Chapter Six
“Where are we going?”
He glanced across the truck’s dark interior and grinned. Hell if he knew, but staying at Tucker’s farm to play paintball wasn’t happening. Not after she’d just come apart in his arms so amazingly, and he couldn’t stop thinking about watching it again and again.
“You’re not going to put us in a ditch, are you? You look like you’re somewhere else.”
“I’m good.” Admitting he was still back on the paintball course, feeling her nails sink into his skin, her body curled into him like her legs were going to give out any second, probably wasn’t a good idea. Especially when his back tire did rim the edge of the ditch.
“How did you get that bruise?” She slid closer, her fingers lightly probing the side of his neck.
The touch was meant to be innocent, but she might as well have stuck her hand straight down his pants.
“That wasn’t from—”
“Your ambush?” He shook his head, laughing. “Ethan shot me earlier. Accidental discharge, or so he said.”
“Does it hurt?”
Not a goddamn thing on his body could hurt with her fingers tenderly brushing his skin like that. “It’ll heal. What about you? Any war wounds?”
“I think I took a good hit to the back of my left shoulder but other than that I came out pretty unscathed. Not like poor Travis.”
“He probably looked worse than he felt.”
“Ethan didn’t look too bad.”
“Before or after Scottie cornered him today?”
Angel laughed. “Good point. Although after the water stunt, he deserved what he got.” She realized she was still rubbing his neck and dropped her hand back to her lap.
If he wasn’t already distracted by the images replaying in his head, he would have told her not to stop.
“Did your brother say anything about what happened with him and Scottie by the river?”
“No.”
Angel sighed. “Scottie wouldn’t talk about it either.”
“They’ll work it out.” Or wind up killing each other trying.
She shifted to face him. “How do you know?”
“For as long as I can remember, they’ve been crazy about each other.” Emphasis on the crazy part in particular lately.
Angel fiddled with the pocket on the side of her cargo pants. “Sometimes it’s not that simple.”
“Relationships are as complicated as you make them.”
“And you prefer yours short and uncomplicated,” she said, sneaking him a quick glance.
He inwardly cringed remembering all too well their first conversation at the Come Again. “I haven’t been in a relationship for seven years.”
“What happened?”
“She didn’t measure up, and I took too damn long to realize it.” He waited for Angel to ask who his girlfriend hadn’t measured up to, but she seemed too absorbed in the passing scenery.
He sensed her withdrawing from him, and after what just happened when they should have been playing paintball, he wasn’t letting anything come between them. Not tonight.
“Are you afraid of heights?”
She shot him a curious look. “No,” she answered hesitantly.
“Good.” He managed to score a parking spot not too far from the town square. “Come on.”
“Now?” She ran her hands through her hair in an adorably self-conscious way that pulled at him. “I’m a disaster.”
He closed his door and walked around to hers, holding it open. “It’s almost Halloween, remember? It doesn’t matter what anyone is wearing.”
The expression on her face said she wasn’t quite buying it. She reached up to check the mirror, but he grabbed her hand and tugged her out of the truck.
“You look amazing. Really,” he added, needing her to believe that, believe that no one had ever blindsided him the way she had with that smile and those eyes… And if he didn’t get a hold of himself, he’d be dragging her back into the truck to finish what they’d started at Tucker’s farm.
Her cheeks flushed, and he made a mental note to tell her that at least a dozen more times tonight. Whoever she’d dated before clearly hadn’t spent enough time telling her how gorgeous she was since she kept blushing whenever she heard it.
“Let’s go.” He laced his fingers through hers and led her up the street, the sounds of music and voices growing louder as they reached the square.
He stopped for a bag of cotton candy on the way to the Ferris Wheel, relieved that the line wasn’t long at all.
Twice, he caught her rubbing at some of the dried paint on her cheek while they waited for their turn, and she laughed and dropped her hand each time. “I can’t help it.”
“Nobody cares if you have paint on your face. Down here might be a different story,” he teased, tracing the neckline of her T-shirt.
