by C. J. Lake
“Besides…we agreed to forget that night.”
“Actually, I never agreed to that,” Mick reminded her. Her brow pinched in response. When she tipped her head to the side, he could tell she was about to get all huffy, so Mick smiled and relented. “But okay—I will. All right? If that's how you want it.”
At that, Cady puffed out a cute little sigh. “Thank you.”
“Sure.” Cautiously, Mick took a step toward her. “We never kissed—the whole thing never happened.”
“Right.”
“I never came home with you,” he promised, edging closer.
“Yes,” she said a little breathlessly, her cheeks becoming flushed, “it’s…the way it has to be.”
“Right, I agree,” Mick murmured, eyeing her ripe mouth with longing. “I’m deleting the whole thing from my mind. Especially the part about touching you.”
“T-thank you,” Cady whispered, not backing away.
“And seeing you in those lacy white panties,” he uttered roughly, getting very aroused by the memory.
Cady blushed harder. “Mick!” she nearly yelped, her voice soft and urgent. Alarmed, she glanced over her shoulder to see if they were still alone in the hallway. “Shh,” she implored.
“No one’s out here.”
“Still…we shouldn’t even be talking about this. It’s totally counterproductive.”
“Relax. I'm sorry, okay? I'm just teasing you.”
“Well, don't.”
“All right, I won’t.”
“Good.”
“And, don’t worry, I’m not going to kiss you,” he said, eyeing her lips again. “Unless you want me to.”
At that, Cady sputtered, “Have you not heard a word I've said?”
“Yeah, I heard you. But you keep looking at my mouth.”
She got flustered now, but didn't exactly deny it. “Well...I...” she stammered, her cheeks getting pinker, “I...so now you’re looking at mine, too.”
Hell, yeah, he was looking at her mouth. Was she just noticing that? It went way beyond kissing. It was impossible to look at that mouth and not recall Cady going down on him.
Mick stayed silent, and neither spoke for a long moment. The air between them felt charged, electric. The blatant awareness was palpable; he was pretty sure that Cady was recalling that night, too, maybe even thinking about the blow-job.
The thought made Mick's blood hot and his pulse pound hard. His cock reacted, wanting her, practically aching for her now.
Still, he resisted the urge to touch her. To reach for her, put his hand on her waist or run his fingers lightly over her cheek. It might not go his way. She would either be into it or call him a liar again.
Finally, Cady sighed, dropping her gaze off toward the side. “Look, even if our parents weren't dating,” she began, “I...”
“What?” he prodded.
“I'm just not looking to start a relationship right now.” The way her voice wavered a bit made Mick unsure if she really meant it. But he hoped that she did.
“That's perfect,” he told her, curving his mouth into a grin. “Neither am I.”
“Oh.”
As she said that one simple word, her shoulders slumped for a second and her forehead pinched, compelling Mick to explain: “I'm doing a study-abroad program next year. I'm going to Italy.”
“Italy?”
“Yep. I leave in July.”
“Oh,” she said again, hesitating as something flickered in her eyes. Mick couldn't tell if it was just surprise or...disappointment?
Nah, that seemed like a stretch. After all, he was the one pursuing her. She, on the other hand, seemed content to let this thing with them fade away. And if he was smart, he would, too, but what the hell? When he'd seen her tonight...
Well, something wouldn't let him leave it. Sure he was going away in July—and would be gone until next February—so it would make zero sense to start a real relationship with anyone right now. Yet, Mick couldn't deny his intense attraction to Cady, and when he'd crossed paths with her tonight, he just had to take another shot.
“Why Italy?” she asked now, her blue eyes finding him again.
“I took Italian for my foreign language requirement,” Mick said. “So, when I saw that one of the study-abroad programs was based in Naples, I enrolled in that one.”
“I see,” she mumbled.
“Even though my group will be based in Italy, we're supposed to do a lot of traveling all over Europe while we're there,” Mick mentioned.
“Sure, I know how it works,” Cady piped in, nodding. “A friend of mine studied abroad last year; she did one of the Dublin programs.”
