Chapter 5 Cressida
Five
Cressida
Present Day
I reached out to take Glenda’s dry cleaning as the man passed it to me over the counter.
This was a once-a-week errand. Every Tuesday, while she was at her bridge game, I took Glenda’s clothes that needed to be cleaned to the dry cleaner and then picked up the clothes from the week before.
I still had an hour before I had to go get her from her game, and she’d given me thirty dollars and told me to go buy lunch somewhere and relax.
Going to a restaurant felt like a splurge, but then the Italian place, Vapiano’s, was right across the street. That was tempting.
“Thanks,” I told the man and took her clothing before heading out, planning to put it away in her Cadillac before deciding on where I would be eating.
Stepping out into the cool December air made me shiver.
I needed to buy a coat. I should probably go to the secondhand store to do that instead of eating pasta.
But if I didn’t use the money she had given me for food, like she’d said, I’d feel guilty.
I’d have to return it, and that would upset her.
But then I could go buy a coat with my money and grab a sandwich somewhere to appease her.
I glanced back down the street behind me, trying to remember where the secondhand store used to be.
Then I stumbled. Barely catching myself from face-planting on the sidewalk when my eyes met ones the color of the bluest ocean.
My heart slammed in my chest so hard that it was painful, and I held Glenda’s clothes to my chest like a lifeline as I stared at the one man who had not only been my world once, but also destroyed it—Kash Savelle.
“Hello, little Songbird,” he said in his thick Southern drawl that had always made my knees weak.
Even after his actions had ruined my life, stolen my mother from me, left me alone, they still trembled. Damn my knees. Traitors.
“Kash.” I tried to sound casual as I said it. As if seeing him again didn’t affect me. I failed. My voice cracked, and my breathing came out in a hitch.
“Didn’t know you were back in town,” he said, appearing so unaffected by the sight of me that it hurt.
It shouldn’t. It had been four years, and the last words he had spoken to me still sliced so deep that I couldn’t allow them to resurface.
I cleared my throat in hopes of it not giving away what all I was feeling. “I, uh—yes, for about six months now.”
His jaw ticced, and that was the only sign that he had any reaction to seeing me at all. Even if it was loathing or simply hate. He was excellent at masking his emotions. I’d forgotten about that.
“I thought you were in Alabama,” I said, lifting my chin and straightening my shoulders.
He could despise me. I no longer cared. He’d not listened to me. Trusted me. Then he had ripped my life to pieces in a way that I was still struggling to patch it back together.
“Home for the holidays,” he replied in a clipped tone.
His gaze turned cold. Similar to the last night I’d seen him. A detachment that hadn’t been there before. It haunted me in my dreams still.
“That’s nice,” I replied. “I’m sure your family is happy about that.”
Because he had a family. One that loved him. Unlike me. I had no one.
I needed to go. Standing here with him staring at me that way again was too much. I had made progress in getting those shreds of myself back together, and being near him threatened that.
Kash Savelle was destruction. He’d once told me he didn’t break pretty things, but he had shattered me.
“It was good to see you, Kash. Merry Christmas,” I said, forcing a smile, then turned and hurried away before he said something that would make me stop or keep me there any longer.
My sole focus was getting to Glenda’s car, getting inside it, and driving away. I’d find a coat another day. I could go through a drive-through for lunch. One that wasn’t on Main Street. Maybe even one that wasn’t in Madison.
Seven Years Ago
Words of praise surrounded me as I stood, holding the flowers that my mother had given me, along with pink roses that Pirate had handed me. I smiled and said my thank-yous, feeling as if I was on a high. But not because of my performance tonight. No, that wasn’t it at all.
My euphoria had come from one single source.
Kash had been here. My eyes met his while I sang the last song.
He smiled at me and winked. He had come to see me.
I knew he had. He hadn’t even known about the musical until I told him.
But then he had barely acknowledged me since that afternoon outside the school.
I scanned the crowd as I nodded my head and continued to thank those who spoke to me. My mom had said she’d have Pirate wait to take me home. There was a cast party I had to attend first. She and my dad were going to go ahead and leave.
As if the sea had parted, the people around me faded as Kash stepped into view.
Voices fell away, and all I could see was him.
The corner of his mouth lifted in a crooked grin as he walked toward me.
My eyes drifted down his body to take in the sight he made when I realized he was holding flowers.
But not any like I had seen before. The daisies, daffodils, and roses in my hands didn’t compare to the round bouquet of bright orange and iridescent blue hues. They were stunning.
My eyes snapped back up to his just as he reached me.
“You came,” I blurted out.
He chuckled. “Yeah, I did. Good thing, too, because now I know you have more than one superpower.”
What? I frowned.
He leaned closer to my ear, and the scent of leather and spice sent a tingle through me. “Not only can you own a man with that face of yours, but you can claim his soul with that voice, little Songbird.”
The warmth of his breath brushed my cheek just before his lips touched it gently, and then he straightened back up. Leaving me and taking his smell and heat with him. I wanted to reach out and grab his shirt and pull him back to me. Hold him close. Bask in how it felt.
“These are for you,” he said, holding the flowers out to me.
I was completely reeling and wasn’t sure if my legs were strong enough for the effect this man had on me as I reached to take them. “They’re … incredible,” I said breathlessly, as if he’d just grabbed me and kissed me properly instead of just a simple peck on the cheek.
“Birds of paradise. I thought they fit you. Elegant and worth the wait.”