“He does. Buddy here is nothing but a gentle giant. He doesn’t have it in him to hurt a fly.”
“Really?” I don’t mean for it to come out as incredulous as it does. “I mean, don’t you want him to protect you? Eat any unsuspecting burglars that might make their way inside?”
Cade belts out a laugh. “He’ll give a good bark if a stranger is at the door, but this little guy would rather lick any thief to death than bite them. Heck, he might help them haul off the TV.” He leans over and hugs the miniature bear, and something about seeing Cade so loving to this lumbering beast melts me. “I’ll put him away. I just wanted the two of you to finally get a chance to meet.” His eyes glow a peculiar shade of turquoise in the light, and I’m transfixed by this beautiful, big-hearted man. “I think it’s important to introduce the people you care about to those closest around you.” He nods as the air clots up in the room, stuffy and full of expectation, before he walks poor Buddy off to this nightly doom. A dog with a room of his own. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Now that’s a city thing to do if I’ve ever heard it.
Wait—did he just say the people you care about? As in me?
Cade comes back and plucks me off the sofa, wraps his loving arms around my waist, and every last part of me swoons right here in his embrace. Cade James is going to make someone very, very happy one day. Tears come, and I’m quick to blink them away.
“I have an idea of what we can do tonight.” His hot lips sink a kiss over mine, and I groan with delight, because for one, I actually think we’re off to a pretty good start.
“I sort of came up with an idea or two of my own, Mr. New York City.” I lean in and take a bite out of his ear. “You still got that leash handy?”
Cade warms my ear with a laugh. “I do, and, believe me, I plan on taking you up on whatever it is you wish to do with it. But first, I thought we could switch it up a bit. You know, take this show on the road.”
“You have a backyard you’re looking to christen?” I bite down over my lower lip just thinking of the raunchy gymnastics that are about to take place.
“I do”—he winces with the slightest look of regret—“but let’s put that idea on hold for a few hours as well. How about you and I head out and grab a quick bite?” His dark brows flex like a couple of crows swooping into flight. It looks vexingly sexy, and my secret spot quivers just begging to kiss him.
“A quick bite, huh? Sure! Let’s head over to the kitchen. I promise, I can make a gourmet meal out of nothing but a saltine cracker and an anchovy. I’m pretty sure the selection in that fridge of yours is a step up or two from that.”
He reels me back in with that heavy look in his eyes, slight lines of concern brewing on his forehead. “I mean it. I want to take you out. Show you off a bit. You’re too beautiful to keep hidden in this tiny house.”
My mouth opens with protest, but the words refuse to come out. We can’t venture out into the free world, what with Piper and Owen running around out there—not to mention that little bitch Ina just clucking around waiting to record our next liaison and upload it to YouTube. There’s no way I’d ever let that happen.
“How about a drive-thru?” I wince because I’m pretty sure someone as cultured as Cade rarely has a burger that was flipped by a preteen and costs less than ten US dollars. Not that he’s a snob—he simply expects more out of life.
“A drive-thru, huh?” He tips his head back, examining me with hooded eyes, that sultry look on his face budding with sexual anticipation. I’m pretty sure once I clue him in on the fact there will be a flogging or two distributed this evening—punishment for even suggesting the outing, but he doesn’t have to know that—he’ll have a change of heart about those crackers. “Okay.” His dimples dig in as he acquiesces.
“Okay?” I’m stunned to hear that he’ll even consider it. But I suppose a quick jaunt into town couldn’t hurt too much. The odds of us running into Piper and Owen while hitting a drive-thru are slim to none.
“Yup.” He presses out a dimpled grin, and I lean up and stuff a kiss in one. “But only if we see a movie after.”
And there it is. Public venue number two.
“A movie, huh?” My heart thumps out a warning in Morse code. There’s no way this is going to end well. It has Ina Eugene written all over it.
The smile melts from his face as he dots my forehead with kisses. “It’ll be dark. I’ll let you hold my hand.” He interlaces our fingers and presses his lips to each of my knuckles in turn. I’m not sure why he needs this, but I can tell by that pleading look in his eyes that he’s hell-bent on stepping out of that door with me right by his side.
