Chapter 25
[Ford]
Just like that I have a roommate.
Cadence was like an unpredicted blizzard during a spring game and every bit the lady boss I had expected.
She had the girls registered for summer art camp and found a softball team Zelle could join despite having missed a month of the local season.
She even had me on a workout regime, including physical therapy sessions with a person in Vale’s healthcare group and video calls with the team shrink.
Whether Cadence did all this with the help of her assistant or on her own, I have no idea.
I also don’t know why Cadence is in Sterling Falls.
I hadn’t missed the eye-conversation between Cadence and Stone, and while I’d assumed there might be an attraction between them, the thought disappeared when Stone didn’t invite Cadence to stay at the house.
There was plenty of space in the old place.
However, I’d been pushed far enough when Clay spoke up, offering his home. No one was getting to keep Cadence in their house except me.
I care about you.
Not a declaration of love, but enough to help me better understand where I stood with her.
She’d been right about the phone number.
I should have tried to call again. I could have asked Sebastian about Cadence, but Sebastian and I weren’t close like that.
Simply put, I hadn’t further investigated the issue.
The months I’d missed out on building a friendship with Cadence were my fault. And I wanted to be friends. Her quack when I intended to kiss her spoke volumes. Cadence didn’t need the complication of my life in hers and I shouldn’t want what I couldn’t have—her.
However, lines blurred every day she lived with me.
There were lingering looks between us, along with accidental and not-so-accidental touches.
The sexual tension coiling around us had my libido wanting to steal third base and round for home plate.
Most days, I was wound up, like waiting on the perfect pitch—afraid to swing too soon, anxious to let one rip.
But her presence was also a calming balm. The way she was with the girls. The casual ease she felt around us. Wide-legged pajama pants, appropriately covered in yellow ducks, never looked so adorable.
Laughter had never soothed my soul after a hard workout at PT like hers did.
Silence never felt so comfortable as when she sat on the opposite end of my couch each evening.
We circled one another each day, and I skirted the issue at hand. I wanted to be more than friends with her.
+ + +
Within days of living with me, Cadence seemed to understand me like no one else. She sensed I was restless, and it wasn’t just the building tension between us. Seven weeks had passed since my surgery, and I was anxious to be more mobile.
“Field trip, my Sylver ducklings,” she announces as she’s serving breakfast to the girls. She’d warned me she wasn’t much of a cook, but she could pour a mean bowl of cereal. I didn’t need her to cook for us. I just enjoyed her presence, probably more than I should.
“Field trip?” Zelle perks up from her seat as the four ladies surround the breakfast table.
“Field trip? Field trips only happen during school, and it’s summer,” Winnie groans, like school is torture when she’s only completed kindergarten.
“What field trip?” I ask, noticing a mug has been set out for me beside the coffee pot. Helping myself, I pour a cup.
“I want to see the legendary Sterling Falls.” Cadence smiles at the girls before glancing up at me.
I lean against the countertop and stare back at her over the rim of my mug. I scoff. “Legendary?”
Cadence wiggles her brows. “I’ve heard there’s mystery and murder, and love surrounding those waters.”
“What’s murder?” Winnie asks.
“When you kill someone,” Zelle explains.
Both Cadence and I glance at Zelle. I shouldn’t be surprised that my girl knows the meaning of the word but I’m still sad that she knows the meaning of the word. How am I going to protect my girls from the evils of this world?
“Well,” Cadence clears her throat. “I’m more interested in the romance.”
“What’s romance?” Winnie asks next.
Cadence glances back at me and I twerk a brow. She started this conversation.
“Romance is when two people love each other.” Her eyes drift to mine.
“It’s the feeling you get of excitement and wonder when you spend time together, or you do nice things for each other.
” Her gaze drops to the girls. “Like when Uncle Sebastian makes lemon cakes for Aunt Enya. He does it because he knows it’ll make her smile and be happy. ”
“Daddy said you gave him a rubber duck.” Winnie says. “It makes him smile when he looks at it. He says it’s his lucky duck and watches over him. Is that romance?”
