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“Maybe some other day.” Sara gave him a stern look. “Go. Dry. Put on Batman.”
The naked boy streaked up the stairs with the dog hot on his heels. When he got to the top, he flung himself at Cadence, who was making her way down, apparently using her clothes as a towel to dry himself off.
“Connor Allan Johnson,” Sara warned, shaking her head in my direction.
“The ball place?” I asked.
Cadence flashed apologetic eyes in my direction as she headed down the stairs. “We took them to an indoor park today. He spent hours pretending he was an alligator eating Anthony in the ball pit. Are we doing anything outside? I’ll need to go change into something dry if we are.” She had on a gold sweater dress that hugged her curves and ended an inch or two above the knee, and some sort of strappy heels that made her legs look long and sleek.
“Not tonight,” I assured her. “Indoor only. So as long as you think you’ll dry off soon… I don’t mind waiting if you want to change, though.” Although, that would leave me subject to whatever tortures Jonny might have in mind if he came in from wherever he was hiding.
Not only that, but I hoped she’d stay in this dress. The material didn’t leave much to the imagination, but that didn’t stop my imagination from running overtime.
“Nah. I’m fine. Let’s leave before Connor does something else to sabotage me.” She took her coat and purse out of the closet and allowed me to help her into it.
“We’ll leave the light on,” Sara called as we headed out the door.
Cadence nodded and waved.
Once we were in the car and on our way to the Moda Center, she turned to me. “Cam hasn’t been giving you a hard time, has he? I didn’t mean for it to go down like that yesterday. In front of him and all.”
I shrugged. He wasn’t being any worse than I’d expect. “Why did you lie to him?”
She raised a brow.
“You didn’t agree to go out with me when I asked you. I would have remembered. Trust me.”
“Maybe my brother doesn’t need to know everything.”
“Maybe not. But maybe, if I’m going to be part of your lies, I should know what’s going on.”
“Maybe you should,” she said. “Maybe you shouldn’t.”
We were at a red light, so I faced her for a moment. Her face was still lit up with the same gorgeous smile she usually bore, but it didn’t reach all the way to her eyes again, taking me back to the moment she’d won the gold medal and should have been on top of the world. Seeing her like that crushed a bit of my heart. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand her.
But damn if I didn’t want to know her well enough to figure out everything about her.
“You’re a web of secrets, Cadence.”
She ducked her head down and stared at her lap. “Only a few.”
“A few big ones.”
“Could be.”
The light turned green. Soon, we were in the parking garage.
“There’s no hockey game tonight, is there?” she asked.
I parked and flipped down my sun visor, grabbing the two tickets I’d stashed there. I handed them to her.
“The End of All Things?” There was a hint of awe in her tone.
“Katie hooked me up.” I winked. “There are perks to having a famous sister-in-law.”
I reached for her hand as we headed into the arena, not sure if she’d let me touch her or not. She didn’t cringe or flinch away, so I wrapped her hand in mine and held on as we made our way through the crowd.
There was a war going on in my head, though.
A part of me was crowing like a rooster, because Cadence Johnson was on an actual date with me. She was even more famous than my famous sister-in-law, and now that she’d agreed to give me a chance, I had the opportunity to turn our relationship into something more. That was the asshole part of me, and right now his voice was becoming seriously loud in my head.
Another part of me simply wanted to figure out what secrets she was keeping…and find a way to make that smile reach her eyes. I didn’t know what to call that part of me. His voice was quiet but persistent.
I had no earthly idea which side would win.