They’d both tossed their long sleeve ones in the back of the truck. They should have been colder considering it was late October, but neither of them shivered in the cool evening breeze.
The guy running the ride motioned them forward to get on.
Angel slid across the seat to make room for him. “I haven’t been on a Ferris Wheel since I was thirteen and threw up all over my brother’s feet.”
He made a big production of moving his boots out of range. “I thought heights didn’t bother you.”
“They don’t. Motion sickness,” she explained, “And at the time we had just finished back to back rides on the Scrambler and some spinning teacup ride, and my brother Bryce got to deal with the fallout.”
“And you’re telling me this now?” The guy moved them back while the next people in line climbed on and took their seats.
“Yeah, so no rocking the buggy.”
He laughed. “Fair enough.”
The ride started to move and they crested the top, looking down on Sapphire Falls all decked out to celebrate Halloween. Angel squeezed his hand and made a sound halfway between a nervous squeal and a giggle.
He’d never been so glad he hadn’t left Sapphire Falls as he was right now. If he had, if his life had played out as he’d envisioned it years ago, he would have missed out on this moment with her.
He pointed to where people milled around, some in costume, sipping hot cider. “That’s where I saw Wild Thing for the first time. She was wearing this black T-shirt with a big pink skull on it and had this necklace that I could have sworn glowed. Probably just a trick of the light,” he added.
The seconds ticked off in his head as he felt her watching him. He willed her to say something, anything, about Wild Thing.
She remained quiet for a long moment then reached over and ran her thumb across his bottom lip. “You’ve got cotton candy on your face.”
“Yeah?” Disappointment settled heavy in his stomach, and he ignored it by stuffing another piece of the sugary treat in his mouth. He turned to face her. “Ever been kissed on a Ferris Wheel before?”
“No.”
“You’re about to be,” he warned, cupping her nape and drawing her to his mouth.
Her lips parted eagerly beneath his, and what started out as a distraction from wanting—needing—her to be honest with him, quickly snowballed into something so much bigger, so much hotter, than all the things she wasn’t saying.
Because the way she kissed him, one hand over his heart like they had a thousand missed moments to make up for, told him everything he needed to know.
For now.
* * *
“You really have a thing for the woods, don’t you?” Angel mused, a short while later.
She’d followed him around the square and then down a few side streets before he’d left the town behind for a field that gradually gave way to thick trees and a heavily trodden path.
“Do you trust me?”
She nodded, not even sure how it was possible to trust someone so much when they’d spent less than 72 hours together in total, and that included their night in the woods. “Is this the way you walked home the night you broke your leg?”
“Yeah, but I had a good amount of Booze in my system at the time, so it felt like I was walking forever.”
They continued along in silence for a few minutes, the bright moon making it easy to see the path. Her hands itched to capture the silvery glow on the branches overhead, bring them to life in another place for others to see and appreciate.
Cade stepped over a large root, and she noticed him favoring his leg a little bit.
“Does your leg still bother you?”
“Not very often. It’s a little sore from paintball, although diving over the bar the other day didn’t help either.”
She winced remembering how fast he’d skidded across the counter and dropped down behind it. “So when you’re not delivering pumpkins, setting up hay bale mazes and zombie paintball courses, or trying to lure me into the woods, what else do you do?”
“The farm keeps me pretty busy even though my parents still do a lot. They’re starting to slow down a little these days. I keep telling them they should go buy an RV and see more of the country, and they just keep saying someday.”
“What about you, do you want to see more of the country?”
“More of the whole world.” He snagged a piece of tall grass, picking at the tip as he walked. “That was the plan once upon a time, but if I’d been out exploring the world, I wouldn’t have burst into the Come Again the other day.” He stopped. “I wouldn’t have met you. Or witnessed just how horrible your aim is,” he tacked on.
She took a playful swing at him and kept walking. They chatted more about his growing up on a farm and her being a city girl, and what places they both looked forward to seeing someday.
