The Big Heat

by LaBrecque, Jennifer

  Sunny was his woman. And Sunny was definitely her own person. “That’s for damn sure.”

  “It’s different with her, isn’t it? Than all the others?”

  Sunny, and his relationship with her, was outside the realm of anything else he’d ever experienced. She was not only his lover, but they’d developed a friendship. He knew she loved him and he…cared for her.

  “Yeah. She’s a pain in my ass.” When he looked back on it, his life had been damn boring before her.

  “You might as well give it up, Cade.” Linc’s look was part sympathetic, part congratulatory. “Don’t you remember what a monumental pain Georgia was?”

  The CD changed tracks during the last of his declaration, leaving it echoing across the room. Georgia skewed Linc with a look. “You were saying, darling?”

  “Just reaffirming how much I adore you.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Georgia smiled and returned to the conversation.

  He and Linc spent a few minutes discussing how Sunny’s Mustang was coming along and a couple of FTAs. Gracie came into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. His sister was the last person in need of caffeine.

  “No shoptalk allowed. Hel-lo. It’s a party,” she said.

  “Tell that to Mark.” Cade nodded at his future brother-in-law outside. “That boy needs to grow some balls.”

  Martin had bullied Mark into going outside for a game of horseshoes. They were playing with the floodlight turned on. It was only thirty-something friggin’ degrees outside. And Martin was probably cheating to boot.

  “Mark likes Daddy,” she said. “That’s why he humors him. It is not a lack of cojones, caveman.”

  “I’m going to have to separate you and Sunny.” God, he’d known his sister and Sunny would be trouble together. And throw Georgia and Marlene into the mix, too. None of the men in this family would ever know a moment of peace.

  “She’s a keeper,” Gracie said.

  “Thank you for that insight,” he offered dryly.

  “Welcome.” Her smile was positively smug when she pranced out of the kitchen. Sarcasm was often wasted on his sister.

  Linc quirked an eyebrow. “Is she a keeper?”

  Sunny was one of a kind. They were compatible. She needed him to take care of her. They belonged together.

  “Yeah. She is.”

  And he knew just what he was getting her for Christmas.

  Chapter 15

  “Merry Christmas,” Sunny said, passing her gift to Cade very carefully since it was big and awkward. Wrapping it had been a challenge.

  An expectant hush settled around the table, his entire family quieting, which in and of itself was amazing. Wrapping paper littered the floor all around them. She and Cade, at his request, were the last to exchange gifts around the long table.

  He began to smile before he even had all of the paper off. “Sunny made this,” he told his family as he finished unwrapping it.

  He held up the wolf stained glass for everyone to see. There were lots of exclamations but it was Gracie, not surprisingly, who noticed first.

  “Oh, wow! How’d you do that?” she asked Sunny. “It’s a wolf, but it looks just like Cade.”

  “It’s the eyes,” Marlene said.

  “It’s the same way he tilts his head,” Georgia observed.

  Cade looked down at the big piece of stained glass he held in his hands and Sunny saw the light-bulb go off. “It’s me.”

  “It’s you,” she said. “The protector. The guardian.”

  “That’s perfect!” Gracie said.

  “How’d you do it so fast?” Linc asked with a frown. It would take another artist to realize how much time would be involved.

  “I started it a couple of months ago. After the billboards went up but I didn’t realize it was Cade until the night he bailed me out of jail.” She looked at him tenderly, uncaring that she was baring her soul in front of his entire family. “The wolf standing between me and the world.”

  “Thank you,” Cade said, bending to kiss her. Her heart turned over at his gentleness. He straightened and handed her a gift-wrapped box. “You said you wanted something expensive,” he reminded her with a grin.

  If it was anything of a sexual nature he’d just handed her to open in front of his family, he was one dead man. It was big but it wasn’t very heavy. She tore through the paper—she wasn’t one of those tedious, meticulous unwrappers—and very carefully opened the box, checking out the contents before she shared it with everyone. It was…another box. She opened two more boxes until she got to the final box.

