Chapter 4 #2
Cade stood there just inside the doorway in one of those flannel shirts he always wore. His hair was damp from the rain that was continuing to fall outside in a steady stream. He had a sheepish look on his face. One that for some reason I had never seen before.
My breath hitched.
“I, uh, think I left my phone here,” he said, stepping forward.
I blinked. “You… did?”
Suddenly, the last messages I had sent him, the ones where I was angry at him for letting a stupid kiss ruin our friendship, had my gut twisting.
He nodded. “I’ll just head back and check under the sink.”
My heart skipped. “No! I’ll go look,” I said, quickly retreating to the back.
Sure enough, there under the sink was his phone.
The screen showed warnings of my last six messages.
Damn. I tried to unlock the screen with his birthday as the code, and when that didn’t work, I swiped the messages in hopes of deleting them.
“You know, that’s invasion of privacy,” Cade said from directly behind me.
I groaned and closed my eyes. “Just don’t read my last messages.”
His chuckle stopped me. “Why? Did you confess your undying love for me?”
I rolled my eyes even though they were still closed.
“No, I was just… sort of pissed that you weren’t returning my messages,” I said as he gently took his phone from my hands.
I spun around. “Please.” I covered the phone with my hands. “Just delete them.”
His eyes met mine. “Now I really want to read them.”
“Cade.” I groaned, which had his eyebrows rising slowly. “I was hurt.”
“About?” he asked softly.
I glanced around and was grateful that Brit was busy up front and that Meredith had already left for the day. We were alone. “I thought that you’d let something as stupid as a kiss ruin our friendship.”
He tilted his head and then scratched the back of his neck.
“When you didn’t respond, I thought… you were pissed at me. So I got pissed right back.” I shrugged.
“My alarm didn’t go off this morning. Which is why I didn’t get to eat breakfast or lunch. I spent the day trying to catch up. Honestly, I just finally had the time to come get my phone.”
“You aren’t upset?” I asked, feeling stupid.
“No,” he said softly.
My heart did a weird, confused somersault.
“Oh,” I managed. “Okay.”
He stepped closer. Close enough that I had to tilt my chin up. His voice lowered.
“So… the kiss meant nothing?” he asked.
I swallowed. “Well, I mean, I didn’t want to assume…”
“Missy.” His eyes held mine. Steady. Warm. “It didn’t feel like nothing.”
My knees nearly buckled.
Cade’s words were still hanging in the air like some dangerous confession when Brit called back to me that I was needed up front.
Great. Perfect timing.
“I, uh, need to, um.” I gestured uselessly toward the front.
Cade’s mouth curved, soft and knowing. Then he nodded and took a step back.
I spent the rest of the day replaying that look in his eyes until I felt like fainting.
Once the afternoon crowd hit full force, there was no room left in my brain for anything except coffee orders, boxed-up pastries, and making sure Ashley didn’t spend her entire workday taking pictures of cinnamon rolls.
But every time I had a moment to think… Cade was in the front of my mind.
Things had been changing between us even before the very-not-normal kiss in my kitchen last night.
By closing time, my feet throbbed, my head pounded, and the last thing I wanted to do was walk the single block home in the rain. I couldn’t wait to get home.
The streetlights were on all down Main Street, and the street seemed to glow.
Serenity’s Attic had its brightly painted door propped open, and the scent of incense drifted out into the warm breeze.
I thought of stopping in to get some bath salts that I loved but decided a hot shower was more in order tonight.
As I climbed the back stairs of Holley Hall, keys in hand, I replayed the kiss from the night before. How long had it been since I’d felt that… electric?
When I rounded the last corner to the top landing on the stairs, my heart jumped straight into my throat.
Cade was leaning against my doorframe under the small overhang, where he wouldn’t get wet. Waiting. His hands were in his pocket and his head was slightly bowed, as if he’d been waiting a while.
“Cade?” My voice came out soft, unsure. “What are you...”
I didn’t get to finish.
He pushed off the doorframe in one smooth motion, crossed the space between us in two long steps, and cupped my face gently, almost reverently, with his work-callused hands.
Then he kissed me.
Not tentatively.
Not questioning.
Not an accident like mine.
This kiss was sure. Warm. Slow at first, like he wanted to savor every second.
Like he wanted me to know he was choosing this, choosing me, without hesitation.
His lips moved against mine with a tenderness that made my knees bend dangerously. His thumb brushed my cheekbone, steadying me, grounding me as the rain fell over us.
I curled my fingers into the front of his soaked shirt, pulling him closer, not because I meant to, but because my body didn’t know any other option.
Heat pulsed through me.
Butterflies exploded in my chest.
Everything inside me melted into him.
He finally pulled back and rested his forehead against mine and breathed unevenly.
“That,” he murmured, “felt like something.”
I couldn’t speak.
Not a single coherent thought existed in my brain.
He smiled, a slow, devastating thing, and whispered: “Tell me it was nothing now.”