CHAPTER THIRTEEN #3
“You don’t have an accent though,” she said, frowning when not even the barest trace revealed itself.
Elias smirked. “Well, I’ve spent the last nineteen years working very hard to sound as local as possible. Glad to know it worked.”
Cadi bunched her lips together in a move she hoped hid her disappointment. She loved a good accent, and the one from the north was by far her favorite. But seeing as she was actively trying not to become infatuated with the man staring at her from across the bar, perhaps it was for the best.
“Is your family still up there?” she asked.
Elias nodded as he pushed himself up, and Cadi tried to convince her pulse to calm down as she watched him step around the bar and slide onto the stool next to her.
“My mom and my sister, yeah. I haven’t spoken to my dad since I left, though.
He and I have a … difficult relationship.
Kind of ironic, the son of a mean drunk owning his own bar.
Kind of explains why alcohol never appealed to me, I guess. ”
“Oh,” Cadi said, regretting her question immediately. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to open another old wound.”
Elias shook his head, the movement so slight she might have missed it if she hadn’t been transfixed by the way he was looking at her, the softness in his gaze nearly matching that in his voice. “You didn’t.”
Something caught in her chest, forcing her to clear her throat just to pull in her next breath.
She found herself still wanting to know more, and she searched for a reason to keep talking to him.
There was something in the way his eyes held hers that made her wonder if maybe he might want that, too.
“How about you?” he asked, taking a sip of water. “Where was home before this?”
Cadi let out a dry laugh. “That is a simple question with a not so simple answer,” she said.
“My mom oversaw operations at different temple locations for Poseidon, so we moved around a lot. I guess I never had one spot that I called home, but before moving here, I was a few hours east in Harbor View.”
A new tension seemed to settle in Elias’s limbs that hadn’t been there a moment ago, though she didn’t know why. Nothing about her answer had been particularly scandalous, and there was no way he could have known about the quiet ache that bloomed beneath her ribs when she talked about her mom.
“Was?” he asked, his voice so quiet she barely heard the question despite being so close to him.
Cadi nodded, lowering her eyes to her glass. “A few months before my dad. I don’t have any siblings, so it’s just me now.”
She watched as something in his composure cracked the tiniest bit. Like he had been anticipating her response, but when it came, it still took a piece of him with it.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, his hand lifting slightly before he settled it back against the polished wood, gripping it tightly.
“I’m fine,” Cadi said, forcing a smile through the familiar pull that urged her to retreat, to hide away and collapse in on herself until the pain stopped.
“Are you really?” he asked, his voice softer now, his eyes refusing to let hers go. “Or do you just think you have to be?”
Cadi pulled in an unsteady breath. The intensity of his stare felt powerful enough to expose the jagged pieces of herself she’d sooner keep hidden. Something told her there was nowhere for her to hide when he looked at her like that.
“I know I have to be,” she whispered, barely able to force the sound from her throat. A muscle ticked in his jaw as he shifted forward.
“But what if you didn’t?”
Cadi’s grip cinched around her glass, her mind pushing back against the suggestion. That wasn’t an option for her, it couldn’t be, but the way he was looking at her right now was dangerously close to making her believe that could change.
“I should go,” she said with a false smile as she slid off the stool and shrugged her bag onto her shoulder.
“Cadi, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“You didn’t,” she interrupted, not sure she could handle whatever he was about to say. She could feel herself breaking, and she needed to get out of there before he saw.
Elias stood, and Cadi felt herself take a step back before she could stop it.
She knew he just wanted to help, but her body and mind seemed determined to put distance between them.
This was too risky, too close, and she knew that letting herself believe this could be different was foolish.
It always ended the same. They never stayed. So why should he?
He stopped short when he saw her move, regret flashing in his eyes. “May I walk you to your car?”
Cadi shook her head. “No, really. I’m fine.”
She winced when she heard the automatic response slip out so easily. She really needed to stop using that word. Especially since it was obvious that not a single person in that room believed her when she said it.
“I have to go,” she said as she took a step toward the door. “I’ll see you around.”
She turned to walk away, listening closely for any sign that he was following her or that he might insist on escorting her from the bar, but none came.
He let her go.