It frustrated me that I knew where Cade lived. I guess that was the curse of living in a small town. Ten minutes later, I pulled into Cade’s driveway.
There was a single light on in the living room, but the rest of the house was dark. I turned off the engine and pulled the keys from the ignition. Suddenly, I wondered if this had been a bad idea. I really didn’t know that much about Cade. How would he feel about me showing up to his house?
But I needed to know his intentions with this whole Operation Fix Cade thing. I needed to know that, if I accepted, he wouldn’t screw me over. Like I was pretty sure he was planning on doing.
I took a deep breath and bolstered my confidence. I could do this. I was strong. I opened the car door and stepped out onto the driveway. It was cracked and crumbling. Now that I was closer to the grass, I noticed that it was in desperate need of trimming. The tips of the blades hit me mid-calf.
Kid toys and riding cars littered the yard. A sandbox sat in the far corner with trucks half-buried in it. It was such a stark difference from my immaculately kept house. My parents prided themselves on perfection. Everything was white and clean.
I headed up the walkway and onto the stoop. After a few knocks, the door creaked opened. A little kid with bright blond hair and big blue eyes peered up at me. He was wearing a pair of Mickey Mouse pajamas and carrying a toothbrush.
He grinned at me. “Who are you?” he asked.
I glanced behind him to see two more kids come up. Each slightly taller than the one before.
“Bryson, you shouldn’t answer the door if you don’t know who’s there,” a little girl with brown curly hair said, glancing down at the boy.
He ignored her as he shoved his toothbrush into his mouth.
The air grew silent, and I realized that everyone was staring at me. “I’m Penny. I’m looking for Cade.”
The girl shook her head. “He’s not here. I’m Olivia, his sister. I’m eight.” She pointed to Bryson. “This is Bryson, he’s four.” And then she motioned to the other boy, who had shaggy blond hair. “This is Rex. He’s six.”
“Rex?” I asked.
She nodded, her curls bouncing. “Yeah. He’s real name is Jayden, but his favorite dinosaur is a T-Rex.”
“Oh.” I glanced behind her. “So Cade isn’t here?”
She shook her head. “No. He’s working at the diner. Mom said he has to be back by eleven or she’s grounding him.” She folded her arms as if she loved saying that. Tattling. Such an eight-year-old thing to do.
I nodded. “Perfect. Thanks!” I said, calling over my shoulder.
All three kids watched me as I climbed back into my car and started it up. I waved at them through the windshield. Just as I pulled out of the driveway, a woman with light-blonde hair approached the kids and shooed them inside before shutting the front door.
I turned my attention to the road and headed north toward Tony’s Diner, one of the only teenage hangouts in town. During the summer and fall it even had an outdoor dining option.
I pulled into the parking lot at eight. There were a few couples that were sitting at the picnic tables, and, from where I parked, I could see Cade standing next to a table full of kids from our school. The drop-outs and delinquents.
Of course.
His people.
I sighed as I turned off the engine and opened the door. If I helped Cade, I was going to have to associate with his crowd. I wasn’t sure I was ready for that.
I let out my breath and slammed the door. I shouldered my purse and made my way across the gravel toward an empty picnic table. I could hear the murmuring of conversations as I walked past. Secretly, I hoped that Cade would see me and come over.
After brushing the bench off with my hand, I slid onto it and waited. Five minutes passed and Cade didn’t even acknowledge me. He stayed next to his posse, leaning against the neighboring table and laughing at something Buddha, the ringleader, had said.
I drummed my fingers on the table in front of me. My gaze kept slipping over to him. Finally, Tiffanii—yep, with two i’s—leaned over and whispered something to Cade. Suddenly, his gaze fell on me.
For some reason, I dropped my gaze and studied the table in front of me. Why was I embarrassed to be caught looking at him? It wasn’t illegal. In fact, I had every right to. I was a paying customer. Well… I dug to the bottom of my purse and found a crumpled dollar bill and some quarters. I laid them out on the table in front of me.