“Will you let me hold something else as soon as that movie lets out?”
“Yes”—he pushes out a tender smile—“but only if you promise me one more thing.”
“Boy aren’t you demanding this evening.” As handsome and kind as Cade James is, he’s still managed to vex me on some level. “Let’s hear it. I’m okay with bringing food into the bedroom, but if you’re looking to impale me with blunt objects, it’s a no-go.”
That warm laugh of his rumbles through both of us. “I want you to stay the night.”
“Stay the night?” A white-hot pang of anxiety flashes through my chest. I swallow hard, contemplating this for the briefest of seconds. “Done.” I shake his hand, and we lose ourselves in one another’s eyes for a moment.
Cade James is starting to rewrite the rules, break his own code of conduct in my honor. Maybe we have something here after all.
I’ve been in expensive, flashy cars before, but the scent of his new leather seats, all of the strobing lights on his dashboard, that alarmingly large navigation screen that looks like a built-in television, it’s all a giant leap in technological advancements that I can hardly wrap my head around. I knew Piper’s family was filthy rich, but for some reason, Cade and his down-home attitude never really exuded that. Perhaps that’s why I’m so taken aback by his nice ride.
“We can do burgers.” He points to the left at the Burger Hut. “Or something different.” He nods across the street at the Fat Burrito.
“I’m down for whatever.” Fat Burger, Burrito Hut—mix and match, I really don’t care, so long as we’re not spotted out and about enjoying our foil-wrapped fare.
“Burgers it is.” He winks as he takes the turn into the drive-thru. We put in our orders, and he hands me a hot bag brimming with fries and pulls back out onto the street. “Do you mind if we head to the overlook?”
“Not at all. I’ve only been there a couple of times with Pip”—oh my shit—“piping hot food. There’s nothing like looking down over the city this time of night.” My face stings with heat. That was more than close! Crap on a crap cracker! I need to watch my tongue, or I’ll let the cat out of the bag before morning. Hey? Maybe that’s why he’s having me spend the night. It’s all a part of his nefarious plan to get me to confess the truth about who I am. A dull chuckle pulses through me. That’s ridiculous. It’s not like I’m hiding anything from him. I’m not some two-faced liar looking to shake him down for his hot buns in the bedroom, only to conceal the fact I’m secretly his little sister’s bestie. That would be ridiculous.
“So, which dorm are you in?”
“Prescott Hall.” Holy crap! I am a liar! I may as well step on a crack and break my momma’s back. I’m a damn liar—going to hell in a hand basket. My entire body heats with sin as I bleed out a sickly smile. If I had admitted to the fact I’m in Cutler Tower, I might as well have said Piper James is my roommate. We both know she would have been the inevitable next question. “But my dorm mother is a real peach. Don’t bother sniffing around, or she’ll hand you your rock-hard bottom on a stick.”
“Sounds painful.” He raises a brow as we cruise farther up the switchbacks, past the Witch’s Cauldron that boils and steams into the night. “This look good?” He pulls in close to the fence, and all of Hollow Brook lights up, glittering beneath us like a Christmas tree.
“Wow”—I sigh as we marvel at the sight—“my grandmother had a snow globe like this. It was a city scene just like this, and I used to love to watch it sparkle and shine. This almost makes up for the fact I broke the darn thing one year.” I pass him a burger and fries as we start in on our artery-clogging meals.
“That’s too bad. How about this, I’ll bring you up here as often as you like, and I’ll let you shake me.” He gives a dirty little wink as he takes a bite out of his burger.
“Sounds like a good deal.” I examine him like this, with the moon licking a blue line over his dark glossy hair, his eyes lit up ten times brighter than they’ve ever been before. It’s been easy to keep my face tucked to the left on the drive up here because that way I’m actually facing him instead of subjecting him to my imperfection, but dear Lord Almighty, Cade James doesn’t have a single imperfection to call his own. “Any luck on the unicorn front?” Not sure why I went there. Hell, I know why I went there. Cade James is perfection, and he deserves that in his counterpart.