  Sunny’s mouth went dry. It was a jewelry box. She could deal with some nice earrings. She opened the hinged lid…except it wasn’t earrings. A diamond ring sparkled against black satin.

  Sunny’s mind went blank. Blood rushed to her head.

  “Marry me, Sunny,” Cade said. “I’ve been waiting all my life for you.” His tawny eyes were sincere but they held his ever-present wariness.

  “Holy hell,” Gracie blurted. Linc kicked her under the table.

  The table erupted.

  “’Bout damn time.”

  “Woohoo!”

  “I told you she was a keeper.”

  “I knew from the beginning.”

  The ring was beautiful. He’d just proposed in front of the people that mattered most to him. But something didn’t feel right.

  “Why do you want to marry me?” she asked quietly but the whole table stopped talking abruptly as if she’d shouted it at him.

  Cade gave her a what’re-you-talking-about look. “It’s not just because the sex is great.”

  Across the table from her, Georgia made a choking noise.

  “It is great sex,” Sunny acknowledged to Georgia. “I don’t imagine your man’s a slacker in that department, either. I think it’s probably a family trait.” Linc and Martin smirked. Cade scowled. She addressed herself to him. “But no, great sex is no reason to get married.”

  “I just said that.”

  “I was agreeing.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m sure we’ll have our ups and downs, but I think we’ll be happy together. We’re compatible.”

  Compatible? He was grinding her heart beneath his heel. “Do you love me?”

  “Dammit, Sunny, you know I’m not good at pretty speeches. You’re smart, strong, beautiful. I care about you.”

  They’d iron this out right now. If she didn’t take a stand, she’d be lost forever. “I’m not asking for a pretty speech. I’m asking for a simple yes or no answer. Do you love me?”

  He scowled at her. “Nothing has ever been simple with you. Neither is this. It’s complicated.”

  She clutched the ring box in her hand. It was as complicated and as simple as what was in her heart. “I love you. I think I was in love with you before I ever met you and since then I’ve grown to love you more. We can argue and then kiss and make up. We can work through problems. That’s what couples do. That’s what mates do. But none of it will work if you can’t tell me you love me.” She took a deep breath and stared him down, challenged him. “Do you love me, Cade Stone?”

  Everyone held their breath. Even the house seemed to be waiting on his answer.

  He gave her that hard, implacable stare she knew so well. The same unyielding expression he wore on the billboard. “No.”

  One syllable. Pain seared her, sliced her heart to ribbons.

  “That was the wrong answer,” Martin drawled.

  “Oh, shit.”

  “Holy hell.”

  Sunny rubbed her thumb against her hummingbird ring and a calm flowed through her. “I can’t heal you. You’re the only one that can do that. And until you can tell me you love me, this doesn’t mean anything.” She placed the ring box on the table, laid her napkin beside her plate, and stood. “Until then, we don’t have anything else to say to one another.”

  * * *

  Cade wanted to howl as the door closed behind Sunny and s
he walked to her car, got in and drove away. What the hell was wrong with her? Why did she demand the one thing he couldn’t give when he’d offered her everything else? His family sat frozen like statues.

  “That was the most asinine thing I’ve ever seen you do, son,” Martin drawled into the heavy silence.

  “What did you just say?”

  Martin stood and pushed his sleeves up. “I said I’m about to knock some sense into you. You’ve wanted this for a long time, so let’s do it.”

  Martin was the one without any sense. Frustration boiled inside Cade. If Martin wanted a fight, he’d give him a fight. He shoved back from the table and pushed to his feet. “We’ll take this outside. It won’t be as far for you to get to your car afterward.”

  Cade stalked toward the back door and Martin mockingly bowed for Cade to go before him. Everyone rushed along behind them.

  Cade and Martin faced off beneath the bare branches of a sprawling oak.

  Gracie grabbed Linc’s arm. “Stop them! Cade’s going to kill Daddy.”

  “Don’t be too sure,” Linc said.

