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“A full day of playing at the park is like a sedative. She barely moved while I got her down.”
With the tension of uncertainty hanging thick in the air, Cadence and I shared a look of indecision before I decided to make the right one. “I should probably go.”
“You can stay for a while…” She paused briefly before adding, “That’s if you want to.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” She frowned up at me, her nose wrinkling in the same way I’d witnessed on Gracie when she didn’t like something or was deep in thought.
“You said you belonged to someone but you didn’t have a man. You meant your daughter, right?”
“Yes. She’s been the only thing that truly matters to me. There hasn’t been room for anyone else.”
“Not even her father?”
I was selfish. I didn’t like knowing that some man was tied to her, to them, in ways that I would never be.
“No, not even him. He’s not in my lifeorhers. Never even held Gracie.”
I hated how that eased the frustration I felt from knowing that at some point in her life she cared enough about him to have a child. His child.
“Damn, I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. He’s…” She exhaled a sigh. “He’s not a great person and wouldn’t want her. I would never allow Gracie to feel unloved by anyone, not even her father. I can love her enough for both of us.”
“You keep explaining things that you don’t have to. You don’t owe me an explanation. I don’t have any rights to your life or your story, Cadence.”
“Do I have a right to yours?”
Yes, every single detail but if I let you in, you will never see me the same.
“You said there’s no room for anything besides your daughter so it really doesn’t matter, does it?”
“A friend.”
“What?”
“Maybe I can make room for a friend, I mean, if you want that.”
“Question is, do you?”
“No because letting you get close terrifies me. Unfortunately not enough to stop me from being curious about what that feels like to let you in.”
Or enough to stop me from being impulsive and taking what I know I don’t deserve.
“That’s proof enough that I shouldn’t stay.”
“You’re probably right, but I want you to, so will you, please?”
I wasn’t going to tell her no. After a day I was already cursed with knowing that this woman could have anything she wanted from me.
Any-fucking-thing.
“Yeah, I’ll stay.”
She smiled and her posture relaxed. “Do you want anything?” Peeking over her shoulder as she pulled open a cabinet she flashed me a smile. “I don’t have Donovan Black but I do have this?”
She wrapped her hand around a bottle of brown liquor. “What you know about that?”