Angel started wondering how far they’d walked when she finally glimpsed the lake through the trees. “Not worried about the spiders coming this way?”
He shuddered. “You had to bring that up, didn’t you?”
They came to a fork in the path.
“It’s that way to your grandmother’s and this way to my place.”
She glanced back and forth, wondering how far off the path she’d been when he’d spotted her using her magic. If she’d thought for a second there might have been anyone around to see her, she would never have risked exposing herself like that.
She hadn’t even realized the path went around the whole lake and into the woods until Cade came along. Anyone else would have seen her and the bursts of magic and taken off, but not him. Cade had called out, she bolted, and he followed.
“So left?” Cade asked, slipping his arms around her waist and drawing her back against him. “Or right?” His fingers skirted the hem of her shirt, sliding up across her abdomen, lazily drifting across her skin.
There wasn’t anything lazy about her body’s reaction to his touch, though, and she turned in his arms. “You don’t live with your parents, do you?”
“Don’t worry, they always knock before they come into my bedroom. Kidding,” he tacked on. “I have my own place down the road from them, similar to your grandmother’s.”
She turned in the direction of his place, letting her actions speak for themselves. “There’s nothing wrong with close. I’ve lived in my parent’s guest house for years. It was easier when I traveled for work and didn’t have to worry about getting a neighbor to water my plants or feed my cat.”
“You have a cat?”
“Cyclops,” she clarified. “He only has one eye. My mom looks after him for me, but I’ll have to figure something else out when my apartment is ready next week.” The apartment that had led to the fight with her father and her trip here. “My father wants to keep me close, but I need…” she trailed off, still a little unsure of what she wanted.
“Something more,” Cade provided. “I get it.”
Of course he would. He’d wanted more for his life and if it hadn’t been for her, he might have gotten the opportunity. She’d always known she screwed up that night, but never realized how much of an impact she caused. God, maybe she should have insisted he take her back to her grandmother’s after all.
“I used to be afraid of the dark,” he said, taking her hand and lacing his fingers through hers. “I would wake up drenched, looking for a hand to hold on to. I was nineteen and sleeping with a nightlight.”
Her heart ached for the boy he’d been. “But the dark doesn’t bother you now?”
He tugged until she stopped and faced him. “Not with you here.” He took a step toward her, then another.
“If you start kissing me now we won’t stop.” And it would silence the voice warning her to tread carefully. The voice she’d ignored that night in the woods that affected both their lives. If she ignored it again and they both wound up hurt because of it, she’d never forgive herself.
He lifted his gaze from where he ran his thumb across the top of her hand. “Maybe I won’t want us to stop.”
“And the spiders?” she teased.
Cade groaned and pulled her after him. “I’d scoop you over my shoulder for that comment if we wouldn’t end up in the bushes.”
Angel laughed, watching the ground for roots to be sure they didn’t end up there anyway. Cade might know the terrain, but she was still in unfamiliar territory, in more ways than one she mused when they came around the other side of the lake and she spotted the porch light through the trees.
The point of no return. If she took another step she was putting her faith in the part of her that knew there wasn’t anything more right than being with Cade, and if she was wrong…
Cade jogged up the stairs ahead of her, digging his keys from his pocket. He glanced over his shoulder, watching her without saying a word, as if he knew the decision she was wrestling with.
And suddenly it was like she was right back in the woods that night, unable to leave him. She walked up the steps, and the smile that lit up his face stopped her heart in her chest.
He opened the door and flicked on a light, then bent to collect some stuff off the floor. “The place is a little messy.”
She took the pile from his hand and tossed it on the floor behind her. “I don’t care what shape the place is in.”
He ran the back of his hand down her cheek. “Okay then.” He crouched, first unlacing her boots, then leaving her to step out of them and peel off her socks while he removed his own. “First stop, the bathroom. You’ve got paint everywhere,” he explained.
She gave him a horrified look. “Everywhere? We were just at the festival.”