  What the hell? Cade turned and glared at Linc.

  Bam. Gracie screamed as the coppery taste of blood filled Cade’s mouth and his ears rang. Son of a bitch! Martin had hit him while he was looking the other way.

  Martin rubbed his knuckles and smirked. “I shoulda done that a long time ago.”

  Cade saw red. Instinctively he took a flying leap and knocked Martin to the ground, landing on top of him. He reared back to drive his fist into Martin’s face…and stopped. Martin just lay there, making no move to protect himself.

  “Go ahead,” his father said, “hit me. If it’ll make you feel better and it’ll end this thing between us, hit me. Knock the everlivin’ hell out of me if it’ll make you feel better.”

  “Don’t, Cade. Please,” Gracie sobbed.

  Martin didn’t look away, his gaze boring into Cade. “Don’t pay any attention to your sister. She doesn’t understand. But I do understand, so go ahead and hit me.”

  Cade…couldn’t. He rolled off of Martin and flopped onto his back in the winter-brown grass. “Get up,” he said. “I can’t hit you.”

  Martin sat up and waved his hand at everyone else. “Y’all go back in the house. The show’s over out here.”

  Cade stayed on his back, staring up at the sky, bleakness eating at his soul. “Now what in the hell’s your problem, boy? Anybody with a nugget of sense can see you’re wall-eyed in love with that gal. Why’d you do a stupid thing and tell her you didn’t love her? And in front of all of us? I’m not much for pretty speeches myself, but damn, even I know better than that.”

  “Love makes you weak.”

  “Where’d you ever get such a goddamn stupid notion?”

  “You.”

  “Me?”

  “I saw what happened when Mama died. I used to think you were damn near invincible and then…”

  “You think it was loving her that made me weak?” Martin rubbed his hand over his face as if his very soul was weary. “You got it all wrong. Loving her made me a stronger man. What you saw afterward, that was my weakness. That was me learning to find my own strength without Lucy. It took me a while. I’m not as strong a man as you are, Cade. Those first couple of weeks, all I wanted to do was die. Those were dark days when all I wanted was the numbness found at the bottom of a bottle. I’m not proud that I wasn’t there for you kids. Maybe you can’t ever forgive me for that. I still think you’d feel better if you’d just hit me. But you’ve got to figure out that it’s love that gives you your strength. It was your love for your brother and your sister that made you strong enough to do what you had to do. I’m not one of those touchy feely pansy-asses but I figured you kids always knew I loved you. That was the strength I found to put down the bottle. If I hadn’t loved you kids and known you kids loved me, hell, I’d have just gone ahead and died. Weakness is being afraid to face down what scares the shit of you. It’s a weak man or woman who turns away from love.”

  “Then what the hell was the whole four-week dating thing?”

  “I told you I was bad at this talking business. Love only makes you stronger if you give it back. There’s no strength in being a taker. There hadn’t been anything in me to give to another woman since your mama died. Until now. Me and Marlene…we’re gonna give it a go.”

  “Give it a go?”

  “Yeah. Give it a go—married. I’m ribs and a beer and she’s sushi with sake, which is some nasty stuff, let me tell you, son, but I love her and she seems to love me.”

  Martin stood and dusted off his britches. “Now get up and go make things right with your woman.” He held out his hand to help Cade up.

  Cade almost ignored it. Ten minutes ago he would’ve got to his feet on his own. He took his father’s hand and let him pull him to his feet.

  “We can talk anytime you want, son, but don’t make me kick your ass again.”

  * * *

  Cade stood alone beneath the tree. Suddenly all the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He looked over his shoulder. The wolf stood at the edge of the woods, watching him, seemingly waiting.

  “Okay,” he shouted, “I see you. I’m going now.”

  The wolf vanished behind a tree.

  He got it. He didn’t need to be hit over the head any longer. Obviously the wolf was trying to tell him something.

  He slammed in the back door. Everyone stared at him as if he was off his rocker. Yeah, if he saw someone standing in the yard yelling at the woods, he’d think there was a little mental instability, too. Hell, maybe he was losing his mind.

