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“Everyone calm down,” Cora says.
“I knew you were screwing around with my sister. I knew it,” Cade shouts. “And you,” he points at Tiff, “what were you thinking?”
She crosses her arms in front of her chest. “Stop treating me like a child, Cade. I’m an adult and I can make my own decisions.”
“Clearly they’re bad or I wouldn’t be here.” He waves his hand in my direction with a look that would kill me on the spot if it could.
“I said calm down,” Cora raises her voice, silencing all of us. “Obviously the two of you need to talk,” her gaze darts between me and Cade, “can I trust you to keep it civil if Tiff and I go to her bedroom?”
I nod in response, and Cade reluctantly does the same.
“Good. Tiff, lets give them a moment.” She gives Cade a warning look before heading toward the hallway.
“My boyfriend better be in one piece when you’re done,” Tiff grits before following Cora, missing the fresh look of contempt Cade levels at me, and the astonished one I give her.
“She’s a… She’s never called me that until tonight,” I mumble as I spin away from Cade and grab an ice pack from the freezer.
“How long?”
I wince as the cold hits my face, though I’m not sure it’s the temperature or the fact that I just admitted the extent of my deception that makes me cringe.
“How’d you figure it out?” I try to dodge his question.
“The girl you left with came back to the bar with a story that your sister called you to come home and check on your mom. How long?”
I face him so I can look him in the eye, leaning my hip against the counter for support. “Since we got stuck in Jefferson.”
“What do you meanwegot stuck? She was with a friend.”
Fuck. I forgot about the whole friend excuse she used on that trip. Maybe he’ll be too focused on me to worry about that detail.“All I know is when the road closed she was stuck so I let her stay with me.”
“In your bed.” I don’t miss how he phrases that like a statement rather than a question.
“No. Not at first. And I’m not sharing details with you so don’t fish for them. You get to know when it started, not how, or anything else that’s just between us. Like I said, it’s been going on since Jefferson.”
“That’s nearly two months. You’ve been going behind my back this whole time?” When I don’t answer he continues. “Jesus, Deacon. What the hell were you thinking? Tiff isn’t like the women you hook up with that you can discard when you’re done with them.”
“That’s not what this is.”
“You expect me to believe you? After you’ve been lying to me for what, months? I’ll hand it to you,” he runs a hand through his hair, "I didn’t think you could be with one woman for so long. But Tiff? I trusted you to treat her like family. I trusted you not to hurt her.”
“And I haven’t.”
“Maybe not yet, but what happens when you go back to your old habits?”
“I wouldn’t do that to her.”
“Isn’t that what you did tonight?” He arches a brow, daring me to object.
“It was supposed to look that way, yeah.” I sigh heavily as the cold starts to numb the throbbing in my temple. “But it was just for show.”
“Yeah, right.” He shakes his head. “Two months ago, you were picking up women for sport and now you’re suddenly good with one woman? My sister? You expect me to believe you’ve really changed?”
“It happened to you, didn’t it? One day you’re the town’s most popular tourist attraction and the next you only have eyes for Cora. That’s how I feel about Tiff.”
“I fell for Cora the instant I met her. You’ve known Tiff for years. How is that the same?”
“It’s the same in that people can change. Yeah, when I got here, I wanted to have my fun, same as you’d been bragging about for years. And I did. Only you told me that first summer it was better to be with one person, and you were right. But I knew the person I want you’d never approve of, so I tried to avoid her. I thought that would make it go away, but it never did.”