“And?”
“And I was a wreck.” And he definitely should have mentioned just how much earlier.
“A beautiful wreck,” he corrected, and she growled at him. He laughed. “I figured you’d be used to being covered in paint.”
“Sure, when I’m working. I prefer to be cleaned up when I leave the house.” She moved to check her reflection in the mirror, but he beat her to it.
He turned her around and motioned for her to sit on the edge of the tub. “Take a seat.”
“You’re kinda bossy.”
He gave her a long, hungry look. “You have no idea.”
Heat zipped up the inside of her thighs and settled into a delicious ache that made her want to squeeze her legs together.
Cade ran a cloth under hot water, then sat beside her on the edge of the tub. He tipped her face up, dabbing at the dried paint on her cheek.
Angel didn’t say anything, just watched his face as he carefully wiped away the dirt and paint, his fingers tense and tender at the same time, like he was forcing himself to take his time and it was killing him.
Eventually satisfied, he set the cloth aside, then drew her shirt up over her head. He ran his thumb along her collarbone and down her shoulder. Goosebumps broke across her skin in the wake of his touch.
“You’re cold.” He moved to rise.
She stopped him. “I’m fine. Really. Keep going.” She lifted his hand, guiding it back to her shoulder.
His gaze left hers, and he retrieved the cloth, drawing it down the side of her neck. He retraced his steps, sliding his fingers through the now wet paint and smearing it across the front of her shoulder in a circular design.
He moved on to the next paint spot, but instead of wiping it away, he transferred it to his fingers and painted the color in a different area. “I can see why you like being an artist,” he murmured.
She let her eyes drift shut as he continued to paint her skin, first down the side of her arm, then across the top of her breast. “The paintings I do don’t feel like this.”
“They should.” He lowered his mouth to hers, sinking into a kiss so slow she barely felt his lips move against hers, the feather-light sensation downright intoxicating.
She barely leaned into the kiss, seeking more, when he left her mouth to claim her neck, her shoulder…
He pulled away with an exaggerated choking sound and stood, turning to leave.
She grabbed his hand. “Where are you going?”
“To tell Hailey that when she organizes the zombie versus slayer tournament next year she needs to use ammunition that tastes a hell of a lot better than this stuff.”
Laughing, she followed him to the door. “She probably wasn’t counting on anyone eating it.”
“Then she clearly forgot what town she lives in.” He turned without warning and scooped her over his shoulder, using one hand for balance to get them down the hall.
She could barely breathe from laughing and being jostled around on his shoulder and was grateful when he set her back on her feet moments later.
She made note of the massive bed and rumpled sheets, but the rest of the details in the room became unimportant when she focused her attention entirely on him. “You still have your shirt on.”
“I’m also still covered in paint.” He snagged one of the belt loops on her pants and reeled her in.
She pushed up on her tiptoes, getting close to his ear. “Hope you won’t be too disappointed, but I’m not licking it off your body. I’ve heard it tastes awful.”
He growled, but she’d already stepped back, hooking her thumbs under his shirt and drawing it up over his head. She noticed the bruise just below the hollow of his throat. “You really got hurt today.” She drew a circle around the blue-black spot, remembering just how much some of the hits she’d taken today had stung.
“Maybe you should kiss them better.”
Angel took a step into him, getting close to the hard body radiating a warmth she wanted to curl into. She gently opened her mouth over the injury, felt him go completely still. She kissed another spot, then another, slowly circling him to make sure she didn’t miss any of them.
Cade remained rigid, his hands at his sides. Clearly, she hadn’t tested his control enough.
She dragged her thumb across his belt, pulling the end back through the loop. He held still, watching her every move like nothing else on earth was as important as this. Empowered, she kept going, running a hand up his chest while she tugged the belt completely free.
A faint smile teased his lips, the fire in his eyes encouraging her not to slow down for a second. His abs bunched under her fingers as she followed the faint dusting of hair to below his navel. The snap of his pants gave way easily, and she traced the zipper, dragging her nail along the metal teeth.
