Chapter 8
brOOKE
Our landline rang. Whit and I paused our movie, and our eyes connected. How many people even had that number? Not many. We’d paid to have our number removed from those spam-calling services.
Whit looked at the Caller ID. “Wireless number,” she confirmed.
“Answer?” I shrugged.
Whit picked up the receiver. “Hello?” Her eyes met mine. “This is her roommate, Whitney. Sure . . . she’s right here.” She handed the phone to me. “It’s for you.”
I couldn’t read Whit’s expression. She knew how averse I was to unexpected phone calls. “Hello? This is Brooke.”
“. . . it’s really you.”
I instantly recognized the voice. Ten years of memories flooded my brain.
“Cade?” My tone exposed my disbelief. I saw Whit give a brief smirk, then casually walk off to her room so I could continue the call in private. “Cade, how—?”
“I’ve been calling the hospital. That Loretta sure is sweet,” I could hear the lopsided grin in his voice. “Your roommate—Whitney, right?—she told me I could have this number. Your number?”
“Our landline,” I confirmed. My throat felt constricted.
I could barely get the few words out through the thick coating of my saliva.
My heart teetered on a line between nerves and excitement.
I cradled the phone between my shoulder and my ear, sitting on my hands so I wouldn’t rub my cuticles nervously as I heard his voice cross the line again.
“Who has a landline anymore?” he joked, and I could hear a faint, underbreath chuckle. “Except my parents, and maybe everyone else in The Grove. That whole neighborhood is stuck in the 90s.”
I bit back a smile at the thought of our old neighbors, the parents of our childhood friends. I cleared my throat.
“Apparently this area has a history of power outages and cell service being out due to bad weather,” I explained. “The landlord already had a landline installed when we moved in. He suggested we keep it in case we needed to call out, during emergencies.”
“Ah, that makes sense.” A slight pause. “So how’ve you been?”
“Pretty good.” I adjusted the pillows behind my back and propped my legs up on the couch. “Been busy with work since we got back . . . Cade, why are—?”
“How ‘bout Bryan and Nicole, huh? Didn’t see that coming. Maybe I should’ve. They seem to fit.”
I smiled in spite of myself. “They were really cute. I never saw Bryan as the romantic type. I guess he was just really shy. But he practically had hearts in his eyes when he looked at Nic . . .”
“Yeah. Starstruck for sure. I get it. Ya know, we went to the gorge earlier that morning.”
“You and Bryan?” My grin grew as I pictured our favorite teen hangout.
“I thought you guys seemed chummy during dinner. That’s awesome.
He was always different than the other boys on the block.
He never joined in on all the ‘pick on Brooke’ festivities.
” My heart squeezed uncomfortably as I thought back on my childhood torment.
I could feel Cade’s voice shift into gruffness. “I hate how those assholes treated you. Especially Jace. I swear if that guy had shown his face at the reunion—”
I cut him off. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Bygones and all that.” I could still feel my chest clench painfully at the memories, though.
“Still.” He audibly sighed. “I miss you, B.”
My heart fluttered uncontrollably at the nickname. Only Owen still called me that.
“I messed up,” he continued. “At the reunion. I shouldn’t have questioned your choices that way. I care about you. I always have. I just want you to be happy. I want to be in your life—any way you’ll have me. And I promise I’ll support you and be a good friend to you again.”
I steeled my voice, my heart beating erratically.
“This isn’t a good idea, Cade. It’s . . . too confusing. We are holding onto something that doesn’t exist anymore.”
“But it could exist. I want so badly—”
“We’re good, Cade.” I cut him off again, unwilling to let the conversation spiral.
It would take everything in me just to put this barrier in place.
I inhaled a deep breath. “I appreciate your apology, and I get wanting to try to save what we had, but really. I’ve moved on.
” I swallowed bile at the lie. “I need to move on.” There, that was closer.
“I have work, and Brock, and we’re thousands of miles away, and I don’t really see the point of starting up a friendship again.
Maybe it’s just better to leave the past in the past. I’m sorry,” I finished softly, hoping to soften the blow.
I was met with silence on the other end of the line. I could hear his breathing, so I knew he was still there. I gathered up the rest of my resolve.
“Goodbye, Cade,” I said into the receiver, then hung up.
I went to my room, flopped on my bed, and cried for the rest of the evening.