Yes. I was a paying customer, and he was the server. It wasn’t rocket science what he was supposed to do.
“Hey, Chocolate Milk.”
Fury brewed in my stomach. I let out my breath slowly as I turned to meet his mocking gaze. Suddenly, all I wanted to do was stand up, march over to my car, and never come back. And never talk to Cade again. But for some reason, I also didn’t want his friends—especially Tiffanii—to think that I was afraid of them.
So I forced a smile. “I’ve always avoided this place because I heard the service is somewhat lacking. Now I understand why.” I narrowed my gaze.
Cade pressed his palm to his heart and faked pain. “Ouch, CM. Way to hit me where it hurts. My job performance.” He stuck out his bottom lip. “What did I ever do to you?” He pretended to wipe away a tear.
I hesitated, wondering just how far I wanted to take this conversation, but then stopped. There was no use. “I’d like a hotdog,” I said, pushing my odd change toward him.
He eyed the money. “Seriously? Things going bad on your side of town?” He took out a notepad from his back pocket and scribbled something on it.
I shook my head. True, my family lived on the wealthy side of town. But my parents wanted me to learn the value of a dollar, so they’d forced me to take jobs since I was a kid. “This was the change I found between my couch cushions.”
I don’t know why I said that. But I was tired of him always looking down at me because my parents had money. Like, for some reason, that made us different. Instead, it came out sounding conceited. Like the only money I could fathom spending here was my forgotten change.
“Well, I’m happy you finally put it to good use.” He reached out and started flicking the coins into his other hand one by one. Once they were collected, he placed a dime in front of me. “It’s $1.59.” He turned and headed toward the window that lead into the kitchen, jingling the change in his hand as he walked.
I watched him go, trying to figure out something to say. A way to make up for being a total jerk. But he was gone before I could form the words.
Once he placed my order, he returned to his posse, leaving me alone to stare at the stained tabletop in front of me. Man, I felt so out of place. One, because this was not a normal restaurant for me to go to. And two, because I actually felt bad for what I’d said to him.
Since when did that happen?
Chapter Three
After Cade dropped off my hotdog, he steered clear of me. I didn’t blame him. So I spent the next fifteen minutes sitting at the table, picking off pieces of the hotdog bun and absentmindedly putting them in my mouth.
His group of friends stood and said their goodbyes. I tried not to stare as they shot glances in my direction. Or when Tiffanii placed a very sloppy-looking kiss on Cade’s mouth.
Bleh.
When I brought my gaze up to see what they were doing, I was met with Tiffanii’s pissed-off expression. She’d decided to join me.
“Hey, Penelope. Nice to see you,” she said. Even though her greeting sounded nice, it was slathered in sarcasm.
I forced a relaxed look and shrugged. “Hey, Tiffanii. Back at you.” I winced at my ridiculous response. There was no need to give these people more ammo than they already had.
Tiffanii snorted and pushed her long blonde hair off her shoulder. “What are you doing here?” she asked, taking her gum from her mouth and sticking it to the leftover wrapping from my hotdog.
Well, that was gross. I crumpled the entire thing up. “I just wanted a hotdog.” If she
found out that I had come here to see Cade—I feared for my life. She had marked him as her territory at school. Cade was hers. Period.
She leaned closer. I could see her nose through my peripheral vision, but I kept my gaze forward. As long as I stayed quiet, I would be okay. She couldn’t hurt me if I didn’t give her any fuel.
“Tiff, they’re leaving,” Cade’s voice piped up from behind me.
I saw her turn and then curse under her breath. When she turned back to look at me, she whispered, “Cade is mine and don’t you forget that, freak.”
Then she patted my back “Oh, my gosh, Penny. You are hilarious,” she squealed as she stood and walked away. After a final, super-gross kiss with Cade, she disappeared.
My shoulders slumped as I tried to calm myself down. I was angry. I was hurt. And there was a part of me that was scared. Tiffanii got into a cat fight last year and pulled a chunk of hair from the other girl’s head. She was crazy. And if that was the kind of person Cade hung out with, I was in trouble.