For some reason, she still had that slightly troubled look. Mick couldn't get a read on her.
“So you see, it's perfect,” he pointed out. “You don't want a big complicated relationship right now and neither do I.”
“Right...exactly,” she agreed. Then she put a little more verve into her voice. “A relationship would definitely be out of the question.” When she tilted her chin up at him, she appeared stubborn, almost defiant...so fucking kissable.
“Then tell me. What's the harm in us having some fun together?” he asked, trying to keep his hunger for her in check. “Our parents don't have to know anything.”
“But—”
“It's not like this thing with them is going to last anyway.”
The sudden buzzing of Cady's phone interrupted them. Startled, Cady appeared momentarily flustered as she tried to remember where her phone was.
Breaking eye contact with Mick, she took a breath and dug her cell out of her back pocket. As soon as she read the screen, she gasped. Slapping a hand over her mouth, Cady yelped, “Oh, God!”
“What's wrong?” Mick asked.
“Nooo,” she groaned, shaking her head. Shutting her eyes, she muttered, “How could this happen?”
“Cady, you're scaring me,” Mick said softly with concern. “What is it?”
Sourly, she replied. “It's just a text from my brother.”
“What's wrong?”
“Only everything,” Cady told him and showed him the screen, which read:
FYI: DAD'S ENGAGED.
Chapter Sixteen
Cady spent the following week coming to terms with her father's engagement.
She hadn't seen Mick since the night of the Halloween party, when, after receiving the news about their parents, Cady had mustered a hasty goodbye. While hurrying toward the elevator, she'd texted Torie to meet her outside, then pretty much fled the situation (though it was hard to flee reality).
Still, she'd figured that Mick also needed to process the disturbing development. Really, what could either of them say? “Oh, isn't that funny how we were wrong and our parents are actually serious about making us a 'family'?”
Yeah, no thanks.
The fact that she hadn't heard from Mick in a week indicated that he was probably as weirded out as Cady was about the prospect of becoming “stepbrother” and “stepsister.” Either that, or it proved that he was a player—that he had lost interest in pursuing Cady and had moved on to other options. (Surely, sultry Snow White would be an easier conquest.) Either way, the radio-silence between them that had followed their parents' engagement announcement was surely for the best.
Now Cady sat in her Aunt Helen's immaculate, perfectly organized kitchen with her twelve-year-old cousin, Jordan. His latest history paper sat face-up on the table, taunting him with a boldly written B-minus. Jordan typically did well in school and always aced math, but his history teacher this year seemed hard to please. Unfortunately for Jordan, a B-minus was no more acceptable to Aunt Helen than it had been to Helen's older sister, Hortense, when Cady was growing up.
Now Cady said, “All right, I read your paper and I see what the problem is.”
“Is it that my teacher is quite unreasonable?” Jordan speculated.
Cady smirked. “No, that's not it.”
“Or that my teacher has frustrated ambitions of
being a college professor and is taking it out on me?”
That earned him a short laugh as Cady replied, “No—but let's use that kind of critical thinking with your next paper.”
Giving her a wry grin, he muttered “Touché,” as he straightened his glasses. Cady had to smile, and not just at the precociousness of a twelve-year-old saying “touché.” It was because she genuinely adored her cousin. Cady used to baby-sit Jordan when she was only a few years older than he was now, and that made her feel like they had a special bond.
Jordan was the sweetest kid, and Cady's heart ached for him sometimes, because his father had died when he was five and he was an only child. He never complained about it, but still, Cady wondered if Jordan was ever lonely in this house—if he still yearned for his dad or even a big brother.
Jordan had always been a numbers guy, even as a very little boy. Probably why his mathematical mind wasn't mustering much enthusiasm for history. But if her cousin wanted an 'A' then Cady was determined to help him get it.
Lifting up his paper, she began, “The problem with what you have here is that it is just a recitation of facts.”
“Right,” Jordan agreed, nodding. Obviously he didn't immediately grasp the problem with that.
