First Kiss (7 page)

Cade moved in closer. He wasn’t going to let her hate him for the rest of his life. He wasn’t sure why it was important, but it seemed to be.

He rested his hands on her shoulders and massaged them with his fingers. “Please, don’t hate me. I didn’t anticipate coming back here and wanting to spend more than a minute, but I’m enjoying your company.”

“And tomorrow?”

“I’ll still enjoy it.”

She turned to face him and was nearly in his arms, but she slipped away and finished clearing the table. “You’ll be planning your quick escape. We lost our friendship years ago, Cade. It wasn’t important to you then, I can’t imagine it would be important to you now.”

“You have no idea…”

“I have a good idea.” She opened the door to the refrigerator to return the milk and slammed it shut. “I can’t have you here and look…” She stopped.

Gage was standing at his side, his arms wrapped around his leg. The moment lingered and the tension of her speech still hung in the air.

He picked up the toddler who rubbed his eyes and rested his head on his shoulder.

“I guess it’s someone’s bedtime.”

Olivia reached out her arms to take him. “C’mon, baby. Mommy will take you to bed.”

“No. Dade.”

He could see the pulse in her temple and tears welling in her eyes. The right thing would have been to hand her son back to her and walk out of their lives, but his heart said differently.

“I’d like to say goodnight, if you don’t mind me coming in with you.”

Her eyes batted away the tears before she’d let them fall. She never was one to let someone see her cry.

“Fine. But then I think you’ll need to go.”

Chapter Six

Cade followed her closely to Gage’s room and watched their routine. Gage played peek-a-boo with a small blanket over his head and would laugh when Olivia would find him under it. The joy was simple, and it warmed him like no other sight had.

After a few minutes of play, Gage yawned and rested his head against a stuffed animal he’d cuddled. Olivia rubbed the top of his head gently, and Gage’s eyelids began to grow heavy. A few moments later, he was asleep and there was a peace in the room.

Olivia backed away from the crib slowly and headed for the door. Cade caught her arm and turned her toward the dresser. He pointed to the picture frame and watched as her eyes opened wide.

Immediately she pulled from him, left the room, and he followed. Once he was in the hallway with her, she pulled the door nearly closed and walked away toward the kitchen.

Suddenly dinner dishes seemed important, but she wasn’t talking. He assumed that if they were married she’d go about doing what she was doing, in a huff, and ignoring him as if he weren’t there at all. But that wasn’t the case. He had some questions and he needed answers.

“You know, I’ll help you with the dishes if you’ll stop for a moment and talk to me.”

“Cade, I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t know why I even invited you to have dinner with us.”

She didn’t look at him, but her words dripped with distain.

“I think, at this point, you could do me the courtesy of telling me why you lived with my father and why he was with you at the birth of your son.”

Olivia dropped the pan she’d been scrubbing into the sink with a crash and her shoulders shook. He’d made her cry.

“None of this is your business. You need to get the estate settled and go home, Cade. There’s nothing for you here.”

If it were any other woman he’d have walked out the front door and let it slam behind him as he sped off in his fancy car. None of it mattered he told himself, but he knew that was a lie.

This was Olivia. The girl he’d shared the early years of his life with. The girl who helped him build that tree house that still stood in the back yard of his father’s house. The same girl he’d shared all his childhood secrets with and, of course, the first girl he’d ever kissed.

Once all those thoughts ran through his head, he realized there was more. She was another misfit in the town without a parent. He had no mother, and she and Conner didn’t know their fathers.

The three of them were a team. He was the leader. She was the brains. Conner was the follower without any say.

His chest ached, and he rubbed the palm of his hand down his breastbone to ease the pain.

Conner.

Conner was just another person Cade had jilted in his life and never looked back. The boy looked up to him. The young man needed him. The grown man was someone Cade had never known, and now he was gone.

The heat in the kitchen seemed to grow more intense. This wasn’t how he wanted to walk away from her.

“Olivia, were you and my father…”

“Say it, Cade. The entire town has the same words dripping from their tongues. Why should you be any different?”

