“If that’s the case, she owes me about five hundred more.” There was a smile in Cade’s voice.
“Funny. Anyway, you don’t have to wear it.” It didn’t have feathers so at least there was that. “You can give it to your mom or something.”
He gave a mock gasp. “This is a man bracelet, Lily. My mom is not a man. I will wear this. And when I wear it, it will remind me that you apologized for being mean to me.”
“I did not apologize.”
“Oh.” He raised one eyebrow. “So your mom is apologizing for you being mean to me?”
I gave a short laugh. “Yes.”
“But not you?”
“Fine. Me too. I’ll see you later.”
“Wait.”
I had been backing up and I stopped.
“You have to show me how to use it.”
“Use it?”
“How to put it on.” Cade turned and walked away. I assumed that meant I was supposed to follow him. I thought about not following him but then I’d owe him another bracelet for sure.
I met up with him in his massive kitchen. The box and bracelet were now sitting on the island and he was on the other side assembling a sandwich. I had obviously interrupted him in the middle of snack time. I kept the island between us and stopped next to the box.
Cade placed the top slice of bread on his sandwich and took a bite. “You want anything?” he asked through his mouthful.
“No. I’m good.” I picked up his bracelet. “So anyway, it’s just a basic clasp. You open it here and attach it to the ring.”
“Wait a sec. Just let me finish eating so you can show me on my wrist.”
I was not going to get annoyed because it was obvious that’s what he was trying to do—annoy me. I put the bracelet back in the box, leaned against the counter, and waited. Over his right shoulder was a large set of French doors that I could see the pool through.
I thought back to his fourteenth birthday party. After we’d eaten the catered food, everyone had gone out to the pool. A lot of the guys swam and the girls sat on the side like if the water touched us, we’d melt. I’d worn my swimsuit but wasn’t going to get in if Isabel didn’t. Especially because my swimsuit was a hand-me-down from my sister and was a little too big on me. At one point as I talked with Isabel, I’d slipped my hand into the pocket of my shorts and felt a piece of paper there. When I pulled it out it was a five-dollar bill. It had been a long time since I’d worn the shorts and I was so surprised to see it that I’d let out a happy yelp and said, “Best day ever!” Cade, who must’ve been walking over to see Isabel when this happened said, “That’s all it takes to make you happy? Maybe if I handed you a five every morning, you’d be more pleasant.”
The barstool next to me scraped along the floor and I jumped, pulled out of my memory. Cade sat sideways on that barstool, like he’d been there all day. How long had I been staring out the window? His arm was wrist-up on the counter and he held the bracelet out for me.
I sighed and took the bracelet, wrapping it around his wrist. “It’s not hard, it’s just a basic clasp. You open it by pulling back this little lever and the circle end fits inside and you let go. The end.”
“You did that with two hands. How am I supposed to do that with one hand?”
“I don’t know. Use the counter to hold it steady.” I passed the bracelet back to him and watched for several minutes as he attempted many different ways to clasp a bracelet one-handed. I bit my lip to keep from laughing.
“You think this is funny? Can you do it one-handed?”
“Yes.”
“Prove it.”
I draped the bracelet over my wrist, then attached the end.
“Okay. That looked easy. But this is your business, so you’re trained and stuff.”
I laughed. “This is not my business.”
“It’s the family business.”
“You make us sound like mobsters or something.”
He was back to trying to attach the ends on his wrist. He grunted in frustration after several more minutes.
“Give me your arm.” I stepped closer to him and after one second realized I had stepped between his knees that were wide on the barstool. It would seem awkward to step back now, like he affected me in some way, so I didn’t. Because he didn’t. But his musky scent sure was doing a number on my breathing.
I took the bracelet, one end in each hand and tried to attach it around his wrist. Only now my hands seemed shaky.
“You smell good,” he said softly.
I closed my eyes for a moment, my breath catching. “Just hold still.”
“I’m not the one moving.”
“Stop it.”
“What am I doing?”
“You’re making this hard for me.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
Why did he smell so amazing? That was the question I was going to ask when he was done with his.
“Yes.”
“Why do we fight so much?”
My mouth opened and shut in surprise. “We don’t. I mean … I just … our history isn’t so great.”
“I never understood why.”
“You gave me an awful nickname in the middle of a class I was already humiliated in.”
“I thought I was helping. You were getting pummeled by basketballs. I thought if I made a joke about it, it would help people laugh with you instead of at you.”
“It didn’t work.”
“I guess I can see that. So that’s it? I made up a nickname and got an enemy for life?”
“You do it to everyone,” I replied, looking right at him. “Humiliate them in the name of charity. Then you say rude comments and I’m never sure if you’re doing it because you are trying to be funny or if you don’t realize they’re rude, but they are. Just today you were mocking my hair.”
“What? I was not mocking your hair. You have great hair.”
That made me stutter for a moment. “Yeah, well, that’s, uh … Plus! And more importantly, you treated Isabel horribly.”
“I treated Isabel horribly? Me? What about how you treated her?”
I scowled. “Me? What did I do? She was my best friend. She’s still my best friend.”
“You were a huge flake. She’d call to set things up with you and you’d cancel last minute because you had to babysit and I had to watch her be disappointed all the time.”
I flinched at his depiction of me. “I have family obligations. She knows that.”
“And then you’d snap at me like I was the one leaving her alone in the middle of a restaurant or event.”
I glared at him. “No, you were the one leaving her alone even when you were standing right next to her. You were so checked out. You’d be on your phone or ignoring her in some other way.”
He grimaced. “I was in the middle of … things at that time.”
“Things? You never even told her what things, did you? You never told her anything about yourself. You don’t tell anything to anyone except—” I stopped myself, surprised I had gone that far. I’d almost given myself away.
He stared at me. “Except what?”