Chapter 38 #2
He tips up my chin with his other hand, so I look him in the eye.
“I know about the camp. What you did. What you continue to do for me.” Ford holds my gaze.
“This could have been the worst year of my life, and yet at every difficult turn there you were, a shining star. You saved my ass in a random bar. You came to cheer me on for spring training. And you dropped everything to visit me when I got injured.”
Ford twitches his shoulder again. “And now the camp. You’re always looking out for me.
” He pauses and exhales. “And I’ve done nothing to deserve you, but I want you.
I want to be the one to protect you. To keep you safe.
To be your home base.” He leans closer. “I don’t want you running from me but toward me like I told you earlier this summer, and I’m sorry I made you doubt you could do that.
That I made you question how I felt about you. Because I love you, Caitlin.”
My vision blurs with tears. My tongue is thick within my mouth.
“So, I have some questions I’d like you to consider.” He playfully jiggles my wrist still circled by his fingers. His voice lightens, hopeful but still hesitant. “Will you have dinner with me? Will you sleep with me? And will you live with me?”
My brows crease, his questions rather abrupt.
“No more pretending in any manner. I’m yours. Will you be mine?”
Another, softer cough comes from behind me. “Cadence.” Lana’s voice is patient, almost apologetic, but the show must go on, and I’m the show.
“We need to keep moving,” she adds.
A change of clothes. A walk through a bar. A late-night arrival at my hotel. Then back on the road tomorrow to do it all over again.
“I need to go,” I whisper to Ford.
He nods once. His jaw ticks but if he feels defeated, he holds his emotions at bay. As for me and his declaration of love, I don’t trust myself to respond. My pulse thumps in my throat. My body trembles.
“I have something for you.” He pulls a small purple fabric jewelry sack from his pocket and holds it out to me. “The girls said this is a thing.”
After taking the sack from him, I tug the thin ribbons of the closure and peek inside. A set of handmade, plastic-beaded bracelets are within.
Friendship bracelets go back some fifty years or more, but the new beaded ones are popular to exchange during concerts. I didn’t start the trend, another more famous-than-me pop singer did. However, I wear a few of my own on my wrist but they aren’t available for trading.
Slowly, I remove the bracelets made in bright colors from the violet-shade bag. Three fluorescent bracelets made with a range of colors represent each of the girls. A tear trickles down my cheek and I lift my other wrist.
“I already wear one for each of them.”
Ford’s finger presses at the bracelets, spinning them to read the names. Zelle. Winnie. June.
“I wanted them with me.” I shrug, feeling awkward that I’m wearing his girls’ names as my talisman, similar to Ford having the girls’ initials inked on his skin.
“Songbird,” he whispers, noticing a fourth bracelet says Ford.
“Cadence,” Lana calls again and I close my eyes, but another tear slips free. Ford catches it with the pad of his thumb. Then he kisses the corner of my mouth.
When my eyes spring open, Ford pulls another bracelet from his pocket. He takes my bare wrist and slips the handmade jewelry over my hand.
“Figured you probably lost my number. Again.” The lilt in his voice suggests he’s teasing. He was the one always losing mine, or so I thought. When I lost my phone, I finally got a new number.
Glancing down at the bracelet, I comment. “It’s very pink.”
“It’s pink. And I think. Could she love me?” Ford sings the lyrics from one of my hits, and my head pops up. My mouth falls open, but I don’t have time to speak before Lana calls my name once more. I recognize that tone. I don’t have another second to spare.
“That’s your call, superstar.” His half-mast smile doesn’t reach his eyes. He lifts my hand once more and kisses my inner wrist just above the bracelet he made. Too quickly, he releases me, offers another patient smile, and turns to walk away.
As he exits the room, I glance down at the single set of beads, noticing a series of seven numbers among the pink plastic baubles.
And a yellow duck charm dangling from the band.
+ + +
An after-midnight phone call to my sister isn’t ideal, especially when she has a one-year-old, and she’s pregnant, but Enya always answers her phone for me, and I need to talk.
Quickly, I explain Ford’s appearance and his three random questions.
Enya groggily chuckles. “Aren’t you the one who announced one of those questions at a Sylver Sunday?”
“I did not,” I counter.
“Ford Sylver, are you asking me to move in with you?” My sister mimics me with an exaggerated Southern drawl.
I could argue again that I never said such a thing, but I slowly remember that I did. I’d also teased Ford once about him asking if he could sleep with me and suggested he was asking me over to his house for dinner.
The questions finally make sense. “But what do they mean?
“Maybe he’s saying he wants dinner with you, wants to sleep with you, and wants you to live with him.” Enya wistfully sighs. “It’s a grand gesture.”
My breath hitches. “I’ve never had one of those.
” My voice isn’t louder than the wind outside my window.
A sudden thunderstorm struck the area. Lightning brightly flashes over Lake Michigan, cracking open the dark sky like the splintering of an eggshell.
My gaze leaps to the duck on the hotel nightstand.
I want to watch over you.
“He said he loved me. Do you think he meant it?” I can’t bring myself to speak louder, afraid of the answer.
“Why wouldn’t he love you? You’re amazing with his girls. You take care of him. And he wants to take care of you. He’s sorry, Cadence. He really is.”
“I know,” I whisper once more. His reaction wasn’t about me but his fear for June. “But he didn’t chase after me.”
Enya softly chuckles. “The man might be known as The Streak because he’s able to run fast but he’s slow on the uptake of his feelings. And he’s chasing you now.”
Enya squeaks through the phone and I picture Sebastian poking her in the side.
“Do you think I should call him?” It’s late, but he gave me his phone number on a pink beaded friendship bracelet.
“I have a better idea.”