Page 55 of Love in Overdrive

Chapter 18

“Thanks again, man. I’ll call you next week.” Cade waved goodbye to Fenley as he drove off. No need to go in the front and wake his parents. He reached for his keys but came up empty. Fuck. They were on his keyring, in police custody.

Cade raised his hand to knock, and the door opened. His father stood in the doorway in his pajama pants and an old T-shirt with a classic Mustang on the front.

“You’re finally home.” His mother, in her pink robe, hip-checked his dad out of the way. She enveloped him in a bear hug before he was fully through the door.

“Whoa, Mom. I’m okay.” Cade patted her back. He’d had missions that were way worse. But she didn’t know about those, so Cade let himself be rocked. His mom needed this. But as her tight embrace squeezed every last ounce of stress from his body, he realized, so did he.

“I was worried sick. Are you okay? Hungry? I can make you an omelet?” After one more big hug, she untangled herself and rushed to the kitchen. Before Cade could answer, the eggs were out, and she was grabbing a frying pan from the cabinet.

Cade barely felt the breeze of his mother releasing him, when his father wrapped him in a hug, the second since he’d been home. A minute and a backslap later, he stepped back.

“What the hell happened?” Dad’s sharp tone sliced an edge down Cade’s spine.

He knew this was coming. No way around it. Cade needed to rehash the story for his parents. All he really wanted to do was take a shower and crawl into bed and sleep for a day, but instead, he sat at his parents’ kitchen table and gave them a condensed version of the last thirty-six hours.

Both relief and frustration showed on Eric McBride’s face. “So, did you know this lowlife who got in your car? Was he someone you met in prison?”

The tic in Cade’s jaw pulsed in a steady beat. Of course, his own father thought the worst of him. He struggled for calm.

“No.” One word. That’s all he could get out without raging at his father. Is this the same man who stood up for him at the police station? Nash must have been wrong. Nothing Cade did was ever good enough. Maybe staying in Gray Duck Grove was a bad idea.

“Let’s not talk about this anymore tonight,” his mom said in a frantic attempt to defuse the situation before it escalated. Always the peacekeeper. She set the plate of steaming hot food in front of him, and Cade shoveled it in like a starving man.

After the third bite, he looked up. Shit. It was clear on her face, she wanted—needed—to know the details. Cade set his fork down. “I drove most of the three plus hours with a gun to my head.”

Should he continue? His mom reached across the table and pressed her chilled hand over his. “I wanted to crash the car, slam on the brakes, something to get him off guard so I could fight. But I couldn’t because when the gun wasn’t jammed into my neck, it was pointed at her.”

By the time he was finished with both his story and his eggs, his parents looked spellbound by the whole ordeal.

His mother came up behind him to envelop Cade in her arms. “I am so glad you are alright.”

His father cleared his throat and looked down at his hands. Raising his eyes to his son’s, Cade could see the regret in them and the relief that Cade was unharmed. “I share your mother’s feelings, and I’m sorry for jumping on you like I did.”

Cade would do what they always did after an emotional moment in their family—he would nod to his father and change the subject. “Thanks for staying up and for the meal, but if you don’t mind, I would really like a shower and some sleep.”

He hugged his dad, then turned to hug his mom. She held on so tight Cade thought he might lose feeling in the lower half of his body.

“Come on, Sara.” His dad took her by the arm and gently led her to the stairs.

“Cade, honey. We’ll talk more about this woman tomorrow.” She winked.

Crap. He could see the twinkle in her eye across the room. Oh, his mom read between the lines correctly. He liked Laney, but the last thing Cade wanted at his age was to talk to his mom about the girl he liked.

He set his dishes in the sink and dragged himself up the back stairs to his room. He itched to hear Laney’s voice, to text her, but he didn’t have a phone. First thing tomorrow, he’d go to the phone store. Or today, as it was way past midnight.

Cade sat on the bed and took off his boots. Screw the shower. He flopped back, fully dressed, and was out for the count.

The doorbell pulled Laney from the coma she’d been in. She’d been out from the second her head hit the pillow last night. A faint recollection of the ringing floated around her fuzzy brain.

It stopped. Good. She burrowed deeper into her covers.

“Delaney. Delaney, wake up, dear. I can’t believe you’re still in bed at this hour.”

Laney cracked open an eyelid. Her mother stood in her bedroom doorway, hands on her hips.

I never should have given her a key.