Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
Breathe, Jada. Breathe.
I pulled up to Kari’s cream-colored stucco house and looked around nervously before I got out of the car. Everything looked normal. The neighbor lady across the street was watering her bushes, and a teenager a couple of houses down was tossing a basketball through a hoop.
I gave the house a final once-over. The curtains were all drawn, the wooden door closed, the landscaping tidy. Nothing looked out of place.
My heart beat matched my steps stride for stride as I made my way to the door.
Even though none of us had heard from Simon since the incident, I still felt a lot of anxiety when I was alone.
What if he came for me again?
I unlocked the door swiftly and locked it behind me. The security system began beeping, and I disarmed it before tossing my things on the chair by the stairs and making my way over to Kari’s sofa.
I sat down and kicked my feet up on the coffee table, smiling to myself that if my sister was home, she would be going on and on about how unsanitary it was.
I closed my eyes and breathed deeply.
Cane had stayed with me the entire weekend.
He’d seemed as unsure about leaving me as I’d felt about him going.
We had the house to ourselves because Kari worked a couple of shifts and then spent the rest of the weekend at Max’s.
I was worried that it would feel weird because we knew so little about each other.
Despite my concerns, everything was great. Maybe even perfect … until Sunday.
I needed to call my father and explain most of what had happened.
Cane thought we should go see him in person and then drive to his house to stay the night.
I didn’t want to discuss everything with my father in front of Cane.
Moreover, I didn’t want to leave the house.
And staying at Cane’s so soon just seemed like a bad idea. It was too much, too soon.
With Cane in the shower, I had called my dad and told him I had dinner with Simon and that it had ended badly.
Of course he was angry that I had been with Simon at all, thanks to Cane’s phone call.
When I told him I was fairly certain that Simon wouldn’t follow through with the purchase of Solomon Place, he said he had received a phone call Friday afternoon from Simon’s lender.
Dad wasn’t sure what was going on, but Simon’s financial backing had apparently fallen through.
So many things had happened so quickly. As I sat on Kari’s couch, a mixture of emotions rolled through me.
I was still nervous about Simon even though Cane assured me everything would be taken care of.
There was excitement and nervousness about my relationship with Cane.
Even though I was grateful things didn’t end worse with Simon, I was disappointed that I let myself get played by him in the first place.
I looked at the clock, feeling my stomach start to flutter. There was enough time to jump into the shower before Cane came over.
So I made my way upstairs to change out of my work clothes, a silly grin breaking across my face as my phone chirped.
Cane: Be ready in an hour. Wear the orange dress.
Me: What if I have plans?
Cane: You don’t.
Me: Maybe I do.
Cane: Cancel them.
I laughed at my phone, thinking up a response while another text from him came through.
Cane: It doesn’t matter. I will be there in 57 minutes. Be ready.
Me: What if I’m not here?
Cane: You will be.
Me: A bit arrogant, wouldn’t you say?
Cane: I’ve been called worse.
Me: You’re impossible.
Cane: 55 minutes. Time is ticking.
I smiled and headed for the shower.
Fifty minutes later, I was standing in the kitchen when I heard the doorbell ring. My heart began to race as I made my way toward the door.
“Who is it?” I called, standing on my tiptoes to see through the peephole.
“There better only be one man coming to take you out tonight,” Cane said from the other side.
He was standing on the doorstep, looking more handsome than I had ever seen him. A tight black shirt stretched across his broad shoulders, a white T-shirt peeking out of the bottom. His hands were shoved in the pockets of dark jeans and he wore white sneakers.
He looked young, carefree, and divine.
I smoothed out my dress before popping open the door. Cane slowly removed his sunglasses from his face when he saw me.
“Hi, beautiful girl.”
He reached out, his fingertips lightly touching my skin right below my ear, sending shivers down my spine. He slowly let them drift down my neck, and a wave of goose bumps followed in their wake. He took a step forward through the threshold.
“I told you that you would be here,” he whispered in my ear. I leaned my neck over to give him access. He stood and laughed. “Come on. You look beautiful and we have places to be.”
“Where are we going?” I was curious about what he had planned. We had never been anywhere together, and he had told me he didn’t normally take women to dinner.
“You’ll see.”
This should be interesting.
I grabbed my purse, set the alarm, and then shut and locked the door behind me. Cane held the door to his black Denali open, and I stepped inside the cool, clean cab.
