34. 34
We walk back to the condo hand in hand.
The boys are still awake, which surprises me because it feels like so much time has passed since we left the dinner. In reality, it was less than an hour.
An hour that left my head spinning with thoughts of Cady.
She… we… it was what physically happened between us that has me grinning like a loon, but I felt the acceptance. Somehow, I was able to push through those walls that spanned her heart. I busted right through them. She didn’t hold back—I took her all.
She gave it to me. That matters.
“Thought you might have gotten swept out to sea,” Nick calls, raising a bottle of beer as a greeting.
“Felt like a walk,” I tell him.
Nick looks over at Cady, so immaculate when we left for dinner, and now mused and rumpled. “Sure.” He grins, like my world hadn’t been rocked to the core.
And I think it might have been just by Cady saying my name when she came.
Maximus…
“Dude.” Dexter, sitting in the chair with his back to us, raises my phone over his head. “Your phone was going off. I checked—it was your dad.” His apologetic tone was like a punch in the gut. He’s not apologizing for checking my phone, but— “He seems upset.”
My grin fades like it’s been slapped off my face. To walk in with Cady, happy and together, only to have to face my father’s wrath, is more than a punch in the gut. It’s a gut punch, a right hook, and then a kick to the balls, all at once. I stare at the phone with rising dread, along with a good sense of pissed off-ness that my father is about to ruin something else.
“Fuck.” I drop Cady’s hand with the insane thought that I can protect her if I’m not touching her. Dexter hands me my phone with an apologetic expression.
“Is everything okay?” Cady asks warily.
A quick glance at the screen tells me, no, it’s not. “Fine,” I say curtly.
She steps away. The mask is back, as well as those goddamn walls I busted through. I don’t even have to look at her face; her body language, the way she holds her shoulders so stiffly tells me everything I need to know. “No, it’s not.”
“Cady…”
“I’ll go to bed, give you some privacy.”
I want to throw my phone across the room. Straight out the balcony door—let Nick, with his throwing arm that picks off runners trying to steal second base, toss it into the water far below. “I wanted to…” I try.
She shakes her head. “Deal with your father. Good night.”
And then she’s gone.
I stare after her, hearing the click as she shuts the bedroom door.
I want to follow her. I want to lay with her on the bed that I get to share with her and make her come again.
But I’ve got to deal with my father first. The thought twists knots into my stomach and being with Cady is not going to be able to smooth them out.
“Before we get into the dirty daddy stuff,” Nick offers, handing me a beer. “How was the walk?”
I flip him the finger as I slump into a chair.
“Does that mean you’re not going to give up the details about your moonlight stroll?”
“It does mean exactly that,” I tell him. I take a deep mouthful of beer before I turn my attention to my phone.
Two missed calls. Six texts, each growing more impatient. In the last one, he uses all caps, like he’s shouting at me. He even sent an email.
“What’s going on with your father this time?” Dexter asks, his voice tight with anger. Dex is one of the most loyal people I know, and he hates how my father has made me so dependent.
I’ve never told either him or Nick that I keep working for my father as part of my agreement when he paid our debts. They would hate that, and most likely ruin their own lives to make it up to me.
I won’t let that happen.
I glance at the bedroom door to make sure it’s closed and set my phone on the arm of the chair. “He found out I brought someone down here. He’s not thrilled that it’s Cady,” I admit.
I block out the words he used. They’ll be time enough to be angry when he’s before me, when I can tell him exactly what I think—
But can I do that?
“How does he even know?” Dexter demands.
I shrug. “He has his sources.” Especially since this is a Sandflower Resort. Who knows how many of the staff are spying for him?
“Why does he care who you’re dating?”
“I’m not dating. I’m not sure what’s going on.” I glance at the closed bedroom door again. “I want something to be going on, but Cady…”
I can still taste her.
I’m ready to dive right into this. I want more than a weekend with her, more than a favour between friends, or business associates. I want her open and honest and vulnerable.
Losing control under the stars is a start, but I want more. And I don’t know if she’ll give it to me. If she does; if for some reason she wants to be with me as much as I want to be with her…
“I’m not even reading his texts,” I decide. “It’s none of his business who I bring down here. And why should he care about who I’m dating? Or not dating?”
I know the answer to that: my father has destroyed every good relationship I’ve ever had. And if he tries that with Cady, I get the sense he’ll have quite a bit of ammunition.
I don’t want her to go through that. Would I even be able to protect her?
I stare out the window at the darkness of the beach and think of Cady.