Hailey rolls her eyes. “Don’t try to make me laugh. I’m trying to be serious here.”
“So am I. My uncle can’t stop himself sometimes, and he loves to tell the story about when Alex and I were around seven and found his razor and shaved off our eyebrows. Or the one about when Alex’s brother Cash heard about what happens when you stick someone’s hand in warm water while they’re sleeping. He got both of us that night.”
The admission of two humiliating experiences from my childhood makes her giggle, and I watch her icy façade melt right in front of me. She really is so beautiful. I don’t know why she pushes people away, or maybe it’s just me she likes to push away, but I want to see more of this person standing here with me now.
“What happens when you put someone’s hand in warm water while they’re sleeping?” she shyly asks.
Good. I’ve got her curious.
“I’ll tell you on our walk.”
Chapter Ten
Hailey
A minute into our walk and I’m already regretting agreeing to this. Cade is charming and sexy, but there are very few people on the path with us. I assumed there would be a lot of people like always, but then I always come here during the day, not at eight o’clock at night.
“So does walking make you get quiet? I thought we were doing so well back there, but now you’re back to not talking to me,” he says in a sweet voice that should calm me.
It doesn’t.
“I’m just hoping you’re not an ax murderer.”
He laughs, which only makes him more charming or more possibly a real ax murderer. “I’ve been accused of many things, but I think this is the first time anyone’s ever wondered if I was an ax murderer. Personally, I don’t see me as an ax guy. I’m more of a gun guy or even a knife guy.”
I look at him and see him smiling. “That’s not making me feel any better.”
“Well, how about I tell you what happens with the warm water trick and then you’ll know I’m not an ax murderer?”
That sounds like a non sequitur if I’ve ever heard one.
“How is that going to convince me you’re not a serial killer or ax murderer? You’re dressed in all black, so maybe I just got your crime wrong. Are you a burglar?” I ask, knowing I shouldn’t be so worried.
People go for walks down here all the time. Maybe not tonight, but I’m sure they do other nights.
My questioning makes him chuckle. “Fair enough. Well, to prove I’m not an ax murderer, the fact that I can’t fit an ax anywhere on me is all the proof I have.”
He opens his arms to his sides and turns around for me, I guess so I can inspect him for that hidden ax. As much as I should be looking for some weapon stashed away somewhere, it’s hard to concentrate on anything other than how great his body is.
Probably spends hours at the gym every day. Yep. That’s what’s wrong with him. He’s an egotistical, self-involved guy whose sole focus is on his body.
With a smile that’s entirely too sexy illuminated by the pathway lamp overhead, he says, “See? No ax. As for the black pants and black shirt, I was going to do a shift at my club, but I decided at the last minute to come down to CK because I heard you were there.”
His explanation makes me more curious about him. “You have a club? What kind? Like a nightclub or a smaller bar?”
“First, I have to fulfill my promise to tell you about that gag Cash pulled on us that night. When you put someone’s hand in warm water, they have to go to the bathroom. Like right then and there. So he did it to Alex first and then me since we were sleeping downstairs at Alex’s house after playing video games for hours. Two ten year olds in sleeping bags full of piss.”
He looks entirely too charming telling me what sounds like a horrible experience that at first I don’t know how to react. I want to laugh since it’s funny, but I don’t want to be rude.
“Feel free to laugh. You should. Looking back, it was hysterical. My cousin Cash thought so that night when we both woke up drenched with him standing over us laughing until his sides hurt. My aunt and uncle didn’t think it was so funny, though, and we got the last laugh watching him wash our smelly, wet clothes and the sleeping bags. And that’s your introduction to the March family. Sorry to say this is a pretty common kind of story with us since there are five male cousins and only two females.”
I finally let myself giggle at his description of that night, amused at how self-effacing he can be. “Are you and Alex around the same age? You said you were both ten, but you can’t be born on the same day to brothers, can you? What are the odds of that?”
Cade shakes his head. “No. I’m three months older. Alex just seems older than me because he’s more serious. Always has been. You should have seen him that night with his brother. I thought he was going to kill Cash he was so mad. Not that I wasn’t mad, but Alex looked like he was going to rip him apart limb from limb.”
As we walk, I try to imagine the man who was so nice and who came to my rescue when Sabrina hurled that not-so-veiled insult at me at the table that angry. “You know, I can’t see him being like that. He was so sweet when he came over to introduce himself to my friend and her sister tonight. He didn’t have to come out at all since we’d only met that once last week, and then he was kind enough to say he and I were peers professionally, which definitely isn’t true.”
“Alex meant that. He thinks you are colleagues,” Cade says, but I sense in his voice he doesn’t believe it either.
That’s okay. I know my level when it comes to what I do. And everything else, for that matter.
“Well, that’s very nice of him, but I think he was just being chivalrous after my friend Meadow’s sister made a dig about my dessert making compared to his being a chef. She’s not my biggest fan.”
“Screw her. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. I trust Alex on this.”
For a moment, I don’t know what to say. Cade seems uncomfortable after that brief outburst too and puts his hand on my arm to stop me from walking. Facing me, he lowers his head like he’s embarrassed.
“Sorry about that. She’s your friend’s sister, so saying that wasn’t cool.”
God, he’s cute. I imagine this man could talk the birds out of the trees, and the ones who didn’t want to leave, all he’d have to do is give them one of his sad looks with those dark brown eyes of his and they’d willingly do as he asked.
“You don’t have to be sorry. I don’t like Sabrina much at all. The feeling’s mutual too. She doesn’t think highly about any part of me, but I don’t usually say much to her in my defense when she takes her swipes at my job or how I look because I would never want to hurt Meadow. So no need to be sorry. I appreciated how Alex set her straight in his very professional way, and I appreciate what you said. Truth be told, I silently thought the same thing when she made fun of my dessert making tonight.”
Cade’s face brightens at hearing I’m not offended by his attack on Sabrina. “Okay, then back to screw her then.”
We begin walking again, and thankfully, more people start to fill the pathway around us. Not that I feel like he’s an ax murderer. I don’t know if I ever felt that way, but no matter how good looking he is or how nice it felt to hear him come to my defense about what I do, I don’t really know much about Cade. Better to be safe than sorry with an almost perfect stranger.