“None so far, and you?” His gaze cuts to mine with a slight accusation in it, and my stomach bisects with heat. Cade James is alarmingly handsome, alarmingly sweet, and overall dangerously sexy. It feels as if I’m walking on a wire without a safety net below. Any moment now, he’ll meet up with his unicorn, and it’ll be much more than my body that will miss him.
I shake my head. “No unicorns my way either.” I look away, because for one, I can’t seem to say those words while looking into his angel blue eyes.
“You mentioned your grandmother. Are you close to your family?”
Cade is probing, hoping for some unreasonable clues as to what makes me tick, and a part of me wants to push my lips to his to stop him from going there.
“Close as I can be. Mimi and Pappy—yes, that’s what I call them—they’re back home with my momma. She lives with them.”
“So, you’re out here alone?”
“As alone as you are.” I lift a fry as if to toast him before taking a bite.
“I have my sister and my brothers.” He takes a long swig from his soda.
“I have a sister, too.” I’m not sure why I let that little familial nugget fly, but it felt good to give him something. As if all of my secrets were a wound festering on the inside, and that one tiny detail was the incision that helps get some of the poison out. I’ve spent my entire life filled with the toxins I’ve accumulated right after my father left. I’m not quite sure how to get rid of them.
“I’d love to meet her. Does she go to WB?”
“No.” A tiny laugh escapes me. “She’s not exactly the collegiate type. She’s more or less taking the world by the horns.” I shake my head as I pick up my drink. “Riding that bull.” For all to see, but I leave that part out.
“I get it. College isn’t for everyone. In fact, I’ll be glad when I’m done with grad school.”
“You apply?”
“Yup. Got in, too, right here at Briggs. It’s just an extra year, so it won’t kill me. Plus, I’ll get to hang out with you.” His lip tugs with a naughty grin, but he won’t give it.
“You’ll be snatched up way before then. I’m pretty sure I’ll be long off your radar by graduation. You mentioned you had a girlfriend once. Whatever became of you two?”
“She left me.” He closes his eyes a brief moment. “Actually, that’s not exactly how it went, but that’s over now. And how about you? Anyone lurking in your past?”
“Only a couple of morons that I’m more than glad to be rid of. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, right?”
“Amen.” Cade picks up my hand, and my heart flutters like a thirteen-year-old’s. On some level, it feels silly to have such a visceral reaction. He tips his head and openly looks to my scar, speaking without words, letting me know we’re going there again. “Can I ask what happened?”
The city lights below glisten and wink as if giving me the okay to do so.
“Let’s just say my daddy was a traveling man. He went out one night after a nasty fight with my momma, and I knew he was taking off for good.” A tight knot constricts in my throat until the next few words become too painful to push out.
Cade brings my hand to his lips and dots it with a kiss. “Take your time,” he whispers so sweetly I wish to God there wasn’t a center console locked between us.
I blow a breath through my lips. “He yelled and told me to get back inside. I didn’t listen. I watched as he melted down the road. I’ll never forget those taillights. I remember thinking they glowed like cherries in the night, and to this day, I’m still a little sad when I look at that haunting color.” A mean shudder runs through me. “Anyway, I met up with a pack of neighborhood thugs.” I wrinkle my nose at him. “Pack of dogs. They hadn’t been properly fed in days, and there I was looking like a steak.” I touch my finger to my cheek, ending that mystery for him. “I blacked out after that.”
“Shit.” Cade wraps his arms around me, dotting a string of soft kisses up around my ear before pulling back. “I take it that explains why you’re so gun-shy around Buddy.”
“Oh, it’s not just Buddy. I tend to stay away from all of that furry kind. Became a cat person on that very day.” I try to lighten the mood. Each and every time I relay that information, I can’t help but feel like a killjoy, and that’s the very reason I’ve only told a handful of people.
“It’s not a big deal, really.” I blink back the tears blurring my vision. “I don’t want to talk about it anyway. Hey, isn’t that movie about to start?” Good God, look at me cheering on the exact activity I dread to do.