Probably too much trouble. I doubted that Tiffanii would understand why Cade and I needed to hang out together. She’d see it as me moving in on her man. Which was ridiculous. Cade was the last guy I would ever look at that way.
With his friends gone, Cade returned to work, walking around the tables and cleaning them off. I watched him as he gathered up the garbage and shoved it into a trash can.
For some reason, I didn’t stand up and leave. There was something different about him when he was away from his friends. His cocky persona was down. And that intrigued me.
“Why are you staring at me, CM?” he asked.
That one little nickname snapped me from my trance. I grabbed the hotdog remains and my purse and stood. “This was a mistake,” I said, throwing the garbage into the can and walking toward my van.
A hand surrounded my arm and stopped me. I turned to see Cade had weaved his way through the tables and caught up to me. He was smiling like stopping me was the funniest thing ever.
I pulled my arm up, breaking his contact. I hated how my skin burned from the absence of his touch. That was ridiculous. I hated Cade Kelley.
“So you want me to believe that you came all the way to my side of town for a stale hotdog?” he asked, folding his arms and leaning against a nearby picnic table.
The rational part of my brain told me to keep walking, get into my van, and never look back. But he looked so relaxed and—as the irrational part of my brain would say—good looking.
His dark hair fell across his forehead, and a dimple emerged every time his lips tipped up into a half smile. It was like one of those bug zappers. I knew I shouldn’t look at it, but I couldn’t help it—it was drawing me in.
Suddenly remembering that he had asked me a question, I racked my brain for what it had been. But I kept coming up blank. So I straightened my purse on my shoulder and mustered a confident look.
“I’m sorry, what did you ask me?”
He quirked an eyebrow, and, for a moment, I thought he’d noticed me staring, but he didn’t say anything about it. Instead, he said, “You were telling me why you came all the way to my side of town.”
Right. The reason I was here. “I just…” I contemplated what I was supposed to say next. I wanted to ask his intentions with me, but then that sounded dumb. Like it was the 1800’s and he was trying to date me or something.
Heat radiated my cheeks when I realized that I still hadn’t answered him. What was the matter with me? I was president of the debate club last year, and yet I couldn’t form a sentence for the life of me.
“Are you setting me up?” The words tumbled out. Perhaps, it had been the pressure of trying to come up with something to say to him.
He laughed. “What? With who?”
And then I realized how that question came across. “I didn’t mean, are you setting me up with a guy, I meant, are you setting me up to make me look bad?”
His laughter died down as he studied me. Then he stood, grabbed the rag from behind him, and made his way over to the next table.
Why hadn’t he answered me? Instead of finding his retreat as my opportunity to leave, I followed after him. There was a part of me that needed to know. Would he really stoop that low and set me up?
“Well?” I asked.
He glanced over his shoulder as he aggressively scrubbed at some congealed ice cream. “Seriously? You have to ask me that?”
There was a look in his eye that told me I’d hurt him. But why would Cade be upset that I thought he’d planned an elaborate prank just to make fun of me. Tiffanii was like that, and, from how close they were earlier, how was I supposed to believe that he was different?
“Really? Cade, you have to be joking.” I glanced down at him as he scrubbed. “You’ve had it out for me since junior high. Apparently, I’ve done something to upset you, and you can’t forgive me.” I folded my arms. How had I become the bad person in this situation? He was the one who had relentlessly picked on me for years. I hadn’t done anything to deserve it.
He straightened, which brought him inches from me. His gaze met mine as he leaned down. “I was a kid, Pen,” he said.
My heart pounded in my chest as he studied me. Since when did he smell so good? It was filling my lungs and making me all loopy. He held my gaze for a second longer before he stepped away and started wiping down another table.
Thankful for the distance between us, I let out my breath. What the heck had that been? Since when did I notice what a guy smelled like? Or the fact that they had gold flecks in their eyes? Something was seriously wrong with me.
Pushing aside all my weird reactions, I bolstered my confidence and approached him again. “What does that mean?” I asked.
