And then she did the unthinkable. She turned into his arms and leaned against him, her wet face pressed to his chest, and cried. Cried. Real tears, hard tears, hot tears, and it hurt to know his lovely Rachel had so much pain inside, but he wasn’t going anywhere ever again. She might not know it yet, and she might never believe it, but Cade was in it for the long haul this time. She was his world and his future and his heart. And it might take him years to win her back, but he would.
His big hand settled on the back of her head, and gently, carefully, he stroked her hair, his palm smoothing the straight, silky strands. While he hated that she was crying as if her heart was breaking, he was glad he could hold her, and glad he could finally be there for her, because late was still better than never.
* * *
IT WAS HARD PULLING TOMMY away from Lacey and her puppies but Cade finally managed to get Tommy out of the house and into his booster seat in the truck, after explaining to him that the puppies were just little tiny babies and they were hungry and needed to eat and sleep.
Tommy had made a little crooning sound, and then he leaned over and kissed each puppy somewhere on the head or back or butt—as he did with the last one who was wiggling toward Lacey for dinner—and waved goodbye. Now they were all having dinner at Cade’s favorite café in Weatherford.
Rachel ordered chicken nuggets for Tommy—one of the few foods he’d eat—and a grilled-cheese sandwich and tomato soup for herself. And Cade sat in the booth, dipping his French dip into the au jus, feeling so many different things that he didn’t know how he kept it all in.
This is what it’d be like, he thought, watching Rachel pop chicken bites into Tommy’s mouth as Tommy stared off in space, a dreamy expression on his face.
This is what it’d be like if they were a family...if they were his family. And the thought wrenched something deep inside his chest.
It’d been a long time since he’d had a family. He’d hungered to be part of one since he was a little boy, and then when he understood at fifteen it wasn’t going to happen, he set out on his own, trying to forget who he was and where he’d come from. It’d been eighteen years since he’d hitchhiked out of Texas, but he’d never forgotten that first week on the road—the nights at truck stops, the mornings and afternoons standing alongside the highway with his thumb out, the moments he had to duck or run when he saw a highway-patrol car, certain the police were coming after him.
He’d always remember the cities he passed through, too—Abilene, Lubbock, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins, Cheyenne—before finally meeting Jasper Smythe, the ranch foreman for the Douglas Ranch, who let the exhausted teenager crash for a night in the bunkhouse, and then for another night, before introducing him to the Douglas family, who took a chance on him and gave him his first real job.
Sometimes all people needed was a chance.
Cade looked from Tommy’s dreamy expression to Rachel’s tense one, aware that she was doing her best to keep him at arm’s length, but Cade wasn’t daunted. All he needed was a chance. And Rachel, whether she knew it or not, was giving him that chance right now, and this time there was no way he was going to blow it.
* * *
RACHEL’S PHONE RANG WHILE Tommy was carefully eating the frosting off his slice of chocolate cake. He didn’t like cake, but loved frosting, and she’d been trying not to smile at how finicky he was with every cake crumb.
“Phil,” she said to Cade, picking up her phone to take the call.
Cade reached for his wallet. “Tell him we’re on the way.”
But answering, Phil apologized and told her that despite his best effort, he wasn’t going to be able to finish her car tonight. He was really sorry and knew it was an inconvenience, but it was late and his daughter had a basketball game and he couldn’t miss it.
Rachel told him she understood and that it wasn’t a problem, but hanging up, her stomach churned with anxiety and frustration. She wanted her car back. She wanted her life back. She wanted to feel as though she had some control again.
“Not good news,” Cade said, catching sight of her face.
“No.” She sighed. “Looks like you’ll have to play chauffeur another day longer.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. Everything’s back together but something’s still not working. The car’s not idling right or it dies while idling, despite replacing the alternator, and Phil doesn’t have any more time to figure it out tonight—”
“Yes, he does,” Cade interrupted, reaching for his phone. “He’s not going home and leaving you without your car for another day. That’s ridiculous. I’m going to tell him to suck it up and work late—”
“Don’t.” She stretched a hand across the table, placing her fingers over his, stopping him from dialing Phil’s number. “His daughter has a basketball game. He needs to be there.”
“No—”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “He does. Trust me. He does. I can make it another day without a car.”
Cade didn’t answer. He was looking at her hand where it rested on his, and she glanced down, seeing what he saw...her fingers on his, her skin pale against his bronze skin, and her skin tingled, not just where they touched, but everywhere.
Suddenly too warm, Rachel pulled her hand away and busied herself gathering coats and her purse. “Ready?” she asked, feeling breathless.
“Yep.” Cade slid out of the booth.
Rachel tried to get Tommy into his coat, but he was facing Cade, his arms out to him. “Dog?” he said hopefully.
“No, honey,” Rachel answered, tugging Tommy toward her, trying to slip his arm into one sleeve. “Not tonight. Maybe another time.”
“Dog.” Tommy pulled his arm out of the coat
and leaned past Rachel to look up at Cade. His hands made circles in the air. “Pup...pup...puppies. Cade h-h-house.”
“No, Tommy,” she said, struggling to be patient, but it was hard at the end of the day. Her patience tended to wear thin about now. “Not tonight. It’s time to go home.”
He wailed. “Mama!”
“And Mama said no, Tommy.” She wrestled his right arm into his coat and then the left and zipped it quickly before he could stop her.
“Puppies. Dog. Cade house. Tommy good boy. Tommy go—”
She exhaled hard, exhausted, frustrated. “No.”
“Why not?” Cade asked quietly.
Rachel stared up at him, startled, before glancing out the café windows at the dark sky. “It’s...getting late.”
“It’s just a little after six now.”
“But if we go back, it’ll be almost impossible getting him out later. You remember how difficult it was dragging him away from Lacey and her puppies in the first place.”
He shrugged. “So stay the night.”
“What?”
He shrugged again, even more casually than before. “Stay the night, and I’ll take you to Phil’s garage to get your car in the morning as soon as it’s done.”
“We can’t,” she spluttered.
“Why not?”
Rachel scrambled to think of a good, practical reason, one he couldn’t argue with and, sadly, she couldn’t think of a single one. There was no cat or dog waiting to be fed. There was no family member waiting, or someone who would disapprove. There was nothing urgent to be done but pack, and she still had a week before they had to move.