So Cady elaborated, “You've basically strung together bullet-points, with connecting words and sentences.”
Still nodding, Jordan became a bit more animated. “I know—and yet somehow I got a B-minus! That's what I was trying to tell you, Cady. It’s bizarre.”
“Jordy, for a paper to be compelling, you need to make some sort of an argument.”
Bewildered, he shook his head, straightened his glasses again. “That seems unnecessary,” he argued. “Considering that these facts are literally ancient history,” he added, holding up his text book to showcase the words Ancient History, emblazoned across the front. “Why argue about it now?”
A bit impatiently, Cady challenged him, “Do you want an A or not?”
“Yes, of course.”
“So take my advice then.”
“Fiiine,” Jordan said begrudgingly. “But the idea that I'm expected to do more work than the text book writer is sort of off-putting.”
Half-grinning, Cady replied, “Duly noted. Now let's look at your book.”
“All right.” Flipping open his text book, Jordan said, “Thanks again for helping me.”
“No problem,” Cady assured him. “By the way, how's everything else going? Anything new?”
“Not much, really,” he said. “Oh, except I am thinking of trying out for the basketball team.”
Surprised, she said, “Really? I didn't know you liked sports.”
“I don't really, per se...but there's a girl I kind of like. She plays basketball—you know, for the girls' team. So, I just thought...you know, maybe this would give us something to talk about.”
That caught Cady off-guard, even though it shouldn't. She supposed she still thought of Jordan as a little boy, he was frozen in her heart that way, so it was strange to think of him being interested in girls. “Wow, basketball? That's great, Jordy. What did your mom say?” Cady asked, genuinely unsure what Aunt Helen, a studious mathematician, would think about an athletic “extracurricular.”
Jordan quirked a grin. “Actually she was happy about it. Apparently, according to her, I spend too much time playing video games and this will help.” Then he shrugged one of his slim shoulders. “Not much else is new. Oh, except—speaking of video games—Math Portal IV finally came out. It took me forever yesterday, but I finally passed the fifth level. I was only supposed to play for half an hour, but Mom wasn't paying attention because she was talking about—oh.”
When Jordan stopped so abruptly, Cady raised her eyebrows curiously. “What?” she said.
“Um...” Suddenly his freckled cheeks darkened a bit. Avoiding eye contact, he hesitated. “Nothing, never mind.”
“Um, okay... Are you sure?” she pressed gently. “You can tell me, it's okay—only if you want to, I mean.”
“Well...” Jordan began, toying with his lopsided glasses. “Is it true that your dad's getting married again?”
Oh. Cady's spirits sank a bit just thinking about Brandall's and Linda's engagement.
Finally, she answered, “Yes, technically I guess you could say that. Supposedly. To be honest, I'm still not convinced it will happen, because it's ridiculous.”
Maybe she shouldn't have said all that, but her true feelings had just sort of spilled out. Jordan gave a crooked grin. “So, basically, Uncle Brandall has lost his mind, but you're hoping he'll locate it again soon?”
Half-grinning, Cady admitted, “I guess. Wait—why do you say that my dad lost his mind?” she asked, realizing it was a peculiar way for Jordan to interpret her response.
“Oh...just something I heard.”
“What do you mean? Is that what Aunt Helen said?”
“Yes, something along those lines. Like I said, I was busy playing Math Portal so I didn't catch all of it. But I remember my mom saying that Uncle Brandall was, you know, acting recklessly, making a jerk of himself and had lost all his sense. Something about how 'there's no fool like an old fool.'”
Sourly, Cady kept her disapproval to herself. But honestly! Couldn't her aunt be a little more discreet? There was no reason for her son to hear all that trash-talk about his uncle. “Who was she saying all this to?”
“Your mom. Over Skype.”
It surprised Cady for a second that her mom already knew about the engagement—but then she realized that of course she knew. Rex had probably speed-dialed her immediately, the minute the news broke. Unless…
Could their dad have been the one to tell her? Cady wondered. Had Brandall reached out to Hortense and told her himself, hoping to get a reaction? Did he still care what she thought? Did he secretly want her to be jealous...?