Cadence lowers her eyes, and for the first time, a pale shade of pink dusts her cheeks.
For such a strong woman, who knocks out flirtatious quips like she has a 1.
000 batting average, I’ve never seen her look so sweetly embarrassed.
She’s such a beautiful woman but even more beautiful with her acorn-colored hair in a messy bun on top of her head, no makeup on her face, and wearing pink pajama pants with bright yellow ducks on them.
Even sexier is that she’s in my kitchen, talking to my girls, and hinting with that soft flush on her cheeks that exchanging rubber bath toys might be romantic to her.
Before she can answer Winnie, Zelle speaks.
“Henry gave me a Tootsie-Roll every day last year, but I never gave him any back.” Zelle shrugs, nonchalant and uncaring that she didn’t reciprocate the gesture.
Curiously, I’m wondering why this is the first I’ve heard of anyone named Henry or the Tootsie-Roll treats.
The eight-year-old has game, but Zelle is not having a boyfriend. Ever.
“Well, wasn’t he romantic. That’s definitely a gesture that says, I want to be more than friends.” Cadence teases, placing an elbow on the table and cupping her chin. “How do we feel about Henry?”
“He’s annoying.” Zelle blushes as she speaks giving away how much she appreciated his daily gifts.
“Boys can be like that sometimes,” Cadence glances back at me. “But when you’re older you might find that behavior endearing.”
I snort.
“What’s endearing?” Winnie asks.
I cough, hoping to cut the vocabulary lesson short. “Let’s get back to the field trip. It’s a hike to the falls. To really experience the location, though, one needs to climb an unofficial trail up the boulders.”
“But I’ve heard there’s an easy walking trail. Nothing strenuous.” She eyes my shoulder. “But enough to get us out of the house and moving.” She lowers her arms to her sides and shimmies her body like she’s strutting in her chair.
“Me walk,” June mutters.
I glance at Cadence. “I can’t carry her, and I don’t think the trail allows for a stroller.” It’s been so long since I’ve been to the falls, I honestly don’t know what the public trail might offer visitors.
Cadence shrugs and waves dismissively. “We’ll figure it out when we get there.”
And within an hour, we’re headed on a family field trip.
+ + +
The public trail is part paved and part gravel, so we opt out of using the stroller and saunter at a slow pace for June.
The day is gorgeous, with bright sunshine and dappled shade provided by the trees.
The temperature threatens to be warm but the canopy of foliage over us keeps us cool.
Cadence packed a picnic for after our walk.
The slowed pace cannot be called a hike.
And while I’d typically like to hoof it, I appreciate the lingering steps.
“This was a good idea,” I admit.
“I’ve been known to have them on occasion.” Cadence knocks her elbow into mine and I over-exaggerate a reaction, cupping my shoulder.
“Fu…dge.” Her gaze shifts to the girls quickly before flitting back to me. “Did I hurt you?”
I huff. “Hardly.” I straighten my arm and then bend my elbow again. Then I lift my arm as much as my shoulder will allow. “I’m not there yet but physical therapy is helping.”
The sessions have been grueling, and my arm screams most days, reminding me it’s still there but healing slowly. My fear is, I won’t heal enough to return to the team.
As we walk, June toddles in front of us, attempting to keep up with Zelle and Winnie who are picking up their pace.
Cadence leans toward me. “Too bad you’re on the mend. I would have looked good in a little nursing outfit.”
She has played nursemaid in some ways, constantly asking if I need anything. Tucking extra pillows under my elbow while we sit on the couch. Fluffing the bed pillows in my room.
Walking beside me, she runs her hands down her sides like she’s wearing an antique white uniform.
