Chapter Nine
CADE
I took my grandmother to one of the best Italian restaurants in the city.
"I missed this place," she said, looking around.
My grandmother usually spoke with fervor.
She did everything that way, but today she was even more full of energy.
"I can't believe you and Meredith already found your way to each other.
It was all I wanted for the two of you, even when you were in high school. "
I stopped cutting my pepperoni pizza. This was news to me.
Grandmother was eating cannelloni and had taken a bite when I responded, "All I remember from high school was you lecturing me about not getting expelled."
Her eyes dimmed as she swallowed and said, "Of course you’d remember that because it was the worst time of your life."
She was right. High school had been a blur of parties and living the good life, right until it all took a nosedive. First with Dad leaving and then Mom getting sick. Come to think of it, I couldn't remember anything from those years except how angry I was at the whole world.
"To be quite honest, I'm glad you and Meredith didn't have anything going on back then," she said. "There was no way it would've lasted. You were on a self-destructive path."
"That's a bit dramatic," I said, continuing to cut my pizza.
Antonio, the owner, came back with a bottle of red wine. "Signora Whitley, some more Montepulciano for you?" He spoke with a fake Italian accent. He was Spanish.
She nudged her glass. "Yes, please. I've hidden all my bottles at home. I'll have to dine out more often."
"What do you mean, you've hidden the bottles?" I asked.
"The doctor insists your grandfather shouldn't drink, and I don't want to tempt him."
My grandparents' relationship never ceased to amaze me.
They were the "poster grandparents" for a long and happy marriage.
How had my father fucked it up so badly?
Was it a conscious choice he made? Of course it was, but sometimes I wondered if there was something wrong deep in his DNA. Had he passed it on to us?
"I think I'll have some dessert too. The doctor said he should cut back on sugar, and that was my one saving grace. Whenever he got grumpy, I baked for him."
It dawned on me for the first time that Grandmother truly hadn't come here for a reason. She just needed to get out of the house and do all the things she couldn’t do with Grandfather, fearing he’d fall ill again.
In a split second, I decided to change my plans for the evening.
"What time does Grandfather expect you home?"
"I told him I might stay out for a bit. A friend is visiting him, someone from the office who’s also retired. They’ll talk for hours."
"Would you accompany me to a play?"
Grandmother beamed widely. “Can we go to my old theater?”
“Of course. That was the plan.”
"Are you sure? Don't you have anything lined up this evening?"
"No, I don't, and besides, I would cancel anything for a chance to spend some time with my grandmother.
" She’d been an actress for nearly sixty years before deciding she couldn't keep up with the pace of the stage anymore.
In her honor, the theater kept two tickets reserved in the Whitley name for every show they booked.
"That would be lovely."
"I'll make all the arrangements," I said.
After lunch, I instructed my assistant to get me the tickets.
My grandmother spent the rest of the day shopping, and we arrived at the theater at six o’clock.
The John Druitt Nash Theater was a small venue downtown, but it had a very loyal clientele.
I especially liked that they treated my grandmother like a queen.
"I haven't been here in two years," she said, looking around the lobby, probably trying to see what’s new.
Fuck me, we're bad grandsons. I was going to have a chat with my brothers so one of us could take her out once a week, or at least offer to.
"Come on, let's go in. This musical is one of my favorites," she added.
Musicals were the bane of my existence, but there wasn't much I wouldn't do for my grandmother. Being here gave me a flashback to my teenage years. Had I truly been down a dark hole when I was a teen the way she'd described? I remembered the rage but nothing else.
Well, that wasn't true. I remembered Meredith as well. I spent the entire show thinking about her, trying to figure out a way to see her outside of the competition’s events and meetings.
Before I even realized it, the show was over, and Grandmother and I were heading out of the theater to my BMW. It was ten o’clock in the evening when I dropped her off at home, and Grandfather was waiting up to make sure everything was okay.
Afterward, I started to drive back home but changed my mind and headed to my old high school.
I couldn't say why. Maybe my grandmother had stirred something in my brain.
When I arrived, I parked next to the main entrance.
There were two lampposts at each side of the gate.
Only one was working. The whole street was dark, and on instinct, I decided to call the one person who was my rock at the time—Meredith.
"Hey," she answered.
"Hey. Guess where I am."
"If you say you're outside my bedroom window, ready to throw stones, I'm going to be creeped out because you shouldn't know my address." She made me laugh, and it felt good. Those teen years were tough, and I’d missed out on a lot by being so angry at everything. I knew that now. But everyone went through something, right? We learned and moved on. That’s what life was all about.
"I'm at the high school."
"Oh? What are you doing there?"
"I don't know."
"I haven't been there in a long time, even though I live just a few blocks away. How does it look?"
"Dark," I said. "But it's still the same layout. I can even see the backyard where we used to sneak a smoke."
