘cause it hurts my heart every time I think about it,” Derek stated. “I panicked too. I wasn’t sure how to handle a choking newborn. It was my first kid—I freaked.”
“Neither of us knew what to do,” Mindy admitted.
“The nurse that saved her was so focused and attentive. Saved my baby girl’s life. Mind you, we didn’t have a name for our baby yet. We were still thinking of options. After everything had calmed down, I asked for the nurse’s name, and she laughed and told me she hated her name. Her name badge was flipped backwards and everything. Like, she seriously hated her name,” he chuckled. “Eventually, she caved and told us. Her name was Kandy. Mindy and I agreed that day to name her after the woman that’d saved our daughter’s life.”
“Wow,” I huffed. “That is insane!”
Mindy smiled and shrugged. “Worst thirty-seconds of my life, but she’s here now.” She rubbed Kandy’s head. “So, how does it feel being the owner of Tempt?” she asked with a big smile. “Must be a nice feeling to have a company that big and to own all of it.”
“Oh, it is. Thank you for asking.” I picked up my water. “I love my job. Investing in it at a young age was the best decision I’ve ever made.”
She nodded. “That’s great, Cane. It has obviously paid off.”
“Well, I’m proud of you, man,” Derek added. “I really am. I remember when you told me you were going to school and everything. How you kept saying you felt like you were never going to get out of there.”
We both laughed.
“Oh, yeah. I remember. Those were tough days, man. But I got out of there. Graduated and went straight to work. It was a struggle at first to build it, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
“Amazing,” Mindy said, elated.