I laugh once, hard and deep. Visions of Cadence in a sexy little outfit, buttons undone at her breasts and a skirt exposing all that leg like the shorts she’s wearing right now . . . I inhale deeply trying to wipe away the thought. She’d give a man a heart attack.
“If I hadn’t been a musician, I would have been a nurse.”
“Really?”
Cadence shrugs. “Probably not. I mean, I’ve thought about what else I might have done, but I think singing is in my blood. The stage. The lights.” She waves her hands through the air for emphasis.
“I’m not really like that. The lights and shit.
” I quickly glance at my girls, hoping they are out of hearing range.
“But I get what you mean. Playing baseball is in my blood. I don’t know that I could do anything else.
” Which is another reason I need to get back to my team. I’m not ready to retire or quit.
“You and I are a lot alike, Ford Sylver. Fame runs in our bloodstream.”
Glancing back at the girls, I watch as June stumbles, but Zelle stops and helps her little sister before I’ve even taken a faster step forward. I mull over what Cadence has said.
“I don’t know that fame was ever on my roster but getting out of this town had been. I needed to get away from this place.”
Cadence nods once. “I get that, too. Although sometimes I feel like I’m still running away.”
With the amount of times I’ve seen her phone light up with notifications over the past few days she’s stayed with me, I imagine disappearing can be difficult for her. Her fame is on a different level than mine.
“What were you running from?”
“Family.”
I huff, relating to her on that. Although, the person I really wanted away from was my dad. Then I wanted Stone to be proud of me.
“Zelle is so good with June and Winnie,” Cadence states as we both watch my girls, falling into a single file to allow people to pass them on the trail.
As the other trailblazers draw closer to us, Cadence dips her head despite the oversize sunglasses and floppy sun hat she wears.
I tug my baseball cap lower over my face as well.
Once they pass, Cadence adds, “Zelle reminds me of Enya.”
“You and your sister seem close.”
Cadence shrugs. “As close as we can be.” Behind the frames of her sunglasses, wrinkles appear on the edge of her eye as she squints.
“Meaning?”
“As much as I love my sister, I also keep my distance.” Cadence glances downward a second. “Sometimes, I feel like a failure around her.”
“A failure? How are you a failure?” I scoff.
“I didn’t do what my parents wanted.” Cadence shrugs. “Enya did.”
“Has anyone?” I counter.
“Your parents didn’t want you to be a baseball player?”
“I wanted to be a baseball player.” I emphasize by pointing at my chest. “And Stone. He believed in me.”
Cadence softly smiles. “Enya believed in me, too. But I’m still a disappointment, at times. I’m not a great sister.” She looks toward my girls again. “But I want to do better. Be better.”
“If you haven’t noticed, Sebastian and I aren’t terribly close.”
“Well, at least you have other siblings to choose from.” Cadence lightly chuckles while teasing me. “But you should really work on repairing your relationship with Sebastian.”
June has stopped walking, and Zelle and Winnie pause, turning back to make certain we are still behind them. Scooping up June, Cadence hitches her onto her hip and jiggles her up and down while tickling her belly.
“Sometimes, your siblings are all you have.”
Don’t I know it. “That’s one reason I’m home.” I’m slowly realizing family is much more important than fame or fortune. Family is home. “And why exactly are you here, superstar?”
I still don’t know what Cadence is doing in Sterling Falls.
She told the family she was here for a break.
As the new lady-boss of a music-production conglomerate, I don’t know how she can afford the time off, but I also don’t know anything about the music industry.
And I’d bet my current contract deal, there’s more to her story than vacationing in our small mountain town.
“Still trying to figure that out myself,” she laughs with her focus on June, her fingers spider walking up her belly once more.
I’d love to know what she means but Winnie announces, “I hear the water.” She cups her hand around her ear.
June kicks her little legs to be set down and Cadence accommodates, then she follows my three-year-old with her own excitement building.
Meanwhile, I take my time to follow all of them, wondering what my temporary nurse slash nanny could still be running from.
And if she’d consider running to me instead.