He got in beside me and grabbed his sunglasses out of the front of his shirt, sliding them over his eyes. He smiled sexily, threw the car into reverse, and jetted through the neighborhood until he hit the exit for the freeway.
“Holy hell, Cane,” I cried as he zipped through the traffic. “You’re going to kill me. Stop. Seriously. Or I won’t get back in here ever again, I swear to you.”
Cane threw his head back and laughed. “Well, being as we just got on the same page, I’ll behave.
It’s too soon to have you threatening to leave me.
” He slowed to a more agreeable speed and turned on the radio where Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock sang about pictures.
I relaxed back in the seat, watching the cacti fly by, feeling entirely at peace and reveling in it.
“How was your day?” I asked.
“I got a lot of shit done if that’s what you mean. How was your day?”
I sighed. “It was good, I guess. I wasn’t quite as productive as you, apparently. I just still feel so, I don’t know. Off, maybe. At least when I’m alone.”
He scowled. “I hate that you feel that way, baby. I wish I could do something to show you that everything is okay.” He reached across the console and grabbed my hand, running his thumb over my knuckles.
“When I’m with you, I believe that. But for some reason, when we’re apart—”
“I get it. I feel the same way.” The corner of his lips turned up in a grin. “It’s fucking crazy, but with you, I feel really … centered? I don’t know what word to use. I just feel like everything is in focus when we’re together. I can concentrate at work. I know what needs to be done.”
Warmth blossomed in my chest. “I know what you mean.”
“Crazy, right?”
I nodded.
We rode in silence for a while, Cane stroking my hand before linking our fingers together.
Finally, Cane turned south toward the mountains, and I became curious. I held my tongue until I couldn’t take it anymore. “Where are we going?” Everything you would traditionally consider as date material was getting farther and farther behind us.
“Patience is a virtue,” Cane said.
“A virtue I’m lacking.”
“That’s okay,” Cane said, pulling into a little parking lot. “We’re here.”
We were on the outskirts of the city next to a cantina, as the sign described.
It was a small stucco building, the size of a large bedroom, with a metal roof and tiny overhang where you could walk up to place your order.
Picnic tables were scattered around the structure beneath the massive palm trees and other makeshift tables with hay bales as seats.
White lights were strung haphazardly around, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
This was so quaint, so random, and not at all what I expected. And I loved it.
I looked at Cane, curious, silently asking him if he wanted to explain. He shrugged and tucked his sunglasses into the front of his shirt before shoving his hands into his pockets. He almost looked embarrassed.
Puzzled, I reached out, took his hand, and gave him a soft smile. I loved seeing this other side of him that I was sure very few people got to see.
He looked at the ground and toed a rock. “I grew up out here and used to come here all the time when I was a young boy.”
The image of a young Cane with bright-blue eyes flashed through my mind.
“The city didn’t come out nearly this far,” he said, his eyes soft in the setting sun. “It was really quiet out here. I would walk over here all the time for dinner.”
He looked over and waved at the older lady behind the counter. Her face lit up like the sun. “Dad wasn’t much of a cook, so she”—he nodded at the lady—“did a lot of our cooking.”
The lady excitedly motioned for us to come to the counter, and Cane blushed. “This place is as close to home as I can ever take you. I don’t know why I brought you here. I just thought, I don’t know, maybe you’d like it.” He smiled hopefully.
“I love it, Cane. This is perfect.”
We made our way up to the stand, and the old woman’s smile grew. She leaned over the counter and kissed both of Cane’s cheeks. “?Mijo, como estàs?” she asked, beaming at Cane.
Cane smiled back, obviously very fond of the lady in front of him. “Bueno. I’m good, Abuelita. This is Jada,” he said, nodding at me. “Jada, this is Mrs. Munoz.”
We smiled at each other and I was unsure what to say. My Spanish was horrible and I wasn’t sure if she spoke English.
“?Como estàs, Abuelita?”
“Ah, bien, bien. Sentarse,” she said, nodding at the seats. “Voy a la comida.”
“Do you want to sit at a table or a hay bale?” Cane asked, his eyes dancing with laughter.
“Well, the hay bale does look inviting, but in this dress, I’m not so sure.” I laughed. “Why did you ask me to wear this if you knew we were coming here?”
“I love that dress on you,” he said quietly. “I won’t apologize for that.”