Chapter 23
CADE
The two knuckleheads whooped from somewhere behind us, catcalling as I wrapped an arm around Noelle’s shoulders and escorted her off the dance floor. Garth ended and a rowdy song queued up. It used to be my favorite.
Now?
Barely even heard it.
My head buzzed with songs and Noelle and dancing and Noelle and those two idiots I employed who exchanged money like they’d been betting on this happening.
And Noelle.
Winter air assaulted us as we stepped outside, and Noelle let out an adorable squeak.
The rush of cold after the swelling heat between us had me muttering curse words under my breath.
I grabbed her coat, wrapped her in it, then put mine around her, too.
She almost protested, but I hauled her outside too quickly and toward the truck.
The cold felt good.
Grounding.
Reminding.
I couldn’t absolutely lose it in the middle of the grimy Dance-Hall-Slash-Bar.
Noelle deserved better. Her smile, the way her hair haloed around her, the gentle crash of her body as I pulled her into my arms, the light tap of her feet, had been an enchanting inevitability.
This night was never going to end any other way.
The truck rumbled to life, and I sat there for a second. I shivered, and she went to offer me my coat, but I held up a hand.
“You keep it.”
She hesitated, then burrowed farther inside. Did I share her dazed expression? Did I appear as . . . flabbergasted . . . as her? Because what happened back there wasn’t just a kiss. It was a whole damn opera.
The sound of a life changing.
World shifting.
I knew the moment I met Noelle and Lily that my life would never be the same, but I didn’t know any other moment could top it for sheer intensity. I’d never felt like this in my life, not once.
“Cade?”
Her tentative question brought me jolting out of the reverie. I blinked, realized cold air blew on my hot cheeks, and looked at her. Wariness had stolen across her features. How long had I been sitting here like an idiot?
I reached over, put my hand on her arm. “Sorry. I just . . . I’m not good at romance, Noelle. But I . . . I’ve never experienced a kiss like that in my life. Not once.”
Relief flooded her features. She leaned in with a saucy, dreamy smile and whispered, “Me, too.”
After raising myself, Cora, Cody, and Wyatt, I considered my life packed with big challenges and my responsible response to all of them.
When rubber met the road, I was there. I showed up.
I worked hard. I did what I had to be doing, and bad luck was forgotten.
But whatever strength I built up after all those slogging years completely abandoned me.
I kissed her again.
There, in the truck, in the parking lot, like high schoolers who couldn’t help themselves. But Noelle didn’t seem to care. She slid across the seat until I could pull her into my arms again, and we warmed up the truck before the heater did.
When I forced myself to pull away, she looked up. Her starstruck eyes had only brightened, and I inwardly groaned at the idea of separating from her.
“Let’s get out of here. There are better places than a parking lot to do this.”
She slid the middle seat belt across her lap, clicked it in place, and wrapped her hands around my arm. Her head tilted onto my shoulder. I put my hand on her thigh, pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
She sighed in response.
After we picked her up from Dagny’s house, Lily slept the whole way home.
She didn’t awaken when I accidentally jostled her while attaching her car seat to the holder in the back. Noelle waved to Dagny from the front seat while I settled Lily, returned to the driver’s seat, and felt relief as Noelle cuddled next to me again.
The ranch lay quiet as we crept inside. Noelle slipped into her bedroom with the baby while I grabbed my pajamas, stepped into a hot shower, and let all of my thoughts slide away from me.
By the time I finished, Noelle was on the couch, wearing a tattered pair of sweats, her hair up in that messy ponytail, and a look crossed between terror and elation as she studied my face. I knew the look well. Felt the same.
Could this be real?
The thought of Noelle afraid of anything sent me to her side fast, and I wrapped her in my arms, pulled her off the cushions, and swung her around. She entered my embrace willingly, with her head against my chest, arms tucked between us like a little kid seeking comfort.
I reached down, swiped an arm beneath her knees, and brought her all the way into the air. She squeaked, clung to my shoulders, and then giggled again when I lowered us onto the couch together.
Noelle molded into me. Arms around my torso, head pressed to my neck. My hand went to her hair, stayed there. I tangled my fingers in it, just to finally feel it. She relaxed like she belonged.
Forever. I was ready. This was it. Noelle, Lily, and me against the world. I’d have to bring the two knuckleheads with us for a while longer, but they weren’t so bad, and they’d eventually break out on their own. Noelle? Lily? Those were my girls.
But how to say it without sounding like a neanderthal?
And when to say it?
“Cade?”
Noelle straightened, but didn’t go far. I removed my hand from her hair, set it on her leg, the other wrapping around her back. She ran her thumb over my lips in a swipe that was agony. I ached to kiss her again.
“Hmm?”
“What does this mean?”
Her plaintive whisper, almost a plea, struck me. She was scared. More than scared, she sought meaning. Stability. Steadiness. We’d sent each other on a wild course tonight, and it wasn’t lost on me that she sought firm ground.
But there was reality to consider. She had an infant who wasn’t firmly hers yet. I had a failing ranch house, two ranch hands, and hundreds of animals. There was debt, renovations. Rushing into anything wouldn’t benefit either one of us, no matter how massive and powerful the chemistry.
“What do you want it to mean?” I asked. Her palm sprawled against my back, and her touch burned like fire.
She swallowed, and the sound cracked the night like cannon fire. “I want it to mean what you said at the dance hall, and stay there for a little bit. There’s . . . there’s so much already happening . . . we don’t really know each other . . . but . . .”
For a moment, she looked dizzy. I knew exactly what she meant by her fluttering lashes, and a tiny head shake back-and-forth. Our worlds churned with change, but we had found a little pocket of something firm in each other.
I tucked a stray hair out of her eyes, letting my touch linger behind the shell of her ear. Goosebumps swept down her neck near the sensitive skin. If Noelle could put to words what I couldn’t, this would work out just fine.
“You’re saying that we’re together, and that’s all for now. We leave it at that and stay steady?”
Her fingers curled, breath was a whisper.
“Yes.”
I pressed a kiss to her palm. “So it is, Noelle. And we’ll stay there for as long as you need.”
“We’re not just friends?”
I barked a short laugh. “I’ve never kissed a friend like that.”
“And while we’re living together and getting to know each other, I don’t think we should take it beyond this.
” She pressed our foreheads to each other, then kissed me softly on the lips.
Not the hungry, pressured kisses from the relief valve finally toppling, but a quiet promise.
A tenderness. A softness that existed nowhere else in my sharp-angled world.
That was Noelle.
Softness.
A place to land that wasn’t a barn, a saddle, a debt, or a responsibility. Everything about Noelle meant escape.
Understanding what she meant, I wrapped her closer and said against her lips, “No more than this,” in a whispered agreement, “unless I have a ring on your finger.”
I might kiss her at the dance hall, but Cade Code demanded a ring on a finger and a wedding certificate before I’d ask for more than that. The woman had an infant and a world on fire. She didn’t need more to process and think about.
She wrapped her arms more firmly around my neck, deepened the kiss, and sent me into another head-whirling experience that knew no earthly bounds. I could stay here forever, in the empowering place between you’re mine and her lips.
When she reluctantly pulled back, I trapped her and wrapped her from behind. Noelle’s sigh seemed to trail into forever as she fell asleep in my arms.
And I stared at the wall.
Wide awake.
Buzzing with Noelle.