He stopped and watched her shoulders jerk with the sobs she tried to control.

Cade moved to her, turned her to him, and wrapped his arms around her. She seemed small against him—fragile. But at the same time he’d caused her so much pain, he felt the healing powers in holding the woman he’d fallen in love with as a child. Emotions quickly stirred in him that were unlike any he’d ever known before.

Her cheek nestled against his bare chest, and the dampness from her tears brushed against his skin.

When her breathing had calmed, she adjusted, letting him still hold her—comfort her. She raised her hands to his chest and let her palms warm against him.

His heart rate became faster, nearly uncomfortable. She shifted her head back and looked up at him. There was a need. A need to be accepted and cared for. He understood that need more than anyone could imagine. Wasn’t that, after all, what had brought them together as friends?

Cade moved his hand from her back to her cheek. He brushed away the stray tears with his thumb. She sucked in a breath and he moved in.

There was not time to think before he pressed his lips to hers and pulled her in closer to him. Right in his arms was the woman he’d always known belonged there.

He’d expected some resistance, but he didn’t get any. She opened her mouth to him, her lips were pliant, her tongue eager.

Olivia’s arms moved around his neck and he eased them both against the counter, pressing their bodies closer together.

Once the fire of the kiss had been lit, he knew there’d be no stopping him—them.

Her fingers moved through his hair. Their kiss deepened, and he was sure it wasn’t him who had done it. She was as hungry as he was. At least that part he was familiar with.

He hoisted her up to his hips, wrapping her legs around him. She was like a doll in his arms. His doll. His responsibility.

The thought shook him, but her lips still worked against his. He carried her down the hallway, their mouths and tongues still entwined, and made his way to her bedroom.

As they walked through the door, he kicked it shut with his foot before moving Olivia up against it.

She arched against the door at her back, holding him tighter.

“Cade…” His name carried on her breath as he moved his lips to her neck. “What are we doing?”

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re going to stop me.” He moved his lips to her ears. “But if you want me to, I’ll stop.”

She didn’t speak right away.

Cade lifted his head away, still holding her against him. Her eyes settled on his.

“I don’t think I want you to stop.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear.” He moved his mouth against hers again, but the kiss was different now—hesitant. “You’re thinking too hard.”

“The last time I had sex with a man, I got Gage.”

“Not a bad trade.”

She sighed and rested her head against his shoulder. “No, it wasn’t.”

Of course, the thought crossed his mind that the last man she’d been with was his father. That was enough to ruin anyone’s desire.

Instead of undressing her, the way he desperately wanted to, he carried her to the bed and sat her down.

“I’ve done enough to hurt you over the years. I’m not going to do that now.”

“See,” she chuckled, pushing a strand of hair from her eyes. “You should have gone when I told you too.”

“I don’t want to go now. I like looking at you in my shirt, though out of my shirt would be better.”

She smiled. “I don’t want you to go, but I don’t think I can do this. The sex part.”

He narrowed his eyes on her. “What else is there?”

“Stay the night. Let me sleep in your arms. At least when you’re gone in a week I won’t have lost anything, but maybe I’ll have a good memory of time with a dear friend.”

How could he deny her that logic?

It had been three o’clock when Olivia had awakened to check on Gage. He hadn’t woken all night. It shouldn’t have worried her, but it had.

The comforting part was, when she woke, she was still wrapped in Cade’s arms.

Why she’d stopped him from making love to her, she didn’t know. But, in her heart, she knew it was right. How could she give herself to another man who would make her leave, or who would leave her?

When she curled back up against him, he wrapped his arm around her.

“Everything okay?”

“Checking on Gage.”

She felt him move against her. “He’s okay, isn’t he?” His voice had shot up, more alert.

There had never been a night in his short life in which he’d slept that long. “Never better.”

“Hmmm,” he nuzzled his lips to her neck and soon he was asleep again.

The next time she opened her eyes, the sun streamed through the curtains. She rolled to press her lips to Cade’s, but he was gone.

Disappointment dropped into her stomach, and then the void was filled with anger. Why had she thought he’d be more than an average man? Thank goodness she hadn’t given more of herself.

