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Cade leaned against the door, his gaze tracking the room, a small smile on his face. “This is where Lola used to tutor me.” His stare met mine briefly, and then he looked away as he stepped forward. “We’d come in here once a week, and she’d help me with my schoolwork.” He chuckled. “I thought I was hot shit back then.”
I snorted. “And you don’t think that anymore?”
He raised a brow and pulled the chair out next to me. “Nah. I know it’s true now.”
Laughter burst out of me, the kind that couldn’t be stopped, no matter how much you tried. Cade always had a way of bringing me out of my own head, and I didn’t think he was aware of how much he did it.
“I love hearing you laugh,” he whispered, leaning closer to me. “It’s so…freeing.”
My laughter waned into chuckles, but at his words, I sobered up. “What are you doing back here, Cade?”
“I came to give you a present.” He held out a small box to me, wrapped in light-purple paper, and I took it with shaky fingers.
“What is it?” I asked, looking down at it and then back to him.
He tilted his head to the side and ran his hand down the scruff lining his jaw. “Open it and see.”
I bit down on my bottom lip and pulled at the corners of it slowly. Butterflies took flight in my stomach as I pulled all the paper off, revealing a dark-blue box with a ribbon tied around it. Glancing up, I spotted Cade watching me carefully. I opened the box and inhaled a breath at what I saw.
“Wow,” I murmured. I placed the box on the table, gently pulled the necklace out, and brought it closer to my face. The white gold chain was delicate, being weighed down by a teardrop locket. “It’s beautiful.”
* * *
CADE
I wanted to tell her so was she, but I refrained, holding back as much as I could. Maybe I shouldn’t have been here, but there was no chance I was going to miss seeing her on her eighteenth birthday.
She flipped the locket over and rubbed her thumb over it, and it was on the tip of my tongue to tell her to open it and see what was inside, but I stopped myself. It wasn’t the time or place, not yet. You couldn’t see the clasp on the outside, and that was one of the reasons I’d bought it. It wasn’t your traditional locket, which was why I thought it suited her so much.
“Let me put it on you,” I murmured, afraid to talk too loudly.
I gently took it from her and leaned forward. She lifted her hair, and I breathed in her flowery scent. I’d missed that almost as much as I missed hearing her voice, but not nearly as much as I missed looking into her eyes and touching her.
Swallowing as she turned her back to me, I laced the necklace around her neck and clasped it at the back. I lingered, my finger trailing over the soft sensitive skin of her neck and down to the strap of her dress. It would be so easy to yank it down and kiss her in the way I wanted to—almost too easy. But I wouldn’t do that to her today, not on her birthday.
“Thank you, Cade,” she whispered, turning back to face me, her hands clutched around the locket. “I love it.”
I love you, I wanted to tell her. I wanted to explain to her how I felt, but what good would it do? We couldn’t be together in the way we wanted to be, which left us at a crossroads. We could either be friends, or nothing at all. She’d said we could be friends at the cookout, but I wasn’t so sure if I could look at her and not touch her. I wasn’t confident I could talk to her about nothing of relevance all the while mourning the fact I couldn’t have her.
My cell buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out, breaking the spell we were under.
Willow: Where are you? My parents will be here in an hour!
I huffed out a breath and glanced at Aria as she stood. “Are you staying for food?” she asked, her light-brown eyes hopeful.
“I can stay for a little while longer,” I told her, knowing I was pushing my limits, but I couldn’t help it when it came to Aria.
Cade: I had to go and see my dad. I’ll be there in a bit.
“I’ll see you back out there then?” Aria asked.
I nodded and ground my teeth together as my cell buzzed again. “Yeah.” She walked out of the room, and I couldn’t help staring at her. She didn’t put an extra swing into her hips the way Willow did because she didn’t need to. Aria was alluring in her own beautiful way—the kind of beauty that drew you in and never let you go.
Willow: I swear to god, Cade. If you stand me up, there’ll be hell to pay for you and your little girl fetish you have.
I let my head dip back and growled. There wasn’t much more I could take of this. She was blowing up my cell constantly with both veiled and outright threats. It was enough to drive a sane person crazy, but all it was doing was making me angrier and angrier by the day.
There wasn’t anyone I could confide in, especially now that Ford was away on an undercover job. It meant the one person who managed to keep me calm when it came to Willow wasn’t here. I was alone, scared of what I would do if she pushed the right button to have me explode.