Cade starts up the car and drives us over to the Cineplex where we get out and hold hands like any ordinary couple. I don’t see a soul I recognize from Whitney Briggs. It’s as if we’ve landed somewhere else on the planet entirely.
Cade and I watch some shoot ’em up action flick, and I let him hold me, openly thread our fingers together, and finally lock my lips right there in the theater. One thing is for sure, I can’t get enough of this boy.
Once he finds his unicorn and trots off into the sunset, I’ll be left with a scar on my heart far more deforming than the one on my face. Yes, this will end badly I predict.
I snuggle deeper into his arms as the movie drones on.
It’s moments like these that will make a bad ending to our story worth its heartbreaking while.
To all of the unassuming people around us, we must look like a regular couple. We feel like a couple. A few more steps in the right direction, and, for all practical purposes, we will be. But the proverbial boat is rocking. My gut says jump overboard while you have the chance and swim to safety. If I stick around too long, I might just go under.
Who am I kidding? Cade James dragged me under a long time ago.
Once the movie is over, we head through the lobby, hand-in-hand, swinging away as if we hadn’t a care in the world, and then just like that, Cade freezes. His feet stop moving, his eyes stare straight ahead, stony and serious. Before I can try to catch a glimpse at whatever it is that’s captured his attention, he spins us around and starts striding in the opposite direction at an impossibly quick clip.
“What’s up, sweetie? You look like you’ve seen the Grim Reaper holding up a sign with your name on it.” Something tells me he wouldn’t be this afraid of crossing over to the other side. Nope, whatever has Cade spooked is something that very much anchors him to the here and now.
“It’s nothing. I just thought we should get home.” His entire body sighs with relief once we hit the cool night air. “You ready to put that leash to good use?”
“Oh, hon, I have a few tricks up my sleeve that will make the things I’ve done to you so far seem like child’s play.” I glance back at the movie theater with a mob of bodies bleeding out of every orifice and wonder exactly who it is Cade is running from. Then it hits me. Cade isn’t running from anyone on his own. It’s me he doesn’t want to show off. God, what if there’s a girlfriend? No way. I’ve been over way too muc
h, and this boy is giving all he’s got.
I suck in a hard breath. Unless she’s not a Whitney Briggs! What if he’s involved in some long distance thing? Come morning, I’ll make Piper sing like a bird. I’ll find some way to wrangle her big bro into a conversation, and she’ll happily give me all the dirty deets.
Cade speeds us to his little cozy home and zips around to the passenger’s side of the car to help me out.
“Such a gentleman.” I lean up and take a moist bite of his lower lip. “Feel free to act like a beast as soon as we step through that door—all bark and all bite.”
“Duly noted. And speaking of beasts, I’d better let Buddy outside to take care of business.” He lets us in and turns on the lights. It feels comfortable here, with his manly looking furniture, the large TV framing the wall looks like an old friend, even the slight hint of his cologne lingering in the air makes this place feel a lot like my second home.
“I’ll just be a minute.”
I make a dash for the sofa and watch as he leads an anxious, bucking, jumping, thankfully leashed, Buddy right out the door.
He probably thinks it’s silly of me—a grown woman—to be so afraid of a hairy, not-so scary pooch. I don’t remember a single one of those dogs that used me as a chew toy having such long fur. In my mind’s eye, I can see still the charge, their rolled and wrinkled brown flesh, those pink and black mouths, those sharp as spears canines salivating with greed for me. My chest bucks, and for a minute, I think I’m going to lose it.
I head on out to the porch for a breath of fresh night air and spot Cade down by the sidewalk, an empty leash in hand. For a second, I think he’s lost Buddy.
A gray and brown brindled blur zips past his legs, and Cade turns and hooks his gaze to mine, his eyes growing round with horror.
“Buddy, no!” he riots so loud into the night it sounds like thunder.
But it’s too late. That beast is coming at me, his eyes narrowed, his sharp as all hell canines salivating with greed. His paws land hard over my shoulders, knocking me onto my back, the air expelling from my lungs in a hiss. His snout burrows into my neck before a line of wetness licks over my left cheek.
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