He finally moved, lifting a hand to catch the strap of her bra. He slid his thumb and forefinger back and forth across the material and then finally peeled it down.
Oh no.
He’d had his fun with the paint, and he wasn’t distracting her again with that amazing mouth of his, not yet. Not when she hadn’t been given enough opportunity to touch him. He’d have her breasts free in two seconds if she let him and then she’d be a goner, a slave to the lips and tongue she was already imagining working her over.
She didn’t waste any time pulling his zipper down and sliding his pants over his hips, slowly. With the last of his protective gear at his feet, she could focus on just how turned on he was.
There was no hiding the hard length jutting toward her, the head smooth, inviting her to wrap her fingers around him. Holding his gaze, she slid her palm underneath, cupping the taut sac, grazing the underside of his cock with the back of her fingers on the way by.
Cade rolled forward on the balls of his feet, pushing himself into her hand.
She bit her lip and shuttled her hand up and down, base to tip, slow, soft and loving every second of it. She lured him to the edge of the bed, lowering herself onto the mattress and getting into the perfect position.
Cade’s eyes flared, his breath catching as she bent and pulled him into her mouth.
* * *
She’d cast a spell on him.
One feverish, mindless spell and she was making it happen with a greedy mouth that was working him in all the right ways. Slow, teasing pulls and urgent pumps that left her lips sliding all the way up to the tip of his cock, and the scorching in between where she couldn’t decide whether to take him deep or let him barely push into her mouth.
And then she’d start the whole fucking amazing experience all over again.
Christ, he was on fire. There wasn’t a part of him that wasn’t burning up. The carnal way she went down on him was the exquisite equivalent to dumping a gallon of gasoline on flames that were already out of control.
She caressed the underside of his cock, the tips of fingers sliding beneath his balls and making him groan. He would never last if she—
Her fingers wrapped around him, and he stopped thinking, stopped breathing, his lungs constricting and he didn’t care if he ever got oxygen again.
She pumped her hand, drawing him between her lips, pushing and pulling him into her lush mouth, and the pleasure was building too fast.
“Angel,” he hissed, sinking his hands into her hair.
He didn’t have to move her faster or slower, the whole thing was perfect. Hot and wet and absolutely fucking perfect. He wanted to let go, lose himself entirely by sliding faster between her lips, spill across the tongue that was about to shatter him into a thousand burning pieces.
He couldn’t stop from rocking his hips, thrusting a little harder, slipping deeper. He wanted the release spinning tighter, the fierce core of it dragging itself along every nerve ending between his heart and the balls of his feet.
Fuck.
And when she looked up at him with sleepy, lust-drugged eyes, he wrenched himself away from her. She reached out to draw him back, and he caught her hand before she destroyed him completely.
Ten seconds was all it took to peel her clothes off. He wasn’t even guaranteeing they were going to make it to the floor intact, but she wasn’t protesting and he’d replace whatever he had to.
Pink-tipped hair brushed the dark nipples that begged for his mouth. She ran her hand down between them as if she knew the move would drive him even closer to the edge. If he could make a sound past the throat locked tight with need, he would have told her he was already so far past the edge he couldn’t even see it anymore.
He didn’t take his eyes off her as he snagged protection from the drawer beside the bed. He sat on the edge of the bed, ready and needing her in ways he couldn’t even let himself contemplate right now.
He didn’t have to coax her to him. She was sliding into his lap before he’d brushed her hair out of the way to curl his tongue around her nipple and suck her into his mouth.
Angel clutched his shoulders and leaned back, offering herself to him, and he didn’t have a fucking clue why the universe thought he deserved the amazing woman in his arms, but he’d take it, take her, and pray he wouldn’t lose her again.
Wet heat grazed his thigh, and he nipped her skin. He wasn’t done teasing her with his tongue, laving the puckered tips and every inch between them, but he needed to be inside her.
