34. For Strong Bones and Also for Fun
Chapter Thirty-Four
For Strong Bones and Also for Fun
Neve
Me:
are you okay?
did you eat dinner?
please tell me you did not just eat dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets with Sera?
I need to know you both got something green into you
Professor Daddy:
I plead the fifth. Sera says, “they’re for strong bones and also for fun.” Also, it’s really sexy that you care about our nutrition.
Me:
she’s not wrong
and of course I do
how was bedtime?
Professor Daddy:
She fell asleep on my chest before I could finish the second dinosaur book. Not to brag, but I think I’m her favorite pillow.
Me:
you’re my favorite pillow too
Professor Daddy:
Stop it.
Me:
never
I miss you
like, a lot, which is kind of embarrassing for a grown woman with her own Netflix password and everything
Professor Daddy:
I miss you too, angel. It’s not forever. I meant that the first time, when you asked me to promise. I promised you then, and I still promise you now - this is not forever.
Me:
are you reading or are you lying on the couch thinking about me?
Professor Daddy:
Yes.
Me:
that’s not an answer
Professor Daddy:
It’s all I’ve got right now, baby girl.
My heart does the thing where it launches into my throat and then sort of pinballs around, looking for somewhere to land. I hug my knees to my chest, grinning at my phone like an idiot.
Me:
I wish you were here
or that I was there
Professor Daddy:
Me too. And not only because I’m starving.
Me:
make some food then?
Professor Daddy:
Not that kind of starving.
Me:
pervert
Professor Daddy:
Only for you.
Me:
are you okay, really?
Professor Daddy:
You already asked me that.
Me:
I know, but I just want to check you’re not putting on a brave face for me
Professor Daddy:
I am. But not just for you. For me too. And for Sera. It’s all I can really do at this point.
I’m okay. I promise. Sera’s happy as a clam and I feel better after talking to you.
Me:
you sure?
Professor Daddy:
Yes, angel. I’m sure.
Me:
good. I’m going to go make tea and try not to text you every sixty seconds
Professor Daddy:
You can text me whenever you want. I’ll always answer.
Me:
you’re going to regret saying that
Professor Daddy:
I could never.
I’m so absorbed in the back-and-forth that the knock at my door makes me physically jolt, and I nearly launch my phone into orbit. I scramble upright, heart in my mouth.
“Who is it?” I call, gunning for the peephole.
“It’s me, little Hart. Let me in,” Cade’s voice echoes through the door. My brow furrows.
I unlock the deadbolt and swing the door open. Cade stands on the threshold, hair damp from the drizzle, jacket casually slung over his shoulder. There’s a bottle in his hand and an amused tilt to his smile.
I arch a brow. “Shouldn’t you be with Grant, plying him with whiskey and manly wisdom?”
The smile turns to a grin. “Manly wisdom isn’t really my thing.”
“Thank God,” I gust out on a laugh. “I’m eternally grateful you’re not the toxic masculinity type.”
He rolls his eyes. “You know your sister would never put up with me if I were.”
I try to picture my sister, queen of the quantified heart, tolerating even a single minute of red-pill bullshit. It’s impossible. The universe would collapse in on itself like a dying star.
I lean in the doorway, arms crossed. “You’re telling me you didn’t go over there at all? No boy therapy?”
Cade snorts. “Yeah, don’t worry, I was just with him,” he says, rolling the words like a coin across his knuckles. “But Sera’s there, of course. He’s in Dad-mode.”
The image makes something twinge in my chest—him sitting alone in that apartment, kid asleep, all the lights off except for a lamp so he can read one of his battered romance novels.
I want to be there, curled up with him, reading my own book.
I want to fix it. But I know there’s no fixing it except just waiting.
“So, now you’re here?” I ask. “Why?”
Cade steps inside, already toeing off his shoes like he owns the place. “Because you need looking after too, little Hart.” The way he says it is so matter of fact.
Cade Aspen, emotional support scoundrel.
I snort. “I do not need looking after. I’m not the one getting dragged through HR hell or fighting my gaslighting harpy of an ex-wife for custody. I’m fine.”
Cade just looks at me, patient. He sets the bottle on the counter and raises his eyebrows. “You want a drink? You know I’ll play bartender if you let me.”
The way he asks is totally unfair—no pressure, just pure, unfiltered Aspen charm. I can see how even someone like my sister, with walls that used to reach into space, would fall for him. I sigh, the fight leaking out of me. “Yeah, please. Something with gin. Or maybe just gin. Surprise me.”
He grins, then checks the fridge. “Have you eaten?”
