“I’d be open to it,” he said quickly.
What would it be like to live with Cade? Every fiber of her being wanted it. Dreamed of it. But it was too soon, and she wasn’t ready to give up that much of her freedom. Not that Cade was the kind of man who would consume her and control her. She doubted that completely.
No, it was more herself that she was afraid for. She’d never lived with someone. Hell, until last night, she’d never spend the night with a man before.
Sure, she’d enjoyed her time with him, but it had been only one night. She hoped it would lead to more nights, but living with him?
“No,” she answered after a moment. “Sorry, I…” She shook her head. “I need to be here.” She avoided Cade’s eyes.
“Okay,” Sean said quickly. “Then I’ll leave you two to it. We’re going to head down and talk to some of your staff.”
She nodded and looked down at her hands as they shuffled into the elevator.
“Hey.” Cade sat beside her and took her hands in his. “Don’t feel weird about my uncle.” He chuckled. “He was just trying to ensure your protection. I don’t feel weird about you not wanting to move in with me.” Her eyes moved up to his.
“It’s not personal,” she offered.
He chuckled. “How can it be? If you’d turned me down, that would have been one thing. But having my uncle ask you…” He shook his head. “He really was just trying to look out for you. He could have just as easily asked if you’d move in with my grandmother.”
“I know,” she said with a slight smile.
“Okay, so if you’re determined to stick around here, let’s see what we can do to ensure that this won’t happen again.” He squeezed her hand and she stood up with him.
Before they stepped into the destruction, Cade wrapped his arms around her once more.
“I’m so sorry someone did this to you. Just remember, this time it’s not you on trial,” he said softly.
Those words echoed in her mind. What had Cade meant by them? Was he trying to tell her that he’d believed at one point that she was guilty of setting the fire all those years ago?
She stepped into her rooms and held in a groan.
Every single piece of clothing and hotel furniture was destroyed. Her clothes and personal items lay in piles on the floor and the furniture, including the bedframe and nightstands, were broken into pieces and piled in the middle of the floor, as if ready to be set on fire.
“Who would do this?” she asked again. “I can’t see my uncle or aunt…” She turned around and thought about their anger. About their words towards her in the past few days. If anything, she could see them lashing out at her, but doing this? She just couldn’t see it. “I can’t see them doing this.”
Cade was silent for a moment.
“This does all seem a little… over the top.” He frowned. “You know, when I broke it off with Julia, she cut up a sweatshirt I had left at her place and returned it to me in a shoe box.”
“Your point?”
He motioned to the dress she’d worn out on their date. The material was, as he had just described, chopped up in little pieces and laid in a pile.
“Do you think this was her?” she asked.
“No. I’m saying, or rather asking, if you have someone in your past that might not like that you’ve moved on?”
She couldn’t help but laughing as tears rolled down her cheeks at the loss of everything she had.
“What?” he asked, moving closer to her.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes to compose herself.
“Cade, the last person I dated was your brother,” she finally said.
She watched for his reaction. His smile surprised her.
“What?” she asked, frowning as he moved closer to her.
“Sorry.” He sobered. “It’s just… nice, I guess, knowing that I’m the one you chose to break your dry spell.”
“Dry spell?” She held in a chuckle. “If you want to call me being afraid to put myself out there a dry spell.”
He pulled her close and kissed her. “I’ve had a dry spell myself.” He kissed her again. “One that I’m very happy is over.”
The kiss had her knees shaking slightly and almost buckling. How could this man do this to her? Even while she stood in the middle of the mess of everything that used to be hers, he could easily take her mind off of the predicament.
Instead of focusing on the destruction, she was now dreaming of getting naked with Cade again.
Then he stepped back and took a deep breath.
“What do you say we get some trash bags and start going through your things? Then we can spend the rest of the day shopping for what you need.”
“I have a better idea.” She smiled. “What do you say we go find another room for me to stay in.” She ran her hands over his chest and met his eyes. “Then spend some time breaking the room in before heading out to shop? This mess can easily be cleaned up by the hotel staff. There’s nothing here I want to keep.” She waved her hands around the mess.
“Nothing?”
She glanced around and then shook her head. “No, nothing. Thankfully, I left my laptop locked downstairs in my office.” She winced. “My office.”
“Want to go check on it?”
“Yeah, I guess we’ll need to do that when we’re downstairs getting me another room,” she relented.
“Are you sure there’s nothing in here… worth salvaging?” he asked.
She took a moment to glance around once more, then walked into the bathroom. Seeing all of her toiletries destroyed and shoved into the bathtub and sink, she felt angry tears sting her eyes. Then she turned away and stormed out of the room with Cade on her heels.
“You okay?” he asked as they rode the elevator down to the lobby.
“No.” She glanced up at him. “But once I find out who did that and why, I might be.”
Chapter Eighteen
It is useful to first see the spark before the fire ~ Japanese proverb
Cade stood by while Raven talked with a few of her staff members after they had checked to make sure that her office hadn’t been touched.
He agreed with his uncle on this matter. Whomever had broken into her rooms and destroyed everything she owned had done so because it had been easy.
After all, Raven was the only person staying in the massive building. There were a handful of guests, all of whom had been moved to the main building when construction began in the east and west buildings. Even her cousin, Liza, had been moved out of the rooms her family had occupied for years in the east building and was now in the main building as well.
He refrained from jumping in and asking her employees any questions since she was doing a good job of it.
More than a dozen employees came into her office one at a time. Raven calmly asked each of them if they knew anything about who had destroyed her rooms. Cade knew most of the people but was slightly surprised to see a few employees that she’d hired. A handful of them were some of the biggest gossipers about Raven’s guilt. Including Heather Craft.
The woman looked a little taken aback when she’d spotted him in the office. He could remember all the times she’d spread gossip about Raven in town. At one point, shortly after Raven had returned to Cannon Falls, she’d tried to rally everyone against taking jobs at the resort, so he’d been surprised when he’d found out that she’d taken a bartender position.