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Cadence tore her eyes from mine and pushed herself off the counter. “On second thought, I think I’ll just go on out and check on the cattle. Maybe the horses too,” she whispered, hanging her head as she pushed the back door open.
I pinched my brow. Ever since Gabe had mentioned Cadence to me, I’d thought about her. About what it might be like to have her back here. I’d even hoped that perhaps having her back here maybe in some ways would waken me from the nightmare I’d been living since Ella died. Give me the chance to feel alive again. It had worked once before. I just wanted the chance to feel anything again. It was as if I were on autopilot, and everything I did was because it needed to be done.
I got up from where I sat and wandered over to the back door. I watched as she made her way to where Gabe kept her horse. She then went over and grabbed a few apples off the one tree in the back, carrying them over to her horse. Climbing up on the lower rung of the fence, she held out the apple. The horse made its way over to her, taking the apple from her, and she rested her head on his.
I heard footsteps behind me and turned just in time to see Gabe step into the kitchen. “Cadence, did you get Connor a coffee?” he asked, looking around. “Where the hell is she?” he questioned, annoyance in his voice. “Ask her to do one thing and she bails.”
“It would have been nice to have a warning,” I gritted, taking one last look at her before turning to Gabe.
“Warning for what?”
“Last you said, she wasn’t coming back,” I said, running my hands through my almost dry hair.
Gabe chuckled. “Yeah, I know. However, I brought the cattle back here with me. She didn’t want me to and said she would probably come back and get them. However, she showed up late last night, with all her shit inside.” Gabe shrugged. “No warning.”
“Wonderful,” I muttered, more to myself than to him.
“Is there something wrong with her being back here?” Gabe asked, shifting his stance and crossing his arms over his chest.
“No,” I abruptly answered. “Just…”
The room grew quiet as we stood there facing one another. I knew he was waiting for me to finish what I was going to say. Instead, he gave me a smirk and cleared his throat.
“I’m glad she came to her senses. I needed her here. It took a lot of convincing. You don’t even know. Hell, she spent five years caring for our ailing grandparents. She was alone there and still is. What if I go on this mission and I don’t come back? Last she needs to find out is that I got killed and that she’d need to come back home under those circumstances.”
“True, but why not tell her that?” I said, sitting down with a mug of coffee. “Why not just be open and honest with her, instead of building up some false idea in her mind?”
“I can’t tell her that. She’ll flip out. I told her there wasn’t any danger in me going. I’d rather her back here, with people she knows and can trust, than in the Midwest, alone, if she gets the call. Plus, if anything happens, I want to know she’s taken care of, that the farm is self-supporting. My grandparents’ place, while self-supporting, didn’t make enough to keep her comfortable. I’ve been sending her money for almost a year to help pay for things.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at my best friend. “What the hell do you want from me, then? I mean, clearly she can look after this place on her own. Hell, she’s been dealing with your grandparents’ place all alone.”
Gabe shook his head. While he knew damn well that Cadence was completely independent and could look after anything that came her way, there was still something he needed to say. I could see it in his eyes.
“Gabe, just spill it. I don’t have the time for these games.”
“Connor, I need you to promise that you’ll look after her. That you’ll help her around here. That if something should happen to me…”
“Nothing is going to happen to you, so cut the crap,” I said, sitting back down at the table. I could feel his eyes on me, staring into me as he waited for me to say something else. Exactly what did he mean by looking after her? I cleared my throat and met his eyes. “The farm I can manage, but what exactly do you mean by look after her?”
Gabe said nothing. Instead, he made his way to the back door and looked outside. Then he cleared his throat. “Connor, it’s been over a year.”
I frowned. Was he seriously going to talk to me about a relationship with his sister? Did he know about the kiss we’d shared? Had she told him? Had I ever let it slip to him how much I’d liked her while growing up? I searched my mind, praying I hadn’t mentioned it to him one night while we’d been drinking.
“What is that supposed to mean exactly? It wouldn’t matter if it had been ten years, Gabe. What are you getting at?”
Still searching my mind for any memory of telling him, my mind instantly went back to that kiss. It never should have happened. I knew that. It was my wife’s celebration of life! What had I been thinking? What sort of man was I? If anything I had ever done deserved a punch, it was that, and I knew Gabe would be the one to straighten me out if he ever found out.
“We’ll talk about it later,” Gabe said. “We’ve got to get to work.”
“Not so fast. Sit down.”
Gabe looked at me, afraid to move. He sat down across from me and looked me in the eye. “What?”
“Don’t what me, Gabe. Tell me exactly what you meant by take care of her.”
Gabe looked around the kitchen. He was on edge. I could see it. He shifted from one side to the other, then looked at me, nothing but concern in his eyes.
“I wasn’t trying to be an ass when I said it’s been a year. I’ve just given it a lot of thought, and before I go, I want to know if my sister is in good hands. If you catch my drift. She’s never really had a good guy in her life, and I know you could be that for her.”
