Chapter 13
Maple
From the moment Cade showed up at my studio asking for forgiveness, I had been watching him carefully, waiting for him to slip up, which would confirm my suspicions that he couldn’t be trusted.
Honestly, I was only expecting him to send me gifts or flowers, or come into my studio after his workday with an apology speech he’d clearly rehearsed.
What I wasn’t expecting was Cade actually going out of his way to show me in his actions what he meant by not giving up.
I had not accounted for that.
Nancy had told me, after the first week, that Cade went straight to work after the morning studio sessions for a full day of meetings, construction sites, and the entire Sonnenberg Industries operation.
And when I first saw him at the community center the other day, I thought he was there because he knew I would come to oversee River’s first day of community service.
But he had been going there every evening. Without telling me he was going.
River came home every night with stories. And every story, his face was different. Lighter. More open. More like the kid he used to be. He was engaged and confident. He had found a friend and a mentor in Cade and that was very evident from the way he spoke about him.
“Cade figured out how to get the proportions right on the bridge section!”
“Cade told Brody that the tree line needed more depth!”
“Cade and I stayed an extra hour because I wanted to finish the copper leaves before the paint dried.”
This is the role model River needed.
I hated that thought every single time it popped into my head in the three weeks that followed the community project evening.
And the foster kids?
Cade had been nothing short of extraordinary with them.
He had been patient in a way I had not anticipated.
I could tell how much the kids loved him by the way they perked up when he was around.
Cade showed no embarrassment whatsoever about being Aurelia, the Keeper of the Autumn Leaves, which was both maddening and impressive, and the kids had responded to it with wild enthusiasm.
They trusted him.
Today, the kids were beaming with excitement because Marcus would be unveiling the final version of the Oak tree that Cade helped him make.
They were all in a circle, keeping a large spot in the middle open.
Marcus and Cade appeared from the back room carrying the large folded tree, and the kids immediately started whispering.
Lots of nudging. Lots of badly contained excitement.
They set it down in the middle of the circle. Slowly, carefully, they opened it up.
The oak tree unfolded branch by branch, rising up in sections. The branches were soft green, tipped with glitter. The leaves were every shade of fall — gold, bronze, copper, deep amber — layered and detailed and absolutely, completely beautiful. It was exactly what I had pictured.
“Cade, will you show Maple the surprise on the leaves?” Bessling was already hopping towards the centre, pointing at the tree. “Blessing!” Devon shouted. “You just ruined the whole surprise! She was supposed to find it herself!”
Blessing’s hands flew to her mouth. Her eyes went enormous. “Oops,” she said, through her fingers. “I spoke too much.”
“It’s okay, baby,” I told her, and looked at Cade.
He opened both arms wide. What can I say.
I went to the tree.
I looked at the leaves up close. Some of them had writing on them. Small, careful handwriting — some neat, some wobbly, all of it clearly done by children with great seriousness of purpose.
I read a few.
I wish for a dog. — Devon.
I wish to meet Beyoncé. — Tia.
I wish for my mum to be better. — Jordan.
I stopped on that one for a second.
Then I found Marcus’s leaf.
I wish to always be Cade’s friend. — Marcus.
I looked up.
Cade was watching me. He was smiling, but quietly.
“It was his idea,” Marcus said. He was using his new voice — the one that had started appearing in the last two weeks, with full sentences, and actual volume. “Cade said we should write wishes on the leaves, because it was a wishing tree afterall. So we all did.”
“And,” Marcus continued, “After the fall performance, Cade said we could ask people from the town to write their wishes on the leaves too. So the whole town gets to use the wishing tree.” He looked at me. “Not just us.”
I stood next to the tree and looked at it. The idea of including the entire town in a community celebration like this was the ideal way to celebrate the fall festival. And Cade thought of this idea?
“We kept a leaf for you,” Cade said. “For your wish.”
I looked at him. “What about you? Don’t you get a wish?”
He smiled. That full, unhurried, genuinely beautiful smile that I was absolutely not thinking about.
“My wish,” he said, “is already being answered.”
The entire class went: “OOOOOOH.”
Eleven children, completely losing their minds about this sentence, nudging each other and giggling and looking between me and Cade. I could feel the heat coming through my cheeks. Cade had his eyes locked on mine and he was giving me his ridiculously attractive smile again.
“Maple, the release forms.” Nancy was at the studio door with a stack of papers I had been meaning to sign since last week. I looked back at Cade.
“Go ahead, Maple. I can run them through a few full rehearsals.” he said.
“Thank you, Cade.” I said and turned around to go into my office, feeling a weird sense of joy and gratitude.
If he truly thought I was just a great fuck and only someone he wants to have a good time with, why was he showing up and actually standing beside me whenever things went south?
Like when I needed a volunteer for the kids, or when I was frantically looking for a replacement for the Autumn Fairy?
Or when River got in trouble? Why did he choose to become River’s guide for the community service project?
If you really thought that the woman you’d been with was just good under the sheets and nothing more, why would you go through so much trouble to correct things with her?
He could have moved on with Sapphire, or anyone else.
In fact, he could have been relieved that I heard everything so he wouldn’t need to go through the trouble of breaking up with me after the good times were done.
But he kept circling back to me and River, apologizing, trying his best to make amends.
He could easily find a replacement for me. Given his looks, his reputation and his wealth, he could get any woman who came without a troubling past, without carrying the social tag of being a pole dancer, any woman without a fourteen year old as part of the package.
Trying to fit the Cade I was seeing now with the Cade who uttered those words about me was making me more confused than ever. Which one of the two Cades was real? His apologies sounded so sincere. His actions were speaking for themselves.
I often circled back to what River said to me that night when we were washing dishes.
“Can you forgive his mistakes? The way you forgave mine?”