He glanced up at me. “It means I was a kid. Geez, didn’t you do stupid things in junior high?” He walked over to the soapy water bucket that was sitting on the windowsill and dipped his rag into it.
There were a lot of dumb things that I did in junior high, but that wasn’t what we were talking about. “Yeah, well, I didn’t relentlessly torment another person.” I folded my arms, hoping that it made me seem more intimidating. But as the words left my lips, I wanted to pull them back. They came across as more accusatory than I wanted them to.
Cade widened his eyes. “Wow. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that I’d hurt you that bad.” He made his way over to another table.
Okay, so maybe he hadn’t tortured me as much as I was making it out to be. Sure, he’d called me chocolate milk and got the whole soccer team to do it. But that was all.
I sank onto the bench and sighed. Why was I letting the past get me all worked up? Why was I letting Cade bother me? I was a success despite what he’d done to me.
“It’s okay. I’m sorry for freaking out on you.” I pushed a few grains of salt around on the table in front of me.
He glanced back at me with a smile on his lips. “Whoa. The great Penelope Hammond is apologizing to me?” He raised his hands to the sky and tipped his head back. “It’s a miracle.”
I bit my lip, trying to fight back the retort that lingered on the tip of my tongue. When he straightened, he eyed me as if he expected me to respond. When I didn’t, he nodded and returned to the tabletop.
I brought my knees up onto the bench next to me. “So, when did you start dating Tiffanii?”
When Cade didn’t respond, I glanced over at him. He was wiping the table in circles and seemed as if he were studying it a bit too hard. Was it wrong to ask? They’d just made out like Cade was going off to war. It was pretty obvious that if they weren’t an item, they were close.
“Tiffanii has made up things in her mind that might not be real,” he said, sitting down on the bench and pushing his hand through his hair.
I studied him. That was strange. “She certainly kisses you like she knows what you two are doing.”
He brought his gaze up to meet mine. “Why do you care?”
Heat raced up my spine and into my cheeks. I was glad i
t was too dark for him to notice. I wasn’t sure what it meant, and I certainly didn’t want Cade trying to interpret it. He seemed like he wasn’t going to torment me, but I still wasn’t sure about him. I needed to keep my distance.
“I don’t,” I scoffed.
He narrowed his eyes and then sighed. “Tiffanii and I had a fling a few months ago. It didn’t last long, and I broke it off. Apparently, she still wants something.” He shrugged and stood.
“Wow.” What was I supposed to say to that? I really wanted to say the age-old birds of a feather adage. But he was opening up to me, and joking about it felt wrong. So I just pinched my lips shut, hoping that nothing stupid would come out.
“So, you drove all the way down here to delve into my ex-girlfriends?” He peered up at me through his dark hair that had fallen in front of his eyes.
I cleared my throat in an attempt to push out the thought of how good he looked. That was not how I was supposed to see Cade. He was the ridiculous, mean boy from junior high.
I shook my head. “I guess I just wanted to know if you were trying to set me up to fail, or if you really wanted to do whatever this judge wants you to do.”
His expression turned hard and his jaw flexed. Had I said the wrong thing? I just held his gaze until his face relaxed and his normal cocky smile returned.
“Well, you’re just going to have to trust me,” he said as he turned and walked over to the window. He dropped his rag into the bucket and then pulled the whole thing off the shelf. He carried it over to the door on the side of the building. “We’ll see you tomorrow, Chocolate Milk,” he said as he disappeared inside. The slamming of the door marked his departure.
I stood in the middle of the eating area, alone. I took a deep breath and headed to the van. Once inside, I stared at the steering wheel. What had just happened?
Chapter Four
The evening’s events played through my mind as I pulled out of the diner’s parking lot. I tried to digest just what had happened, but I couldn’t quite figure Cade out. I’d always thought he was some stuck-up kid with a bad attitude. But there had been moments when we were talking that had proved that conclusion false.
Rule #2: You Can't Crush on Your Sworn Enemy (The Rules of Love) Page 2