  “I’ll be back,” he said.

  He marched down the hall to his desk in the den and sat down in front of his computer. Within a few minutes he’d found a suitable Web site. Sunny first. The hummingbird was a creature of joy. It was a reminder to those it encountered to look at the past and not wish for “what was” but rather extract the sweetness from the past and grab today’s joy. To find the joy and sweetness of any situation, even if it meant delving deep beneath a bitter layer to find it. It fit her, like the pieces of an intricate puzzle falling into place.

  He scrolled down to the wolf. Protector, loyalty to family, and fiercely loyal to a mate. He knew all of that. The next bit, however, held the message intended for him: finding inner strength and power was only achieved by facing one’s deepest fear.

  He sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. She’d known. Sunny knew him better than he knew himself. She was right, she couldn’t do this for him. He would only be a whole man when he faced down his fear and allowed himself to love. And she deserved a whole man. In an instant of understanding, it all fell into place for him. What he had been too weak to grapple with on his own, he could now face for her, with her. Her love made him a stronger man, but only if he returned it. And he could only return it if he faced down his fear and gave her his heart.

  He stood and walked back down the hall to the kitchen, feeling more at peace with himself than he had in a long, long time.

  Conversation stopped when he walked in the room. “Come on, everyone. We’re going to take a ride.”

  * * *

  Sunny paced across her living room, fuming. She should’ve whacked him upside his thick head. She knew he loved her. But the big Neanderthal had to own it. What was wrong with him?

  She had a pretty good idea between his stupid four-week rule and what Gracie had divulged about their mother’s death. She loved him but she wasn’t going to be an enabler. What kind of woman would say yes to that proposal? The same woman who would agree to his stupid four-week rule, that’s who. And that wasn’t her.

  All the ire went out of her, leaving her spent. She needed a plan. What kind of plan did someone make so that someone else would admit they loved them? God, that even sounded convoluted in her own head. It was like trying to figure out how to make the horse drink once you led it to water.

  For about two seconds she considered acceptin
g his ring, getting engaged but stipulating no wedding until she had an “I love you.” Nope. Her gut response earlier had been right. She took a stand on this now or—

  Someone pounded on her door and she nearly jumped out of her skin. She looked out the front window. Cade. And Georgia, Linc, Martin, Marlene, Gracie and Mark all congregated on the sidewalk behind him. She wasn’t too sure whether they resembled a lynch mob or a support group.

  Heart pounding, she opened the door and stepped outside. He stood on the third step down, putting them on eye level. “Yes?” Then she noticed the split in his lower lip and his swollen jaw. “What in the world happened to you?”

  “He and Daddy got in a fight. Daddy hit him,” Gracie piped up.

  Oh, my God. They’d fought on Christmas Day. She almost reached out to touch him but caught herself. She pinned her arms to her side and hardened her heart. “I told you I didn’t have anything else to say to you.”

  He shook his head. “That’s not true. You said you didn’t have anything else to say to me until I could tell you I love you. Okay. I do.”

  She wasn’t sure if she understood what she thought he was saying. “You do what?”

  “I do love you.” He leaned back and yelled for the neighborhood at large, “I love Sunny Templeton.”

  His family cheered behind him. The neighbors to her right gave them all a suspicious look as they walked a visitor to their car.

  She wanted to believe him, wanted to trust him, but…

  He must have read her doubt because he continued. “I looked up the wolf. I got the message. I’ll protect you, I’ll walk with you but mostly I’ll love you until I draw my last dying breath and then beyond that.” No wariness shadowed his eyes.

  Sunny felt as if she might burst with joy. She found herself at a loss for words. Instead, she trailed her finger over his swollen jaw.

  Even with his jaw hurting and an audience behind them, desire flared in his eyes. “I think we should take this inside. You know I’m much better at showing than telling.” He picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.

  “We’re taking this private,” he yelled over her to his family.