Chapter 26
26
Cade
H ands stuffed in my pockets, I walk toward my friends. As I get closer, a form with familiar black hair throws her arms around Briar and Lex. I stumble to a stop, peering at them.
It’s her…
Charley talks animatedly, her hands gesturing, and then Briar looks past her, right at me, before smiling.
Charley spins, her hair billowing out around her. The disbelief on her face morphs into a smile. I stay rooted where I am, heart pounding in my chest.
She’s here. In Spring Hill.
Hope springs in my chest. She wouldn’t come all this way just to yell at me again, would she? My feet are so heavy with questions that I can’t move, all I can do is watch her jog toward me.
When she finally gets to me, she tucks her hair behind her ear with shaking fingers. “Cade, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. I got caught up in my head about all these terrible things people could be saying about me and my dad when I should’ve been thanking you for what you pulled off. I can’t imagine the work you did and the way you had everyone come together…”
She drifts off, staring at the ground. Relief floods me. She gets it now.
“No one has ever done something like that for me before,” she says tentatively. “I’m used to doing things myself. For my whole life, Cade, it’s basically been me. I didn’t know how to react.” Her hands tremble as she wrings them in front of her before looking me square in the eye. “I’m really sorry. Did I say that? Because I am. I should never have acted like that.”
“You said that,” I assure her.
She gives me a small smile, shifting from foot to foot. “I said some terrible things, and I didn’t mean them. You were trying to tell me and show me how much you cared, and I was… Well, I was a complete bitch. I’m sorry.”
I reach my hand out to her, and she puts her fingers in it. A jolt runs through my body. Nothing feels more right than her next to me. “I know you haven’t had it easy. I didn’t mean to be a?—”
“You don’t need to apologize for anything.” She peers up into the sky, biting her lip. Tears cling to her lashes. “What I’m trying to tell you and being so bad at it is that I’m not perfect. I’ll probably mess up again in the future. I don’t know how to act around people, and I certainly don’t know how to accept love in the way you’re willing to give it to me. But I want to try.” Her lip wobbles. “When you told me you loved me…I… I love you, Cade Farmer. There’s no one else I’d rather try being a normal, functioning person with.”
I break out into a grin. “Say it again.”
“I’ll try?—”
“No, Sunshine. The other part. Those three little words I’ve been dreaming about you saying to me.”
She peers into my eyes. “I love you.”
I tug on her arm, and she steps into my embrace. Leaning down, I press my lips to hers, savoring the moment, like I can tattoo those words onto her lips and will her to say them whenever I want. The world rights, like a puzzle piece clicking into place. Charley Heywood is my person. My world. Just like Reid and Briar, West and Kenna, and Aidan and Bails, I finally get to experience what I’ve witnessed my friends go through…and it’s so much better than I ever imagined.
Behind Charley, Briar and Lex whoop along with my other friends, their cheers a symphony to the beat of my heart syncing with hers.
I run my fingers up the nape of her neck, tangling with her locks and deepening the kiss until she pulls away, whispering, “My grandma’s here.”
My gaze darts up to find an elderly lady walking toward my friends.
“She’s really hungry,” Charley says, stare roaming over my face. “I ruined her Thanksgiving.”
“Well, we can’t have that, can we?”
I pin Charley to my side, and we approach my friends. Lex nods at me with a smile while Briar gives me two thumbs up. Charley’s grandma looks me up and down with a discerning glance. “So you’re the boy who’s changed my granddaughter’s life?”
I take her words to heart because it’s not only hers that’s different. She’s improved mine in ways I couldn’t have imagined.
“Expecting someone taller?”
Her grandma smiles. “Actually, I think you’re just perfect.”
I let Charley go to give her grandmother a hug, and for as short as she is, she gives a hug like no one’s business. “You did a really great thing for her,” she whispers in my ear. “I’ll never forget it.”
I pull away. “I hear you’re hungry. The Farmer household always has plenty of leftovers. Can I take you two there?”
“Oh, thank goodness. I told Charley we would make new Thanksgiving memories, but I really wanted turkey.”
I take Charley’s grandmother by the hand and lead her across the street. Behind me, Briar talks Charley’s ear off. I only hear portions of the conversation, but Briar is gushing and saying how she can’t wait for Reid to meet her.
“You know, she didn’t mean to yell at you,” her grandma says, keeping her voice low. “She doesn’t know how to rely on people, and I think that’s one of the saddest things about this whole thing. Don’t worry, I told her she was wrong. I think the more she realizes that she’s worthy of being loved, and you showing her what that actually is, you two will be great together. I should actually thank you, too.”
“Me?”
“For making her smile.”
“It’s a beautiful smile,” I tell her as I lead her up the walkway.
She squeezes my hand again. “She looks like her mother.”
Goodness. I already know I’m going to like this woman. Like Charley, there’s a sadness in her eyes, and who can blame her? Now that she has Charley, I hope it fades like a distant memory.
I open the front door, pushing it wide. “Two more for dinner, Nan! I want you to meet my girlfriend and her grandmother.”
Briar pushes Charley forward, and I wrap my arm around her shoulders so I’m standing with our two visitors while my whole family gets up and introduces themselves. Soon, our grandmothers are conspiring in the kitchen while they dish out leftovers. I take a few extra myself while Lex sits in the living room to watch the football game. Briar hangs around the table, sneaking tastes of the dishes here and there until Reid video calls her.
I say hi briefly before she skips outside to talk in private, then park myself next to Charley while she sits with a full plate in front of her. “I don’t remember the last time I had a proper Thanksgiving meal,” she admits.
“Don’t worry, we’ll fix that.” I tuck a strand of hair around her ear. “We’ll stock your brain up with so many new memories that you won’t be able to remember the ones when you were alone.”
“Aww,” her grandmother sighs.
Nan lifts her coffee cup to her lips, looking smug. “That’s my grandson.”
Charley chuckles, holding her hand over her mouth while she swallows some of the food. “I think they’re going to be our biggest supporters.”
I interlock our hands under the table, my heart full. Seeing her close to her grandmother, talking with my father, and playing with my little cousins, the day couldn’t get any better. Something in my soul clicks into place when she peers up at me, face flushed.
I can see us doing this for many years to come. Like we might’ve started our very own tradition.
Later, I sit her down next to me when Reid’s game comes on. Lex sits in the big chair and Briar’s next to Charley. We tell stories about when we were kids. Brady’s name pops up over and over again, and I can’t help but think maybe he had something to do with this.
I look over at Briar when Reid completes a pass, and she’s wiping away tears. She meets my gaze. “Can you believe we get to do this? Watch Reid on TV…on Thanksgiving!”
She doesn’t have to say her next thought because it’s what Lex and I are already thinking. We wish Brady could be here to see this. Doubly so for me because I wish he’d met Charley.
Goosebumps spread across my arms and head, and I already know he’s here. Hi, buddy. I peer over at Charley. Isn’t she pretty?
It doesn’t matter that he can’t answer me because I already know what he would say. She has to be to make up for how ugly you are.
I snicker, and the four of us watch as Reid leads his team to a win.
“The perfect ending,” Briar muses, and I couldn’t agree more.