Chapter 24
[Cadence]
“Ford?” I stare at him across Stone Sylver’s backyard.
“Cadence?” Ford takes a step toward me and then stops.
In the movie Grease, Sandy and Danny reunite for the first time after a summer fling at the high school bonfire, and for about thirty seconds, they are both excited and relieved to see one another again. Then Danny looks over his shoulder at his friends and his demeanor shifts.
This is Ford and me. Only, I’m the one looking behind me at my sister.
Sundays are family day at the Sylver’s home and on a beautiful June afternoon most of them are present for the weekly cookout.
Enya invited me as I’d arrived unannounced last night.
I needed somewhere to unwind, and Sterling Falls sang to me.
Kind of like a whisper of home when you don’t really have one.
I came to the one place people might think I’d gone, and then decide, I couldn’t possibly.
I’ve already explained to Enya that I don’t need to stay at her home.
She’s still in the honeymoon phase months out from her actual wedding, and she informed me last night, she’s pregnant with her second baby.
I’m so excited for both Enya and Sebastian.
Their amazing little family is growing. So, I don’t want to intrude on their happy bubble, but I did want to be closer to my sister.
She is the only person I consider my family.
Originally, the plan was to snag the apartment above Sebastian’s bakery in town.
I could be alone but still have the comfort of people below me in the busy business location.
Plus, the interior entrance was an extra safety precaution, and the exterior one had a triple lock.
I had no intention of imprisoning myself, but I needed a barricade between me and, well, everyone else.
Seeing Ford in Sterling Falls was not part of that plan.
“Sister,” I hiss, quirking a brow. “Did you forget to tell me something?”
“I didn’t realize this”—she nods toward Ford—“was something I had to disclose.”
My sister knows I flew to Chicago on a whim when I learned Ford was hurt.
Stone told her. She also knows I’d been in Arizona.
The media informed her. But reading me herself, she’d guessed I have a huge crush on her brother-in-law, which concerns her.
Her argument has two sides. She worries I can’t commit to someone, and that I’d get hurt again.
What my sister didn’t seem aware of was that beneath the songstress reputation was a woman desperate for a commitment like hers.
One full of love and loyalty; support and sensual energy.
I didn’t crave sex as much as I wanted companionship.
I’d avoided commitments in the past because I feared the pain falling in love could cause.
But in the last year, my need for more outweighed being afraid.
“I didn’t know you would be here,” Ford says, interrupting the stare down between my sister and me.
Swinging back in his direction, I bite my tongue before snarking that if I’d known he’d be here I wouldn’t have attended. This was his family.
“Who needs a drink?” Ford’s brother Clay cheerfully interjects, clearly not missing the tension between Ford and me. He claps his brother hard on the shoulder.
“Ow,” Ford snaps at his brother turning toward him. “Wrong shoulder.”
Suddenly, my shoulders fall but the heaviness of concern hits. Enya kept me informed about Ford’s surgery and recovery.
“Cadence!” Winnie yells and my focus shifts to the slam of the back door where Winnie is rushing toward me.
“Cadence?” Zelle’s voice squeaks as she follows her sister.
A stumbling June presses through the door, catching it before it slams back on her and then pushes it hard again as if the wooden frame offended her. Once free of the door, she calls out my name. “Cay-Day.”
That sense of home hits me so hard, tears well in my eyes, and I blink rapidly as I’m tackled around the thighs by Winnie and a hip hug is given by Zelle. When June finally toddles over to me, I’m a pile of Sylver girls. I can’t look at Ford.
Finally, he clears his throat and attempts to pull June from my arms. “Let’s give Cadence some space, yeah?”
I scoff. The last thing I want is space from these darlings, but I defer to their father as Winnie unwraps herself and Zelle steps back. I hand over June, whom Ford kisses on the cheek and sets back on the ground. He slips both hands into his back pocket, then winces and removes his left arm.
“How’s the arm?” I ask at the same time he says, “How have you been?”
Weakly, I smile as he bites his lower lip. “I hate small talk.”
“Me too.”
That short conversation says it all. We don’t need to do this. I’d made a mistake in going to see him. He set me straight on my error.
“Who wants a burger?” Stone calls out and a chorus of I dos follow.
“Any chance there’s a hot dog with my name on it?” I tease Stone.
“Whatever you’d like, sweetheart.”
Stone and I hit it off during Enya’s wedding.