He had all night to trace her curves with his fingers, to watch her back arch when he nipped her skin, turning it a faint pink before he soothed it with his tongue. All damn night.
“Please,” she whispered against his lips.
He fit his cock against her, loving the feel of being snug against all that damp softness. He gripped her hips, bringing her down and lifting to sink all the way inside her.
His breath skidded sideways, and he bit her shoulder, holding her in place while he tried to figure out how he was getting through the next thirty seconds without losing his damn mind.
“I know.” Her voice was a caress that wrapped around his backbone. She flexed her hips, rocking down slow when he relaxed his grip. “I know.”
Watching her face, those freckles, her cheeks flushed, her lips parted in a silent O that echoed in his bones… God, she was beautiful.
He didn’t know if she moved faster, or if he pulled her hips harder toward him, but they moved into a fierce rhythm. Each time she slid down his cock, rubbing hard, her breasts rising in a gentle bounce, he was sure he was going to come. And each time she rose up, moving away from him, he sank his fingers into her skin and jerked her back down, getting as deep as he could.
“Angel,” he said, seizing her mouth in a ravenous kiss that would probably obliterate his control.
Her tongue skimmed across his, and she pulled his bottom lip into her mouth, sucking hard.
Fuck.
She rode him fast and then slow, and somewhere in between he was sure his brain went completely offline. He locked his arms around her back, drawing her tight against him as he planted his feet and used the little bit of extra leverage to pound just a little bit harder.
She moaned against his ear, her nails sinking deeper. “Cade,” she breathed, her slick walls clenching him tight as she shuddered in his arms.
“I know,” he said, and then he thrust hard up into her, gritting his teeth as the first scorching wave slammed into him. He didn’t stop moving, pumping into her, over and over until the last of the orgasm faded and he tucked his face against her throat to catch his breath.
Neither of them moved for a long moment, and then she slowly eased back so she could see his face. She cupped his cheek, and he knew there wasn’t any going back from this.
* * *
“It’s a bit of a walk to your grandmother’s, you know.”
Cade leaned against the railing on the porch of his cottage, firmly on the other side of things for the first time in his life. Fate probably thought it was hilarious that the one woman he wanted to keep in his bed all day was sneaking out first thing in the morning the same way he had over the years.
Angel had made it to the front door before he woke and realized she’d left the bed, and then managed to get all the way down the creaky stairs he’d been meaning to replace by the time he dragged on a pair of pants and got outside.
If she didn’t look so cute in the rumpled paint-splattered clothes from yesterday, her hair an adorable mess from all the times he’d run his hands through it, he might have been annoyed that she was ditching him.
“A little exercise doesn’t bother me.”
He straightened. “If you’re looking to burn some calories, I have a few ideas.” He had a lot of ideas actually, but the resigned expression on her face convinced him that wasn’t happening. Not this morning anyway.
“One night right?” she laughed, but the sound was a little hollow and didn’t quite reach her eyes, not the way it had when he’d tickled her awake in the middle of the night. “Wouldn’t want to mess with your system.”
His system could go to hell. “And if this time is different?” He didn’t move off the step, despite the pull that begged him to close the distance separating them.
“I…” She took a step toward him, and his heart thumped against his ribs. “I should go.” She didn’t sound like she really wanted to, but it didn’t stop her from walking away. “My grandmother will be wondering what happened to me last night—”
“Angel.”
She stopped, turned around slowly.
“If you need any subjects to paint, you know where to find me.”
Her face broke into a bright smile.
He hopped the porch railing, his leg cursing him on impact, but he didn’t care. He’d been holding his shit together until that moment, and with the slightest curve of her lips, he suddenly couldn’t imagine letting her leave without kissing her until the two of them were back in his bed, her clothes on the floor.
“Cade,” she whispered, more plea than a warning.
A truck roared up the narrow driveway, bouncing over the gravel, music pouring from the rolled-down windows. His brother always had shit timing.
