I’m quick to look away although I continue to eavesdrop about how he’ll be home through the holidays and how he’s stationed here now, hopefully permanently.
My little heart pitter patters at the thought of him being back home for good.
“You staying for dinner?” Autumn questions and it takes me far too long to look up and realize she’s asking me.
“Oh, no. I have to head out and I already ate.” I answer her but then realize once the words were spoken that she already knew that. I told her the moment I got here and stole Cameron from her before Magnolia could.
“You’re walking home?” she questions further, the room of eyes on both of us. I ignore the heat that comes with Cade’s prying gaze.
“That’s how I got here,” I cock a sarcastic brow Autumn’s way and wonder why she added concern to her tone. I always walk to her house, she knows that. It’s one of the reasons I love this neighborhood so much. As I stand, I stretch out my back slightly, focusing on the cream throw I’m folding rather than the man whose gaze is falling down my body.
Years ago I thought the tension between us was imagined. Or at least one sided. But this is the third time I’ve seen him since he’s been back and I swear it only gets more and more obvious that I can’t keep my eyes off of him and I know he does the same. Stealing glances each time we’ve had a run in together.
“Why doesn’t Cade take you home?” Autumn offers, folding a tee-shirt in her lap and then adding it to a pile on the counter.
Oh, the betrayal. She doesn’t have the decency to look me in the eyes. Instead she focuses solely on Cade as my heart completely halts in my chest. “You can take her home on your way, can’t you Cade?”
Alone with this man? In his truck? Late at night with my ovaries still doing flip flops at the sight of a newborn?
Oh, no, no, no.
“Of course I can,” he answers easily, a touch of southern hitting his last word as he slips his hands, which I already know are rough from years of manual labor, into his jean pockets. His asymmetric smile greets me, “Ready when you are, Shar.”
Shar. It takes great effort not to swoon just from the way he says my nickname.
CADE
There’s nothing like the autumn leaves, hues of gold and red, being carried down the gravel road of this old town. Or the smell of the apples and the laughter of kids playing at the edge of the orchard that lines this half of the neighborhood I grew up in.
Nothing like the soft sigh that comes from Shar’s plump lips either or the way the wind blows her brunette locks as I help her into my truck.
It’s all a part of home to me. A home I missed dearly for years.
Her hand is small in mine and the blush that rises up her chest and into her cheeks is certainly from my hand on the small of her back rather than the chill in the air. I’ve always had an effect on her, one that forces a hint of a chuckle from me and she peeks up through her lashes and then finds her place in the passenger side.
“Thank you,” she whispers shyly, letting me shut her door after giving her a small nod and a “no problem.”
Shar has no idea how much I thought about her while I was overseas. How the stories Trent would tell me, keeping me up to date on this town, always seemed to come back to her.
It didn’t matter what news was filtering through the town gossip, I needed to know about her and what she was doing, if she was with anyone. I had no right, she doesn’t even know how I feel about her, but there was a piece of me that needed to hear she was doing alright without me.
Coming home every so often and catching up with a beer and friends was never complete until Shar idled in. Her confidence hitching just like her breath did every time she saw me.
I felt it, whatever it is that crackles between us now, but I never acted on it because it would only be days until I was gone again.
That changes now though.
The truck rocks gently as I pull my door shut after helping her get in on her side.
“You know you don’t have to,” Sharon speaks first as I bring the truck to life with a rumble and turn down the music so I can hear her caressing voice that much better. “I could walk.”
My window’s already rolled down and I set my elbow there, resting my chin in my hand, my pointer running along the rough stubble of my jaw as I stare at her and wait for her to look back at me.
“I like the opportunity to be a gentleman when I can be.”
“Mm,” she murmurs. “You imagine you’re some kind of gentle beast, huh?” she jokes, but there’s a breathlessness to her taunting. Both of her hands find her lap and then fall between her knees, which makes her thighs part.
A gentle beast? I’m not so sure of that. Not with the thoughts running through my mind right now. Imagining how I’d part those thighs of hers, barely covered by her burgundy cotton dress.
“I might be all brute, I think,” I comment back, half-jokingly. “But I at least try.”
She laughs gently, her chest rising and falling easily. With her hair swept across her shoulder she leans back, closing her eyes and listening to the faint music.
“Well thank you, Cade.”
My cock twitches just from her saying my name. It’s too rough a word for her seductive lips. Readjusting, I put the car in drive.
“Blue house on the corner, right?” I ask her and she nods.
“Right across from the lake.”
“Yeah I remember now. It’s been a year since.”
“Since you dropped me off when I was wasted?” she questions and shakes her head, her beautiful gaze on the auburn leaves that blow in the wind as we drive by. “Thank you for that by the way… It was not my best night.”
“We were all wasted,” I attempt to appease her. If I was being fully honest, I’d admit to her that I’m glad she was too far gone that night. My fingers itched to hold her and if she’d been more sober, I’d have leaned in for a kiss. I’d have wanted more. Only for me to be called away the very next day. It was meant to happen, to give us more time for when it’d be right.
A time like now.
I lay my forearm on the center console, daring to get a little closer to her, my hand only inches from her.
“Seriously, thanks for that night. It was …”
“A good night,” I stop her from finishing the word ‘embarrassing.’ “I love coming home and getting to hang out with you.” I almost say ‘you guys,’ but I cut it off deliberately, choosing not to hide anymore. Not to hold back.
“Oh, is that right?” Shar swallows thickly, the sound of it bringing my attention to her slim throat and the dip just beneath it that begs me to lay an open kiss right there.
With the heat climbing in the cabin, no matter that our windows are both open, I pull up in her drive and park the truck. “You like hanging out with me?” she asks, a hint of reverence playing in the sweet cadence of her question.
I can only nod, my grip slipping slightly on the wheel as my palms turn sweaty.
“I like the way you look at me,” I push her gently, calling her out and finally being a man when it comes to her and what’s between us.
“I look at people, yeah,” she tries to play it off.