Chapter 10
Caden
I pulled Graham into the bar, away from the table that Cara and I had been occupying. She had run off to the bathroom, upset. While I wanted to chase after her and had words for the ex-boyfriend who didn’t deserve her, I chose to lay into Graham first.
“What the fuck, Graham?” I could feel the vein in my neck pulse as I clenched my fist, wanting to swing at him. It wasn’t the first time I had experienced this type of anger toward my younger stepbrother. He was great at finding new ways of pissing me off. “You went out of your way to find me and hand-fucking-deliver the guy that had broken her heart and you destroyed my date. What were you thinking?”
“What do they say? All’s fair in love and…”
“Love? You don’t even know her. Three hours ago, you thought of her as a piece of ass that I had and you didn’t.” The moment the words fell from my lips I realized what this was about. Graham was always jealous of me, but without reason. He was handed things, I worked for them. He was the one that typically landed the girls while I watched. It was always that way, until now. “How the hell did you even find us?”
“GPS. I guess you should reconsider sharing your location with me.” Graham snickered.
I shook my head in disgust, knowing I had to undo the disaster he had just created. “I’ll deal with you later. This is far from over.” By now a few of the people in the crowd could sense the heated exchange and had begun to watch. I made my way back to the table where I had left this LJ character. The table was still filled with our drinks and food and the check lay on the edge of the table.
The waitress watched me approach and then quickly weaved her way to where I was standing. “She just left with that other guy. She didn’t look happy. I think you can still catch her. Go! Go!” she prodded.
I looked at her as my heart sank. I looked down at the check and reached for my wallet.
“Don’t worry about the check,” she said, “just go.”
“Give the check to that other asshole I was just talking to in the bar,” I said without hesitating. I quickened my pace out to the parking lot a saw the Cara and her ex making their way to the car. “Cara!” I yelled from the other side of the parking lot.
Adrenaline pumped through my body as I closed the gap between the three of us. I wasn’t one for confrontation, but this situation had gotten the better of me. Before I realized it, I was standing face to face with LJ who was still clutching Cara’s hand.
I looked at her, looked at their hands, and then back at her.
“Caden, I thought you—”
“I’ll handle this, Cara,” LJ said, cutting off Cara and then pulling his hand away from hers. He stood up tall, which wasn’t necessary since he was at least five or six inches taller than me already. “Your date’s over. Cara and I are back together. You were just a little distraction for her.”
A part of me just wanted to swing and knock the arrogant look off of his face. He may have been taller, but I had already sized him up. Tall, thin, not much muscle. A couple of strategic punches and I could have leveled him, but it wasn’t my style, nor was it the right thing to do.
“I’m sorry,” I said with a condescending tone. “I don’t think I was talking to you.” I looked at Cara, whose face had turned a shade lighter. She seemed embarrassed and confused at the same time. “I realize this is a difficult situation, but if this is the guy that dumped you—”
“You told him about us?” LJ said to Cara, scolding her.
“I did. You did. You walked out on me. You couldn’t answer my texts, or emails, or phone calls. You disappeared like I didn’t matter.” Cara’s embarrassment turned into a light simmer of anger as I watched the confrontation. I felt out of place, listening to their private conversation, but I also was eager to watch.
“I told you why. I explained—”
“LJ, it doesn’t matter. I need time think, away from you.” Cara snapped back.
“Away from me? What the hell does that mean? You mean with him?” LJ pointed at me and scowled. “Seriously Cara? That’s what you’re going to choose?”
I clenched my jaw and silently counted to ten. Did that fucker just call me a ‘what’?
“You said you needed time LJ, and now so do I. Just go.” Cara looked at me and began to walk past me and away from LJ. “Caden, I believe we had plans. Can we please finish them?”
“Definitely.” I couldn’t help but smile at her and then raise my eyebrows to LJ.
“Cara, wait!” LJ took one long step and had caught up to Cara as he extended his arm, reaching for her upper arm. “Get back here!” he demanded.
In a split second I reacted, instinctively grabbing his wrist and twisting his arm behind his back while pushing him chest first into the car beside us. “Don’t you dare touch her like that.”
LJ struggled, fighting back. As he wriggled his body, trying to loosen my grip, I bent his arm up higher. “Shit! Okay, Okay,” he said. “Let me go.”
I glanced back at Cara. She stood silently, taking it in. “Caden, please don’t hurt him. LJ, just go.” She watched for another few seconds and then walked back toward the bar.
I gave his arm another slight twist before using my free arm to push him into the car. Then I released him. “I’d take her advice and leave before this turns into something you didn’t come looking for.”
LJ rubbed his shoulder as he squinted at me and pursed his lips. “This isn’t over, pretty boy. She’ll realize what she’s missing.” He took a couple of steps backward, keeping his eyes on me and then turned, moving toward one of the cars. “Just wait.”
I took another deep breath, turned, and caught up with Cara. “Hey, I’m sorry about that...he reached for you, and it just happened.”
“I know,” she said. “I don’t know what came over him.” Cara frowned, but grabbed my hand.
“Well, I don’t know what came over me, either. I usually don’t—”
“Don’t what? Stand up for your girl? I believe that’s twice you’ve come to my rescue, Mr. Zahn.” Cara squeezed my hand gently. “I’m sorry I left. I thought it was the right thing to do. I didn’t want to, but I also didn’t want the drama. He told me you had left. He said you had paid the bill and just left.”
I shook my head as I looked at her. “No, I didn’t leave. I’d never just leave and not speak with you, no matter what.” I pulled her hand to my mouth and gently kissed the back of it. “Shall we go inside?”
“I’d like that,” she said. “But what about Graham?”
“He already took off. I’ll deal with him later, because I think it’s unlikely that he’ll want to see me right now.”
Cara leaned in and kissed me again on the cheek. “Then let’s finish our date and try to put this behind us, okay?”
“Yes.” The word immediately shot from my lips. Nothing would keep me from her, not ex-boyfriends or plotting stepbrothers. Cara was the only thing on my mind and she was worth fighting for.