Angel backtracked, heading for the woods and the path they’d taken last night.
“Sure you don’t want me to walk you back? Be the first victim?”
This time her laugh was genuine. “I need you alive to search for me if I get lost on the way.”
The truck pulled up, and his brother slid from the front seat of the beat-up vehicle usually parked in one of the farm’s supplies buildings.
Ethan joined him as Angel slipped into the woods and out of view. “Well, that’s a first.”
“Yeah.” Without further comment, Cade pivoted and went back inside, not surprised his brother followed.
He snatched his shirt off the kitchen floor. Angel had borrowed it last night when they’d got up for something to eat in the middle of the night. They’d lasted a whole five minutes and then clothes started coming off.
He draped the shirt over his shoulder, positive he could still smell her on it. He glanced out the window, not entirely sure he’d made the right call letting her walk away.
“Never thought I’d see that look on my baby bro’s face.”
“And what look is that?” Cade put on some coffee.
“The look that says he’s bought into his own bullshit about love at first sight.” He laughed, but the something in Cade’s expression stopped him. His brother let out a low whistle. “You think she’s the real deal, huh?”
Although they hadn’t had a confide-in-each-other relationship for a long time, Cade realized how much he missed it and found himself nodding.
“But she’s not from around here.”
“Nope.” Cade gave up on waiting for coffee and opened the fridge for a beer. Five o’clock somewhere, right? He handed another one to Ethan.
His brother caught him staring out the window, and Cade turned away from it, taking a swig from his beer. “What got you out of bed so early?”
“I was reading up on Innovative Agricultural Solutions and the other projects Mason is doing with some of the local farmers.”
Don’t ask. Don’t ask. “Why?”
“Dad and I were talking last night—”
Cade stopped him right there, wishing he’d followed his gut and stayed the hell away from the topic, but he was all in now. “Don’t do that.”
Ethan stiffened. “Do what?”
“Get too involved with the farm. You know it gets their hopes up every damn time.” Preferring to keep his good mood intact and pretend he and Ethan didn’t have a decade of tension piled up between them, he dug some bacon and eggs from the fridge. “Hungry?”
“I’m not getting their hopes up.”
Cade sighed, so much for a tension-free breakfast. He set the bacon on the stove to cook. “Did you ask about taking our involvement with Mason’s company to the next level?”
Thick brows descended over Ethan’s eyes. “Yeah,” he answered carefully.
“And about your own ideas for streamlining things?”
His brother nodded.
“Then you got their hopes up.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Since I’m the one still here when you get the farm out of your system and go back to your life, wherever that is these days, I think I’m the one qualified to know.”
“Is this the part where you twist the knife that you decided to stay in Sapphire Falls and I didn’t?”
“I didn’t choose anything, but that’s not the damn point. You know they haven’t given up on believing you’re going to move back home and take up the family business, and every time you decide you’re not ready, it breaks their heart a little more. Just tell them you have no intention of living in Sapphire Falls.”
“Since when did you become an authority on what I have no intention of doing?”
“Are you planning on moving back?”
His brother didn’t respond.
And there it was. “Set the table. Plates are in the cupboard to the left of the sink.”
“Whose hopes are we really talking about?”
Cade’s shoulders locked up, tension biting into the muscle. He focused on the bacon frying in the pan.
“This isn’t about mom and dad. It’s about you and the fact that you broke your leg and couldn’t figure out what the hell to do with the rest of your life and couldn’t stand that I did.”
“Careful,” Cade warned.
“Or what? You never needed to stay here. You broke a leg, you weren’t paralyzed. But without football, you felt useless and without direction, so you made it your mission to be useful. So useful they began to rely on you for everything to do with the farm. You made that choice, not me. And I’m done being blamed for it.”
Ethan stormed out, the door slamming shut behind him. A minute later the truck tore up the driveway, spitting gravel and leaving behind nothing but a cloud of dust.
Appetite forgotten, Cade shoved the pan off the burner. “Fuck.”