I roll my eyes. “Yes, sir.”
He shakes his head. “Save that shit for Grant. I don’t need to know your kinks.”
“Actually, I call him Daddy,” I say, deadpan, half-wondering if he’ll actually believe me.
A laugh bursts out of him as he starts sorting through bottles, rifling around in my cabinets like he’s going to find anything other than enamel camping mugs and the one random crystal champagne glass Fia accidentally left here when I moved in.
Actually, I hope he doesn’t find that, or he might take it back, and I like putting my soda in it when I’m feeling fancy.
“Have you talked to Fia?” Cade asks.
“Yeah, of course.” I watch the way his hands move, quick and sure, and it’s weirdly calming. “She called right after Grant dropped me home. Wanted to make sure I wasn’t, you know, about to torch Marie’s place or something.”
“You don’t have to do that, you know.”
I frown. “Do what?”
Cade glances up. “The whole ‘emotionally volatile’ schtick. They can say what they want about you, sure—you don’t have to play into it.”
“I know—”
“You know Fia doesn’t think you’re like that, right?” he cuts me off. “So don’t ascribe that assumption to her. She doesn’t see you that way, the same way you and I don’t see her as cold. We know you, little Hart. Let us know you.”
The bridge of my nose stings. “I know.”
He sighs, pausing for a moment, hand on the counter. “I’m sorry. I know internalization’s a bitch.”
“Sure is,” I mutter.
“You know, Fia told your parents to take a hike after my PhD party.” He goes back to mixing the drinks.
I blink. “Seriously?”
He nods, pouring gin slow and steady. “She cried for, like, an hour after—which freaked me out a little, I’ll admit. Not because I think she’s unfeeling, but because that level of outward expression isn’t really her.”
I huff. “Yeah. Fia’s not much of a crier.”
Cade smiles. “That she’s not. They weren’t sad tears, though.
They were the good, clean kind. Catharsis.
Apparently, it was the first time she’d ever put them in their place about how they treat you both.
” He glances up, and his mouth compresses.
“She said it was because of what Grant said to them. The way he just… called your parents out. Fia told me she never would’ve had the guts if he hadn’t gone first.”
My throat is suddenly tight, all the way down, like I swallowed a rock.
Cade doesn’t say anything more, just continues making our drinks. I pick at the edge of the counter, watching him slice a lemon. The silence isn’t heavy, but it’s not exactly light, either.
“What if I really mess this up for him?” I blurt.
Cade’s hands slow, and he tosses a curl of lemon peel into the glass. I stare at the way it floats, perfect spiral, and try to pretend I’m not the one unraveling.
“I mean,” I forge on, hating myself for needing to say it out loud, “what if I make everything worse? Because of… you know. Marie. Grant says I’m not, but she’s already gone nuclear, and I keep thinking—is this just going to be the thing that finally makes him lose Sera?
What if it’s me? What if I’m the reason? ”
My phone buzzes, shattering my spiral. I glance down, and my heart squeezes so hard it almost hurts. There’s a photo from Grant.
Sera is upside-down in her bed, feet on the pillow, wearing a winter hat that’s about three sizes too big. She looks like a tiny polar astronaut.
Professor Daddy:
When I ask her tomorrow why she did this, she’ll just say because she wanted to.
I bark a laugh, but it comes out wet.
Me:
she’s the absolute sweetest
I literally can’t wait to hang out with her for real
Professor Daddy:
I fear Sera’s chaos vibrates on the same wavelength as yours.
The words hit me right in the chest. I don’t know if I want to laugh or sob. Maybe both. I’m still staring at the screen when a glass lands in front of me, bracing and bright. Cade leans against the counter, smiling expectantly.
“Sorry,” I mumble, cheeks going molten. “I’m, uh, distracted.”
He crosses his arms, blue eyes searching. “You love him, don’t you?”
The question detonates in my chest. I can’t look at him right away. Instead, I focus on the drink—gin, lemon, something sharp and fragrant that makes my eyes sting.
I nod, slow, then force myself to look up. “Yeah. I do. I guess it’s stupid—to get so involved this soon, with the age difference, the whole kid thing, the fact that he’s a professor and I’m a student—but I can’t help it. I just… do.”
Cade’s smile turns to a sad frown. All the mischief is gone, replaced by something so gentle it almost knocks me flat. “Sometimes love is stupid, Neve. Doesn’t make it wrong.”
My phone buzzes again. This time, I just let it rest on the countertop, Grant’s message glowing like a secret. I want to hold onto that feeling for as long as I can, before the rest of the world gets in again.