Or maybe Cady was the only one foolishly hoping right now. Because, deep down, there was a stubborn, if selectively forgetful, part of her still convinced that her parents belonged together.
Chapter Seventeen
“So, you know how you get all stressed, because you don't have an exact plan for after we graduate?” Torie said, as she rolled a thick lock of Ember's blonde hair into her curling iron.
“An exact plan?” Cady echoed. “I have no plan.”
At that, Ember eagerly looked up from her phone, meeting Cady's eyes in the mirror. “Hey, I have no plan, either. We can do it together!”
Cady, who was sitting behind them, cross-legged on Torie's bed, gave a sardonic laugh and said, “Do what together? Be confused and unemployed?”
“Yes,” Ember readily admitted, “for a little while. Cady—it's normal,” she pointed out.
“Of course it is,” Torie agreed, reaching for something amid the clutter on her desk, which was doubling as a vanity at the moment. From here, the scatter of nail polish bottles and cheerful hair clips looked like colorful rubble after a mild disaster. What Torie unearthed was a giant, hefty-looking bobby-pin. “Here, this should hold,” she mumbled, fastening it to Ember's hair.
“Yeah, I should hope so,” Ember laughed, obviously noticing the industrial-strength of the thing, too. Not that Cady or Ember would think to question Torie's tools; the girl was kind of an expert when it came to hair.
“The thing is,” Torie continued, talking to Cady through the mirror as she continued working her magic with the curling iron, “it's totally normal. No one leaves her graduation ceremony and goes directly to her perfect new office job and neatly carved-out future. It just doesn't happen. But, that said, I know you. And you over-think everything, and you worry too much.”
“Gee, great pep talk...”
“Shut-up, I'm not done,” Torie said, grinning. “I just think if we could come up with some plan for you for after graduation, then you could finally just relax about it and enjoy your senior year.”
“I would love that,” Cady admitted with a sigh. “But I'm still drawing a blank—besi
des the obvious options.”
“What about working at Graywolf with me?” Torie suggested, and not for the first time. Torie had a cousin who worked downtown at Graywolf Investment Bank, and had promised to hook Torie up with an entry-level job next year. “It wouldn't be forever, just something to pay the bills while you figure out what you really want to do.”
“I don't know,” Cady said (honestly, she did know, but she didn't want to put down Torie's plan). The truth was, before Cady took a random desk job doing data entry, she would opt for graduate school, spending the next two to three years earning a master's degree in English—even though she would need to take out loans to cover it, and even though, in a way, it was as much of a stall tactic as Torie's plan to work at Graywolf.
“I'm moving home for a little while after we graduate,” Ember volunteered. “What about you guys?”
“Definitely not,” Torie stated firmly. Though Torie's expression was neutral, Cady knew that there wasn't much of a “home” for her friend to return to, given the chaotic lifestyles of her parents. Torie's mom was an actress and her dad was a travel writer. They'd been divorced since Torie was in high school and though she kept in regular contact with both, it often sounded like Torie was the most sensible of the three.
Cady noticed that both Torie and Ember were looking at her in the mirror. “Well, I had been thinking of maybe going home, too,” Cady told them. “Just temporarily. But I suppose that's out.”
“How come?” Ember asked.
With a resigned shrug, Cady said, “Come on, if I'm going to have a new stepmother—well, I'm sure I'd be in the way.”
A beat of quiet passed, before Ember suggested, “Maybe you could go join your mom on one of her digs.”
“Oh, my gosh, great idea!” Torie agreed. “Cady, what about that?”
“Well...”
“Yeah,” Ember continued merrily, “you could look for the Sphinx’s nose or something.”
Cady cracked up at that. “Yeah, not sure if I'll be put in charge of that on my first day.”
“Hey, wait. Since your mom's an archaeologist, could she hook you up with a job at a museum?” Torie suggested. “She must have some connections.”