Could I? The way he was embedding himself as an irreplaceable part of River’s Life could not be ignored. What he was giving River was immeasurable. His attention. His kindness. His patience. Could that wipe away the two minutes worth of words that came out of his mouth?
He was giving me time too.
Take all the time you need, years, if that’s what it takes. You’ll still find me by your and River’s side.
He didn’t push me to make a decision, he was not impatient, and he never seemed to be fishing for an answer out of me.
He was not trying any tricks to make River like him.
He was not doling out presents to the kids at the dance school.
He was just there, seemingly unwavering in his efforts to make amends.
The harder I looked for an angle, the less I could find one.
“MAPLE.” Blessing’s voice came from the hallway, approximately the volume of a small foghorn.
“We did the whole run-through and we did not make ONE mistake! Not even Devon! Come watch! Please come watch!”
“Sure sweetheart,” I got up and followed her voice to the dance studio.
They were extraordinary.
That was the word for the rehearsal I saw.
Even more so now, watching the full run-through with all the pieces together — the music, the choreography, Marcus’s tree, the kids in their positions, and Cade being lowered through the stage ceiling contraption they’d rigged up in the studio to practice, in the tutu, holding the wand, singing his three lines in a voice that should genuinely not exist.
The kids who had refused to participate for the first two weeks were dancing, and they were dancing well.
They were one unit, with one goal in mind. And in the middle of all of them, descending slowly from the ceiling on his small platform, was Cade Sonnenberg, the richest and most respected man in Chestnut Ridge, in an orange tutu with an acorn hat, singing about autumn leaves.
Completely unbothered.
In many ways, the kids had really found a fairy godmother.
His name was Cade and he wore a size ten women’s ballet flat.
After the rehearsal, I gathered Cade and all the kids and smiled. Maybe it was time to reach back out, and give this one more try.
“Okay,” I said. “Since you were all absolutely incredible today, and since you worked harder than I have ever seen any group work — what would you say if I took you all out for ice cream? I’ve spoken to Shineforth House to arrange for a pick-up for you all at the ice cream parlor.”
The studio became briefly uninhabitable. Eleven children screaming at the same time.
“ICE CREAM—“
“CAN I GET TWO SCOOPS—“
“I WANT THE ONE WITH THE CONE—“
“Are we going RIGHT NOW—“
“Marcus,” Blessing said, grabbing his arm. “Marcus. ICE. CREAM.”
When the noise had leveled to something manageable, Marcus turned to Cade.
“You’re coming too, right?”
Cade looked at me, hesitant, not sure if he was included in the invitation or not. “I’ll let you know in a bit, buddy.” he said.
Marcus agreed and went back to join the other kids.
“The invite was open to you too,” I said.
“Thanks, Maple.” he said, stepping closer to me, “I just didn’t want to assume you wanted me to come.”
“I know you didn’t.” I picked up my bag. “But I want to show my appreciation for all the hard work you have been putting in with the kids here. They would drag you there if they could anyway. I thought we could all have a small reward tonight for all our hard work.”
“I would love to come. Thank you, Maple.” He paused.
“But I know I still have a lot to prove to you. I’m not taking this invitation as a gesture of complete forgiveness, or an all-clear for me.
I know I still have a long way to go to undo the wrong I did.
But I have to say—“ He grinned. “I have never in my life been this excited about ice cream.”
It was decided that the kids would divide themselves among mine, Nancy’s and Cade’s car. Nancy took off with three kids, and I seated four in mine.The remaining four stood next to Cade’s Mercedes Maybach SUV, while he moved his work files into the trunk.
“We are the LUCKY ones,” Devon announced. The entire group seemed to agree.
Cade opened the door to the third row, and we were both helping the kids buckle up from either ends of the row. As Blessing went in to sit in the middle seat, she saw some books occupying the seat. She held them out in front of me.
“Can you please move these away?”
I looked at the three books, and for a second, the whole world froze around me. The Teenage Brain: A Parent’s Guide to Understanding Your Teenager, How to Be a Father Figure: Building Trust with Teens. And the third one— Parenting a Child Who Isn’t Yours: What Every Caring Adult Should Know.
Cade eyes were locked on mine from the other end of the car. He held out his hand and I handed over the books to him. His face, which had been relaxed and happy two seconds ago, was now the color of a tomato.
“When did you get these?” I asked, no longer able to control my curiosity.
He turned even pinkier but kept his eyes locked on mine. “Same day as the fall party,” he said. “At my house.”
I stood still for a minute. He had bought these books on the same day he would later tell Kyle that I was good under the sheets and that’s where I belonged? That made no sense.
I buckled the kids as well as I could in Cade’s car.
As I drove mine to the ice cream place with four children in the back seat, my mind kept circling back to the books.
I decided to think about it later and just enjoy the moment with the kids.
I wanted to make the outing about them, not about me and my relationship. Or the lack of it.
Cade kept giving me the same look as in the car as we ordered our ice-creams, and as we all enjoyed our ice creams under the cool autumn sky.
Cade played a game asking every child what their favorite thing about participating in the fall festival was, and we all laughed when Devon said your tutu skirt.
After the ice cream, we waited outside until David, the foster home coordinator arrived to pick up the kids. Nancy said goodbye and got in her car. And then it was just me and Cade on the sidewalk under the late evening sky.
He walked me to my car and opened the door for me. “Thank you,” he said. “For tonight. For — all of it.” He looked at me. “Drive safe, Maple.”
He closed the door, and I started the car.
In the rearview mirror, I could see him standing on the sidewalk, hands in his pockets, watching me drive away. As I turned the curve I saw him still standing there, looking in my direction.
And then he disappeared. I drove home with the heat on and the radio off.
Which one of the two Cades was real?
I was beginning to think I might be edging toward the answer.
***