"You smoked, not me. I just lectured you," she reminded me.
"True. I never could tempt you with that."
"Tempt me? I was sure you were going to give yourself lung cancer. Remember, I was the nerd."
I remembered it like yesterday. She was so concerned that I’d get sick. She was always like that. Meredith always cared.
"I need to see you," I said.
"Right now?" Her voice sounded strained.
"Yeah."
"Well, I am close to the high school. You could drop by. " She sounded nervous, but she didn’t say no, and that was a good thing.
My phone buzzed with an incoming message; she'd sent her address to me. Did she need to see me just as badly? I flipped it to my phone’s GPS and realized she was only five minutes away. I kept the phone on speaker as I drove.
"Okay, I'm almost there," I said when I turned onto her street.
"Really? Oh my God. Okay, um, I need to make myself decent."
"Don't trouble yourself on my account," I responded. I’d love to see a discombobulated Meredith; I was sure she’d look adorable.
"Cade!" She sounded half exasperated, half excited.
I parked right in front of her building.
Getting out of the car, I noticed a few stones at the base of an oak tree that gave me an idea.
I picked small ones, glancing up at the second floor.
There were lights on in all the windows.
I saw her silhouette at the second window and threw one stone.
Nothing happened after the first one, so I threw two more until she opened the window.
"Cade!”
“You mentioned something about throwing stones.”
“I'll let you in right away. Just call number 12," she said. Even that glimpse of her at the window was enough to cause a stirring in my jeans and a tug in my chest.
She disappeared from view, and I walked up the stairs to the front door, pressing the button next to “Apartment 12.” She answered quickly.
“Second floor.” She sounded breathless.
“I know.”
The buzzer went off the next second, and I pushed the door open. A couple people were waiting for the elevator, so I took the stairs.
At the second floor, I immediately saw her door. It was slightly open.
“Meredith,” I said, walking toward it with determined steps.
She opened it wider.
"Cade," she muttered. She was wearing a robe but was fully clothed underneath, at least from what I could tell. I barely kept my hands from reaching out and pulling her closer to me.
I stepped inside.
“So… the high school, huh?" she asked. "Were you in the area, and that’s what made you visit the school?"
"Not really. I went with Grandmother to a musical."
Her eyes bulged. "You hated musicals in high school."
"I still do."
"Not much you wouldn't do for your grandmother, huh?" Meredith looked pleased with me, and for some reason, that made my whole day.
"Damn straight."
"Including pretending that her matchmaking was successful."
I looked straight at her. "I don't regret it. And I'm not sorry about the kiss either."
Her chest was rising and falling rapidly. Suddenly, all I could think about was pulling off her robe.
"Neither am I," she murmured.
I closed the distance between us, stepping right into her personal space. She'd put a spell on me, and I was a goner.
"Tell me you want it to happen again," I said, putting a hand on her cheek. I wasn't brushing her lips, not yet.
"Cade. This is… It feels very sudden."
"It is, but I don't want to overthink any of this."
"Don't you? I thought flirting was your territory." Her tone was teasing, but I knew she was serious. I couldn't even tell how I knew.
Her chest was rising and falling even quicker now. I was a flirt. I wasn’t serious about women. So why was I after her? I knew she wanted an explanation. I didn't have one. I couldn't make sense of things at all.
The sound of a phone ringing broke the silence.
"Oops, that's my phone." She took it out of her pocket.
"Take it," I said.
She brought it to her ear. "Hey," she said, walking away from me. "Sure. Yeah. Oh, you're already… How many minutes do you need?" She looked up at me, panicked. "Yeah, of course you can. No problem."
The second she closed the phone, I moved next to her again. "Who was that?"
She narrowed her eyes. "I don't like that tone of voice.”
“Meredith! You're seeing someone?"
“Why would you jump to that conclusion?" she asked defensively.
"Who else would come uninvited this late into the evening?"
“I don't know, someone like you?"
"I mean it." Fucking hell, I was jealous. I couldn't believe it.
"It's my sister. She’s going to spend the night with me.”
"Is she okay?"
"Yeah. Her husband is working out of town this weekend, and she doesn’t like to be alone at night. So I'm pampering her a bit."
I groaned. She grinned. "Your plan is being thwarted again?"
"What are you doing tomorrow?" My voice sounded raspy. I cleared my throat.
"Tomorrow I'm leaving for a weekend trip with Everly."
I dropped my head back. "Jesus.”
Meredith looked at the clock on the wall, then said, "You have to go now."
"You're kicking me out?"
"Cade, if she sees you here, she's going to ask questions, and I don't have answers."
"Meredith, I want to see you when you're back."
"I want to see you too. Now go, go, go."
Chuckling, I walked out the front door, straight to the elevator. Sunday couldn't come soon enough.