A moment later, she shot up from her pillow and ran out of the bedroom and down the hall. Gage. Gage wasn’t awake. He hadn’t had any terrors.

She burst through his door, and there he was sitting in his crib playing with a toy. He looked up at her and smiled before he stood and held out his arms to her.

“You had a good night, didn’t you?” She picked him up and held him close to her.

Gage would never leave her or break her heart. At least she had that.

Only a moment later, the doorbell rang. She looked at the small digital clock on the dresser next to the picture of Gage and Austin. It was seven-thirty.

A surge of hope raced through her. Perhaps he’d only gone out—a run maybe, no—coffee. Yes, that must have been it.

Olivia hurried to the front door with Gage wrapped in her arms. She flung open the front door and standing there, on the other side of the screen, was her mother.

She let out what she knew was an ungrateful sigh. “Mom, I didn’t expect you.”

“I just got back into town. Of course, you are my first stop.”

Of course she was. Olivia pushed open the screen and looked past her to the driveway. His car was gone. Well, at least her mother hadn’t seen him coming out of her bedroom.

Her mother reached out her hands. “Look at my grandson. Come see Grandma.”

Gage turned his face into his Olivia’s shoulder.

“Oh, he doesn’t know me. See, you keep me from him.”

“I do not. You’re never around. I haven’t seen you in almost two months.” She turned and headed toward the kitchen, her mother close behind. “Where have you been?”

“Oh, you know. Here. There. It’s a good thing I ran into Cade at the store. He said you weren’t living with Austin anymore, but had bought this place.”

Olivia set Gage in his high chair and turned to make coffee. She hoped her mother didn’t see the shock that had forced her eyes open wide. “You saw Cade at the store?”

She could hear her mother rifling around in her purse. “He said he was on donut detail this morning. But then he left the store without anything. I didn’t know he was back in town. Is that why you’re not with Austin anymore? Cade moved in and disrupted your cozy living arrangement?” There was a snide tone to her voice. Her mother made her point perfectly clear.

“Austin died mom and I lived there, I wasn’t
with
him.” She turned and saw the cigarette between her mother’s lips. “Mom, don’t light that. Gage…”

“Oh, relax.” Her mother put the cigarette back in her purse. “So, Austin died, huh?”

“I’m sure you knew that.”

“Yeah, I’m sure I heard something about it.” She examined her perfect, red manicure. “How come he didn’t let you stay in the house? Seems like you two were so close.” She gave a wave of her hand in the air. “You always were, that is. I never thought it was an appropriate relationship.”

Olivia turned back to the coffee maker and set her jaw. Even her own mother didn’t respect her. Not that it shocked her any. Olivia was never Celeste Baker’s top priority. That was how she grew so close to Austin and Cade, after all. How many nights had Celeste gone out all night and left her home alone?

She took two mugs out of the cupboard and set them on the counter.

Olivia had figured out years ago, when she was still a young girl, that Celeste’s problem with Austin wasn’t his relationship with her daughter. It was that when she’d made her own play, or plays as it was, he’d never noticed. He was much too busy raising his son, his nephew, and taking care of her daughter to think about rolling in the sheets with Celeste. All it had done was prove to be a challenge and a source of aggravation until Celeste married again.

Just the thought of that sent a chill down Olivia’s spine. Thank goodness for Carter men when it came to Celeste’s ex-husband. Without them, Olivia wouldn’t be standing in her own kitchen, cringing at her mother.

“This is a nice place, sweetheart. How do you afford it?”

Olivia picked up the coffee pot and slowly poured coffee into each mug. “I have a good job, Mother.”

“Right. Parker Woods always did like you.”

“I have a degree in finance. It has nothing to do with Parker’s feelings for me.”

“Hmmm.” Her mother purred out as Olivia pulled a sippy cup from the cupboard and then opened the refrigerator and pulled out the milk. Her mother looked up at her. “Oh, Cade said he’d have to stop by and see you to say hi. I’m surprised you didn’t see him at the funeral. I heard you arranged everything.”