The tough guy exterior is a front I recognize.
He also happens to be the only one who knows about my current situation.
I wasn’t stupid. Well, at least, not all the time, and my bodyguard service insisted I inform the local sheriff department in case anything new develops.
I didn’t trust an entire department, so I called Stone myself.
Risking a glance at Ford, I notice him glaring at his eldest brother. His jaw clenches, the edge of his cheeks becoming more pronounced. His eyebrow quirks upward just the slightest bit.
If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Ford thought something was going on between Stone and me, and Ford looks jealous. But that makes zero sense, and I swipe away the thought.
The next few minutes are a well-oiled machine of grilled meats served on a plate and a family digging into the bowls of chips and side dishes.
“When did you add the second picnic table?” Ford asks about the two bench-style tables butting up against each other, one looking newer than the other.
“When my family finally started trickling home.”
Ford stills with the mustard in his hand, holding onto a hot dog in a bun with the other.
He looks up at his brother who has already turned back to the grill.
Ford sighs with guilt, then he returns to the mustard and dog, while I take a seat next to Zelle, wrapping my arm around her and tugging her into my side for another hug.
“How’s my girl?” I whisper. “Learn to braid yet?”
She slowly shakes her head, picking up a potato chip. “Blake tried to teach me, but she didn’t do it like you.”
“Blake?” Something spikes my chest. Does Ford have a girlfriend? That certainly happened fast. I glance up to find him watching me.
“She was our au pair. Not a nanny,” Zelle emphasizes the distinction. “She lived with us.”
“Did she now?” I glance from Zelle to Ford who watches me.
The corner of his mouth curves and those blue eyes sparkle.
Instantly, I envision a bubbly, young girl sneaking into Ford’s bedroom at night to administer her own form of nanny-naughtiness to the hot single dad. Give him her personal touch? Was she careful of his shoulder?
I see red, not the blue of his eyes still focused on me.
“She quit us,” Zelle adds, suggesting something deeper than an employee leaving her employment.
Ford clears his throat. “We have Violet helping out this summer.” He reaches across the table and holds out the hot dog he’d been slathering with mustard to me.
I don’t really want a hot dog from Ford, but I won’t be petty. Taking it from his hands, I hold the sandwich like I’d been offered Aladdin’s golden lamp. The hot dog has my name on it, written in mustard.
I glance up at Ford but he’s already turning toward Stone, holding open a second bun for another hot dog fresh off the grill.
“Are you staying here for the summer?” Zelle asks me, sitting straighter and lifting a burger that looks bigger than her mouth.
“I am,” I announce a bit too cheerfully. I am excited about my visit but I’m also leery about my decision. I don’t want to do anything to harm those I love but I want to be closer to them. Enya. Adara. Even Sebastian.
“Where are you staying?” Ford asks, his inflection raising.
“I’d hoped to stay above the bakery. But somebody rented out the place.” I point two fingers at my eyes and then pivot them toward Sebastian. He simply shakes his head. Zelle chuckles beside me. “But I’ll find someplace else.”
“I told you, you could stay with us,” Enya whines from beside her husband who isn’t seated facing the table but with his side to it, his legs straddling his wife from his position on the bench.
The look he gives her tells me, while the invitation is earnest, he’d prefer their privacy and I don’t blame him.
I also don’t want to hear their love through the walls of their house.
“You could stay with us,” Zelle innocently states. “We have an extra bedroom.” She doesn’t even look at me while picking up another chip. Out of the mouths of babes.
“That’s not a bad idea,” Stone adds.
“That’s a terrible idea,” Ford protests immediately, glaring at his brother with that pinched eye look I’ve come to simultaneously adore and dislike on Ford.
Hurt and disappointment flicker inside me as Ford didn’t even take time to mull over the idea. He wasn’t even pretending to be happy I was in town.
Stone glances at me. I wouldn’t ever do anything to put Ford or the girls in danger, so I don’t know why he’d suggest such a thing. Still, his gaze locks on me, holding firm.
Ford’s eyes narrow, shifting his glare from his brother to me and back. His jaw ticks again.
I clear my throat, gaining Ford’s attention and zeroing in on him. “Of course, I’d never want to stay anywhere I’m not welcome.”
Ford flinches at my words. Those continually half-lidded eyes open wide for a second as if surprised by what I’ve said when he so adamantly dismissed the thought of me staying with him.
“You’re welcome at our place.” Enya affirms.